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All terms
A
- a0AdvancedThe protocol parameter that controls how much a stake pool operator's pledge boosts that pool's rewards.Consensus & Staking
- Active Slot CoefficientAdvancedThe protocol parameter that controls the probability a slot is assigned an elected block-producer. On mainnet it is currently 0.05.Consensus & Staking
- adaBeginnerThe native cryptocurrency of the Cardano blockchain, used to pay transaction fees, stake to a pool, and represent voting power in governance.Tokens & Assets
- Adaptive CorruptionAdvancedAn adversary that picks which validators to attack on the fly, after seeing who has been elected to produce upcoming blocks.Consensus & Staking
- AikenA modern smart contract language for Cardano, designed to be beginner-friendly while producing efficient on-chain code.Smart Contracts
- AllegraThe hard fork on December 16, 2020 that added token locking capabilities, a prerequisite for smart contract functionality.Network & Protocol
- AlonzoThe hard fork on September 12, 2021 that brought smart contract functionality to Cardano through Plutus.Network & Protocol
- AMABeginnerA live Q&A format where community members ask questions directly to project teams, developers, or other notable figures in the Cardano ecosystem.General Blockchain
- AmaruA Rust implementation of the Cardano node, maintained by PRAGMA as an alternative to the canonical Haskell node.Network & Protocol
- AmbassadorA community member who promotes Cardano education and adoption.General Blockchain
- APIA set of endpoints that lets software talk to other software; in Cardano, APIs let applications query the chain, submit transactions, and read on-chain state.General Blockchain
B
- Babel FeesA proposed mechanism that would let users pay transaction fees using native tokens instead of ada (not yet live on mainnet).Tokens & Assets
- BashoThe fourth era of Cardano development, focused on scaling and performance optimization.Network & Protocol
- Bech32An address encoding format used for Cardano addresses since the Shelley hard fork.Wallets & Keys
- BlockBeginnerA unit of data containing a batch of transactions that is added to the blockchain.Network & Protocol
- BlockperfAn open-source tool stake pool operators use to measure how quickly their nodes receive and forward newly produced blocks.Consensus & Staking
- Bribery AttackAdvancedAn external attacker pays validators to deviate from the protocol, for example by signing conflicting blocks or handing over dormant keys.Consensus & Staking
- BridgeBeginnerA protocol that connects Cardano to another blockchain so assets or messages can move between them; typically a pair of contracts that lock value on one chain and mint a representation on the other.Network & Protocol
- ByronThe first era of Cardano development, establishing the foundation of the network.Network & Protocol
C
- CardanoA public, permissionless Layer 1 blockchain built on peer-reviewed research.General Blockchain
- CBDCA digital form of fiat currency issued and controlled by a central bank; unlike permissionless cryptocurrencies, CBDCs are centrally administered and their rules can be changed by the issuer.General Blockchain
- CEXBeginnerA trading platform where a company holds custody of your assets and runs the order book internally; unlike a DEX, you only fully own your ada once you withdraw it to your own wallet.General Blockchain
- ChangThe hard fork on September 1, 2024 that activated the Conway era and brought CIP-1694 governance live on Cardano.Governance
- CIPA formal proposal that describes a change, standard, or feature for Cardano; CIPs are the canonical way ecosystem rules and conventions are debated, refined, and adopted.Governance
- CIP-1694The Cardano Improvement Proposal that defines Cardano's on-chain governance system, introducing DReps, the Constitutional Committee, and formal governance actions.Governance
- CollateralAn ada amount a wallet locks aside when submitting a Plutus transaction, forfeited only if the script's on-chain validation fails.Smart Contracts
- Collateral PercentageAdvancedThe protocol parameter that sets how much collateral must be put up relative to a Plutus transaction's fee, currently 150 (i.e. 150% of the fee) on mainnet.Smart Contracts
- Committee Minimum SizeAdvancedThe protocol parameter that sets the minimum number of seated Constitutional Committee members required for the committee to be operational; below this floor, any governance action that needs committee approval stalls until the seats are refilled.Governance
