Have you been in a conversation with some crypto guys, maybe in discord or telegram group or on a Twitter space or watching a youtube video, and you hear them say stuff like APYs, TVLs, Devs, Mcap, Farming, Staking, while you stare trying to understand what they mean?

It can be frustrating, One of the biggest challenges with understanding Defi stems from getting familiar with different terminologies or acronyms representing important concepts around Defi structures and protocols.

, it’s an acronym for its actual Meaning,

If you’re new to Defi and don’t know what it means, Decentralised Finance provides a Decentralised Structure built on the Blockchain, allowing YOU to make regulations that control your money; giving you the power to own your Money, Save, Lend and invest your money (stake your cash).

 to read more about Defi and how it works.

Now that you’re back, you understand what Defi means, let’s take a closer look at some of the terminologies you will come across oftentimes while trying to be more active with Defi, are you ready?

This means Decentralised Applications. What does a decentralised Application Mean?

A Dapp is one that runs on a distributed ledger, blockchain, or other decentralized computer system and is capable of operating independently, generally through the use of smart contracts.

Like conventional programs, DApps offer their customers some kind of utility or purpose.

Like your Mobile Apps, which offer a certain utility, are centralised and controlled by a company. Dapps also offer certain utility but is not centralised and controlled by a smart contract.

This means a Decentralised Exchange. What does it mean?

It is a peer-to-peer platform that allows users to trade cryptocurrencies directly with one another without the use of middlemen. Users can trade directly from their wallets without having to provide KYC. 

The entire platform is managed and controlled by a smart contract.

There’s also CEX, which means Centralised Exchange. Offers just about the same services as DEXs but is controlled by a centralised authority.

Impermanent Loss simply refers to an unrealised loss if the value of the tokens issued changes while providing liquidity on a DeFi network. 

Here’s what I mean; This loss happens when the value of your tokens declines from the time you deposited them in the Liquidity pool, this is known as an impermanent loss. The loss increases with the size of the change.

A liquidity Pool is a chunk of money secured in a smart contract. Liquidity pools are used to sustain decentralized trading, lending, etc.

And APR simple means a representation of the expected return that a deposit will produce over the course of a year, assuming that the performance will remain the same during that time. This doesn’t account for the effect of compounding.

It is a measurement of the projected return from a deposit over the course of a year, provided that the current performance is sustained. Unlike APR, APY includes the impacts of compounding throughout the year in the return calculation.

a pair of cryptographic public and private keys that are frequently used in the context of virtual currencies to hold funds in those currencies.

An initial transaction is sent to the blockchain, validating the user’s consent for a transaction to be complete.

Let's say you are about to make an exchange on a DEX, you’ll be required to approve the transaction (signing consent) and then click the button in other for the transaction to go through.

It's a marketing strategy that involves distributing tokens (these tokens have value) to individuals who performed a certain task. An Airdrop is typically a reward system for early adopters of a certain product

It is a decentralized trading platform that enables the buying and selling of crypto assets via asset pools created by liquidity providers.

Instead of using a traditional market of buyers and sellers, AMM uses liquidity pools to enable the automatic, autonomous trading of digital assets.

A blockchain bridge is a link that enables the flow of coins and/or unrestricted data between two chains. Although the protocols, laws, and governance structures of the two chains may differ, they can nevertheless securely interact thanks to the bridge.

They are both different from one another.

A Coin is the native asset of a Blockchain. Just Like Ether is the Native asset of Ethereum and BNB is the Native asset of Binance.

Coins can be used as a medium of exchange or a store of value, but it is also frequently employed to pay network transaction fees or to motivate miners and other sorts of validators.

A Token on the other hand is not the native asset of a blockchain, rather it is an asset built on a blockchain to represent any particular blockchain.

$Cake is a token built on the Binance Blockchain.

Combining the words “token” and “economics,” this term refers to the economic principles that govern a specific token and the DeFi applications that are connected to it, including the creation, distribution, and destruction of tokens.

