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Ben is the main writer for Built on Cardano.

Built on Cardano

Gabriel is the developer of this beautiful website you see here.

Gabriel

### You found us! Welcome!

Well, seeing as we’re a part of the Cardano ecosystem we thought we should put an about us on here too; you can also go to our [FAQ page](https://builtoncardano.com/faq) for some more details but most of it is summed up here, be it in a friendlier, more colloquial manner.

Built on Cardano a.k.a *BoC*, as we friendly refer to it- was birthed as an idea when we saw a widening gap between the growing Cardano ecosystem and the *availability of unbiased, well organized information on everything in the space*. Yes, the shareable ecosystem maps that are omnipresent in your Twitter feed are good, but what does a picture of a bunch of logos 
 actually tell you? 

We devised a solution to this problem; Built on Cardano was born! Now we’re here; writing about ourselves….

> BoC is designed to be an organized, easily navigable, and unobtrusive map of the Cardano ecosystem filled, much like a physical land map is, with unbiased content. 

Words such as *rolodex* and *Wikipedia-esq* have been thrown around in some phone calls but we don’t think we fit either of these models. A rolodex is too basic and not information rich enough. Wikipedia is too in-depth and, well, it’s the world’s most used and trusted knowledge source; that’s hard to compete with. Whilst these are good models to work from we’re going to do what suits the requirements of reaching our goal and forge our own path as we;
- document
- organize
- map,
- and display
the wonderfully vibrant world of Cardano for others to explore and discover.

What is our goal? Our goal is:

> To provide unbiased content and stats through an aesthetically minimalist and intuitive interface, providing others with a way of cutting through the b—$—t and discovering what is happening in the burgeoning Cardano ecosystem.

We also wholeheartedly believe in the Cardano mission of *"bringing about positive global change"*. In order to facilitate that change people need somewhere to go to find those other people who are making the effort to make a difference. We want to provide that door into the Cardano ecosystem. 

A door which everyone can walk through and not feel flattened by too much technical information or too many flashy images, and provide a space where users can navigate and discover their own path through the ecosystem, whether they just be perusing or looking for a solution to a particular problem.




An organizational system designed to help foster discovery in, and exploration of, the Cardano ecosystem.

1 NFT per epoch for 4 months, spanning the release of Smart Contracts. A glance into the decentralized community that built on Cardano before it was cool.

AlonzoGrad

The term accelerator is often used in the same sentence as the terms [launchpad](https://builtoncardano.com/search?q=launchpad) and [incubator](https://builtoncardano.com/search?q=incubator), but the three have their own subtle differences. Many accelerators also operate a launchpad and/or incubator to help them progress the projects they are accelerating.

An accelerator is a business or organization that supports existing early-stage businesses (often business that are yet to earn any revenue) by accelerating the growth of their product. Accelerators often focus on a certain niche or sector, e.g. finance, and also mentor the businesses that they take on. Accelerator can sometimes offer finical assistance to the juvenile businesses that they take on. These businesses must apply to be a part of the accelerator and the accelerator then accepts or rejects their applications.

Here are Cardano tools that are designed to help the users manage their holdings. They feature address and wallet viewers, along with ADA and staking calculators. Many of these projects are produced by single operator stake pools and we advocated that you stake with these single pool operators, SPOs, over multiple pool operators, MPOs, to help to increase the decentralization of the Cardano network.

An aggregator is a person or entity who gathers things together and then either displays them to others or utilizes what they have gathered for a purpose.

The most common use case for aggregators in the blockchain world is a DeFi protocol that aggregates DEXs. This means that a user submits their order to the aggregator protocol and the protocol distributes that order across multiple DEXs to get the user the best price at the lowest cost.

AMM stands for *Automated Market Maker*. This is an algorithm, often supplemented by oracles, that facilitates the pricing and exchange of assets between users. Assets are exchanged at market value through liquidity pools. These pools are created by Liquidity providers, LPs, who deposit assets to the exchange in pairs. This “asset pair” then allows users to swap one asset for the other through the liquidity pool. Fees are paid to the LPs who provided the liquidity. The more liquidity a pair has the less “slippage” a user experiences, meaning the less likely the user is to experience a price change in their trade.

