Glossary
Introduction
In this glossary, you can find any TON- and crypto-related buzzwords.
A
Airdrop
Airdrop — a free distribution of tokens among specific participants.
Altcoin
Altcoin — all cryptocurrencies, except Bitcoin, are called altcoins.
AMA
AMA — an online Q&A called “ask me anything” where project leaders answer questions from the community about a product or service.
API
API — Application Programming Interface, a mechanism that allows two programs to interact with each other through a series of protocols.
APY
APY — Annual Percentage Yield, a calculated yearly interest rate for a given asset.
B
Bearish
Bearish — the term “bearish” is used when the price of an asset has declined due to investors selling. (The term is often used to describe the overall market sentiment.)
Binance
Binance — a major cryptocurrency exchange.
Bitcoin (BTC)
Bitcoin (BTC) — the preeminent cryptocurrency and the first decentralized network with open-source code, which laid the groundwork for the proliferation of blockchain technology.
Blockchain
Blockchain — a distributed ledger of data in the form of a chain of blocks recording transaction information for every event on the network.
Bloodbath
Bloodbath — a colloquial term often used to describe a severe and sustained market crash, which results in multiple deep red bars on price charts.
BoC
BoC — Bag of Cells. Commonly used in code. See Cell & Bag of Cells (BoC).
BoF
BoF — Bag of Files. Commonly used in code.
Bot
Bot — a program written for two ecosystems to interact with each other — e.g., The Open Network and the Telegram messenger. On Telegram, bots are accounts in the messenger operated by software.
Bridge
Bridge — a program connecting various blockchains to transfer tokens and data from one network to another. TON Bridge is available at this link.
Bullish
Bullish — the term “bullish” is used to describe an asset whose value is appreciating. (“Bullish” is the opposite of “bearish” — i.e., when the market’s overall value is increasing.)
Burning
Burning — the act of permanently removing tokens from circulating and total supply.
C
CEX
CEX — a centralized cryptocurrency exchange to trade tokens.
CMC
CMC — CoinMarketCap, a crypto information aggregator that closely follows changes in token prices and market capitalization.
Coinbase
Coinbase — a major cryptocurrency exchange based in the United States.
Cryptobot
Cryptobot — a peer-to-peer (P2P) bot service for buying, trading, and selling Toncoin and other cryptocurrencies.
Custodial
Custodial — a type of crypto wallet where a third party stores cryptocurrencies, and not their true owner.
D
DApps
DApps — TON decentralized applications (DApps) run on-chain and rely on smart contracts for computation, storage, and communication.
DCA
DCA — dollar-cost averaging, an investment strategy whereby investors buy a fixed amount at regular intervals regardless of price to reduce timing risk.
Decentralization
Decentralization — one of the main tenets behind TON and other blockchains. Without decentralization, Web3 would be impossible to achieve; therefore, every element of the TON Ecosystem revolves around maximizing decentralization.
DeFi
DeFi — the decentralized analog to traditional finance; it includes accessible financial services and applications based on smart contracts.
DEX
DEX — a decentralized exchange (DEX) where users can trade cryptocurrencies without any intermediaries. The online entity needed to guarantee safe transactions is the blockchain itself.
Diamond hands
Diamond hands — a colloquial term describing an investor who has no intention of selling their assets regardless of the state of the market — even if there’s a crash or the market is bearish.
DNS
DNS — Domain Name System, a technology that translates human-readable domain names (e.g., ton.org) to machine-readable IP addresses (e.g., 192.0.2.44).
Dolphin
Dolphin — an investor who has relatively small capital but has an influence on the community.
Donate
Donate — a bot service on Telegram through which people can donate money, and content creators can monetize their channels and services in Toncoin. See also Subscriptions.
Dump
Dump — rapidly selling a cryptocurrency or asset, often causing a price decline.
Durov
Durov — Pavel Durov, a Russian entrepreneur who is famous for having founded the VK social network and Telegram messenger. Nikolai Durov is Pavel’s brother, who helped develop VK, Telegram, and TON.