The TVL is the total dollar amount of cryptocurrency that users have put in the smart contracts of a DeFi system. It is a common way to gauge how big a protocol is compared to others in the DeFi ecosystem.

On the Ethereum blockchain, a unit of Ether equal to 0.000000001 ETH is frequently used to represent gas costs. The abbreviation “gwei” stands for “Giga-Wei,” the tiniest Ethereum unit that is one billionth the size of a Wei and was named for cryptocurrency pioneer Wei Dai.

And it is a type of token that cannot be exchanged for another token, such as those that follow the Ethererum ERC-721 standard. Each token has unique intrinsic qualities that set it apart from the others. 

NFTs are utilized frequently for artistic expression and other sorts of creativity. They can be Arts, Music, tickets etc.

This is a program or service that does not controls users’ access to the private keys used to prove ownership of their assets while managing cryptocurrency holdings. 

Contrary to centralized exchange (CEX) services, decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols and wallets like MetaMask are often non-custodial.

This is a way of handling transactions on a blockchain that requires validators to contribute some of the blockchain’s currency rather than resources, as with Proof of Work.

A bigger stake will give validators more blocks to process. Because poor validation could result in stake loss, validators are encouraged to deliver high-quality validation.

This is a procedure for processing a blockchain’s transactions that require resource-intensive cryptographic operations from miners in return for coins.

This method helps secure and validate transactions. More resource-intensive miners will process more transactions and earn more incentive payouts.

This is a Code that is created, saved and runs on a specific cryptocurrency network’s blockchain. It is capable of producing a variety of applications, including DeFi protocols.

This involved you taking a specific token from your wallet and locking it inside a smart contract in exchange for a reward. Typically, there is a benefit for both the user and the protocol providing the staking, which is frequently in the form of yield.

Yield simply means a deposit’s return, typically expressed as an APY, APR, or ROI. DeFi offers a variety of yield sources, most of which are bundled into some type of yield farming, as opposed to the simple interest or fixed-income yield offered by traditional banking.

Yield Farming on the other hand is generated through DeFi systems in the form of interest, trading costs, or incentive payments, frequently in the form of governance tokens. 

Asides from these 22 terminologies or acronyms, there are many others out there. Still, I feel these are some of the basic ones you need to understand so you leverage the amazing opportunity Defi Offer as regards Finance.

Defi Terminologies: What do they actually mean?

In Decentralised Finance, You Control Everything.

As interesting as that can sound, in other to Understand Decentralised Finance, it is important to take a peep into what its counterpart, Traditional Financ, means.

Traditional Finance used to be the primary way in which Finance operated. This simply means the banks and the usual way you pretty much know finance as.

While it still plays a significant role in finance today, its Centralised structures and Operations are what Decentralisation provides solutions to.

The Centralised Operations of Traditional Finance simply explains the control and regulations behind the flow of Money and ownership of Funds. This Centralisation is made possible by Governmental rules that regulate the distribution and control of Money.

So if Traditional Finance provides a Centralised structure and Operation that allows the Government to make regulations that control your money and also allows banks the power to hold your money, which provides them with the liquidity to operate properly via saving and lending.

Then Decentralised Finance provides a Decentralised Structure built on the Blockchain, allowing YOU to make regulations that control your money; giving you the power to own your Money, Save, Lend and invest your money (stake your money).

You control everything. And this means that you are also saddled with the responsibility of Securing your Money.

Defi, a simple way of saying Decentralised Finance, offers an Open, transparent and Secure Financial System. And these systems are made possible by the development of different solutions on the 

Unlike Traditional Finance which operates on a Centralised system that incorporates the functions of banks during transactions. The bank facilitates every transaction, thereby acting as a third party.

Defi operates a trustless system that eliminates the need for a third party.

