Aave is a decentralized lending and borrowing platform on Ethereum. Aave users can take out loans by providing collateral in the form of crypto assets. Lenders who provide collateral to Aave receive aTokens in return, which automatically pay interest to the holder with funds earned from platform trading fees. Aave has pioneered the technology of ‘flash loans,’ which allow for the uncollateralized lending of funds, so long as the principal is repaid within the same Ethereum transaction block.

The AAVE token is an Ethereum-based ERC-20 asset used as the governance token of the Aave blockchain protocol. AAVE token holders have the ability to propose changes and vote to approve or deny new proposals to the Aave protocol. With significant enough distribution, AAVE tokens are intended to eventually accommodate the autonomous and decentralized governance of the Aave platform.

The Acala USD stablecoin (aUSD) is a stablecoin that is pegged to the U.S. dollar on a 1:1 ratio that operates on the Acala Network blockchain. aUSD facilitates the Acala Network's operation and is essential to the Acala decentralized finance (DeFi) platform. Users can borrow aUSD after they deposit cryptocurrency assets such as bitcoin (BTC), ether (ETH), or polkadot (DOT) through a Collateralized Debt Position (CDP) from the Honzon stablecoin protocol.

The Account Abstraction Layer (AAL) is the technical infrastructure that makes smart contract development possible on the Qtum blockchain. The foundational layer of Qtum follows the UTXO model used on blockchains such as Bitcoin. The AAL on Qtum allows the accounts model used on Ethereum to be “abstracted” or transferred in order to work on top of the UTXO model. Qtum’s AAL is the computing go-between that allows the UTXO and accounts models to interact.

An account-checker is a script or program that takes a list of usernames and passwords — known as a combolist — and tests them against a set of target websites. Account-checker tools substantially increase the speed and efficiency with which an attacker can test a large volume of credentials on a broad range of websites and service providers. These tools are generally used by malicious actors looking to capitalize and commit fraud or identity theft against the account holders from whom they have stolen access.

The account model is a blockchain architecture that features direct information and value transfer. Smart contract platforms such as Ethereum use the account model as opposed to the UTXO model used by the Bitcoin network, which limits the capabilities of smart contracts. One potential downside of the account model architecture is difficulty in scaling transactions-per-second.

An accredited investor is an investor who meets specific criteria pertaining to income, net worth, and qualifications. While such requirements can vary from country to country, generally accredited investors can include high-net-worth individuals (HNWIs), financial institutions, banks, and large corporations. Accredited investors are often able to access complex investments that other investors might not have access to — including venture capital firms, hedge funds, and angel investment enterprises. Accredited investors can also benefit from high returns and increased diversification, although the types of investments that are limited to accredited investors can also be subject to higher risk, high minimum investment amounts, low liquidity, and higher fees.

On the Crypto.com blockchain network, Acquirer Nodes facilitate the settlement of transactions between merchant and customer. There are two main types of Acquirer Nodes: Customer and Merchant Acquirer Nodes. The two node types communicate to verify merchant verification, perform settlement for users, and provide an escrow service that enables Crypto.com's wallet and debit card products.

Adaptive State Sharding technology allows the Elrond Network to make use of parallel processing by combining three standardized sharding types (state, network, and transaction sharding) into one balanced high-performance system. The result is a secure blockchain with blazing fast scalability and transaction times. This enables shard merging and shard splitting to allow the network to operate more efficiently, thus improving overall network performance.

A blockchain address is a unique combination of numbers and letters that identifies accounts on a blockchain network. To transact in exchange, digital assets are sent to and from different addresses. An example of a Bitcoin address is ‘14qViLJfdGaP4EeHnDyJbEGQysnCpwk3gd’.

A cryptocurrency address is a string of alphanumeric characters that represents a wallet, exchange, or similar blockchain-specific address. All wallet and exchange addresses are unique and denote the location of the sender and receiver on the blockchain network. Blockchain addresses can be evaluated publicly on a blockchain explorer (a web service that records all transactions that have ever taken place on the network), but are also pseudonymous, because they are not necessarily linked to their user’s real-world identity.

An admin key holds special access to make changes to a project's protocol or smart contract. It is typically held by a project's founders or core team. Proponents of decentralization argue that holding admin keys goes against decentralized governance practices and poses security risks, while many projects have stated intention to eliminate them from practice.