- Computation LayerAn early architectural concept from Cardano's original roadmap describing smart contract execution as a layer separate from settlement.General Blockchain
- ConstitutionThe foundational document defining Cardano's governance principles, rules, and guardrails.Governance
- Constitutional CommitteeA governing body in Cardano's governance system that votes on the constitutionality of governance actions, serving as a check alongside DReps and stake pool operators.Governance
- Controlled StakeThe total ada associated with a stake pool, combining operator pledge and all delegations.Consensus & Staking
- Conway EraThe Cardano ledger era that brought on-chain governance under CIP-1694 to mainnet.Governance
D
- d parameterAdvancedThe Shelley-era protocol parameter that controlled the share of blocks produced by federated genesis nodes versus community stake pools.Consensus & Staking
- DAppBeginnerAn application whose core logic runs as on-chain code rather than on a single company's servers, so its rules keep working even if any one operator walks away.Smart Contracts
- DatumA piece of data attached to a UTxO that a smart contract can read when deciding whether the UTxO can be spent.Smart Contracts
- DelegationBeginnerThe process of assigning your stake to a stake pool without transferring your ada.Consensus & Staking
- DeterminismThe property that given the same inputs, a computation always produces the same outputs.Smart Contracts
- DEXBeginnerA trading venue where swaps execute as on-chain code rather than through a central operator, so you trade directly from your wallet and never hand over custody of your funds.General Blockchain
- DIDAn identifier you create and control yourself, with no central registrar; the record that resolves it lives on a blockchain or other decentralized system rather than in a single company's database.General Blockchain
- DjedA crypto-backed, overcollateralized stablecoin protocol on Cardano whose US-dollar peg is maintained algorithmically against an ada reserve (with SHEN as the reserve coin), rather than by fiat reserves.Tokens & Assets
- DRepA representative that ada holders delegate their on-chain voting power to, so the DRep votes on governance actions on their behalf; like choosing someone to represent your interests in parliament.Governance
- DRep Activity PeriodThe protocol parameter that sets how many epochs a DRep can go without casting any vote before they are marked inactive and their delegated voting power stops counting until they vote again.Governance
- DYORBeginnerCommunity shorthand reminding people to investigate a project, team, or claim themselves before investing or acting, rather than trusting anyone else's pitch.General Blockchain
E
- Eclipse AttackAdvancedA network attack where a node is isolated from honest peers and connected only to attacker-controlled nodes.Network & Protocol
- Edinburgh Decentralisation Index (EDI)A research framework developed by Input Output and the University of Edinburgh to measure and compare decentralization across blockchain systems.General Blockchain
- EpochBeginnerA period of five days in the Cardano network during which stake distribution is fixed and rewards are calculated.Consensus & Staking
- eUTXOCardano's extension of the UTXO accounting model; each output can carry datum and script logic, so smart contracts express rules without the shared mutable state used by account-based chains.General Blockchain
G
- Genesis BlockThe very first block of a blockchain, kickstarting the ledger that every subsequent block extends.General Blockchain
- Genesis KeysThe seven cryptographic keys created at Cardano's launch that signed every block during the federated Byron era and gradually yielded block production through Shelley.Consensus & Staking
- GoguenThe third era of Cardano development, bringing smart contracts (Alonzo) and native tokens (Mary).Network & Protocol
- Governance ActionA formal proposal submitted on-chain for the Cardano community to vote on.Governance
- Governance Action LifetimeThe protocol parameter that caps how many epochs a governance action can stay open for votes before it expires unresolved.Governance
- Governance ToolsApplications that turn CIP-1694 governance from a protocol specification into something a community can actually use, registering as a DRep, delegating voting power, browsing live proposals, and casting votes.Governance
