Web3 Glossary

Account abstraction is an approach that turns blockchain accounts into programmable smart contract wallets, enabling features like gasless transactions, social recovery, session keys, and paying fees in any token.

Activation rate is the percentage of new users or wallets that complete a key activation milestone, such as a first transaction, out of all users who signed up or connected within a given period.

Active users are people or accounts that interact with a product, app, website, platform, or protocol during a specific time period.

An address is a unique string of letters and numbers that identifies where crypto assets, transactions, or smart contracts can be sent or found on a blockchain.

ABI stands for Application Binary Interface. In blockchain, it is a file or format that tells apps how to read, call, and interact with a smart contract.

ARPU (Average Revenue Per User) is a metric that measures the average revenue a business earns from each user or active wallet over a specific time period.

An attribution lookback window is the time period before a conversion within which a marketing touchpoint can be credited for it, such as crediting only touchpoints from the 30 days before a wallet's first transaction.

An automated market maker, or AMM, is a type of decentralized exchange system that uses smart contracts and liquidity pools to let users trade crypto assets without a traditional order book.

Average session duration is the average amount of time users spend during one visit or session on a website, app, product, or platform.

Behavioral analytics is the process of tracking and analyzing what users do inside a product, website, app, or platform to understand their actions, patterns, preferences, and drop-off points.

A block is a bundle of blockchain data, usually containing transactions, that gets added to a blockchain in order and linked to the blocks before it.

A block explorer is a tool that lets anyone search and inspect blockchain data, including transactions, wallet addresses, blocks, and smart contracts.

A blockchain is a digital record system that stores information in connected blocks, where each block is linked to the one before it and shared across a network of computers.

Blockchain nodes are computers that connect to a blockchain network, store or verify blockchain data, and help keep the network running correctly.

Bounce rate is the percentage of visitors who land on a page and leave without taking another meaningful action, such as clicking a link, visiting another page, signing up, or making a purchase.

A bridge is a tool that lets users move crypto assets, data, or messages from one blockchain network to another.

Builder codes are app identifiers defined by the ERC-8021 standard that are appended to transaction calldata, allowing any onchain transaction to be attributed to the app or builder that generated it.

Burning is the act of permanently removing tokens from circulation, typically by sending them to an inaccessible address or destroying them via a smart contract, reducing the asset's total supply.

A Chain ID is a unique number that identifies a specific blockchain network, helping wallets, apps, and transactions know which chain they are interacting with.

Churn rate is the percentage of users or customers who stop using a product, service, app, or platform during a specific period of time.

Cohort analysis is a method of grouping users by a shared trait or time period, then tracking how their behavior changes over time.

A cohort retention curve plots the percentage of a user cohort that remains active over time since joining, showing how quickly users decay and whether a stable core of retained users forms.

Conversion rate is the percentage of users who complete a desired action out of the total number of users who had the opportunity to complete it, measuring how effectively a product, page, or campaign turns interest into action.

Cookieless analytics is the measurement of user behavior without third-party cookies, using alternatives such as first-party data, privacy-preserving aggregation, or wallet addresses as persistent identifiers.

Custodial means a third party, such as an exchange, holds the private keys and controls access to a user's crypto, while non-custodial means the user holds their own keys and has full, sole control of their assets.

Customer 360 is a unified view of a single user that merges every data source, onchain activity, product usage, web sessions, socials, and support history, into one complete profile.

Customer Acquisition Cost, or CAC, is the average amount a business spends to acquire one new customer, including costs like marketing, sales, advertising, tools, and campaign expenses.

Customer health scores are metrics that show how likely a customer is to stay, grow, renew, or churn based on signals like product usage, support activity, satisfaction, and account behavior.

CLV stands for Customer Lifetime Value. It estimates the total revenue or profit a business expects to earn from a customer over the entire relationship with that customer.