An airdrop is a token distribution method in which assets are directly transmitted to user wallets for free. Airdrop recipients do not pay for tokens received. Typically used as a marketing tactic to create awareness around a project, airdrops can also result after a chain fork, token upgrade, or as part of a fundraising mechanism.

An airnode is an oracle node designed to be easily deployable by application programming interface (API) providers that want to participate in the API3 blockchain protocol and bring their data feeds on-chain. Airnode enables API providers to run their own node with little-to-no maintenance, allowing them to interface their API data feeds with smart contract platforms. When an API provider uses an airnode, they become a first-party oracle that directly provides data to the blockchain without the involvement of intermediary nodes.

When an Alpha Lending Protocol user deposits an asset (like BNB), they in turn mint an alALPHA token (like alBNB) which is an interest-bearing asset that represents their initial deposit. The initial deposit is transferred into a smart contract that aggregates the total liquidity of each asset into a pooled fund that is available for borrowing. Then the interest borrowers pay is divided proportionally amongst liquidity providers.

Founded in 2017, Alameda Research is a quantitative trading firm that was founded by Sam Bankman-Fried. Alameda Research is one of the top liquidity providers in the cryptocurrency space.

Algorand Smart Contracts (ASC1s) are smart contracts that operate on Layer 1 of the Algorand protocol. ASC1s generally represent relatively small smart contracts, with larger smart contracts being reserved for Layer 2. ASC1s are written in an Assembly-like programming language called Transaction Execution Approval Language (TEAL), which is then interpreted by Algorand nodes.

Algorand Standard Assets (ASAs) are on-chain assets native to the Algorand blockchain protocol. As on-chain assets, ASAs enjoy the same speed and security as Algorand’s consensus protocol itself. ASAs can be fungible or non-fungible, representing items as varied as stablecoins, in-game points, or a deed to a house. ASAs must essentially adhere to several parameters determined by Algorand, though they also allow developers some customizability.

Algorithmic stablecoins do not use fiat or cryptocurrency as collateral. Instead, price stability results from the use of algorithms and smart contracts that manage the supply of tokens in circulation. In this model, the stablecoin’s algorithm automatically expands or contracts the number of tokens in circulation in order to meet a specific price target.

Algorithmic trading (also known as algo trading) is a modern method of market trading that utilizes computer software coded to follow a particularly defined set of mathematical instructions — an algorithm — to place one or many trades simultaneously. The formulas compute against price, timing, quantity, and other mathematical models to follow specific strategies. Algorithmic trading models execute thousands of trades to generate profits at a speed, frequency, and consistency impossible for a human trader. Algorithmic trading technology gives markets more liquidity and higher profitability, while also potentially eliminating human emotion and error that can negatively impact trading decisions.

According to the London Good Delivery set of regulatory and compliance standards, gold can be bought in two distinct forms: allocated or unallocated. When a customer purchases allocated gold, they have ownership over the gold and can choose to store it on their own, or in a vault at a London Bullion Market Association (LBMA) facility. Unallocated gold does not feature direct ownership over specific gold bars, but instead holds entitlement to a certain amount of gold.

An allocation is an allotment of tokens or equity that is purchased, earned, or reserved for a specific investor, team, organization, or corresponding entity. Blockchain startups must determine their initial token allocation to facilitate the long-term viability of their business model, with various allocations for marketing, software development, and operational costs. Many blockchain projects also have their own treasuries and foundations which typically possess a specific token allocation as well. It is also common for blockchain startups to give early team members a specific token allocation, with the stipulation that they cannot sell their tokens for several years.

All-time high (ATH) is a term that denotes the highest price of an asset ever recorded on an exchange or market. ATH is the opposite of the all-time low (ATL), which conversely represents the lowest price at which an asset has ever traded. ATHs are generally set by assets during bull market uptrends in the blockchain and cryptocurrency market, when assets may experience periods of extreme growth in value.

All-time low (ATL) is a term that denotes the lowest price of an asset ever recorded on an exchange or market. ATL is the opposite of the all-time high (ATH), which conversely represents the highest price at which an asset has ever traded. ATLs are generally set by assets during harsh bear market downturns in the blockchain and cryptocurrency market, when assets have historically dropped more than 95% from previous prices in a bull market.