Although you use Defi Products like a Decentralised Wallet — typically your bank accounts — where you hold your Crypto Assets, unlike your bank accounts, you truly own your wallet and only you have access to it.

In the World of Defi, you have complete responsibility for everything you want to do, and this could include Investments, exchanges, insurance, etc.

If that’s the case, you would want to know how Defi Works.

The Concept of Decentralised Wallets really creates a baseline on how you can store your portfolio safely. Just as I mentioned earlier, you truly own your wallet and only you have access to it.

The Safety passcodes to your Defi Wallets, Your Keys or Seed Phrases or Mnemonic Codes, are generated by the blockchain, not a third party. You gain ownership of these codes upon the creation of your wallet.

And not even the decentralised Wallet provider can help you recover these access keys if you get to misplace them. That’s because they do not have access or knowledge of what these keys are.

Owning a Decentralised Wallet would be a safe start to how you start Defi. But they do not make Defi work, rather 

 are what make the concept of Decentralised Finance work.

So what are Decentralised Protocols? They are specialist autonomous programs meant to handle challenges in traditional finance. Some of the leading Defi Protocols include:

Decentralised Lending Protocols and Yield Farming

The concept behind this protocol is simple, you can loan out tokens/Coins or borrow them via non-custodial solutions or platforms.

Aave, Marker, Compound, and Venus amongst others are some of the biggest lending protocols with billions of dollars within their Smart Contract.

Many of these major Lending protocols are on the Ethereum blockchain, which means you can borrow or lend any 

 and do that knowing these protocol creators do not have leverage on your assets.

Just like traditional Finance, interest rates also apply to lending and borrowing via any of these protocols. So it is important to be knowledgeable about the interest rates before you decide to borrow or lend.

The utilisation of this protocol popularised the concept of Staking. This is when you add liquidity to a Liquidity pool. And in return earn the 

These Governing tokens have value, and people who lend money to the Liquidity pool of these Protocols could earn tokens of value. It is similar to when you save money in a Bank — giving them enough liquidity to then lend to people — and then they give you a certain interest as a reward for saving.

It is important to understand that, liquidity is the soul of Defi. Just as Savings is the soul of Traditional Banks.

Both Defi or Traditional banks will not function if there is no money in circulation.

Decentralisation Exchanges and Liquidity Providers

Decentralised Exchanges (DEXs) are another type of Defi protocol. They are automated Market makers that allow traders to buy and sell crypto amongst themselves, more than that, these exchanges have liquidity pools that enable traders to get liquidity to make trades.

Without benign too technical, Liquidity means there’s money available to move around the market and a liquidity pool would mean a large pool or vault of money. Illiquid would mean there’s no money.

Uniswap, Pancake Swap, and Sushi Swap, amongst others, are one of the biggest DEXs available. Just like every other Decentralised protocol, DEXs are also non-custodial protocols and they accept any Erc20 token to trade.

Although the downside to allowing any Erc 20 token on DEXs is the problem of scams. Some tokens were created simply to exploit investors.

Apparently, that would be a problem Centralised exchanges (CEXs) look to solve. CEXs are like DEXs, but they are custodial, amongst other differences like security.

DEXs offer incentive structures to those who bankroll these liquidity pools (people who add money to the liquidity pools of these protocols).

This is popularly known as Yield Farming, where the protocol rewards People who add liquidity to the Pools, they earn fees amongst other perks when someone makes a trade.

Stablecoins are cryptocurrencies whose value is pegged to the US dollar or to another currency, product, or financial instrument.

An example of this would be Tether, a US-Dollar pegged Stablecoin, which currently has about 66 Billion worth of Tether in circulation 

While Decentralised Stablecoins are coins that algorithmic and are not pegged to any central currency, products or financial instruments.

DAI would be a great example of a Decentralised Stablecoin.

Why are stablecoins important? Instead of purchasing Ethereum directly with US dollars, traders frequently exchange fiat for a stablecoin and then trade with the stablecoin. This helps to facilitate deals on DEXs.