Customer personas are fictional profiles that represent key types of customers a business wants to understand, reach, and serve. They summarize traits such as goals, needs, behaviors, pain points, and buying motivations.

DAU stands for Daily Active Users, the number of unique users or wallets that interact with a product in a single day. It is typically reported alongside WAU and MAU to measure engagement over different timeframes.

DAO stands for Decentralized Autonomous Organization. It is a group that uses blockchain-based rules, tokens, and voting systems to make decisions without relying on one central leader.

dApp analytics is the process of tracking and analyzing how users interact with a decentralized application, including wallet activity, transactions, smart contract usage, retention, and on-chain behavior.

Data collection is the process of gathering information from different sources so it can be stored, analyzed, and used to understand behavior, measure performance, or make decisions.

Decentralization is the process of spreading control, decision-making, or ownership across many participants instead of placing it under one central authority.

A decentralized application, or dApp, is an app that runs on a blockchain or decentralized network, using smart contracts instead of relying only on a central company-controlled server.

DeFi stands for decentralized finance. It refers to financial apps and services built on blockchains that let people trade, lend, borrow, save, or earn yield without relying on traditional banks or brokers.

DeFi analytics is the practice of collecting and analyzing onchain and offchain data about decentralized finance protocols, covering metrics such as TVL, transaction volume, wallet retention, and protocol revenue.

DEX stands for decentralized exchange. It is a crypto exchange that lets users trade tokens directly from their wallets without relying on a central company to hold their funds.

A dormant wallet is a wallet address that previously interacted with a protocol but has shown no activity for a defined period, signaling a churned or at-risk user.

Drop-off rate is the percentage of users who abandon a flow between one step and the next, such as between landing on a site and connecting a wallet, or between connecting and completing a first transaction.

An EIP (Ethereum Improvement Proposal) is a formal design document that proposes new features, standards, or processes for the Ethereum network, which the community reviews and debates before adoption.

An embedded wallet is a wallet created inside an application, typically via email or social login, that removes the need for users to install a wallet extension or manage a seed phrase to get onchain.

ENS stands for Ethereum Name Service. It is a naming system that turns long Ethereum wallet addresses into readable names, such as alice.eth.

ERC stands for Ethereum Request for Comment. It is a proposal format used to suggest new standards for Ethereum, including token standards, smart contract rules, and other developer guidelines.

ERC20 is a token standard on Ethereum that defines the basic rules for creating fungible tokens, meaning each token is interchangeable with another token of the same type.

ERC721 is a token standard on Ethereum used to create non-fungible tokens, or NFTs. Each ERC721 token is unique and can represent ownership of a specific digital or physical item.

Event tracking is the practice of recording specific user actions, such as clicks, signups, wallet connects, and transactions, as structured events with properties, forming the foundation of behavioral analytics.

EVM stands for Ethereum Virtual Machine. It is the computing environment that runs smart contracts on Ethereum and other EVM-compatible blockchains, making sure every node reaches the same result from the same transaction.

Farcaster is a decentralized social network protocol built on Ethereum that lets users create profiles, post content, follow others, and move between different apps while keeping their identity and social connections.

Faucets are tools or programs that give users small amounts of tokens or test tokens, usually for free, so they can try a blockchain network, complete basic actions, or start using a crypto product.

First-touch attribution credits a conversion to the first marketing touchpoint a user encountered, while last-touch attribution credits the final touchpoint before converting; each model answers a different growth question.

Funnel analytics is the process of tracking how users move through a series of steps toward a goal, such as signing up, completing onboarding, making a purchase, or becoming an active user.

Gas fees are payments users make to compensate a blockchain network for the computational resources required to process and validate their transactions.

Growth analytics is the process of measuring, analyzing, and interpreting user behavior data to understand what drives acquisition, activation, retention, revenue, and expansion for a product or business.

A growth loop is a self-reinforcing mechanism where the output of product usage feeds back into acquiring more usage, such as liquidity attracting traders whose fees attract more liquidity.

