A stablecoin that uses fiat-denominated reserves to support its target value.
The token moves onchain, while its backing usually sits with an issuer and custodians. Cash, reserve instruments and redemption arrangements connect those worlds. A dollar label therefore tells only part of the story: reserve quality and who can actually redeem the token matter too.
IN THE WILD
You send a dollar stablecoin to another wallet while its issuer holds the supporting cash and reserve instruments offchain.
The degree of assurance that an accepted transaction or block will not be replaced.
Finality answers the practical question: how settled is this payment? Some chains build confidence as more blocks follow; others use explicit consensus finalization under defined assumptions. These are different mechanisms, not a universal guarantee against every failure. Wallets, exchanges and bridges may wait for different levels before treating a transfer as settled.
IN THE WILD
An exchange shows your transfer as detected first, then credits it after the confirmation or finalization conditions it requires are met.
The rule a node uses to select its preferred chain when multiple valid branches exist.
Temporary branches can appear even when everyone follows the rules, so nodes need a shared way to choose which one to build on. Bitcoin considers accumulated proof of work, rather than simply counting blocks. Ethereum uses a different process involving validator votes and finality constraints. Invalid branches don't become acceptable just by winning a score.
IN THE WILD
Two valid blocks compete briefly, and nodes apply their chain’s fork-choice rule to decide which history to extend.
Using mathematical methods to check whether software satisfies explicitly stated properties.
Formal verification starts with a property to establish, then checks the program against a model. This can provide strong evidence about the chosen behavior. Scope matters: proving one accounting rule does not prove that the application, oracle or economic design handles every possible problem.
IN THE WILD
You specify that a transfer must preserve total supply, then use a verifier to check that property under the model's assumptions.
Evidence used to demonstrate that a claimed computation or state transition is incorrect.
In an optimistic system, a fraud proof gives the dispute mechanism a way to reject an invalid result. It might narrow the disagreement to a particular execution step. Challengers need the relevant data and a working route to submit their challenge; a theoretical proof mechanism alone is not the complete process.
IN THE WILD
The dispute narrows to one execution step, and the challenger demonstrates how that step produced the wrong state.
Running a full node means checking the chain yourself rather than taking an explorer or exchange's word for it. 'Full' describes validation, not necessarily keeping every old block forever. A pruned Bitcoinnode can delete older block files after checking them and still perform full validation.
IN THE WILD
'My node rejected that block.' It checked the transactions itself, even though another service was displaying the proposed block.
A hypothetical valuation multiplying a reference price by a broader total or maximum supply figure.
FDV asks what the valuation figure looks like if more units count while the reference price stays the same. It can highlight how a small circulating supply compares with future or broader supply. The calculation holds price constant; it does not predict what buyers will pay when more units become available.
IN THE WILD
Your dashboard calculates FDV using today's reference price and its chosen fully diluted supply, without forecasting a new price.
The first four bytes identifying a function in a standard Ethereum ABI-encoded call.
The selector is derived from a function's name and parameter types, telling the contract which function is being requested. It isn't the full request: the arguments follow it in calldata. Four bytes also aren't a universal guarantee of uniqueness, so decoding should use the intended contract's actual interface.
IN THE WILD
A transfer(address,uint256) call starts with its selector, followed by the encoded recipient address and token amount.
A token whose units are interchangeable with other units of the same token class.
Fungible means one unit can replace another equivalent unit from the same token class. You don't normally care which individual unit arrives in a transfer. It doesn't mean every token with the same ticker is equivalent, or that a token has a stable price or a right to redeem it for something else.
IN THE WILD
You receive ten units of one ERC-20token; you don’t need to track ten separate collectible IDs to spend them.
The maximum amount of gas allowed for a transaction or block, depending on the context.
For a transaction, the gas limit is its execution budget. If it runs out before completing, execution fails. Setting a larger limit doesn't mean all of it will be spent; the fee depends on gas actually consumed. A block's gas limit instead caps how much execution work fits into that block.
IN THE WILD
A contract call needs more gas than a simple ETH transfer, so reusing the transfer’s gas limit can make the call fail.
The daily pick rotates automatically. Our initial collection was published on October 9, 2026. New words join on their publication date. Every concept includes a reference.