- Grinding AttackAdvancedAn attack on the randomness used to pick proof-of-stake block leaders, where the adversary tries to bias the lottery in its own favour.Consensus & Staking
H
- Hard ForkBeginnerA network upgrade that changes the blockchain's rules in a way older software versions no longer understand; every node has to update before the change takes effect.Network & Protocol
- Hard Fork CombinatorCardano's mechanism for stitching protocol era transitions onto a single live chain without splitting it.Network & Protocol
- Hard Fork InitiationA CIP-1694 governance action type that schedules and triggers a Cardano hard fork by on-chain vote.Governance
- HaskellA pure, strongly typed functional programming language. Cardano's node and Plutus toolchain are written in Haskell.Smart Contracts
- HydraA Layer 2 scaling solution for Cardano using state channels (Hydra Heads) to enable fast, low-cost transactions off the main chain.Network & Protocol
- Hydra HeadAn off-chain micro-ledger between a small group of participants in the Hydra Layer 2 protocol.Network & Protocol
I
- IcarusA reference implementation for a lightweight Cardano wallet, developed by Input Output.Wallets & Keys
- Info ActionA CIP-1694 governance action type that records a community vote on a piece of information without enforcing any on-chain change.Governance
- ISPOA fundraising method where supporters delegate ada to a designated stake pool and receive the project's tokens in lieu of staking rewards; participants keep custody of their ada throughout.Consensus & Staking
K
L
- Layer 1BeginnerThe base blockchain protocol itself, where transactions are finalized and the consensus rules are enforced; Cardano is a Layer 1.Network & Protocol
- Layer 2BeginnerProtocols built on top of a Layer 1 blockchain to improve scalability or add functionality.Network & Protocol
- LeiosA proposed Ouroboros upgrade that aims to dramatically raise Cardano throughput by decoupling transaction diffusion from leader-driven block production.Consensus & Staking
- Live StakeThe total ada currently delegated to a stake pool right now, before any epoch boundary snapshot.Consensus & Staking
- Long-Range AttackAdvancedAn attack that tries to rewrite long stretches of blockchain history by building a competing chain from far back in the past.Consensus & Staking
- LovelaceBeginnerThe smallest divisible unit of ada. One ada equals 1,000,000 lovelaces.Tokens & Assets
Learning paths
Curated guides to help you understand Cardano step by step.
M
- MainnetBeginnerThe production Cardano network where real ada transactions occur, as opposed to testnets used for development and testing.Network & Protocol
- MaryThe hard fork on March 1, 2021 that introduced native tokens, allowing users to create and transact with custom tokens directly on Cardano.Tokens & Assets
- MempoolThe pool of pending transactions a Cardano node holds locally before they are included in a block.Network & Protocol
- Minimum Pool CostThe protocol parameter that sets the floor on the fixed cost a stake pool can declare per epoch, currently 170 ada on mainnet.Consensus & Staking
- MithrilA stake-based threshold multi-signature protocol that lets Cardano nodes trust a blockchain snapshot without re-validating the whole chain.Network & Protocol
- Monetary Expansion RateThe protocol parameter (often called ρ) that controls what fraction of the remaining ada reserve is released into the reward pot each epoch.Consensus & Staking
N
- Nakamoto CoefficientAdvancedA measure of how decentralized a blockchain is, expressed as the smallest number of entities that could collude to compromise it.General Blockchain
- Native TokenA token created and managed directly on the Cardano blockchain using its built-in token functionality, without requiring smart contracts.Tokens & Assets
- NFTBeginnerA token that represents ownership of a specific unique item, recorded on-chain; anyone can copy the picture, but only one wallet holds the original record.Tokens & Assets
- Nothing-at-StakeAdvancedThe risk that proof-of-stake validators sign every competing fork at once because doing so costs them nothing.Consensus & Staking
O
- Operational CertificateThe certificate a stake pool operator signs to authorise a KES key to produce blocks on the pool's behalf.Consensus & Staking
- OracleA trusted feed that brings off-chain information onto the blockchain so smart contracts can react to it.Smart Contracts
- OuroborosThe family of proof-of-stake consensus protocols that power Cardano, designed with formal security proofs against the known attack catalogue against PoS chains.Consensus & Staking
