A plain-language glossary of the most common web3 terms — so you can follow the conversation without needing a crypto background.
Consumer focused terms
- Crypto / Cryptocurrency = Digital money secured by cryptography
- Bitcoin (BTC) = The first and largest cryptocurrency, like digital gold
- Ethereum (ETH) = A blockchain that runs smart contracts and apps
- Wallet = Your account on the blockchain — stores your crypto
- Exchange = A marketplace to buy and sell crypto (like Coinbase, Binance)
- DeFi = Decentralized Finance — financial services without banks
- NFT = Non-Fungible Token — a unique digital asset on the blockchain
- HODL = Hold On for Dear Life — holding crypto long-term
- Gas fees = Transaction fees on the blockchain
- Stablecoin = Crypto designed to stay at $1 (like USDC, USDT)
Technical terms
- Blockchain = A digital ledger of transactions shared across many computers
- Smart Contract = Self-executing code that runs on a blockchain
- DAO = Decentralized Autonomous Organization — a community-run entity
- Layer 1 = The base blockchain (Ethereum, Bitcoin, Solana)
- Layer 2 = A faster, cheaper network built on top of Layer 1
- Consensus = How blockchain nodes agree on the state of the ledger
- Proof of Work = Mining-based consensus (Bitcoin)
- Proof of Stake = Validator-based consensus (Ethereum post-merge)