The Ultimate Beginner’s NFT Glossary 101: Terms You Should Know
NFT (Non-Fungible Token)
NFT is a broad term that includes any form of tokenized digital assets, such as art, real estate, computer programs, photographs, music, videos, etc. It’s the real-life equivalent of collectibles, except they’re backed by the blockchain like cryptocurrencies. “Non-fungible” implies that NFTs are unique, even when they have the same appearance.
Alpha
Alpha is a secret future announcement. It refers to insider information about an NFT project. A person who is somehow able to figure out the alpha(s) can invest early on in the project. Knowing an alpha and investing early practically guarantees a positive return of investment.
Airdrop (or Drop)
An airdrop is a crypto marketing strategy that works like a giveaway, but with a few differences. It’s a tactic that rewards users who meet certain conditions, such as following their media channels, buying their token, or joining a limited waitlist.
Airdrops typically offer variable rewards and involve upfront investing. If there’s no investment, it’s a giveaway.
All-Time High (ATH)
The term “All-Time High” relates to the highest price that an asset has achieved on an exchange, for the current trading pair that is being referenced.
Beeple
Beeple is an artist. Everydays: the First 5000 Days is the most expensive NFT in the world and among the most expensive works by a living artist, it is a digital work of art created by Mike Winkelmann, known professionally as Beeple.
Collectible
In NFT space, a collectible refers to a unique piece of digital art that holds an intrinsic value.
A collectible can be a song, video, picture, or any other unique digital item.
DAO
In the NFT world, DAO refers to a Decentralized Autonomous Organization.
Many up-and-coming NFT and metaverse projects are setting up DAOs, in which the teams developing such spaces are not governed by one single person or entity.
The regulations and governance of each DAO are coded in smart contracts on the blockchain and cannot be changed unless voted upon by members of the DAO.
DAOs are funded through NFT sales, where holders of the NFTs can decide how to use the treasury and their future project direction.
Degens
Degen is short for “degenerate”, usually refers to people who often make risky and bad bets. In the crypto space, it can refer to people who invest in digital assets like NFTs without doing due diligence.
Diamond Hands/Paper Hands
Commonly depicted in its emoji form (see below), ‘diamond hands’ refers to someone who has a high-risk tolerance for high volatility stocks or assets that they own. They don’t cave under pressure and sell their stocks, essentially.
No matter how dramatically the value of their NFT increases or decreases, Diamond Hands don’t sell their assets in panic. However, there’s also a negative connotation of Diamond Hands, referring to a stubborn investor who isn’t willing to let go of their NFT despite its falling value.
On the other hand (mind the pun), Paper Hands is the opposite of Diamond Hands. It refers to someone who sells or flips their assets too soon, without holding on to them for the long term.
DYOR
DYOR is a shorthand for “Do Your Own Research”.When it comes to investing in crypto-collectibles, doing research is an important part of the process.This is to mitigate the risks.Oftentimes you hear people discuss cryptos and NFTs on Reddit, Discord, or other similar platforms. When crypto enthusiasts share their own opinions, they might say “DYOR” at the end of a message. This is to highlight the fact that this is just their personal opinion, and you should conduct further research before investing.For example:“This NFT is blowing up. It has all the elements and hype to it. DYOR, though.”
ETH
ETH is an abbreviation of Ethereum.Ethereum blockchain is really popular and it is used to store all the NFTs.
Flipping
Used frequently in the context of buying and selling properties, flipping refers to buying items at low prices and selling them quickly for a profit.
In the NFT space, flipping means the same thing, where people buy and sell NFTs to make a quick profit, especially during the early stages of projects when there is higher demand.
Floor Price
The lowest NFT price in any given category of NFTs. To “buy the floor” is to buy the cheapest NFT in a project / collection.
FOMO
Fear of missing out is the feeling of apprehension that one is either not in the know or missing out on information, events, experiences, or life decisions that could make one’s life better.
Fractional Ownership
Fractional ownership means you do not own the entire NFT. Instead, you own a fraction of it.
More often than not, NFTs are owned by a single owner. However, the new variant called fractional NFT makes it possible to own a fraction of a piece of NFT.
FUD
FUD is an acronym for Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt. FUD is typically created when: Someone spreads negative and potentially incorrect information on a crypto/NFT project. There is a general bad smell on the future of a crypto/NFT project. A related term, fudder, is someone who is going through the FUD.
Generative Art
Generative art is the method used by popular NFT projects such as the Bored Ape Yacht Club, CryptoPunks, Pudgy Penguins, PhantaBear, and even local ones like Chapfans, and more, to create their collections.
Gas Fees
Gas is a fee one needs to pay to a blockchain network to perform all kinds of transactions. This fee is paid to the “miners” of a blockchain network to compensate for the computing energy required to process and validate transactions. Gas fees differ from network to network, and are volatile.
LaunchPad
It mainly refers to NFT-LaunchPad here. NFT-LaunchPad is a one stop solution for NFTs & Multi chain launchpad.
Nswap Launchpad is one of that. They will provide the most robust primary project filter and aggregator in the NFT market and will help users identify first-class projects in the market and integrate key information of the project, eliminate information asymmetry, and relieve information anxiety.