DYOR
DYOR — Do Your Own Research, the process by which you do research on a project, company or cryptocurrency before deciding to invest.
E
EVM
EVM — Ethereum Virtual Machine, a machine behaving like a decentralized computer, it computes the state of the Ethereum blockchain after each new block and executes smart contracts.
Exchange
Exchange — a place for trading and using other market instruments.
F
Farming
Farming — lending your crypto assets to receive rewards.
Fiat
Fiat — regular money issued by central banks or financial authorities.
FOMO
FOMO — “fear of missing out,” a psychological state that consumes some investors when the idea of losing potential gains from an opportunity is present. It usually appears during a bull market and when traders don’t do their due diligence analyzing a particular project.
Fungible tokens
Fungible tokens — cryptocurrencies that carry the same value as any other token of the same kind at any given moment.
FUD
FUD — “fear, uncertainty, and doubt,” market sentiments based on many factors.
Full Node
Full Node — a computer on TON Blockchain that synchronizes and copies the entire TON Blockchain.
FunC
FunC — the smart contract language on TON.
G
Gas
Gas — the fee paid for transactions on the blockchain.
GitHub
GitHub — a platform for hosting code and collaborating via Git repositories.
H
Hackathon
Hackathon — a collaborative event where programmers and builders develop software projects.
Hash
Hash — a fixed-size digest computed from data using a hashing algorithm.
Hash rate
Hash rate — the indication of how much computational power is being used on a network for crypto mining.
Hold
Hold — saving — i.e., not selling — an asset or assets from your portfolio.
I
ICO
ICO — initial coin offering, a method for crypto projects to attract capital in the early stages.
IDO
IDO — initial decentralized exchange offering, another method of attracting capital when launching a cryptocurrency or token on a decentralized exchange.
Inflation
Inflation — the process when the value of a currency — e.g., U.S. dollar or the euro — decreases. Toncoin has predictable issuance and a low inflation rate.
K
KYC
KYC — Know Your Customer, the process by which a user verifies their identity when creating an account for a crypto service.
L
Launchpad
Launchpad — a platform for crypto startups that brings investors and projects together.
Liquidity pool
Liquidity pool — grouping together crypto assets and freezing them in a smart contract. Liquidity pools are used for decentralized trading, loans, and other endeavors.
M
Mainnet
Mainnet — the main network of a blockchain.
Market cap
Market capitalization (market cap) — the total market value of a cryptocurrency’s circulating supply.
Masterchain
Masterchain — the main chain that references shard and workchain blocks; a shard block is finalized once a Masterchain block references it.
Metaverse
Metaverse — a digital universe similar to a video game where users create avatars and interact with the digital representations of other people or users.
Moon
Moon — a crypto term that describes a crypto asset’s vertical trajectory on a price chart — i.e., it quickly gains value.
N
NFA
NFA — not financial advice, this acronym is used as a disclaimer to avoid liability or responsibility when investors discuss cryptocurrencies or projects with other people.
NFT
NFT — non-fungible token, a unique digital token on a blockchain that cannot be duplicated or minted more than once.
Nominator
Nominator — those who provide financial resources to validators so the latter can confirm blocks on TON Blockchain.
Non-custodial
Non-custodial — a kind of crypto wallet that gives full control over assets to the owner/user.
O
Off-ramp
Off-ramp — ways to convert cryptocurrencies into fiat money.
On-ramp
On-ramp — ways to convert (buy) cryptocurrency by spending fiat money.
Onion routing
Onion routing — a technology similar to Tor that allows anonymous interactions on a network. All messages are encrypted in various layers akin to an onion. TON Proxy applies such a technique.
P
Paper hands
Paper hands — an investor who’s inclined to panic-sell — an inexperienced investor.
Proof-of-stake
Proof-of-stake — a consensus mechanism to process transactions in new blocks on the blockchain.
Proof-of-work
Proof-of-work — a consensus algorithm where one party proves to another that a specific amount of computational work was spent. By expending a little energy, a party can verify this.
Proxy
Proxy — a service on a computer network that allows clients to establish indirect network connections with other network services.