API stands for *Application Programming Interface*.

An API is an intermediary or go-between that allows computers or computer programs to talk to each other and pass information back and forth. APIs act as the messengers that take the request from the computer or computer program to the source that can provide the answer to that request, retrieves the answer, and then bringing it back to the computer or program that initiated the request.

In the blockchain space APIs are mainly used to query the blockchain. This is to say, that an API can be used to abstract specific data points from the blockchain so that a computer or program can use those data points to inform its user or its actions.

An auction is when something is put up for sale and people place bids to determine who wins, a.k.a. buys, the item. There are multiple types of auction out there and below are the most common types:

**English Auction:** An item starts at a certain price and people places bids that raise in value with each bid and the winner is the person who places the highest bid. They then pay the value of their bid.

**Dutch Auction:** An item starts at a certain high price. The price is then progressively lowered until someone claims it and they pay the price that they stopped the auction at.

**Sealed Bid Auction:** People write down their bids for an item and submit them. Once the time for submitting bids is over then all the bids are opened and the highest bidder wins the auction.

**Vickery Auction:** Works in almost the same way as a sealed bid auction. However, when all the bids are opened the highest bidder wins but they pay the price of the second highest bid.

Auctions, especially English auctions, often have reserves attached to them. A reserve means that the seller sets a minimum price for the item. If the price is not met by the buyer then the item is not sold. Reserves can be kept hidden, which is most common, or they can be disclosed to the bidders.

Audits are incredibly important in the decentralized and blockchain world and audits are completed on a platforms code, typically by 3rd parties, to ensure that that code is as watertight as possible. Conducting audits before releasing product is a best practice technique and can expose flaws in a protocol before that protocol is released to the public, allowing developers to fix them so that they cannot be exploited by hackers.

When we run on the mantra that “Code is law” then that code needs to be secure so that everyone can be sure that their tokens are safe in the protocols and platforms they’re using. The projects tagged with audit are those that offer or conduct audits on platforms and projects in this space.

***MYTH***

Blockchains are a secret way of transacting money and hiding the exchange of funds from others and authorities.

***TRUTH***

A blockchain is a transparent ledge, meaning that anyone can explore the transactions on it when given the tools. Those tools exist for all blockchains (except the few privacy chains that have been created that do in fact hid the exchange of funds).

Explorers allow anyone to search and explore all the transactions on the blockchain. The blockchain can be searched and explored in numerous ways using: wallet addresses, transaction IDs (TX ID), block numbers, epoch number, slot/epoch number, stake pool ticker, token ticker, staking keys. Users can also search for individual assets and transaction metadata if they have the information. Developers can use APIs to scrape data from the blockchain to inform all sorts of processes, programs, and to create data sets.

Blockchain bridges allows you to port assets from one chain onto another, allowing those assets to represent their value and be used on a different chain. Most blockchains are not compatible with each and blockchain bridges bring much needed interoperability between chains by allowing for the psuedo-transfer of assets from one to the other.

Blockchain bridges work by first locking up the asset on its home chain, done by sending the asset to a designated address or smart contract. Once this lockup has been confirmed the protocol or company then mints a synthetic asset, representing the locked asset, on the target chain. The locking up process provides assurance that the asset on the target chain is always backed by the asset on the original chain.

These bridges can be both one-way and bidirectional. One-way bridges only allow you can to send assets in one direction e.g. from Ethereum to Cardano, and not from Cardano to Ethereum. Note that you can always unlock the locked up asset by returning synthetic asset to the bridge. One-way, in this sense means that you cannot lock up assets on the other chain, Cardano in our example, to be used as synthetic assets at the other end of the bridge. Bidirectional blockchain bridges allow you mint synthetic assets on both chains. 

Blockchain bridges can be custodial, where the assets are stored by a trusted 3rd party, or non-custodial, where the assets are locked up in a smart contract. Non-custodial blockchain bridges, utilizing code and smart contracts to secure assets instead of a middleman, are championed as being more aligned with the ethos of decentralization.