MetaMask
A wallet used as a gateway to NFT Dapps like Nswap, Rarible, and Axie Infinity.
Minting
“Minting” an NFT is, in more simple terms, uniquely publishing your token on the blockchain to make it purchasable. A simple step-by-step for starting this involves creating a digital wallet, specifically one that securely stores Cryptocurrency (well-known wallets include Coinbase, MetaMask, and Rainbow). Once this is done, you can purchase a small amount of Cryptocurrency to cover the cost of minting the NFT. Finally, you link your wallet to an online marketplace (such as Nswap).
Noob
A noob or a newbie is someone new to the NFT/Crypto thing.
Nswap
Nswap is a decentralized, multi-chain information aggregation platform (Launchpad) and open market (Marketplace) for NFTs.
With Nswap, users can access NFT collections for sale on its primary Launchpad and trade them freely on its secondary Marketplace.
OG
OG stands for “original,” and it’s a common prefix for blue-chip NFTs that have many similar collections. Some are derivatives, but most are knock-offs. For example, the Bored Ape Yacht Club owns the OG “BAYC.” Non-originals are:
OG collections have the verified icon on OS.
PFP
Also known as avatars, profile pictures (PFPs) are the most popular NFT art. Bored Ape Yacht Club and CryptoPunks are PFP examples. Creators use generative art to create hundreds of characters and trait combinations. Some traits may have a lower chance to appear, which make some PFPs more valuable. Each trait has a different drop chance, with the rarest ones being the most valuable.
Premint
Premint is used by the top NFT artists in the world to build access lists and to randomly select the collectors and community members to win a spot. PREMINT lets you define exactly who is able to join your list. Allow everyone, or set requirements. It’s all part of our effort to fill your list with real collectors, not bots.
Primary Market
Primary market is where a creator lists their NFT for sale. Primary market is where a creator lists their NFT for sale, whereas secondary market is where a collector, who has bought an NFT, can resell or relist their NFT. “Almost 20% of our entire volume is on secondary market. Markets like Nswap have both of these functions.
Roadmap
An NFT Roadmap is a document that maps out the goals and strategies of an NFT project to communicate its long-term value. NFT roadmaps usually include key project milestones, short and long-term goals, and plans for marketing and growth.
Sometimes, they even include other projects that the creators are planning to launch.
Royalties
Money earned by an NFT creator through the token’s resale. Some NFTs automatically pay royalties each time an NFT is sold. An NFT can be hardcoded to pay an artist royalties forever, an interesting use case that has the potential to shake up the music industry.
Rug Pull
A rug pull means a crypto/NFT project is abandoned right after the developers of the project generate sales. A rug pull is hard to detect. An NFT/crypto project can look promising and the roadmap can look shiny. But these are just promises. Once the community has invested in the project by purchasing NFTs or crypto, the owner of the project pulls the rug and ditches the project altogether.
Shilling
Shilling is when you encourage others to buy an NFT you own for more than you paid — even if that means lying. It’s not value-selling; it’s an exit scam.
Shilling is common among flippers, influencers, and pump-and-dump groups. Creators may also do it before a rug pull. Shilling always involves optimism and urgency to discourage critical thinking.
Secondary Market
After an NFT is minted, it can be sold or purchased on the secondary market, such as Nswap.
Traits
Traits are all the properties that make an NFT unique in its collection. While most traits are visuals (background, color, accessories).
This is why you can’t find two identical PFPs within the same collection. Traits also add scarcity: You can only create as many NFT combinations as you can make.
To the Moon
Someone who says “token XYZ to the moon” is confident that a coin they have bought will skyrocket in price. Not just 2X or 10X, but high enough to make life-changing money. It’s believing the price will go up exponentially if they hold for long enough.
“Bitcoin to the Moon!” shows bullish excitement.
Web 3.0
Web 3.0 is the third iteration of the Internet, a network of decentralized applications (dApps) running on different blockchains. It is built using artificial intelligence, machine learning and the semantic web, and uses the blockchain to keep your information secure.
Whale
A “whale” describes someone with a lot of money who’s able to invest or has already invested in a high-value NFT project.
Whales tend to have a following from others who may use their buying and selling decisions as an indicator of their future investment decisions.
WAGMI
A shorthand for “We all gonna make it”. This chant describes the future when all of our investments have great positive returns.
Whitelist (WL Spots)
If an NFT collection is very anticipated, it may sell out within minutes after the mint.
Whitelists give early followers an opportunity to get them first. And unlike airdrops, they are free to join.
For example, a creator might give away one hundred WL spots to random people following them on social media. So collections instead have a mini-game where only the best players earn a spot on the whitelist.
About NSWAP, Inc.: Nswap. is building a decentralized, multi-chain information aggregation platform (Launchpad) and open market (Marketplace) for NFTs. NSWAP, Inc. gives everyone the opportunity to experience, access, and own NFTs. With Nswap, users can access NFT collections for sale on its primary Launchpad and trade them freely on its secondary Marketplace.
Join the NSWAP community on Twitter, Discord, and Medium! Press inquiries: official@nswap.com
