Web3 Poorly Explained
Introduction
Being new to web3 can be overwhelming at times. The space isn’t exactly shy of throwing around jargon and terminology that may seem like Klingon to the uninitiated.
The goal of this post was to create a list of terms and projects that you are most likely to encounter in the world of crypto and web3, and give concise, easy-to-understand definitions for each. Kind of like a glossary except it would actually be something you’d read from start to end. Think of this article as a poor man’s Urban Dictionary for web3. There are certain sections of the post where I make poor attempts at humor, and I apologize for it in advance.
The list of terms in this article is nowhere close to complete, and we do envision having subsequent editions of this series. We will be inviting suggestions for definitions for these editions and rewarding submissions that we like best with NFTs! More on this later.
Part 1
Airdrop
The practice of sending tokens (both coins and NFTs) to the wallets of users with or without their consent.
Airdrops are typically used by projects to reward their communities, create hype, or render legitimacy. Because sending half your coin’s supply to Vitalik Buterin automatically makes your project legitimate. Obviously.
Altcoins
Short for alternative coin.
Refers to any cryptocurrency that is not Bitcoin. Also referred to as garbage by Bitcoin maximalists.
Aping in
To buy into a project without doing the requisite amount of research.
Aping in is strongly driven by FOMO from reading tweets that strongly endorse the project but are ‘not financial advice’.
ATH
Short for all-time high.
Refers to an event when a cryptocurrency’s dollar price is at the highest point in its history. Is usually a cause for celebration for the coin’s hodlers. Is also the best time to take in profits but funnily enough, isn’t something a lot of investors do.
Axie Infinity/Axie
A Pokemon-inspired NFT-based game where players trade, battle, and breed creatures called Axies.
Axie Infinity is the most prominent play-to-earn game that allows its users to earn money for simply playing the game. Of course, you need to pay $1000 just to get started but making money while playing games all day is a dream worth paying for, I guess.
BAYC/Bored Apes
Short for Bored Ape Yacht Club. One of the most well-known NFT PFP projects in the world.
Started off as an experiment to get people to pay to collaboratively draw a dick on a virtual wall but then blew up to billion-dollar trading volumes, Christie’s auctions, and yacht parties,
Currently, the most popular way for celebrities to announce that they’ve gone crypto native.
Binance
The world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange. Has had its fair share of troubles with the law but continues to lead in trading volumes.
Binance is also the creator of the Binance Smart Chain and the BNB token which is the third-largest cryptocurrency in the world by market cap.
Bitcoin
The OG cryptocurrency that started it all. Bitcoin pioneered the blockchain design and succeeded in creating the first truly digital equivalent of cash.
Started off as a real alternative to currency when someone paid 10,000 BTC to buy 2 pizzas. Is now currently worth $60k and commands a trillion-dollar market cap. Bitcoin has made some unfathomably rich and driven others to insanity. Some countries have banned it multiple times whereas others have adopted it as official currency. You can love Bitcoin or hate Bitcoin, glorify it or vilify it, but the only thing you can’t do is ignore it.
Buttcoin
The most prominent anti-crypto community on Reddit. Buttcoin members are incredibly skeptical of cryptocurrencies, think of them as nothing more than pyramid schemes, and long for the day when everything in the crypto world comes crashing down.
An interesting space to explore if you’re looking to develop a holistic view on crypto and also if you have sadistic tendencies of enjoying watching people cope.
Crypto Bros
People who strongly believe that crypto, NFTs, and DeFi are going to change the world but are unable to explain what those words mean in two coherent sentences.
You’ll find crypto bros shilling projects they know nothing about, participating in pump and dump schemes, pretending to be women instead of making the bare minimum effort of onboarding one, and ironically calling themselves degenerates.
Cryptokitties
One of the first NFT play-to-earn games. Also one of the pioneers of ERC-721, the Ethereum standard for representing NFTs.
In cryptokitties, you breed cats, trade them, and…that’s about it. Cryptokitties have generated hundreds of millions of dollars in trading volumes and have conclusively proved that digital cat breeding is the true future of entertainment.
Cryptopunks/Punks
The OG NFT PFP project. Cryptopunks is a collection of 10,000 pixelated punk avatar NFTs that are cumulatively worth billions of dollars. Cryptopunks is to PFP projects what Bitcoin is to cryptocurrency.
Owning a cryptopunk is a strong signal that you’re either extraordinarily rich or were extraordinarily early. These 300x300 pixelated avatars have also featured in places like Christie’s as art and sold for tens of millions of dollars. May seem crazy but remember that banana taped to a wall that sold for a million dollars? Art is not something for us plebs to understand.
DYOR
Short for Do Your Own Research.
Usually used at the end of a ‘not financial advice’. Template advice given to everyone new to the space and usually without any subsequent useful information like how or where.
ENS
Short for Ethereum Name Service.
ENS allows you to link a domain name with the extension .eth to your wallet address and use it in the latter’s place. Its most popular use case, however, is as a Twitter display name.