In a traditional financial context, alpha is a measure of the active return on an investment compared to a market index. For example, an alpha of 10% signifies that an investment’s return over a specific time frame performed 10% better than the average market return during the same period, while a negative alpha denotes that the investment underperformed the market. In contrast, beta measures the volatility of an investment and is an indication of its relative risk. Alpha and beta are two key coefficients that make up the capital pricing model that is utilized in modern portfolio theory.

Alpha Homora is a service-based protocol built by Alpha Finance Labs designed to allow users to earn interest on their crypto deposits through standardized yield farming and leveraged derivative yield farming. Initially, Alpha Homora V1 is built for Ethereum and Binance Smart Chain (BSC) and allows users to participate as yield farmers, liquidity providers, ether (ETH) and Binance Coin (BNB) lenders, bounty hunters, and liquidators. Alpha Homora V2, which will be built initially for Ethereum, hopes to expand these capabilities by allowing for leveraged yield farming and the simultaneous use of multiple assets.

Alpha Lending is a decentralized, permissionless pool-based lending and borrowing protocol that makes use of algorithmic autonomous interest rates. Designed to run on Binance Smart Chain and Ethereum, Alpha Lending is designed to facilitate the use of cross-chain assets and to help maximize the return of investment for lenders and borrowers. The platform makes use of interest-bearing alTokens that represent the user’s share of their deposit (such as alBNB if BNB is deposited). Lending Pool Contracts on Alpha help facilitate the use of deposits, withdrawals, repayments, liquidations, and assets that are borrowed by users on the platform.

The alpha version is one of many stages in the software release lifecycle needed to ultimately become a finalized production version. The cycle usually begins with the release of the pre-alpha, then the alpha, beta, release candidate (gamma and delta), release to manufacturing (RTM), general availability (GA) and finally the production or live release, in that order. An alpha version, like a beta version, represents an early version of a software implementation or blockchain network that must undergo several further stages of development to become a production version.

AlphaX is a decentralized, non-orderbook perpetual swap trading marketplace that brings to decentralized finance (DeFi), a new trading product that was previously unavailable on-chain. AlphaX will also allow Alpha Homora users to hedge leveraged yield farming/liquidity providing positions and make use of a market-neutral leveraged position. AlphaX is specifically designed to minimize downside risk and makes use of three unique features that help set it apart from competitors, including: a funding rate that is baked into the price, the use of tokenized leveraged long and short positions, and minimized slippage through the dynamic k algorithmic model.

An altcoin is an “alternative coin,” or any cryptocurrency launched after Bitcoin. It refers to any cryptocurrency that is not BTC. For example, ETH, XRP, and LTC are all altcoins.

The synthetic protocol token alUSD is used on the Alchemix decentralized finance (DeFi) lending platform. Alchemix users can deposit DAI in order to mint alUSD — a stablecoin that tokenizes a user’s future yield in Yearn.Finance vaults. In doing so, alUSD is the mechanism by which Alchemix offers automatically repaying stablecoin-backed loans.

Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3) is a proprietary service offered by Amazon Web Services (AWS) that was launched in 2006 with the purpose of giving customers access to object storage via a specialized web interface. Amazon S3 utilizes the same storage architecture as its global e-commerce enterprise, and can be leveraged to store nearly any type of object like internet applications, data archives, backup and recovery, disaster recovery, analytics, hybrid cloud storage, and more.

Amazon Web Services (AWS) is a subsidiary of American ecommerce giant Amazon. AWS has become well known for providing on-demand cloud computing services to enterprises, individuals, and governments through a pay-as-you-go model. AWS also provides cloud server configuration and hosting, data storage and transfer, content delivery, networking, analytics, application services, and various distributed computing building blocks and tools. AWS offers its clients Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) which allows users to make use of a virtual cluster of computers that emulates the attributes of a real computer and complex cloud computing systems all-in-one service.

