Crypto 101: Popular Terms Explained (Pt.2)
In the first part of this article which I shared few weeks ago, common terms which are relevant to a beginner's understanding of crypto were explained. In the last part, we will look at more buzz words which will further familiarise us with this exciting ecosystem.
18.) WAGMI:- this acronym is relatively new in the space. It was widely used first, by DeFi degens during the DeFi summer boom of 2020. It has since gained fast popularity in crypto twitter (CT) and other crypto communities. It's meaning is so obvious. We All Gonna Make It. It is used reassuringly as a way of saying those who took a bet in investing early into a token are going to be rich later on as project development continues and gains acceptance / popularity over time.
19.) NGMI:- (N)ot (G)onna (M)ake (I)t. This is the reverse of WAGMI and could be used sarcastically to either mock critics who refused to invest into a project, that later turned out to be hugely successful or make jest of those who's high expectations for their investment to do extremely well fell short and in most cases incurred great losses, hence 'Not Gonna Make It.'
20.) To the Moon:- this phrase is used frequently when a pump is sustained and many holders have sold their positions at great profits.
21.) Sats:- stands for satoshi. This is the smallest divisible unit of bitcoin. One sat = 0.00000001 btc
22.) DYOR:- (D)o (Y)our (O)wn (R)esearch. This acronym is very popular and widely used in virtually every crypto community. It serves as a reminder to crypto enthusiasts, especially the inexperienced ones (noobs) to perform their due diligence before committing (investing or trading) to a project. It is also used as a disclaimer to exonerate a writer, trade analyst, a crypto researcher etc from taking responsibility of financial losses resulting from investment people made based on their content or analysis.
DYOR involves taking a closer look at a project of one's interest before making a decision to invest in it. This usually entails in-depth research into a project fundamentals, the team composition and their level of experience, it's backers (investors / advisory board), it's tokenomics, etc with a view to properly assess the potentials and the likelihood of the project succeeding. Rather than following community influencers or experts blindly, DYOR when correctly done helps one make an objective and informed decision free of bias.
23.) BTD:- (B)uy (T)he (D)ips is another popular term used widely in crypto communities during periods of market correction (falling prices). It is a call for enthusiasts to take advantage of the dips (lower prices) and buy as much crypto assets as possible at discounted prices and HLOD till the next period of price reversal. Buying The Dips is an investment strategy for some set of investors and traders.
24.) ATH:- (A)ll (T)ime (H)ighs is the highest price an asset or coin has ever reached in its history. For bitcoin, it's ATH was $69,020 / BTC (binance chart) in November 2021.
25.) DeFI:- DeFI stands for (D)ecentralised (F)inance. It is a major application of blockchain technology to provide bank-like financial products and services (such as savings, lending, borrowing, staking, insurance, etc) to crypto users without need for centralised entities such as Commercial Banks. Popular DeFI protocols are Uniswap, Aave, Compound, Curve and MakerDAO.
26.) Degens:- Coined from the word 'degenerate', degens are used to describe DeFi investors and traders who are on the lookout for newer unknown projects to invest in. In many instances, these new projects have unaudited codes (smart contracts), and degens take a high risk to invest in them with the sole intention of making huge profits when the project becomes known and gains popularity. The key word for degens is 'unknown' and 'get in early' (ape-in) before others. Where this strategy works and turns out successful, degens claim to make profits of 50-100X and upwards depending on time of entry, launch rewards, etc. In the true sense, most crypto enthusiasts are degens.
27.) Anons - developer(s) / owner(s) of project with unknown identities. Anon is nowadays used in a generic sense in social media conversions to refer to a random crypto trader or investor.
28.) FUD:- This is one of the most popular words in the crypto space. FUD stands for Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt. A person is said to spread FUD or FUD a coin when they say things and share information that puts the coin or the project in negative light, and often times lead to the larger community selling off their holdings out of deep panic, doubt and uncertainty. The unease caused by a major FUD can trigger a psychological bearish sentiment if the market fails to absorb the huge selloffs quickly.
