Web3 Glossary

Plain-English definitions of the terms that come up in every Web3 project — written by the team that builds them.

• Smart Contract Audit

  A smart contract audit is a systematic security review of a smart contract’s source code performed before the contract is deployed to a blockchain.

• dApp

  A dApp (decentralized application) is an application whose core logic runs on a blockchain through smart contracts instead of on a company-controlled server.

• DeFi

  DeFi (decentralized finance) is financial infrastructure built from smart contracts on public blockchains instead of banks, brokers, and clearing houses.

• Tokenomics

  Tokenomics is the economic design of a cryptocurrency token: how many tokens exist and on what schedule (supply and emissions), who receives them and when (distribution and vesting), what the token is used for (utility), and how those pieces create incentives for users, builders, and investors.

• EVM

  The EVM (Ethereum Virtual Machine) is the runtime environment that executes smart contracts on Ethereum: every node runs the same virtual machine, so every contract executes identically across the network.