## Lending Protocols

Lending protocols in the [DeFi](https://builtoncardano.com/search?q=defi) world allow people to loan or lend money in a peer-to-peer manner, i.e. without the banking middleman. These loans are secured by the lender over-collateralizing the loan and the terms of the loan being managed in a smart contract. This gives the unbanked or those who have poor credit the ability to take loans, and it gives those with excess capital the opportunity to provide loans in a secure and trustless manner, and to earn income from them.

Over-collateralization means that the person receiving the loan locks up more than the value of the loan to secure it e.g. if they want to loan 100 they must lock up 150. How much they over-collateralize the loan by, and which tokens they use as collateral, depends on the platform. Some platforms only accept stablecoins, and other accept a variety of crypto assets. Typically, an individual uses one asset for collateral and takes a different asset as their loan.

An important factor in all loans is the interest rate and the length of the loan. These vary greatly by lending protocol, and loans can have fixed interest rates and periods, or infinite periods with interest rates that fluctuate throughout the loan period, fluctuating based upon the utilization rate of the pool of funds the loan was drawn from.

Importantly, the receiver of a loan is expected to maintain a certain ratio of collateral to loan, meaning that if the value of their collateral drops below that of their collateral to loan ratio, they need to add more collateral to keep the required balance. If they don’t keep up the collateral ratio they face liquidation and the loss of their collateral.

To "become the bank" those with idle tokens can deposit them into a lending protocol and earn from the interest derived from the loans their tokens are used to facilitate. Usually this deposit requires a lockup period of a certain length of time. Often, the longer the lockup period the higher the percentage return for the depositor.

A browser extension is an application that lives in your browser and can be injected into websites and dApps, allowing you to interact with them. The most common browser extensions in the crypto world are light wallets that allow users to interact with dApps such as NFT [marketplaces](https://builtoncardano.com/search?q=marketplace) and other blockchain based websites and dApps.

Other things such as ad-blockers and coupon applications are also browser extensions. Browser extensions are often located in the top right hand corner of your browser, inline with the search bar.

Projects tagged as build-to-earn are almost always games. A familiar concept in many games is the collection of items or materials that can then be used to build items, tools, weapons, or other in game items that are then used inside the game. Build-to-earn builds on top of this function of the game and gives players the ability, and often the marketplace, to sell the items they have built to other players. These items are usually exchanged for the platform’s native token but some games may allow players to trade their items for other in-game items.

Sometimes players are given the ability to design the items they build but most of the time the buildable items are pre-coded into the game and players need to collect the items or materials necessary to build them.

Ultimately the build-to-earn model allows players to monetize their time spent in the game.

Projects tagged as “Catalyst Funded” have received funding from Cardano’s experiment in decentralized funding and on-chain governance, Project Catalyst. The Project Catalyst experiment has a bucket of funds that has is being split into multiple funding rounds. Proposers apply for funding by submitting proposals to different challenges that have been chosen by the community for each funding round.

Owners of Cardano’s native currency, ADA, can register their ADA and use it to vote for or against proposals in the Project Catalyst platform. Each ADA counts as a single vote and the proposals that receive enough votes above the voting threshold receive the funding that they applied for, if there are enough funds left in that challenge to fulfill their request amount. The funds are paid out in ADA.

Follow [this link](https://builtoncardano.com/project-catalyst) to learn more about how the Project Catalyst experiment in Decentralized governance works and for links for where to get involved.

To vote in [Project Catalyst](https://builtoncardano.com/project-catalyst) users need to first register their intention to vote by registering their ADA, note that you need at least 500ADA to be eligible to vote in Project Catalyst. *Only the wallets tagged with “Catalyst Voting Registration” have this functionality at this time.*

[This article](https://iohk.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/900005679386-Catalyst-registration-and-voting-guide) from [IOHK](https://builtoncardano.com/iohk) gives you a step by step walkthrough of how to register and vote in Project Catalyst.