Amazon Web Services (AWS) Lambda is a serverless computing service designed to let you run programs without having to run your own servers or do any code administration. By uploading your code as an image or ZIP file, AWS Lambda will automatically dedicate the amount of computational power necessary to run the code request. You can trigger the code to run automatically over hundreds of AWS and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) applications, or control its execution directly from an online app. Lambda applications can scale to meet a program’s associated traffic and can be written in numerous programming languages.

Amortizing refers to the spreading of an initial or overhead cost across time or between parties. On the Orchid network, transaction costs are kept low by amortizing the fees across transactions and users. Transaction fees are slowly paid off or broken into increments that are then shared across a large network to reduce individual user costs.

AMP is the digital collateral token of the Flexa network, a payment system that allows users to spend certain cryptocurrencies with select retailers at their brick and mortar locations. AMP is an ERC-20 token used as collateral to guarantee retail payments while blockchain transactions remain unconfirmed. The AMP token is the replacement for Flexacoin (FXC). Gemini Exchange is the first market to support the AMP token.

Anchor Protocol is a savings protocol built to run directly on top of the Terra stablecoin ecommerce payment platform. It allows users to earn yield powered block rewards by lending out Terra deposits to borrowers who allocate liquid-stake Proof-of-Stake (PoS) assets from PoS blockchain protocols as collateral, in the form of bonded assets (bAssets). Anchor Savings employs no minimum deposits, account freezes, or sign-up requirements, and can be used by practically anyone in the world with access to the Internet. The Anchor ecosystem makes use of its main utility token (ANC) and other asset types designed specifically for use within Terra’s decentralized finance (DeFi) ecosystem.

Andre Cronje is the founder and lead developer of Yearn.Finance. He built most of the original Yearn products, then relinquished personal control of the protocol by launching the YFI governance token in 2020. Cronje remains an active figure and builder in the Yearn community and decentralized finance (DeFi) ecosystem.

An angel investor, also known as a seed investor or private investor, is an individual who looks for new opportunities to fund start-ups with potential for growth. Angel investors typically lend new companies capital, sometimes in exchange for a certain percentage of ownership in the company. Angel investing can also include mentoring, business advice, marketing and advertising strategies, and connection facilitation to further the chances of the startup's success. Within the blockchain space, angel investors often participate in private sales or pre-sales that precede public funding rounds like Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs).

Ankr ETH (aETH) is a synthetic asset that can be staked on the Ankr Network in place of staking ether (ETH). When a user deposits ETH in an Ankr deposit contract they receive aETH in return, thus lowering the barrier to entry for investors who wish to stake ETH without owning the minimum 32 ETH tokens needed to stake on Ethereum 2.0 to receive a yearly APY. When a user deposits ETH and receives aETH in return, their investment remains locked in for as long as the time required by users who stake 32 ETH on the Ethereum 2.0 network.

Anyone who holds ANKR in a private, supported wallet is considered part of the platform's governance. These users can vote on proposals that influence where the project is heading.

Ankr providers provide the computing power that supports Ankr ”sidecars" running on an Ethereum 2.0 node, each of which holds up to 32 ETH 2.0 stake. Providers can use their hardware or deploy a node on Ankr. Providers also submit insurance, in ANKR or ETH, thereby helping to protect the network against poor node performance or unexpected fund withdrawals. If ANKR is the insurance, the equivalent of 2 ETH worth of ANKR is necessary to submit insurance. Rewards for an ANKR-funded node are issued in ANKR at the end of the staking period. The purpose of this guaranteed amount is to mitigate potential losses that stakers might incur.

Ankr staking is a system that employs assets such as aETH — Ankr’s version of the Ethereum token, ETH, or ether — to address the current liquidity and accessibility hurdles associated with staking tokens on Ethereum 2.0. Normally, would-be validators must stake a minimum of 32 ETH to earn yearly staking rewards on Ethereum 2.0. In response, Ankr developed a unique model that improves the accessibility and liquidity of staking on Ethereum 2.0 by allowing stakers to stake a smaller fractional amount of ETH via Ankr’s aETH (essentially creating a staking pool).

An annual percentage rate (APR) on a loan is the amount of interest a borrower must pay each year. The APR is expressed as an annual percentage of the outstanding loan balance, and represents the annual cost of borrowing.

The annual percentage yield (APY) refers to the rate of return earned on a deposit over one year. APY takes into account compounding interest, which is calculated on a periodic basis and added to the balance.