That would entail that traders would purchase a stablecoin, like DAI, and use DAI to purchase ETH.

The primary goal of Stablecoins is to maintain a fixed value over time.

Decentralised Finance truly revolutionises Traditional Finance by offering a (YOU) focused Solution. Taking control and regulation away from the government and Putting it back into your hands.

Although this puts an enormous amount of responsibility on individuals looking to leverage Defi, still, it offers a huge avenue to Earn when you utilise both Staking and Yield farming.

Do you know understand what Defi is and how it’s revolutionising the Finance Industry? Well, I write other interesting Articles like this, and you can check me out on my socials 

In Decentralised Finance, You are Your Bank and Your Banker

Marketing in Web3 can be a bit difficult because it is quite different from the marketing strategies that are obtainable in Web2.

In Web2, Platforms like Facebook or Google and Data are a good start to Market and sell a product. But In Web3, Community, Trust and Influence are your biggest asset.fantastic

Web 3 Marketing is a concept that explores the web by looking at trends and new technologies. It’s not just evolving; it’s revolutionizing the way we think about the Internet. Web 3.0 marketing is more than just websites and search engine optimization(SEO) — Piril Madasoglu

To put Pirils statement in proper perspective. In Web3, the Community is the CEO. Not the platforms.

And Connecting your Product and your target audiences is one of the first things you do when trying to market your web3 brand.

Your target audience is not bots, they are human beings. These are the people who then go on to become fantastic community members. They are the ones who will buy from you.

Connecting with your target audience, and convincing them about your project is tough. And this is why many good projects tend to experience poor mints.

How do you convince your target audience? This secret plays back to the fundamentals of marketing; Human Persuasion.

And that’s one thing some web3 projects pay almost zero attention to. Rather, they would spend resources on Influencer and Alpha Groups Collaboration to giveaway Whitelist spots.

Unfortunately, this doesn't always work. And even when it does work, it is not a sustainable way to build the community. We tend to see projects relying heavily on hype do poorly post-mint.

And as we have seen recently with projects like Goblins and Wagdie etc, with zero roadmap and expectations, build a solid community by connecting with people — they have done better post mint than many utility projects.

This shows how important Community is to your project.

Now that we’ve understood that community is the centre focus of Web3 Marketing. How can Copywriting help Web3 Brands Increase Conversion?

While there are different components to talk about (we’d go over them subsequently) … It’s important to first focus on the 

customer journey or The community journey.

What has been their experience with your project in the journey until they get to the mint button?

Has it been trilling, do they feel valued and important, do they resonate with the values and codes within the community, and did they contribute to building the project road map, art, games, events, and community decisions?

What are they saying about the project goals? Do they have a sense of ownership towards the direction the project is going in?

This kind of experience is not built on Mint Day. Many people who would have this experience will automatically become super fans.

Having a community with Super Fans starts when you are intentional about building a proper community. During this Journey, you try to connect, build trust, gain influence and grow together.

In other to properly build a community of Super Fans. You have to communicate. Most often than not, You use text to speak with your community Members, and this is where Copywriting comes in.

This would mean, you would have to implement Copywriting principles in every Marketing material, Website, Event, Announcement, Activity, and Collaboration in your community.

Why is this Important? Well, Perception is stronger than reality. That’s why Human persuasion is king.

Copywriting does the persuasion and this affects the perception of your community about the values, codes, lingua, goals and vibes within the community.

Each of these top brands understands the power of Perception, and they leverage the power of Human persuasion just by investing time into Copywriting.

Why do they do this? So they can connect to you and me. We can safely say they are successful, right? We use one or more of their product.

This means If you’re building a Web3 product, the Perception of your community towards your project is a crucial Marketing position to control!

It builds a solid experience for them and helps you target people who are interested in what you’re building. You are on your way to having a community of Super Fans.

