Inglés para Blockchain: Vocabulario y Frases Esenciales

"distributed ledger"

A database shared and synchronised across multiple nodes or locations with no central administrator

"The supply chain company adopted a distributed ledger so every partner could verify shipment records in real time."

"immutability"

The property of blockchain data whereby confirmed records cannot be altered or deleted after they are written

"The auditor highlighted immutability as the key reason blockchain records were more trustworthy than traditional databases."

"consensus mechanism"

The protocol by which all nodes in a network agree on the validity of new transactions before they are added to the chain

"The team debated which consensus mechanism — proof of work or proof of stake — best suited their energy constraints."

"hash function"

A cryptographic algorithm that converts any input data into a fixed-length string of characters, uniquely identifying that data

"Each block stores the hash of the previous block, creating a tamper-evident chain of records."

"node"

A computer that participates in a blockchain network by storing, validating, or relaying transaction data

"Running a full node means downloading the entire transaction history and independently verifying every block."

"fork"

A change to the blockchain protocol that creates a divergence, either backwards-compatible (soft fork) or incompatible (hard fork)

"The community could not agree on the upgrade, so a hard fork produced two separate chains with different rules."

"genesis block"

The very first block in a blockchain, hardcoded into the protocol and serving as the foundation for all subsequent blocks

"Developers examined the genesis block to confirm the original coin supply and initial protocol parameters."

"merkle tree"

A data structure in which transactions are hashed in pairs repeatedly until a single root hash summarises the entire set

"The light client used the merkle tree to verify a specific transaction without downloading the full block."

"liquidity pool"

A smart-contract-held reserve of two or more tokens that enables decentralised trading without a traditional order book

"Depositing equal values of ETH and USDC into the liquidity pool earned her a share of all trading fees."

"automated market maker"

A type of decentralised exchange that uses a mathematical formula to price assets rather than matching buyers and sellers directly

"The automated market maker adjusted the token price continuously based on the ratio of assets in the pool."

"yield farming"

The practice of moving crypto assets across DeFi protocols to maximise returns from interest, fees, and token rewards

"He spent hours each week on yield farming, shifting funds between protocols to chase the highest annual percentage yield."

"impermanent loss"

The temporary reduction in value a liquidity provider experiences compared to simply holding tokens, caused by price divergence

"When ETH doubled in price, the liquidity provider suffered significant impermanent loss relative to just holding ETH."

"total value locked"

The aggregate value of crypto assets deposited and at work within a DeFi protocol at any given time

"The protocol celebrated crossing one billion dollars in total value locked, signalling strong user trust."

"flash loan"

An uncollateralised loan that must be borrowed and repaid within a single blockchain transaction block

"The attacker used a flash loan to borrow millions, manipulate an oracle price, and profit before repaying — all in one transaction."

"oracle"

An external data feed that supplies real-world information such as asset prices to smart contracts on the blockchain

"The lending protocol relied on a decentralised oracle to fetch the current ETH/USD price for collateral calculations."

"slippage"

The difference between the expected price of a trade and the actual price at which it executes, caused by low liquidity or rapid price movement

"He set a slippage tolerance of 1% to prevent the transaction from failing during the volatile market session."

"smart contract"

A self-executing program stored on a blockchain that automatically enforces the terms of an agreement when predefined conditions are met

"The escrow smart contract released payment to the freelancer the moment the client confirmed delivery on-chain."

"gas fee"

The computational cost paid in a network's native token to execute transactions or smart contract functions on a blockchain

"High network congestion pushed gas fees above $50 per transaction, making small trades economically unviable."

"ABI (application binary interface)"

A standardised specification defining how to interact with a deployed smart contract — its functions, inputs, and outputs

"The frontend developer used the ABI to call the contract's transfer function from the user interface."

"reentrancy attack"

A smart contract exploit where an attacker calls a vulnerable function repeatedly before the first execution completes, draining funds

"The 2016 DAO hack was caused by a reentrancy attack that allowed the attacker to withdraw ETH in a recursive loop."

"bytecode"

The low-level compiled code of a smart contract that is actually deployed to and executed by the blockchain's virtual machine

"The security researcher decompiled the contract bytecode because the source code had not been published on the block explorer."

"event log"

A record emitted by a smart contract during execution, stored on the blockchain and used by applications to track activity

"The frontend subscribed to the Transfer event log so the dashboard updated automatically whenever tokens moved."

"proxy pattern"

A smart contract architecture that separates logic from storage, enabling contract upgrades without changing the contract address

"The protocol used the proxy pattern to push a security patch without requiring users to approve a new contract address."

"audit"

A formal security review of smart contract code by independent experts to identify vulnerabilities before deployment

"The team delayed the launch by two months to complete a thorough audit after a similar protocol was exploited."

