The Dictionary
Explore 247+ clear, technical, and objective definitions defining the decentralized future.
Recently Defined
Proof of Personhood
Proof of personhood (PoP) is a system that verifies an account corresponds to a unique human being, without necessarily revealing that human's identity. It is the cryptographic answer to "how do you ensure one person, one account?"
Proof of Reserves
Proof of Reserves (PoR) is a verification process that demonstrates a centralized custodian (exchange, lender, stablecoin issuer) holds the assets it claims to hold on behalf of its users. The strongest forms are cryptographic and verifiable by any user.
Proof of Stake
Proof of Stake is a blockchain consensus system where validators secure the network by staking coins.
Proof of Work
Proof of Work is a blockchain consensus system where miners use computing power to secure the network.
Proposal
A proposal is a formal suggestion submitted to a DAO or project community for discussion and voting.
Public Key
A public key is the cryptographic key that can be shared openly and is used to receive cryptocurrency or verify a digital signature.
Pump and Dump
A pump and dump is a manipulative scheme where a coin’s price is artificially pushed up through hype, coordination, or misleading promotion, and then quickly sold by insiders at the expense of late buyers.
Quote Currency
The quote currency is the second asset in a trading pair.
Real World Assets (RWA)
Real World Assets (RWAs) are tokenized representations of off-chain assets on a blockchain — US Treasuries, real estate, commodities, private credit, equities, invoices. The token grants a claim on the underlying asset, enforced by a legal structure off-chain and a smart contract on-chain.
Real Yield
Real yield is yield paid to token holders from actual protocol revenue (fees, interest, MEV captured) rather than from token emissions. The distinction matters because emissions are dilutive — they pay yield by printing more of the same token — while real yield is value brought in from users.
Realized Cap
Realized Cap calculates the total value of all coins based on the price at which they last transacted on-chain, rather than the current market price. Unlike Market Cap, which values all circulating coins at the current price, Realized Cap reflects the historical cost basis of each coin.
Realized P&L
Actual profit or loss from trades you have already closed (sold or settled).
Realized Profit and Loss
Realized Profit and Loss (PnL) is the profit or loss from trades that have already been closed.
Rebalancing
Portfolio rebalancing is adjusting asset allocations back to target percentages.
Recovery phrase
A recovery phrase (also called a mnemonic or backup phrase) is a human-readable list of 12 or 24 words that encodes the master seed from which all private keys in a wallet are deterministically derived.
Resistance
Resistance is a price level where selling pressure prevents price from rising further.
Restaking
Restaking is the practice of pledging already-staked assets (e.g., staked ETH or Liquid Staking Tokens) as security for additional protocols or services, in exchange for extra rewards. The same capital secures multiple things at once.
Revoke
To revoke is the act of resetting a token allowance to zero (or a lower amount) via an on-chain transaction, permanently removing a smart contract’s permission to transfer the specified tokens from your wallet.
Risk-Reward Ratio (R:R)
The risk-reward ratio compares potential loss to potential profit in a trade.
Roadmap
A roadmap is a project’s planned timeline for development, launches, upgrades, and ecosystem goals.