Now that you have Marketing Control. This is a simple sales funnel for any Web3-related projects:

Community Building — Collaboration & Marketing — Onboarding web2 audience — Launch — Post Launch — Fulfilment & Branding.

Let’s quickly run Copywriting through each phase, starting from Collaboration, shall we?

This is a top Marketing strategy in web3, still, Copywriting is key here. You want to be thoughtful about each Collab.

What benefits do you get when you collaborate with this project? Does this project have a community that fits your target audience, etc?

Announce a collaboration with your community, State the benefits to them and the other projects community.

Use emotional triggers and Visual appeal: Images, Videos, AMAs, and Interviews.

Collaborate with Top Web3 brands, Alpha Groups and DAOs that have your target audience in their community.

Make it look like a club just signed a player!

You don’t need 10 collabs a day. Quality over Quantity. Remember to get your community Involved!

Other Marketing Strategies include Influencer Collaboration, Interviews on Top web3 podcasts and Youtube Channels, Serious attention to your Twitter Page/post and possibly Twitter Marketing.

One of the best ways of doing this is leveraging Content Writing. Since the audience is in Web2, create a marketing funnel around where they are.

Build a simple Content Marketing funnel like this:

Create SEO posts with CTA to a Welcome channel in your server (or to your Project website)+ While in the channel, they Read the welcome message, and more about the project + they onboard themselves by clicking the verification button, gaining access to the community.

Because this Welcome Channel is custom to Web2 Audience, you can create a special tag on Discord.

Once they verify, they get these tags, and this gives them access to both the server and other custom channels where you create educational information like How to mint etc.

Hire Mods here to help them answer questions and make onboarding easier. Making it super personal to them and they onboard properly.

No stress if you ticked the other phases. With your strong community and Crazy reach. Initiate a 14-day Launch Campaign!

Across Socials. Your Server. And every Community you collaborated with. This is a follow-up campaign with a crescendo Intensifying as you get closer to the mint date!

The 14 Day Campaign, Visuals could be Images, Cinematic Videos, Digital events, IRL events, Interviews literally anything.

Sneak Peek works too but it’s been overutilized. 

Don’t just slap random words on your mint page. Put a Salesman on the Mint page: Copywriting.

Include Community Testimonials. Credibility. Guarantee. etc

These past phases take weeks & months to implement. It is not a walk in the park. And it could even be more detailed than I have shared here. Actually, the launch should be successful if you followed through. It’s all about the community. It is all about them

It's past the mint date. You sold out or not. Don’t be like other projects that go to sleep. There’s more work to do here.

Depending on what happened during Mint, You can expect a ton of reactions. Hold your nerves, it's normal for these to happen.

This is the time for your Community managers and Mods to engage with the community even more. And that is because it is important to understand what the CEOs think, feel and want.

The Community is the CEO. Don’t Forget that part.

Depending on the response (good or bad), host an AMA to address it. And share the next phase on the road map with the community.

Fulfilling the roadmap is one primary responsibility of the team. Depending on how technical the process will take, it's your job to hire some of the best people to improve the strength of the team.

While you’re at it. Remember you’ve got investors — your community members — who have invested 

 of money to build this product. Keep them in the loop at every step.

One amazing strategy would be to hire some top talents from the community. And their contribution would be pivotal to the road map fulfilment.

This takes time and effort. Invest in the best team members to deliver on your promises in the roadmap.

It is essential to create events during this phase that keeps the community engaged. Surprise the community with Merch, Airdrops, Irl events, and New partnerships with web2 and web3 projects.

Projects that have 50% of their products built out and do not need to rely on mint fees relatively do well also.

Building a project and an engaging community with super fans can be very tough especially when you are starting.

Leveraging your copywriting into a solid community journey and Marketing will stand your project out — kinda what I help web3 brands achieve, hit me up 

 if you’ve got a web3 brand and need to scale it.