Identity resolution is the process of linking multiple identifiers, such as wallet addresses, emails, social accounts, and device sessions, into a single unified user identity for analytics and engagement.

Impermanent loss is the reduction in value a liquidity provider experiences when the prices of pooled tokens diverge, compared to simply holding the same tokens outside the pool.

An incentive campaign is a time-bound program offering rewards like tokens or fee discounts to encourage specific user actions, such as deposits or referrals.

Incentivized liquidity is the practice of offering additional token rewards or financial incentives to users who deposit assets into a protocol's liquidity pools, encouraging them to provide the liquidity the protocol needs to function effectively.

An indexer is a service that reads raw blockchain data, organizes it into structured, queryable form, and serves it to applications, making onchain data fast to search and analyze.

Lifecycle refers to the stages a user moves through with a product, from first interaction to loyal user or churn, and the strategies applied at each stage.

Liquidity refers to how easily an asset can be bought or sold in a market without significantly affecting its price, reflecting the depth and availability of buyers and sellers at any given time.

Liquidity bootstrapping is the process of attracting the initial liquidity a new DeFi protocol needs to function, typically through incentive programs, partnerships, or specialized launch mechanisms.

Liquidity mining is an incentive program where a protocol rewards users with tokens for depositing assets into its liquidity pools or markets, used to bootstrap liquidity and attract early users.

A liquidity pool is a collection of tokens locked in a smart contract that lets DEXs and DeFi protocols facilitate trades and loans without an order book.

A liquidity provider (LP) is a user or entity that deposits assets into a protocol's liquidity pools or markets, enabling trading, lending, or borrowing in exchange for a share of fees or rewards.

LTV (lifetime value) is the total revenue a user, customer, or wallet is expected to generate over their entire relationship with a product, used to judge how much a business can afford to spend acquiring users.

The LTV:CAC ratio compares the lifetime value a user generates against the cost of acquiring them, measuring whether growth spend is profitable and how efficiently a product converts acquisition into value.

Mainnet is the live, fully operational version of a blockchain network where real transactions are processed, real assets have value, and all activity is permanently recorded on the actual chain.

Marketing analytics is the practice of measuring and analyzing the performance of marketing channels, campaigns, and content to understand what drives acquisition and conversions, and to allocate budget effectively.

Mercenary capital is liquidity or trading activity that enters a protocol purely to capture token incentives and exits as soon as rewards end or better yields appear elsewhere.

Minting is the act of creating a new token or NFT on a blockchain, writing it into existence onchain and assigning it to a wallet, thereby increasing the asset's supply.

Multi-touch attribution is an attribution method that distributes credit for a conversion across multiple marketing touchpoints in a user's journey, rather than assigning all credit to a single interaction.

A multisig (multi-signature) wallet is a wallet that requires multiple private keys to approve a transaction, such as 2-of-3 or 3-of-5, removing any single point of failure in controlling funds.

Offchain refers to any data, activity, or process that occurs outside of a blockchain network, stored and managed by centralized systems or external infrastructure rather than being recorded directly on-chain.

Onchain refers to any data, transaction, or activity that is recorded and executed directly on a blockchain, making it permanently visible, verifiable, and immutable without reliance on any external or centralized system.

Onchain attribution is the process of identifying and crediting the specific source, campaign, referrer, or user action that led to a measurable on-chain outcome such as a wallet activation, transaction, or protocol interaction.

Onchain conversion rate is the percentage of wallets that complete a target onchain action, such as a first swap or deposit, out of all wallets that entered a defined acquisition funnel.

A blockchain oracle is a service that connects smart contracts to real-world external data, such as asset prices, weather conditions, or event outcomes, enabling on-chain applications to react to information that exists outside the blockchain.

A points program is a pre-token reward system where a protocol grants users points for onchain actions, with the expectation that points will convert into a token allocation at a future TGE or airdrop.