Pump
Pump — artificially inflating the price of a cryptocurrency or asset.
P2P
P2P — peer-to-peer, transactions among users without the help of a third party or intermediary.
R
Roadmap
Roadmap — a project’s strategic plan that displays when its products, services, updates, etc. will be released.
ROI
ROI — return on investment, the profits made from investments.
S
SBT
SBT — Soulbound token, an NFT that can never be transferred because it contains information about its owner and their accomplishments.
Scalability
Scalability — the ability of a blockchain network to process complex transactions as well as a large number of them.
SEC
SEC — Securities and Exchange Commission, a financial regulator in the United States.
Shard
Shard — a mechanism that helps a blockchain network to scale by breaking into smaller blockchains to relieve network congestion — something which TON Blockchain does.
Smart contract
Smart contract — self-executing code that oversees and enables operations with the help of mathematical algorithms and without human intervention.
Spot trading
Spot trading — trading a financial asset for money.
Stablecoin
Stablecoin — a cryptocurrency that aims to maintain a stable value (often pegged to a fiat currency).
Staking
Staking — a way for users to earn a passive income by storing coins or tokens in a proof-of-stake algorithm, which, in turn, ensures the blockchain runs smoothly. For this, they earn rewards as an incentive.
Swap
Swap — the exchange of two financial assets — e.g., Toncoin for USDT.
T
TEPs
TON Enhancement Proposals (TEPs) — a standard set of ways to interact with various parts of the TON Ecosystem.
Testnet
Testnet — a network for testing projects or services before launching on the mainnet.
Ticker
Ticker — the short form of a cryptocurrency, asset, or token on exchanges, trading services, or other DeFi solutions — e.g. TON for Toncoin.
The Merge
The Merge — the transition process of Ethereum switching from proof-of-work to proof-of-stake.
Token
Token — a form of digital asset; it can have multiple functions.
Tokenomics
Tokenomics — the economic plan and distribution strategy of a cryptocurrency (or token).
To the moon
To the moon — a colloquial phrase used when people create FOMO. It refers to hopefuls wanting the value of a cryptocurrency rapidly gaining a lot of value — hence its trajectory to the moon.
Toncoin
Toncoin — the native cryptocurrency of the TON Ecosystem, which is used to develop services and pay for fees and services. It can be bought, sold, and traded.
Trading
Trading — buying and selling cryptocurrencies with the goal of making a profit.
TVL
TVL (Total Value Locked) — the total value of assets currently locked (e.g. staked) in a specific protocol.
TVM
TVM — TON Virtual Machine (TVM), a machine that behaves like a decentralized computer; it computes the state of the TON Blockchain after each new block and executes smart contracts.
V
Validator
Validator — those who verify new blocks on TON Blockchain.
W
WAGMI
WAGMI — “we’re all gonna make it,” a sentence often used in the crypto community to express the aspirations of becoming rich one day by investing in cryptocurrencies.
Wallet
Wallet — an application that manages private keys and assets for sending, receiving, and storing cryptocurrencies. A Telegram bot (e.g., @wallet) also provides wallet functions within the TON Ecosystem.
Web3
Web3 — a new generation of the internet based on blockchain technology that includes decentralization and tokenomics.
Whale
Whale — an investor who owns a large number of cryptocurrencies and tokens.
Whitelist
Whitelist — a list of addresses or users granted pre-approved access or privileges.
White paper
White paper — the main document of a project written by its developers. It explains the technology and the project’s goals.
Watchlist
Watchlist — a customizable list of cryptocurrencies whose price action an investor wishes to follow.
Workchain
Workchain — secondary chains that connect to the masterchain. They can contain a massive number of different connected chains that have their own consensus rules. They can also contain address and transaction information and virtual machines for smart contracts. Additionally, they can be compatible with the masterchain and interact with one another.
Y
Yield farming
Yield farming — lending or placing cryptocurrencies or tokens in a smart contract to earn rewards in the form of transaction fees.
YOLO
YOLO — “you only live once,” a slang acronym used as a call to live life to the fullest without taking into account the risk of the given endeavor.