P
- PipeliningAdvancedA protocol optimization that lets a newly produced block start propagating across the network before validation completes.Consensus & Staking
- PledgeThe amount of ada a stake pool operator personally commits to their own pool.Consensus & Staking
- PlinthThe high-level Haskell-embedded language Cardano developers use to write on-chain validators that compile to Plutus Core.Smart Contracts
- PlominThe Conway-era hard fork on January 29, 2025 that turned on the remaining CIP-1694 governance actions.Governance
- Plutus CoreAdvancedCardano's on-chain smart-contract runtime. Higher-level languages (Plinth, Aiken) compile down to Plutus Core for execution.Smart Contracts
- Plutus Cost ModelsAdvancedThe protocol parameter that holds the per-operation CPU and memory cost tables Plutus scripts are billed against; updated through ordinary protocol parameter governance actions.Smart Contracts
- Policy IDThe unique on-chain identifier of a native token's minting policy.Tokens & Assets
- Pool SaturationThe threshold past which extra delegation to a stake pool stops increasing rewards; a built-in incentive to spread stake across many pools rather than concentrate it in a few.Consensus & Staking
- Posterior CorruptionAdvancedAn attack where the adversary buys or steals signing keys from people who held large stake in the past but no longer do.Consensus & Staking
- Project CatalystCardano's innovation and treasury funding platform where ada holders propose, discuss, and vote on projects to receive funding from the Cardano treasury.Governance
- Proof of StakeBeginnerA consensus mechanism where validators are selected to create blocks based on the amount of cryptocurrency they hold and stake (commit) to the network.Consensus & Staking
- Proof of WorkA consensus mechanism where miners compete to solve computational puzzles to create blocks.Consensus & Staking
- Proof-of-Stake AttacksAdvancedThe set of known attack categories against proof-of-stake blockchains and how Cardano's Ouroboros family defends against each.Consensus & Staking
R
- RedeemerData supplied by the spending transaction that tells a smart contract what action is being attempted.Smart Contracts
- Reference InputAn input a transaction reads without consuming, letting a smart contract look at on-chain state without locking it out of other transactions.Smart Contracts
- Reference ScriptA Plutus script attached once to a UTxO and then referenced (not re-included) by later transactions that need it, whether to spend a script-locked output, run a minting policy, or validate a withdrawal or certificate.Smart Contracts
- RewardsBeginnerAda earned by delegators and stake pool operators for participating in the network.Consensus & Staking
- RollbackWhen a Cardano node reverts the most recent blocks because the network has converged on a different fork.Network & Protocol
S
- SanchoNetA Cardano testnet that hosted CIP-1694 governance trials before the Chang hard fork brought governance to mainnet.Governance
- ScamBeginnerA fraudulent scheme designed to steal funds or personal information, often exploiting trust or lack of knowledge.General Blockchain
- Seed PhraseBeginnerA sequence of words, typically 15 or 24 on Cardano (and sometimes 12 or 27), that lets any compatible wallet recover access to your accounts on the blockchain.Wallets & Keys
- ShelleyThe second era of Cardano development, introducing decentralization and stake pools.Network & Protocol
- SidechainsIndependent blockchains wired to Cardano through a bridge, so projects can experiment with their own rules (different VM, faster finality, custom tokenomics) while settling back to Cardano when they need its security.Network & Protocol
- SlotBeginnerEach slot represents an opportunity for a block to be produced by an elected slot leader.Consensus & Staking
- Slot LeaderThe stake pool selected by Ouroboros to produce a block in a given time slot.Consensus & Staking
- Smart ContractSelf-executing code stored on a blockchain that automatically enforces and executes agreement terms when predefined conditions are met.Smart Contracts
- SMASHAn off-chain service that aggregates stake pool metadata (name, ticker, homepage) for wallets and explorers to display; delisting from a SMASH only changes how a pool appears in apps, not its ability to produce blocks.Consensus & Staking
- Soft ForkBeginnerA protocol upgrade that is backward-compatible, so nodes running older software can still follow the chain; they just don't see the new feature.Network & Protocol