A private key is a secret cryptographic code that proves ownership of a blockchain wallet and authorizes its transactions; anyone who holds it has full control of the wallet's assets.

Product analytics is the practice of collecting and analyzing data about how users interact with a product to understand behavior, measure feature performance, and make evidence-based decisions that improve the user experience and drive growth.

Product metrics are quantifiable measurements used to evaluate how well a product is performing, how users are engaging with it, and whether it is delivering value in ways that support business growth.

Proof of personhood is a verification method that confirms a user is a real, unique human, without necessarily revealing their identity, used to prevent bots and sybil attacks in onchain systems.

Protocol revenue is the income generated directly by a decentralized protocol through fees collected from users for using its core services, such as trading, borrowing, lending, or bridging assets.

A public key is a cryptographic code derived from a wallet's private key that can be shared openly, used to receive assets and verify that transactions were signed by the matching private key.

A referral is when an existing user directs a new user to a product or platform, typically through a unique link or code, and both parties may receive an incentive when the new user completes a qualifying action.

A referrer or source is the origin point that directed a user to a website or application, identifying which channel, platform, or specific page sent that traffic.

Retention rate is the percentage of users or customers who continue using a product, app, service, or platform over a specific period of time.

RPC (Remote Procedure Call) is a protocol that lets applications send requests to a blockchain node to read data, query contract state, or submit transactions.

A seed phrase is a sequence of 12 to 24 words generated by a crypto wallet that serves as the master backup for all of its private keys, allowing the wallet to be restored on any compatible device.

Segmentation is the process of dividing a user base, audience, or market into distinct groups based on shared characteristics, behaviors, or attributes in order to analyze, target, or communicate with each group more effectively.

A smart contract is a self-executing program stored on a blockchain that automatically enforces and carries out the terms of an agreement when predetermined conditions are met, without requiring a third party to oversee or authorize it.

A smart contract event is a log emitted by a smart contract on the blockchain when a specific action or condition occurs, allowing external applications and services to detect and respond to on-chain activity in real time.

Social data is information users generate on social platforms, such as posts, comments, and engagement, analyzed to understand audience behavior and trends.

Solidity is a statically typed, high-level programming language designed specifically for writing smart contracts that run on the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) and other EVM-compatible blockchains.

A stablecoin is a type of cryptocurrency designed to maintain a stable value by pegging its price to a reference asset, most commonly the US dollar, a commodity, or a basket of assets.

Staking is the process of locking cryptocurrency in a blockchain protocol to support network operations such as transaction validation, in exchange for rewards paid in the native token.

A sybil wallet is a blockchain wallet address created as part of a coordinated scheme where one person or entity operates multiple fake wallets to manipulate on-chain systems, game incentive programs, or inflate activity metrics.

A testnet is a test version of a blockchain network where developers and users can deploy contracts and run transactions using valueless test tokens before launching on mainnet.

A TGE (Token Generation Event) is the moment a project's token is created and distributed onchain for the first time, becoming claimable and tradable by early users, investors, and the community.

Time to first transaction (TTFT) is a metric that measures how long it takes a new user to complete their first onchain transaction after first visiting a product or connecting a wallet.

Token emissions are the new tokens a protocol releases into circulation over time, typically as rewards for liquidity providers, stakers, or users, governed by an emission schedule.

A token-gated form is a form, survey, or waitlist that requires respondents to connect a wallet and meet onchain criteria, such as holding a specific token or NFT, before they can access or submit it.

Tokenomics is the economic design of a cryptocurrency token, covering its total supply, distribution, issuance schedule, utility, and the incentive mechanisms that govern how it is created, allocated, and used within its ecosystem.

A transaction is an action recorded on a blockchain, such as sending tokens, swapping assets, minting an NFT, or interacting with a smart contract.

Total value locked (TVL) is the total amount of cryptocurrency or digital assets deposited and held within a decentralized protocol or smart contract at any given point in time.