Anti-malware is a category of software designed to prevent, detect, and remove malware. Malware refers to any type of 'malicious software' that is specifically designed to cause damage to computers and computer systems. Examples of malware include viruses, trojan horses, and ransomware among others.

Anti-Money Laundering (AML) is a comprehensive set of processes, regulations, and rules that combat money laundering, terrorism funding, and financial crimes like cyber theft and fraud. AML procedures require financial firms to monitor transactions to ensure that funds are not part of criminal activities, circumventing tax laws, or violating any other regulations. AML is mandatory for users to access financial services in the blockchain industry.

Antivirus is a category of software that is designed to prevent, detect, and remove computer viruses. Computer viruses are malicious computer programs that are designed to replicate themselves and cause damage to computers and computer systems.

An application binary interface (ABI) is a standardized method for engaging with smart contracts in a blockchain ecosystem. ABIs allow smart contracts to engage with external data, as well as with other contracts internal to the blockchain platform. ABIs are similar to application programming interfaces (APIs) in that they enable separate software systems to communicate and interact with each other.

The Application Blockchain Interface (ABCI) is a specialized application programming interface (API) built by Tendermint, the company that created the Cosmos blockchain. The ABCI is designed to operate as a middle layer that allows blockchain-based replication engines present on several computers and a deterministic state machine (the application) present on a single computer to communicate. In simpler terms, the ABCI allows a blockchain protocol to communicate with an application to enable application development and other related purposes.

An application programming interface (API) is a set of protocols and codes that determine how different software platforms communicate and share information. APIs define different types of requests and calls that can be made, the data types that can be used, and how to make these requests. It serves as an intermediary between different software systems. A developer can use an API to incorporate features of an external application into their own software. By allowing different platforms to communicate, APIs enhance interoperability across the web.

For a wallet, exchange, or blockchain-based financial services platform, an approved address refers to a list of addresses permissioned for transactions on an account. Addresses not included on the list are prohibited from certain transactions. An approved address is typically implemented for security and compliance reasons.

The Aragon client is a decentralized application (dApp) designed for Aragon One, and is used for creating and managing decentralized autonomous (DAOs) built on the Aragon network. This process works by running Aragon apps inside the client, instantly giving Aragon application developers the capability to perform sandboxing, transaction pathing, application listing, and human readable transactions. Further, it allows notifications to be sent to a system's users. Basically, the Aragon client allows the complex DAO creation process to become simpler for application developers so they can focus on creating and managing new and existing DAOs.

Aragon Court is a mechanism that allows organizations built on Aragon to solve disputes that they are unable to resolve themselves. When an organization escalates a dispute to the court system, they must first deposit collateral and pay fees. Then, jurors are randomly selected to review and rule on the dispute. After the jurors deliver their verdict by a majority vote, the parties involved can choose to appeal the decision, sending it to a larger pool of jurors for review. For the appeal to move forward, both parties in the dispute must deposit additional ANT as collateral.

AHolding ANT enables you to participate in the governance of the Aragon Network DAO and Aragon Court. More specifically, ANT holders can amend the Aragon Network Agreement, an agreement that contains the human-readable rules of the Aragon Network and is used to guide rulings in Aragon Court; alter the Aragon Network DAO and Aragon Court and their parameters; and govern a common funding pool.

The Aragon Network DAO is an organization that provides infrastructure and services to the Aragon Network and its users for the creation of DAOs, dApps, and other blockchain infrastructure. In doing so, the Aragon Network DAO interacts with Aragon’s ANT token, Aragon Court, Aragon Client, aragonOS, Aragon Network Agreements, and other related technologies.

The aragonOS (Aragon Operating System) is a smart contract system designed to manage Aragon organizations and entities. AragonOS is used to help define stakeholders of the organization and outline their rights. Through aragonOS, organizations can also install apps, which allow them to integrate functions such as fundraising, voting, and payments. Anyone can develop an app, use it within their organization, and make it available for the Aragon ecosystem.

