Topic
GeneralBeginnerDeFi provides financial services — trading, lending, borrowing — through public smart contracts instead of banks. It's permissionless, non-custodial and composable, with borrowing secured by over-collateralisation rather than credit checks, and no safety net if code fails.
#basics#defi#stablecoins
EthereumBeginnerA smart contract is code stored on a blockchain that runs automatically and is enforced by the whole network. It holds its own funds and rules, executes deterministically on every node for a gas fee, and powers tokens, DeFi, NFTs and DAOs — bugs and all.
#basics#dapp-development#smart-contracts
GeneralBeginnerAn NFT is a unique token that records ownership of a specific item on a blockchain. The on-chain record of who owns which token is secure, but the image usually lives off-chain — and buying one gives you the token, not automatically the copyright or the file.
#basics#nfts#tokens
EthereumBeginnerGas fees pay a blockchain to process your transaction, measured as gas used times gas price. Since EIP-1559 the price splits into an automatic base fee that's burned plus a priority tip, and it rises and falls with how full blocks are.
#basics#gas-&-fees#transactions
GeneralBeginnerA wallet stores the keys that control your coins, not the coins themselves. Custodial means a company holds those keys for you; self-custody means you hold them, with full control and full responsibility — captured by the phrase 'not your keys, not your coins'.
#basics#security#wallets
GeneralBeginnerDePIN networks use tokens to get people to run real hardware like hotspots, storage and GPUs. Contributors earn token emissions plus usage fees once the network can verify their work, often via burn-and-mint models.
#basics#mining#tokens
BitcoinBeginnerEvery 210,000 blocks, about every four years, Bitcoin's new-coin subsidy to miners halves, capping supply just under 21 million. It slows issuance, squeezes miner revenue, and shifts more of the security budget onto fees.
#basics#consensus#mining