A CLMM, *Concentrated Liquidity Market Maker*, is an extension of the AMM algorithm where LPs can provide liquidity to specific price ranges of a pool of assets. They can only earn fees when the assets are traded in their chosen price range. This helps LPs guard themselves again “Impermanent loss”, which is where the price of their assets changes between the time of deposit and withdrawal.

The protocols and projects tagged here are interoperable with one or multiple other blockchains. Projects with this tag include those that provide the infrastructure of this inter-chain-operability, such as the providers of [blockchain bridges](https://builtoncardano.com/search?q=blockchain%20bridge), or they could be protocols or projects that operate across multiple chains by utilizing these blockchain bridges. There are also projects that can be cross-chain without these blockchain bridges, however these usually rely on a 3rd party, custodial entity to facilitate this, instead of a trustless, blockchain bridge.

Custodial means to be responsible for holding something for someone else. In the cryptocurrency space custodial is associated with the storing of assets. A custodial platform or application will store the users assets with a third party. The opposite of custodial is [non-custodial](https://builtoncardano.com/search?q=non-custodial).

DAO stands for *D*ecentralized *A*utonomous *O*rganization. These organizations can function like regular corporations however there’re two major differences between a DAO and a standard corporation.

1. There is not one person or group of people at the helm making all the decisions for a DAO. Instead, every person holding the tokens that give them voting rights, can have a say in the decision making process and then vote on the outcome of proposed actions. These shareholders, no matter their size, can also table motions that can be put forth for a general vote if there is a large enough consensus that such an item deserves to be voted on.

2. The rules that govern how the organization functions are set in code and self execute when members make decisions through on-chain voting. Meaning that no one person can overrule the consensus mechanism of the DAO.

DAOs use the immutability of public blockchains to record their funds and to track and confirm governance votes.

An aggregator is a person or entity who gathers things together and then either displays them to others or utilizes what they have gathered for a purpose.

Data aggregators collect data from multiple points and sources and present them to users in a format that they find intuitive and easy to explore and/or use. [Built on Cardano](https://builtoncardano.com/built-on-cardano) is an excellent example of a data aggregator, but data aggregators can also include those that aggregate news stories, as well as those who collect and display blockchain data in interesting and informative ways.

Data aggregation is a common thing in any and every industry and is a fundamental element of how many blockchain protocols work. The projects tagged as data aggregators on Built on Cardano are those who aggregate data as the main focus of their project i.e. displaying the data they collect to their users.

DeFi stands for *Decentralized Finance*, and utilizes smart contracts to automate financial services and instruments that traditionally require a middleman.

DeFi enables a globally accessible financial system, without the entry requirements demanded by traditional, also known as centralized, financial services; a new system without borders or traditional barriers of entry.

DeFi allows people with small amounts of excess capital to “become the bank” and deposit their funds into a protocol to provide liquidity and generate returns in the form of yields from the financial activities conducted on the protocol.

It is important to note that DeFi is a fledgling industry. It equally important to note that there is little to no regulation, meaning there is no consumer protection i.e. if funds are lost by a protocol then the user looses their funds with little to no hope of getting them back.

DeTi stands for *De*centralized *Ti*cketing and removes the middleman from ticketing situations, giving control of issuing tickets for events back to the artists or organizers.

In DeTi tickets are issued as NFTs, thus reducing the ability for ticketing fraud. The issuer can also set a royalty percentage for resale, allowing the artists to realize gains from the secondary market, where tickets are often sold at highly inflated prices without any of those monetary gains flowing back to the artist.

Stands for *Developer Tools*. 

Here you’ll find tools for developers of all levels and for all development purposes related to Cardano. Some of these are official tools from [IOHK](https://builtoncardano.com/iohk) but most are made by Cardano community members and are [open sourced](https://builtoncardano.com/search?q=open%20source).

Amongst other things you’ll find Cardano [SDKs](https://builtoncardano.com/search?q=sdk) and [APIs](https://builtoncardano.com/search?q=api), Cardano wallets libraries translated into multiple programing languages, [Plutus](https://builtoncardano.com/search?q=plutus) courses and smart contract tools and repositories, resources for asking [questions](https://builtoncardano.com/search?q=question), alongside tools for testnet operations and [engineers for hire](https://builtoncardano.com/search?q=engineers%20for%20hire) to help you complete your project. 