To arbitrage is to exploit the price difference of an asset or security between two markets for profit. For example, if one bitcoin is selling for $10 on exchange ABC and $12 on exchange XYZ, then an arbitrageur can generate a profit of $2 by purchasing one bitcoin from ABC and selling it at XYZ. Arbitraging can be automated by utilizing sophisticated computer systems and software to monitor prices and conduct high-volume trades that take advantage of even slight differences in prices. Arbitrage is a necessary financial mechanism that keeps prices consistent between different exchanges and wider markets.

Advanced Research Projects Agency Network (ARPANET) is an early version of the internet. ARPANET was created by the U.S. Department of Defense and used two technical foundations of the modern internet: a packet switching network with distributed control and TCP/IP.

Artificial intelligence in a trading context refers to the use of computer software, machine learning, and algorithms to set strategy and execute trades. AI trading systems analyze, process, and calculate vast amounts of data in order to execute optimal investment strategies.

AR is the native token of the Arweave protocol. It allows users to pay for storage and is used to reward miners for storing data.

An application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) miner is a specialized type of computerized mining rig that is used to mine bitcoin (BTC) and other types of cryptocurrency. Originally, crypto mining rigs were designed to mine cryptocurrency using a central processing unit (CPU) on a laptop or personal computer, but eventually graphical processing unit (GPU) miners — and subsequently ASIC miners — surpassed the capabilities of this traditional model. ASIC miners are built specifically to complete the mining process much faster and efficiently than traditional computers and are quite expensive to design and manufacture.

ASIC-resistance is a design feature that has been implemented on some Proof-of-Work (PoW) blockchains to prevent them from being dominated by application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) miners. The purpose is to help the mining on a chain be more equitable for retail miners while maintaining mining decentralization. This is generally done by using a bespoke mining algorithm or periodically changing the algorithm to prevent profitable ASIC miners from being developed. Despite some blockchains being designed to be ASIC-resistant, many have since become dominated by ASIC miners that have overcome the various ASIC-resistant designs and countermeasures.

An asset is anything of monetary value that can be owned or purchased. Within the context of investing, assets can refer to a variety of financial and physical instruments, from stocks to real estate to gold to dollars. A bitcoin is a particular form of crypto or digital asset.

In The Sandbox game, ASSETS are tokens created by players who build user-generated content. ASSETS utilize the ERC-1155 standard.

Assets under management (AUM) is a measurement used to signify the total market value of all assets being managed by a financial fund, institution, or portfolio manager. However, the exact definition of what AUM constitutes is ambiguous because not all institutions classify different types of assets in the same manner. Assets under management fluctuate in value due to regular market movements and because of money inflows and outflows to and from the fund. Normally, a fund's fee structure is determined by the percentage of the total AUM on a yearly basis.

Asymmetric encryption is a cryptographic system that uses a public key for encryption and a private key for decryption. The public key can be shared with anyone, while the private key is meant to be kept secret to maintain security. Asymmetric encryption is considered more secure than symmetric encryption, which uses one key for both encryption and decryption. The Bitcoin network uses asymmetric encryption.

Asynchronous Byzantine Fault Tolerance (aBFT) is a consensus mechanism that improves on typical Byzantine Fault Tolerance (BFT) consensus by solving the Byzantine General’s Fault problem in a unique way. Through aBFT, nodes are able to reach consensus independently by making use of a two-stage block confirmation process using a two-thirds supermajority. The first stage proposes a last irreversible block (LIB), while the second stage finalizes the proposed LIB to make the block irreversible. ABFT consensus is considered leaderless, with no independent leading node responsible for block creation and finalization, resulting in a faster and more secure network. The Fantom and Hedera Hashgraph protocols and other networks employ different variations of aBFT.

An aToken is an ERC-20 token serving that represents an ownership claim on an underlying asset in the Aave protocol. When a user deposits assets into Aave liquidity pools, the platform automatically generates an aToken in return. For example, providing DAI to Aave would automatically mint aDAI. Holders of aTokens continuously earn interest on their deposits, the value of which is represented in the aToken.

An atomic swap is a peer-to-peer exchange of crypto assets between two parties without the use of a trusted third party, such as a centralized exchange. Atomic swaps utilize smart contracts to exchange crypto assets between different blockchain networks through a process of locking, verifying, and unlocking.

An auction is a type of market that allows buyers and sellers to engage with each other through bidding. Auctions have the benefits of elevated liquidity and price discovery.

