Glossary

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

A

Abstraction

Key concept of object-oriented programming that refers to handle complexity by hiding unnecessary details from the user.

Application Programming Interface (API)

Mechanism that enables an application or service to access a resource within another application or service.

Application software

Program designed to do a specific task other than an operation for the computer itself, like user-oriented tasks. Example: text editor, media player, etc.

B

Backdoor

Typically covert method of bypassing normal authentication or encryption in a computer, product, embedded device, or its embodiment.

Basic Input Output System (BIOS)

Firmware used to provide runtime services for OS and programs and to perform hardware initialization during the booting process.

Big Data

Field that treats ways to extract, store, analyze and process for creating value for an organization, meeting the 5 V's: volume, velocity, variety, veracity and value.

Bitmask

Pattern of bits indicating which bits in a second pattern are to be modified. E.g.: a binary IP address mask is a bitmask.

Blockchain

List of data organized by immutable blocks, managed by a peer-to-peer network, as a distributed ledger.

C

Certificate Authority (CA)

Entity that stores, signs and issues digital certificates.

Classification

Process of predicting the class of given data points. E.g.: given a picture of a dog, the algorithm predicts that the picture is a dog.

Client Relationship Management (CRM)

Technology for managing all your company's relationships and interactions with customers and potential customers.

Consensus

General agreement. In decentralized systems, it brings nodes back in sync. To reach consensus, mechanisms such as proof-of-work, proof-of-stake and more are used.

Convolutional Neural Network (CNN)

Type of neural network processing grid-like data (images, time-series, spectrograms, ...) for recognition and classification.

D

Data Lake

Centralized repository of raw data collected from various sources for further processing.

Data Warehouse

Centralized repository of data collected from various sources within an organization, designed to support business decisions.

Decentralization

Process of distributing or dispersing functions, powers, people or things away from a central location or authority.

Delegate call (Solidity)

Type of function call in Solidity that allows to execute code of another contract while preserving the current context (storage, caller, value, etc.). Often used to implement proxy contracts.

Digital certificate

Electronic document used to prove the validity of a public key.

Double-spending

Potential flaw in a digital cash scheme in which the same single digital token can be spent more than once. It can lead to inflation by creating a new amount of copied currency that did not previously exist.

E

Ethereum Improvement Proposals (EIP)

Standards specifying potential new features or processes for Ethereum.

Encapsulation

Key concept of object-oriented programming that refers to bundle data and methods into a single unit frequently in the form of class.

F

Firmware

Computer software that provides the low-level control for a device's specific hardware.

G

Grid-like Data

Multidimensional data that can be represented as a grid of values, such as images with pixels, audio spectrograms with time and frequency, etc.

I

Inflation

General increase in the price level of goods and services in the economy. It is caused by a decrease in the purchasing power of money. This decrease can be caused by an increase in the amount of money in circulation (printing money).

Inheritance

Key concept of object-oriented programming that refers to deriving a class from other classes.

Interrupt

Request for the processor to interrupt currently executing code, by saving its state, then to execute an interrupt handler (or Interrupt Service Routine, or ISR), to execute another process.

Interrupt Service Routine (ISR or interrupt handler)

Special block of code used for implementing device drivers or transitions between protected modes of operation, such as system calls.

K

Kernel

Program at the core of a computer's OS which has complete control over the system, for managing interactions between hardware and software components.

L

Liquidity

Refers to how easy it is to trade assets without impacting their price.

Liquidity pool

Pile of cryptocurrencies locked in a smart contract.

Liquidity provider

Person who funds a liquidity pool with assets.

M

MLOps

Practice of collaboration between data scientists and operation professionals (DevOps) to help manage the production machine learning lifecycle.

N

Nonce

32-bit number that miners need to find, for finding the next block hash and getting rewarded.

Neural Network

Computational framework inspired by the human brain, composed of interconnected nodes (neurons) that process and relay information from one layer to the next. Its structure allows it to effectively learn and adapt to complex data patterns.

O

Object-oriented programming

Paradigm in which programs are structured around objects or data fields rather than functions or logic.

Operating system (OS)

System software that manages computer hardware, software resources, and provides common services for computer programs.

Open Source Intelligence (OSINT)

Collection and analysis of data gathered from open sources to produce actionable intelligence.

Open Web Application Security Project (OWASP)

Online community that produces freely available articles, methodologies, documentation, tools, and technologies in the field of web application security.

P

Penetration test (pentest)

Authorized simulated cyberattack on a computer system, performed to evaluate the security of the system.

Polymorphism

Describes the concept that you can access objects of different types through the same interface.

Proof of Concept (PoC)

Key step in the development of a new product or service, where we demonstrate its sustainability.

Public key

Cryptographic element that is the publicity shared half of an encryption code and that can be used only to encode messages.

R

Recognition

Subfield of classification, for identifying a specific instance of an object within a class. E.g.: given a picture of a dog, the algorithm predicts that the picture is a dog of a specific breed.

Register

Quickly accessible memory location in a CPU that stores data for arithmetic operations.

Representational State Transfer (REST)

Architectural style for developing web services.

REST API

API that conforms to the design principles of the REST architectural style.

S

Slippage

Refers to the difference between the expected price of a trade and the price at which the trade is executed.

Swap

Refers to exchanging one crypto asset to another.

System software

Program that manages memory, files, processor, ... It also provides interfaces between application software and hardware.

U

Upkeep (Chainlink)

Smart contract registered on the Keepers Registry, so the Keepers Network can automate it.

Uniform Resource Identifier (URI)

Unique sequence of characters that identifies a logical or physical resource used by web technologies.

Uniform Resource Locator (URL)

URI subset that indicates where a resource is located

Uniform Resource Name (URN)

URI subset that permanently designates a resource.

Y

Yield farming

Act of putting money into DeFi applications as a liquidity provider, to earn interest, fees or other rewards.

Z

Zero-Day (0-Day)

Unpatched security vulnerability that is unknown to the software, hardware or firmware developer.