Glossary

Is the technology underlying Bitcoin (and other cryptocurrencies) consisting of a unique digital database open to all, without intermediaries or central authority. It is structured as a sequence of blocks, each of which contains, permanently and unchangeably recorded, cryptocurrency transactions, so that these cannot be cancelled or falsified. Blockchain is a special form of DLT that uses the blockchain to organize and record data, which can only be added to.

A digital representation of value which is neither issued nor guaranteed by a Central Bank or public authority is not necessarily linked to a legal tender currency. It has no legal status as a currency or currency but is accepted by natural and legal persons and used as a medium of exchange for the purchase of goods, services or investment purposes and can be transferred, stored or traded electronically.

It stands for "Decentralized Autonomous Organization" is a cryptographic and remote way for people to coordinate finance, labor, time and social capital. Governance of DAOs is distributed, with all funds and assets managed on-chain via smart contracts. There is no board of directors, nor is there central control of the organization. A DAO works according to a set of rules, a sequence of smart contracts written in pieces of code; each smart contract explicitly describes the consequences of an action. A DAO is transparent throughout the decision-making process, from proposal creation to voting, and everything can be publicly audited at any time.

A Dapp is an online portal or other interactive software that enables direct interaction between end users and suppliers (for example, connecting buyers and sellers in some marketplaces, owners and stores in file storage).

Bitcoin and Ethereum are examples of decentralized networks as no company, government or individual is in control of them. Users can access these decentralized networks through our Coinbase wallet, which is a self-custodied wallet where users interact directly with the blockchain and are in control of their private keys and digital assets.

It is an experimental form of financial system that is not based on intermediaries, but which instead uses “Smart Contracts”, i.e. agreements that are automatically established on a Blockchain upon the occurrence of specific predetermined events.

Discord is a communication platform, which allows members to communicate via chat, voice and video. Discord is the preferred tool for many web3 organizations to conduct internal discussions and engage with their communities.

The Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) or rather falls into the IT category of decentralized and distributed databases, i.e. systems in which all the nodes of a network have the same copy of a database, which can be read and modified independently from individual nodes. When enough nodes meet consensus regarding a transaction, the transaction is successfully confirmed; this is possible through special algorithms. The particularity of DLTs is that they are databases distributed on a global network and are based on cryptography.

The currency accepted as a means of payment as declared legal tender by the State that issues it.

A fork occurs when a community makes a change to its blockchain's governing protocols. The change marks a fork from the previous iteration of the blockchain in a new direction.

Soft forks involve iterative changes to the rules of the blockchain that can only be considered as an update. Hard forks are when the changes are so significant that the new version is incompatible with and differs from the old version.

Some smart contracts need information directly from the physical world, for example a car driving through a barrier where motion sensors need to detect the vehicle and send the data to a smart contract.

An Initial Coin Offering (ICO) is the cryptocurrency equivalent of an Initial Public Offering (IPO). It’s the first instance when investors can back a new crypto project through the offering of its token.

A liquidity pool is a collection of funds locked into a smart contract. The pool acts as a kind of "storage" where participants place assets to provide the necessary liquidity for all those who want to trade this asset, facilitating decentralized trading and lending.

An internet brokerage site for the buying and selling of a good, a good or a service; the main feature is to gather under the same brand (the name of the platform) the goods of different producers, vendors, companies, vendors and sellers.

It has been described as an immersive and constant 3D virtual world in which people interact through an avatar to enjoy entertainment, make crypto-asset purchases and transactions, or work without leaving their workstation.

Miners consist of a series of computers participating in the network that compete to be the only ones allowed to record all recent transactions. If the computer is able to win the competition, it can win some bitcoin as a reward. These calculators solve complex computational puzzles that cannot be solved by hand.

An NFT is a type of cryptographic token that represents a unique asset. NFTs are tokenized versions of digital or real-world assets. They function as verifiable proofs of authenticity and ownership whose provenance, history and rarity can be easily verified on the blockchain. In the digital world, an action as simple as “right-click save” could potentially replicate a digital good, violating the creator's intellectual property rights. NFTs, on the other hand, are not interchangeable with each other and introduce scarcity into the digital world.

A computer or device connected to other computers or devices that all contain a copy of a blockchain. Each node supports the network of nodes by sharing information and validating transactions.

The public address of your crypto wallet. To receive funds into your account, you need to share your public key. If a private key is like a password, a public key is like an email address or account number.

They are digital contracts that allow for decentralized, tamper-proof consent conditional terms, and typically self-enforce through automatic execution.

They manage informative data that comes from online sources, such as temperature, stock or commodity prices, the arrival times of a flight, a train, and so on.
 

Tokens are stored in wallets, which can be: PHYSICAL, VIRTUAL OR THIRD PARTY and are used to store, receive and transfer cryptocurrencies and digital assets between parties.

When a company plans to launch a new DAO or digital product, it usually lays out all the details in a whitepaper. The technical, financial and commercial information on the project is explained in this document. They normally aim to provide a document explaining in plain language what they plan to do, either to attract investors, other interested parties or for simple explanatory purposes.