Unique active wallets (UAW) is a metric that counts the number of distinct blockchain wallet addresses that have interacted with a protocol, application, or smart contract within a defined time period.

User acquisition is the process of attracting new users to a product, app, platform, or service through channels such as ads, referrals, content, partnerships, search, or community campaigns.

User activation is the moment a new user completes a key action that signals they have experienced the core value of a product for the first time.

User analytics is the process of collecting and analyzing data about how people interact with a product to understand behavior patterns, measure engagement, and inform decisions that improve the user experience and drive growth.

A User ID is a unique identifier assigned to a user, account, wallet, or profile so a system can recognize and track that same user over time.

A user profile is a structured collection of data about an individual user that aggregates their identity information, behavioral history, preferences, and activity within a product to create a unified view of that user.

User retention is the practice of keeping users actively engaged with a product over time, measured by how many users return after their first visit or transaction rather than churning.

In crypto and Web3, utility refers to the real, functional use cases a token or digital asset provides within its ecosystem, beyond speculation or store of value.

A UTM parameter is a short piece of code added to the end of a URL that allows marketers to track where website traffic comes from and how users arrive at a page through specific campaigns, channels, or sources.

A validator is a participant in a proof-of-stake blockchain network that is responsible for verifying transactions, proposing new blocks, and maintaining the integrity of the chain in exchange for staking rewards.

Volume is the total amount of activity, value, or units traded, transferred, sold, or processed during a specific period of time.

Wallet activation is the moment a connected wallet completes its first meaningful onchain action with a protocol, such as a first swap or deposit, marking its transition from passive visitor to active user.

A wallet address is a unique string of alphanumeric characters that identifies a specific location on a blockchain where cryptocurrency or digital assets can be sent, received, and stored.

Wallet analytics is the process of collecting, analyzing, and interpreting on-chain data from blockchain wallet addresses to understand user behavior, asset movements, and activity patterns across a protocol or ecosystem.

Wallet connect is the action or protocol through which a user links their crypto wallet to a decentralized application, granting the app permission to read wallet data or request transaction approvals.

Wallet intelligence is the practice of enriching blockchain wallet addresses with onchain and offchain data, such as transaction history, token holdings, labels, and social identities, to turn anonymous addresses into actionable user profiles.

A wallet label is a tag or identifier assigned to a blockchain wallet address to indicate who owns it, what type of entity it is, or what role it plays within the on-chain ecosystem.

A wallet profile is a structured view of a blockchain wallet address that aggregates its on-chain activity, asset holdings, transaction history, and behavioral patterns into a single readable identity layer.

Wallet type refers to the specific wallet application or provider a user is using to interact with a protocol, such as MetaMask, Rainbow, Coinbase Wallet, or WalletConnect-based options.

A crypto wallet is a software or hardware tool that stores the private keys needed to access, manage, and transact with cryptocurrency and digital assets on a blockchain.

Web analytics is the collection, measurement, and analysis of website traffic and visitor behavior, including pageviews, sessions, referrers, and conversions, used to understand how people find and use a website.

Web2 is the current era of the internet, defined by centralized platforms that host user-generated content, own user data, and monetize attention through advertising and subscriptions.

Web3 is the concept of a decentralized internet built on blockchain technology, where users own their data, digital assets, and online identity instead of handing control to centralized platforms.

Web3 analytics is the practice of tracking on-chain and off-chain data to understand wallet behavior and protocol performance, using the wallet address as the persistent identifier instead of browser cookies.

A whale is an individual or entity that holds a large enough amount of a cryptocurrency or digital asset to have the potential to influence its market price through their trading activity.

Yield farming is the practice of deploying crypto assets across DeFi protocols to earn returns in the form of interest, trading fees, or token rewards.

A zero-knowledge proof (ZKP) is a cryptographic method that allows one party to prove a statement is true without revealing any information beyond the truth of that statement itself.