The Cardano Glossary

Ideascale is an ideas platform that Project Catalyst members use to submit and manage proposals, view other proposals and assess proposals in the governance phase. Ideascale is an independent company that was selected by IOG to help facilitate the Project Catalyst funding process.

A property that defines the inability to be changed, especially over time.

Impermanent loss is when a liquidity provider has a temporary loss of funds because of volatility in a trading pair.

a way to encourage participants in the system to engage in the network by rewarding them with a return that is proportional to their efforts. Incentives aim to ensure equality and fairness in a distributed network of participants by encouraging consistent, active, and strong participation. Cardano's incentives model uses game theory to calculate the incentives required.

A general increase in prices and fall in the purchasing value of money.

A novel way of launching a project that focuses on people contributing skills to a platform rather than money.

Short for Initial Coin Offering, an ICO is a type of crowdfunding, or crowdsale, using cryptocurrencies as a means of raising capital for early-stage companies.

An initial dex offering (IDX) is an alternative to an initial coin offering (ICO).

A type of crowdfunding where crypto start-ups generate capital by listing through an exchange.

Initial Farm Offering (IFO) helps DeFi projects raise capital through the farming feature offered by decentralized exchanges.

Initial game offerings (IGOs) provide individuals with an opportunity to invest in gaming projects at an early stage that have the potential to offer huge returns after their launch.

An initial public offering (IPO) is the process of a company offering shares for purchase on the stock market for the first time.

Insider trading happens when someone purchases or sells stocks while possessing private, material information about that stock.

Instant settlement network allows participants to exchange digital assets in real-time from anywhere in the world.

An Institutional Investor is an organization or a legal entity that trades in the market on behalf of its clients that may be retail investors.

A meme is an image, a video, or a piece of text that is copied and spread rapidly by internet users. They are typically humorous but can also be critical as well.

Internet of Things (IoT) is a global interconnected network of devices, sensors and software that can collect and exchange data with each other in real-time over the Internet.

Internet Service Providers (ISPs) are commercial entities that provide end-users with access to the internet.

Blockchain interoperability, or cross-chain interoperability, is the ability to see and share information across multiple blockchains.

Input Output Global, also reffered to as Input Output Hong Kong (IOHK), is a technology company committed to using peer-to-peer innovations to provide financial services to the community. In particular, IOG is working on the technology development for Cardano.

IP addresses are unique numeric addresses assigned to devices connected to the internet or a local network.