Glossary

Liquidity pool

A smart contract that consists of locked tokens to ensure liquidity for decentralized trading

Layer 1 Blockchain

Base layer blockchain architecture, eg. Bitcoin, Ethereum

Layer 2 Blockchain

Off-chain network lying on top of the base (layer 1) blockchain, eg. Plasma for Ethereum, Lightning Network for Bitcoin

Smart order-routing

Automated process that uses a set of preset conditions to determine the best available opportunity among a set of several trading venues

Turing-complete blockchain

Allows the deployment of smart contracts that can implement sophisticated logic to perform virtually any task (given enough time and processing power)

Trustless system

A system that does not require its participants to know or trust each other

Proof of Stake (PoS)

A distributed consensus mechanism wherein the mining power afforded to a person is in proportion to the stake that person holds in that chain

Stablecoin

Cryptocurrencies that peg their value to an external asset (like the U.S. Dollar or the price of gold) and are generally more stable than other cryptocurrencies

Non-custodial trading

A way of trading that doesn’t require any centralized exchange to hold custody of user’s assets

Automated Market Maker (AMM)

A DEX protocol that uses liquidity pools to facilitate the trade of assets in a permissionless and automatic way

Slippage

Difference between expected and actual price of the trade