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Glossary

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Ada

Olga Hryniuk
Ada is Cardano’s native currency, which is named after Ada Lovelace, the English mathematician and programmer. Ada can be used to pay transaction fees on the Cardano network and can also be delegated as stake to a stake pool, helping to secure the Cardano blockchain. Delegating ada allows the user to receive rewards for doing so. All rewards are distributed...
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Order book

beddowben@gmail.com
An order book is the method of currency exchange used in traditional markets. In DEXs, an order book method is used to allow users to transfer assets in a decentralized manner. It a list of open buy and sell offers made by users for a specific number of assets. Every buy order needs to be matched with a sell order. For example, a user makes an offer to sell...
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Certification

Olga Hryniuk
A high level of assurance is key when developing and working with smart contracts and decentralized applications (DApps). Applications in Cardano’s DApp Store will have the option to meet and display up to three levels of certification.
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DApp Store

Olga Hryniuk
A website where users will be able to download both certified and uncertified applications that run on the Cardano blockchain. See also Certification.
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Blockchain bridge

beddowben@gmail.com
A protocol or platform that allows tokens to be ported from one blockchain to another, where they can be used for payments or to interact with decentralized applications (DApps). Blockchain bridges facilitate chain interoperability and can be either bidirectional or unidirectional. Tokens are locked on their native chain by either sending them to a smart con...
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Testnet

Morgan
A prototype network where users can experiment with the new features and code to provide feedback before a live mainnet launch.
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Sustainability

Morgan
Cardano is a proof-of-stake blockchain and has been estimated to use electricity equivalent to 57 US homes, which can be met by a single wind turbine. The founders of Cardano set out to tackle the unsustainability of proof-of-work blockchains at the outset. In 2021, academics and researchers reckoned that Bitcoin and Ethereum used as much power as a country ...
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Stake

Morgan
Every ada holder has a stake in the network that they can delegate to a pool from their wallet. The process is safe because no ada leaves the user’s wallet.
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Third-generation blockchain

Morgan
A blockchain that aims to resolve fundamental issues of the first two generations (Bitcoin and Ethereum). Third-generation blockchains focus on improved scalability, interoperability, and self-sustainability. Cardano is a third-generation blockchain.
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Stake pool

Morgan
A computer server running the Cardano node to validate transactions and produce blocks. Each pool holds the combined stake of many ada owners in a single entity, or pool. Rewards earned by the pool are shared between the operator and their stakeholders.
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Token burning

Morgan
Token burning is the process of removing tokens from circulation. This reduces the number of coins in use.
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Stake pool operator

Morgan
A person or organization that takes responsibility for setting up and keeping the pool running. This usually entails owning or renting a server, holding the key to the pool, and maintaining and monitoring the node.
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Stablecoin

Morgan
A cryptocurrency whose value is held constant against one or more other assets. The assets may be a ‘basket’ of currencies, a single currency (eg, the US dollar or the euro), commodities such as gold or silver, stocks, or other cryptocurrencies. Stablecoins include mechanisms that maintain a low deviation from their target price and so are useful to store or...
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SMASH

Morgan
Stake pool metadata aggregation server, which is designed to track and maintain stake pool metadata to ensure its validity.
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Slot

Morgan
The primary unit of time used by the Ouroboros algorithm. In current Cardano versions, a slot is exactly one second. Slots that are inhabited by blocks are called active slots. In early 2022, Cardano parameters set one in 20 slots as active, so the average block time is 20 seconds.
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Slot leader

Morgan
A stake pool that has the right to create a block on Cardano within the current slot. The selection process is based on the proportion of ada delegated to each pool.
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Slashing

Morgan
A penalty charge on some proof-of-stake blockchains for dishonest behavior by network validators. There is no slashing on Cardano. Instead, Ouroboros provides incentives for good behavior. Each stake pool operator pledges funds to their pool to make it more attractive and earn a higher percentage of rewards. Dishonest behavior will result in loss of rewards....
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Sidechain

Morgan
A blockchain that runs independently alongside the main chain and is linked to it. Transactions are transferred to the sidechain for processing and the results are sent back, thus taking a load off the main chain. This improves speed, lowers execution fees, and increases overall throughput.
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Script

Morgan
Smart contract conditions coded to be automatically executed on the blockchain.
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Token

Morgan
A cryptographic token that represents a footprint of value defined by the community, market state, or self-governed entity. A token can be fungible (tradable) or non-fungible (unique), and act as a payment unit, reward, trading asset, or information holder.
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