An audit is a process that involves the thorough analysis of a blockchain's codebase, or a particular application’s smart contracts, in order to identify errors in code, incorrect design, security issues, and other related inefficiencies. It is essential for blockchain protocols and applications to audit their entire codebase to ensure that the blockchain, and its interrelated applications and smart contracts, are not susceptible to attackers or other challenges. A typical audit often involves agreeing on certain audit specifications, executing tests, running symbolic execution tools, extensive code analysis, and the creation of a report to show the results.

Augmented Reality (AR) is an interactive experience that enhances objects from the real world through computer-generated perceptual information, via various sensory mechanisms including sound, touch, smell, and sight. AR is typically defined as a system that makes use of three distinct features: the combination of the real and virtual worlds, real-time interaction, and accurate 3D registration of virtual and real objects. Augmented reality is different compared to virtual reality (VR) because instead of replacing the user’s real-world environment with a virtual one, it alters an individual's perception of the world by enhancing or changing how it interacts with the individual.

The Augur Decentralized Oracle System is Augur’s proprietary oracle system, which was built to help data from the physical world and the blockchain world to communicate. Augur’s oracle system helps the prediction market platform reach a consensus regarding outcomes by aggregating continuous real-time price feed data from the Internet (through sources like CoinMarketCap, CoinGecko, and Binance) to achieve the most accurate live price data on an ongoing basis. Typically, market outcomes rely strongly on market price feed validation. The Augur Decentralized Oracle System works by using a Designated Reporter who stakes REP tokens to report on the outcome of events across different markets.

Authentication is a procedure that verifies the identity of a user before access is granted. To gain access — to an account, platform, private space — the user provides login credentials like passwords, SMS codes, and fingerprints. Authentication generally comes before authorization, which is a verification of a user’s level of access.

Authority Masternodes (AMs) maintain network consensus and the security of the VeChainThor blockchain. AMs are responsible for block propagation on the platform and enable VeChainThor's Proof-of-Authority (PoA) consensus methodology. In order to host an AM, the user must hold 25 million VeChain tokens (VET) and go through a rigorous authentication process. AMs are the most powerful nodes in VeChain's nodal hierarchy, and are very limited in number.

Authorization is a procedure that verifies a user’s degree of access. It determines a user’s permission and access to content or resources. Authorization generally comes after successful authentication, or verification of identity.

An automated Clearing House (ACH) is an electronic network that processes financial transactions in the U.S. An ACH payment pulls funds directly from a user’s bank account and deposits them into the recipient's account. A common type of ACH transaction is a direct deposit payment from an employer.

An automated market maker (AMM) is a fully automated decentralized exchange where trades are made against a pool of tokens called a liquidity pool. An algorithm regulates the values and prices of the tokens in the liquidity pool. Since AMMs do not rely on an active market of buyers and sellers, trades can occur at any time. The most popular AMMs are Uniswap, Curve, and Balancer.

Ava Labs is the blockchain development company responsible for the creation and design of the Avalanche blockchain protocol and ecosystem. Ava Labs was founded in New York state by Cornell professor and Avalanche CEO, Emin Gün Sirer, and several other founders. Ava Labs is also responsible for the creation of other projects, including Ryval.

The Avalanche Virtual Machine (AVM) is the native virtual machine that helps developers establish and deploy new blockchains that run on the Avalanche platform. To help facilitate this process, the system makes a copy of the AVM and deploys it to operate on a new blockchain or subnetwork within the Avalanche ecosystem. The main AVM is also designed to help the system create various smart contracts and decentralized applications (dApps) for decentralized finance (DeFi) use, enterprise use, and other uses.

The average directional index (ADX) is a technical indicator used to quantify the strength of a trend in a market. The ADX is calculated based on the moving averages of prices and is represented by a number ranging from 1 to 100, with a higher number indicating a stronger trend.

A blockchain-based gaming metaverse in which players collect and breed digital pets called Axies that can be used to compete in a turn-based card game. Axies can also be bred and sold.

Axie Infinity Shards (AXS) is the governance token of Axie Infinity. It is an ERC-20 token that was sold in public and private sales in 2020. The token can be used to vote on changes to Axie Infinity and can be staked to earn rewards.