Editorial Style Guide
To make content consistent we should agree on spellings and terms here.
Principles
- Use Amercian English.
- Use Dateformat September 15, 2017 (MMMM DD, YYYY)
- Use gender-inclusive pronouns they/their/them rathen then he/she.
- Use Oxford comma.
- Spell out one to nine and use numerals for anything higher: 10, 11, 12.
Cardano Glossary
The Cardano Glossary offers clear definitions of key terms and serves as a style guide to ensure consistency in how we write and communicate about the Cardano ecosystem. It’s a resource for both understanding concepts and aligning on terminology.
A
| Spelling/Term | Comment |
|---|---|
ada | When talking about the cryptocurrency, do not capitalize, unless at the beginning of a sentence. The idea behind this is to treat it like dollars or euros. If you are in doubt, in English, prefer ada over ADA. Capitalised ADA stands for the ticker symbol only. |
ADA | The ticker symbol for ada, like EUR or USD. |
tAda | Test ada is tAda, not tADA or TADA. See ada. |
Alonzo | Name of the September 12, 2021 hard fork. |
B
| Spelling/Term | Comment |
|---|---|
Basho | The fourth era of the Cardano development focused on performance. Named after Matsuo Basho, a Japanese poet and the master of haiku. |
Byron | The first era in Cardano development. Named after the Romantic poet who was the father of Ada Lovelace. |
C
| Spelling/Term | Comment |
|---|---|
Cardano | Cardano is a public, permissionless Layer 1 blockchain. A collection of science-based, open-source, patent-free protocols for storing/managing value, identity, governance. |
community | Always 'the' community, not 'our' community. |
the Cardano Foundation | The Cardano Foundation is an independent, Swiss-based not-for-profit organization. Always use the Cardano Foundation. See the Cardano Foundation for details. |
D
| Spelling/Term | Comment |
|---|---|
DApp | Note the capitalization: Decentralized Application. |
Developer Portal | An open source project on developers.cardano.org that aims to collect the resources and updates you need to build, integrate, and stay informed about the Cardano blockchain as a developer. |
DRep | Note the capitalization: Delegated Representative. DRep as an abbreviation for Delegated Representative follows standard practices for abbreviations in English: taking the first letter of each word. This makes it intuitive and clear in most contexts. It is also in line with the DApp abbreviation. In crypto, the lowercase “d“ is often used to signify “decentralized,” as in dApp (decentralized application) or dGov (decentralized governance). Using “dRep” might imply “decentralized representative”. |
E
| Spelling/Term | Comment |
|---|---|
EMURGO | All caps in line with EMURGO’s branding. See EMURGO for details. |
F
| Spelling/Term | Comment |
|---|---|
the Foundation | Interchangeable with the Cardano Foundation, 'the' is not capitalized, but Foundation should be. |
G
| Spelling/Term | Comment |
|---|---|
GitHub | Note the capitalized H. |
Goguen | The third era of the Cardano development focused on smart contracts. Named in honour of Joseph Goguen, an US computer scientist. |
Governance Action | CIP-1694 introduces a comprehensive on-chain governance model for Cardano, that included various types of governance actions. See Governance Actions for details. |
Governance Tools | Governance tools enable the community to register as DRep, delegate to DReps or vote on governance actions. See Governance Tools for details. |
H
| Spelling/Term | Comment |
|---|---|
hard fork | Two words. |
Hydra | a shorter term for the Hydra Head protocol, a layer 2 scaling solution for Cardano. Hydra is not a flavor of Ouroboros. |
I
| Spelling/Term | Comment |
|---|---|
IOHK | IOHK is now 'Input Output'. |
IOG | IOG is now 'Input Output'. |
Input Output | Input Output is a research and engineering company and venture studio that builds blockchain and Web3 products to empower everyone, everywhere. See Input Output for details. |
Intersect | Intersect is a not-for-profit member-based organization for the Cardano ecosystem. See Intersect for details. |
M
| Spelling/Term | Comment |
|---|---|
Mainnet | One word. Capitalise when it's a noun (the Mainnet) but not when it's an adjective (mainnet functionality), qualified by another proper name (the Cardano mainnet), or used as a symbol (e.g. enable Marlowe on mainnet). |
O
| Spelling/Term | Comment |
|---|---|
Ouroboros | Ouroboros is a family of Cardano's consensus protocols. There are different flavors: Classic, Praos, Genesis, Chronos |
P
| Spelling/Term | Comment |
|---|---|
proof of stake | Lower case. Hyphenate when followed by a noun: proof-of-stake systems. |
proof of work | Lower case. Hyphenate when followed by a noun: proof-of-work systems. |
PRAGMA | PRAGMA is a member-based, not-for-profit open source Association for blockchain software projects. See PRAGMA for details. |
S
| Spelling/Term | Comment |
|---|---|
Shelley | The second era in Cardano development. Named after Percy Shelley (not Mary), one of the major English Romantic poets and a key figure in the Romantic movement. |
settlement layer | Cardano settlement layer or Cardano SL are outdated terms. Avoid them, use layer 1. |
scam | A fraudulent scheme designed to steal your funds or personal information, often by exploiting trust or lack of knowledge. Common examples include fake giveaways and phishing attacks. See common scams for details. |
sidechains | One word. |
smart contracts | Two words. Self-executing piece of code stored on a blockchain. It automatically enforces, verifies, or executes the terms of an agreement when predefined conditions are met, without the need for intermediaries. |
spending password | Password that is used by wallets to encrypt the private key. |
SPO | Abbreviation used for stake pools or stake pool operator. Avoid, instead use stake pool or operator. |
soft fork | Two words. |
stake pool | Two words. |
stablecoin | One word. |
staking | Try to avoid term staking without context as it is ambiguous. staking refers to the whole process of both delegating and setting up a pool but many people confuse this with the actual process of creating blocks. delegating means that people delegate their stake to a stake pool. |
T
| Spelling/Term | Comment |
|---|---|
testnet | One word. Capitalise when it's a particular testnet (e.g. Preview testnet) but not when it's an adjective (e.g. testnet functionality) or referring to more than one (e.g. new iterations of the testnets). |
third-generation blockchain | Spell out 'third' and hyphenate: Cardano is a third-generation blockchain. |
TLA | Three-letter acrynom. There are too many, avoid them, don't invent new ones. |
tps | Transactions per seconds. A flawed metric for blockchain speed like 'videos per second' would be to measure hard disk speeds. |
U
| Spelling/Term | Comment |
|---|---|
use case | Not use-case. See Cardano use cases. |
USDM | Fiat-backed stablecoin on Cardano. |
UTXO | All caps: unspend transaction output, the accounting system used in Bitcoin and Cardano. |
V
| Spelling/Term | Comment |
|---|---|
Voltaire | The fifth era of the Cardano development focused on governance and treasury. Named after the French philosopher who prized criticism and argued for the separation of church and state. |
VRF | Verifiable random function. |
W
| Spelling/Term | Comment |
|---|---|
white paper | Two words. |
working group | Two words. A working group unites experts and dedicated community members to focus on a specific topic of discussion. |