Ethereum
The king of the altcoins. Ethereum is the world’s largest blockchain system capable of running smart contracts. Almost every popular NFT collectible, game, marketplace, and DeFi app runs on Ethereum. Its influence and significance have grown at such a rate that it is touted to surpass even Bitcoin in market cap.
Is also known for its ridiculous gas prices which results in sometimes having to pay more in gas than the actual transaction itself (for example, buying an ENS domain). The community does have an endgame in mind though which hopes to mitigate its problems of cost and scale.
ETH Killer
Blockchain systems that are touted to surpass Ethereum in influence and market cap.
Candidates for ETH killers tend to change often. Current ones include Solana, Polkadot, and Cardano. Most Eth killers have introduced novel solutions to tackle scale and cost problems endemic to Ethereum (for example, the proof of history consensus protocol used by Solana). Their battle to surpass Ethereum is similar to that of Ethereum and Bitcoin.
FOMO
Short for fear of missing out.
The de facto marketing strategy of get-rich-quick crypto projects. FOMO can be generated by paying influencers/crypto bros to shill your project, inviting Discord bots to join your server, and artificially increasing sales through wash trading.
FUD
Short for fear, uncertainty, doubt.
To FUD something is to criticize something seemingly without rhyme or reason. Can be liberally used any time anyone raises the tiniest of concern regarding a project you’re invested in.
Gas
Unit of measurement used to estimate the amount of computational resources required to perform a transaction on a blockchain.
Named as such because attempting to pay for it will usually result in all your money evaporating (into gas, geddit?).
Maximalist/Maxi
A person who believes that the cryptocurrency they support is the best and the rest of the ecosystem is complete garbage. Maximalists tend to be overwhelmingly from the Bitcoin community (although Ethereum is fast catching up).
Maxis exist in two contradictory states where they simultaneously believe that they are invested in a breakthrough technology that very few understand and also deny the possibility of another breakthrough technology eventually surpassing it.
Merch
Short for merchandise.
A cliche promise made by an NFT collectible project after they’ve run out of other low-effort promises to make. Merch tends to be extremely effective with marketing though. For some reason, crypto investors have an inane urge to pay $10,000 so they can get a $20 tee. So much value creation.
Metaverse
A word that’s been thrown around so often and in so many different contexts that no one really knows what it means anymore. Originally referred to a state of the internet where physical and digital worlds would seamlessly coalesce into one and become indistinguishable.
Is guaranteed to get you funding if you make liberal use of it in pitch meetings with VCs, angels, and crypto investors.
NFA
Short for not financial advice. Almost always is financial advice but you say it because you have to say it.
NGMI
Short for not gonna make it.
Used when someone makes a valid criticism of a project you support but you simply do not have a strong rebuttal at hand. Is also in direct contradiction with the rallying call, wagmi, which seems to bother absolutely no one apart from the author.
Seed Phrase/Recovery Phrase
A bunch of words that are handed out to you when you first set up a wallet (like Metamask or Phantom).
Used to recover your wallet in case you lose your other credentials. Associated with repeated warnings about not sharing it with anyone but you do so anyway because how else will the kind stranger on Reddit help you make a transaction you’re having trouble with.
Ser
Either a misspelling of the word sir or a subtle indication that people in crypto are the modern-day equivalent of Game of Thrones knights. We really can’t tell.
Sidechain
A blockchain system that runs parallel to a main chain (usually Ethereum) and facilitates the transfer of assets between the two.
Although sidechains tend to use the same tech and tools as the main chain, they have their own consensus protocols and are more centralized. The upside, of course, is that gas fees on sidechains are actually affordable.
The bane of a crypto purist’s existence as they are usually confused with L2s.
WAGMI
Short for we’re all going to make it.
First coined by Karl Marx in Communist Manifesto, the term refers to a utopian end state where everyone is simultaneously prosperous and happy.
Conclusion
And that’s all we have for part 1! We’ve only scratched the surface with respect to crypto jargon and we have a lot many things left to cover (DAOs, L2s, zero-knowledge proofs, Solana, NFTs, DeFi, Yield Farming, etc., etc.)
We’re also inviting contributions for all subsequent parts of this series. Do you have suggestions for terms/jargon that you think we should include? If yes, do drop them in the #web3-glossary channel of our Discord server. We will be giving credits to everyone who suggests terms and more importantly, provides definitions. We will also award the three that we like best with Scrappy Squirrels NFTs!
If you don’t have any suggestions, come say hi to us on our Discord anyway! Also, if you like our content, we would be super grateful if you tweet about us, follow us(@ScrappyNFTs and @Rounak_Banik), and invite your circle to our Discord. Thank you for your support!
About Scrappy Squirrels
Scrappy Squirrels is a collection of 10,000+ randomly generated NFTs. Scrappy Squirrels are meant for buyers, creators, and developers who are completely new to the NFT ecosystem.
The community is built around learning about the NFT revolution, exploring its current use cases, discovering new applications, and finding members to collaborate on exciting projects with.
Join our community here: https://discord.gg/8UqJXTX7Kd