- Spending PasswordBeginnerA password used by wallets to encrypt the private key, adding a layer of security.Wallets & Keys
- StablecoinBeginnerA cryptocurrency designed to track the value of a reference asset, typically a fiat currency like the US dollar, so balances stay predictable rather than swinging with the crypto market.Tokens & Assets
- Stake AddressThe bech32 address (`stake1...`) that owns delegation rights and receives staking rewards, separate from your payment address.Wallets & Keys
- Stake Address DepositThe refundable amount of ada locked when a wallet registers a stake address so it can delegate or earn rewards, currently 2 ada on mainnet.Wallets & Keys
- Stake Majority AttackAdvancedAn attack where a single party controlling more than half of the staked ada can rewrite recent history, censor transactions, or double-spend.Consensus & Staking
- Stake PoolBeginnerA server node that participates in the Cardano network by validating transactions and producing blocks.Consensus & Staking
- Stake Pool DepositThe refundable amount of ada locked when registering a new stake pool, currently 500 ada on mainnet; returned in full when the pool retires.Consensus & Staking
- Stake SnapshotA frozen capture of every account's delegation taken at an epoch boundary; what the protocol actually uses to elect block leaders and pay rewards.Consensus & Staking
- Stake-Bleeding AttackAdvancedA long-range attack in which a minority adversary slowly drains stake from the honest chain onto its private chain by copying transactions and collecting their fees.Consensus & Staking
- StakingBeginnerA general term for committing tokens to a proof-of-stake network. On Cardano the everyday equivalent is delegation, which is technically distinct: your ada never leaves your wallet, and there is no slashing.Consensus & Staking
- Style GuideThe Editorial Style Guide defines writing conventions, spelling standards, and terminology usage for Cardano.org.General Blockchain
- Sybil AttackAdvancedAn attack in which one entity creates many fake identities to gain disproportionate influence over a network.Consensus & Staking
T
- TestnetBeginnerA test network for developers to experiment without using real ada.Network & Protocol
- TPSTransactions per second, a popular but limited metric for blockchain throughput that ignores transaction complexity, finality, and parallel execution.Network & Protocol
- TreasuryAn on-chain fund that accumulates a portion of transaction fees and monetary expansion.Governance
- Treasury CutThe protocol parameter (often called τ) that decides what fraction of each epoch's reward pot is moved to the on-chain treasury before the remainder is paid to stake pools and delegators.Consensus & Staking
- Treasury WithdrawalA CIP-1694 governance action that proposes taking funds out of the on-chain treasury and paying them to a specified stake address.Governance
U
- Untyped Plutus Core (UPLC)AdvancedThe low-level “machine language” that is executed on-chain by Cardano nodes during transaction validation.Smart Contracts
- USDMA US-dollar-pegged stablecoin on Cardano issued by Moneta (formerly Mehen Finance) and backed by US-dollar reserves held off-chain rather than by an on-chain crypto collateral pool.Tokens & Assets
- Use CaseA specific application or scenario where Cardano technology solves a problem.General Blockchain
- UTXOUnspent Transaction Output, the accounting model Cardano shares with Bitcoin where transactions consume whole earlier outputs and create new ones, similar to spending banknotes and getting change back.General Blockchain
- UTxO Cost per ByteThe protocol parameter that prices each byte of on-chain storage a UTxO occupies, used to derive the minimum ada that must accompany any new output.General Blockchain
V
- VasilThe hard fork on September 22, 2022 that improved smart contract efficiency and network performance.Network & Protocol
- VoltaireThe fifth roadmap phase of Cardano development, focused on governance and treasury management.Governance
- Voting ThresholdsAdvancedThe set of protocol parameters that define what percentage of votes is required from each governance body (DReps, SPOs) to ratify each governance action type.Governance
- VRFAdvancedA cryptographic function that produces a verifiably random output; Cardano uses it inside Ouroboros as a private per-slot lottery, letting each pool check whether it won the right to produce a block, fairly and unpredictably.Consensus & Staking