Crypto & Web3 Academy
Crypto & Web3 Glossary
Plain-language definitions of the coins, protocols, and concepts behind every W3D lesson, audit, and article. Terms are linked automatically throughout the site.
A
B
C
- CeFi Centralized finance: traditional crypto services — exchanges, lending, interest accounts — run by a company that holds your funds.
- Consensus Mechanism The rules a blockchain uses so thousands of independent computers agree on one true ledger.
- Crypto Exchange An online marketplace where you buy, sell, and trade cryptocurrencies — a centralized "bank-like" middleman for crypto.
- Crypto Wallet A tool that stores your private keys and lets you send, receive, and manage your crypto — it controls access to your…
- Cryptocurrency Digital money secured by cryptography and validated on a decentralized network instead of by a bank or government.
D
- DApp A decentralized application — a front-end you can use, backed by smart contracts instead of a company database.
- Decentralization The design property in which no single entity controls a network — power over rules, data, and funds is spread across many…
- DeFi Decentralized finance: financial services — lending, trading, saving — rebuilt as smart contracts with no bank in the middle.
- DEX A decentralized exchange: a crypto marketplace running from user wallets via smart contracts — no deposit, no signup, no counterparty you must…
G
H
L
- Layer 1 A blockchain's base protocol — the settlement layer that provides finality, security, and its native asset.
- Layer 2 Networks built on top of a blockchain to process transactions faster and cheaper, while inheriting the base layer security.
- Liquidity How easily an asset can be bought or sold without moving its price — the lifeblood of any honest, usable market.
M
N
O
P
- Private Key A long secret number that authorizes transactions from a wallet — anyone who has it can spend the funds it controls.
- Proof of Stake An energy-light consensus algorithm in which validators lock up coins as collateral and are chosen to propose blocks based on how much…
- Proof of Work The original consensus algorithm: miners spend computing power to solve puzzles, securing the network and making tampering expensive.
R
S
- Seed Phrase A 12–24 word backup that regenerates your entire wallet — the master key every private key in your wallet is derived from.
- Self-Custody Holding your own private keys rather than letting a bank or exchange hold them for you.
- Smart Contract Self-executing code stored on a blockchain that runs exactly as written — the building block of DeFi, DApps, and tokens.
- Stablecoin A cryptocurrency pegged to a stable value (usually the US dollar) — DeFi's bridge between volatile crypto and steady purchasing power.
- Staking Locking up crypto to secure a Proof of Stake network — earning rewards in exchange for helping validate blocks.