29.) Dapps:- short for (D)ecentralised (App)lications, Dapps are applications built on a blockchain to serve different purposes. Think of it as apps that work on your smartphones OS (blockchain) with the only difference being that it is not run on centralised systems like android or iPhone. Dapps have no points of failure or centralised governance and are truly decentralised in nature Uniswap is one of the most popular dapps on Ethereum. Other notable examples are Compound, Axie Infinity and OpenSea NFT market place.
30.) NFTs:- stands for Non Fungible Tokens. NFTs are simply unique digital versions of an item created on a blockchain to prove ownership beyond reasonable doubts. Using timestamps when they are minted (created), NFTs can be traced to the creator to know if it is real or fake. NFTs can be an art work, music, sport collectibles, in-game collectibles etc. They can be bought, sold or transferred. The most popular NFTs are The Bored Ape Yacht Club collections and crypto punks. OpenSea and Rarible at the moment, ranks as the most popular and most diverse NFT market places for minting, buying and selling NFTs.
31.) Web3:- This is one of the hottest buzz word of late, as well as the most confusing one with many struggling to explain exactly what it is. Web3 is the future of the internet on blockchain that is fully decentralised and governed by users who take decisions on how it is runned, exercise full control of how their data is shared and get paid for sharing if they chose to opt-in, amongst other features. The key takeaway is full ownership of the web by users in stark contrast to web2 (present internet) which is largely governed by centralised authorities and dominated by major players like Google, Amazon and Facebook, who have full monopoly over the internet and profit over it by mining and selling users data without permission. Web3 seeks to give back power over the internet into the hands of the people, and running it on blockchains will make it censorship resistant.
The confusion of what web3 really is, stems from the fact many existing crypto projects rebranded and immediately tagged themselves as web3 projects amidst the prevailing hype. In these sense of the word, web3 will mean an integration of cryptocurrencies, dapps, NFTs, DeFI etc into a blockchain-based internet fabric.
32.) Airdrops:- these are coins / tokens given free to community users as a reward for using a crypto platform at an early experimental stage, holding an existing token, forks of exisiting chains, participating in bug bounty programs, taking part in marketing / promotional awareness campaigns for new projects, asking relevant questions during AMA events, staking reward programs etc. Some few crypto projects use airdrops as a fair launch model to distribute tokens to early community members who supported the project by depositing token into a liquidity pool. The biggest airdrop in crypto history to date was 150 Million Uniswap tokens marked for airdrop to early users (400 UNI per user) of the dex back in Q4 2020. The airdrop at the time was worth $1,200 per user and at the peak of the bullrun was worth $17,968 (coingecko ATH price of $44.92 / UNI).
33.) Metaverse:- This is perhaps the hottest buzz word on the lips of purists, tech zealots, crypto enthusiasts, retail investors, VCs and traders on the wall street. So much funding / investment in billions of dollars have been poured into this niche lately, as it is seen as the future of work, healthcare, education (learning, touring events, open days), real estate development, gaming (play and earn) etc. The possibilities are endless.
What exactly is the metaverse? I will like to describe the metaverse as a virtual world where people can live, shop, learn, work, play and earn. It is a world of things simulated as a digital environment. Virtual / augmented reality plays a major role in creating an immersive user experience that is very engaging, real (akin to the physical world) and fun to be part of. In crypto space, this world is exist and functions on a blockchain. Programming codes known as smart contracts enforce the rules and determine how things work without intermediaries. Examples of popular crypto metaverse projects are Decentraland (Mana) and Sandbox (SAND).
We have come to the end of this insightful article which explores some of the common but popular terms frequently used in many crypto communities. If there is any popular word that was missed but is useful, kindly drop it in the comment section for a later explanation. If they are areas in the post that are not clear, do well to point them out in the comment section as well so it can be clarified.