"fungible token"

A digital asset where each unit is identical and interchangeable with any other unit of the same type, like currency

"Unlike a concert ticket, a fungible token such as USDC can be exchanged one-for-one with any identical token."

"non-fungible token (NFT)"

A unique digital asset whose ownership and authenticity are verified on a blockchain, making it impossible to replicate

"The artist minted her digital painting as a non-fungible token, proving provenance and enabling royalties on secondary sales."

"token standard"

A shared set of rules and interfaces that ensures all tokens of a given type behave consistently across wallets and applications

"Because both tokens followed the ERC-20 token standard, the exchange could list them without any custom integration."

"minting"

The process of creating a new token or NFT and recording it on the blockchain for the first time

"The collection sold out within minutes of minting, as thousands of buyers competed for a limited supply of NFTs."

"royalty"

An automatic percentage of a secondary sale price that is paid to the original creator of an NFT via smart contract

"The musician set a 10% royalty so she continued earning from every resale of her tokenised album artwork."

"metadata"

The descriptive data attached to an NFT — such as name, image, and attributes — typically stored off-chain and linked via URI

"The metadata revealed each NFT's rarity traits, making certain items significantly more valuable to collectors."

"tokenomics"

The economic design of a token, covering its supply, distribution, inflation schedule, utility, and incentive structures

"Investors scrutinised the tokenomics before committing capital, particularly the vesting schedule for team allocations."

"airdrop"

The distribution of tokens directly to wallet addresses, often used as a marketing strategy or to reward early users

"The protocol rewarded beta testers with an airdrop of governance tokens after the mainnet launch."

"decentralised application (dApp)"

An application whose backend logic runs on a blockchain rather than a centralised server, giving users direct control of their data

"The dApp connected directly to her wallet, so no company held custody of her funds or personal information."

"self-custodial wallet"

A crypto wallet where the user alone holds the private keys and is solely responsible for access to their funds

"After the exchange collapse, many users moved assets to a self-custodial wallet to eliminate counterparty risk."

"seed phrase"

A human-readable sequence of 12 or 24 words that serves as the master backup for a crypto wallet and all its private keys

"He stored his seed phrase on a steel plate in a fireproof safe rather than saving it on any connected device."

"DAO (decentralised autonomous organisation)"

An organisation governed by rules encoded in smart contracts and controlled collectively by token holders through on-chain voting

"Members of the DAO voted to allocate treasury funds to a new grant programme for open-source developers."

"governance token"

A token that grants its holder voting rights over the decisions and direction of a protocol or DAO

"She accumulated governance tokens to gain enough voting weight to propose changes to the protocol's fee structure."

"on-chain governance"

A decision-making process where proposals and votes are executed directly through smart contracts on the blockchain

"On-chain governance ensured that no single developer could override the community's decision to pause withdrawals."

"wallet address"

A unique public identifier — similar to an account number — used to send and receive cryptocurrency on a blockchain

"She shared her wallet address in the fundraiser announcement so supporters could donate directly without intermediaries."

"interoperability"

The ability of different blockchain networks to communicate, share data, and transfer assets with one another

"The bridge protocol was built to improve interoperability between the Ethereum and Solana ecosystems."

"mainnet"

The live, production blockchain network where real transactions with real value occur, as opposed to a test environment

"After six months on testnet, the protocol finally deployed to mainnet and opened trading to the public."

"testnet"

A separate blockchain network that mirrors a mainnet but uses worthless tokens, used for development and testing without financial risk

"All new features were thoroughly tested on the testnet before any code was pushed to the live mainnet environment."

"KYC/AML"

Know Your Customer and Anti-Money Laundering procedures that regulated crypto platforms use to verify user identities and prevent financial crime

"Users had to complete KYC/AML verification before withdrawing more than $1,000 per day from the centralised exchange."

"regulatory compliance"

The process of adhering to laws, rules, and guidelines issued by financial regulators concerning cryptocurrency and digital asset activities

"The legal team spent months working on regulatory compliance before the platform could onboard institutional clients."

"white paper"

A detailed technical and economic document published by a blockchain project that describes its goals, technology, and token model

"Investors spent hours studying the white paper to assess whether the project's technical claims were realistic."

"layer 2"

A secondary protocol built on top of a base blockchain to improve transaction speed and reduce fees by processing transactions off the main chain

"By routing transactions through a layer 2 solution, the game reduced gas costs from dollars to fractions of a cent."

"token sale"

A fundraising event in which a project sells its native tokens to investors in exchange for capital, also known as an ICO or IDO

"The token sale raised $15 million in three hours, though regulatory scrutiny of such events had increased significantly."

"blockchain developer"

A software engineer who builds and maintains decentralised applications, smart contracts, or core blockchain infrastructure

"As a blockchain developer, she specialised in writing secure Solidity contracts and reviewing code for known vulnerabilities."