Do you have a tool that is can be used by developers on Cardano? Then you can [add it to our list here](https://builtoncardano.com/create), gain exposure, and help to grow the Cardano community in the process!

DEX stands for *Decentralized EXchange*. A DEX is where users can exchange tokens and assets  peer-to-peer i.e. without using a middleman. This is done through trust-less smart contracts on the blockchain.

On a DEX users can only trade blockchain based tokens and assets, and can not use fiat money or their real world assets. However, real world assets can be represented on the blockchain, often called “synthetics”, and this allows for the trading of conventional assets in a decentralized manner.

True to the nature of decentralization, DEXs are anonymous and do not require a user to sign up, they only need to connect the wallet containing the funds they want to use for exchange. DEXs allow those who are traditionally excluded from centralized exchanges, be that because of geography, lack of identity, or many other reasons, access to the financial markets.

The code for a DEX is usually open-sourced so that users and auditors can check the code for bugs and malicious code.

*¡WARNING!* because of the lack of a centralized, managing entity mistakes made on a decentralized exchange are irreversible, make sure you *DOUBLE CHECK EVERYTHING* before committing to a trade. Also, because of the lack of regulatory oversight, make sure you Do Your Own Research, DYOR, before committing to using a particular decentralized exchange; there are malicious actors out there.

There are two main types of DEX: [order books](https://builtoncardano.com/search?q=order%20book) and Automated Market Makers, [AMM](https://builtoncardano.com/search?q=amm)

Education platforms and resources offer content, in many forms, that helps to educate people about different faucets of the Cardano blockchain. These can range from blogs to instructional videos and can cover everything from what a blockchain is and how the technology works, to a course on [Plutus](https://builtoncardano.com/search?q=plutus), Cardano’s smart contract language.

There are many dedicated educational resources in the Cardano space, however many protocols and dApps offer educational content for their users to supplement their product and to help with onboarding users.


MYTH

Blockchains are a secret way of transacting money and hiding the exchange of funds from others and authorities.

TRUTH

A blockchain is a transparent ledge, meaning that anyone can explore the transactions on it when given the tools. Those tools exist for all blockchains (except the few privacy chains that have been created that do in fact hid the exchange of funds).

Explorers allow anyone to search and explore all the transactions on the blockchain. The blockchain can be searched and explored in numerous ways using: wallet addresses, transaction IDs (TX ID), block numbers, epoch number, slot/epoch number, stake pool ticker, token ticker, staking keys. Users can also search for individual assets and transaction metadata if they have the information. Developers can use APIs to scrape data from the blockchain to inform all sorts of processes, programs, and to create data sets.

A fractional NFT is when an NFT has been split into multiple parts, allowing multiple entities to own a part of that NFT. An NFT is fractionalized by locking it up and tokenizing it. These tokens can then be traded on the open market. 

Sometimes these tokens provide value beyond the attributed value of the NFT that they represent. This is in the form of earning generated by the underlying asset.

*Basic Wallet Science* Cryptocurrency wallets function through a pair of cryptographic keys, one public and one private. The public key is the wallet’s address, the private key is securely stored in the wallet. Both are required to send an asset from the wallet.

Wallets are split into two categories: [custodial](https://builtoncardano.com/search?q=custodial) and non-custodial. With a custodial wallet a 3rd party, e.g. an exchange or service provider, possesses the wallet’s private key. With a non-custodial wallet you alone possess the private key. Whoever controls the private key controls the wallet’s funds. Hence the mantra: *Not your keys not your coins*. A wallet’s security can also be increased by storing it on a [hardware wallet](https://builtoncardano.com/hardware-wallets).

Wallets are either light or full node. Full node wallets download the whole Cardano blockchain, interacting directly with it, and are less affected by network congestion than light wallets, which require other nodes to send their transactions. Full node wallets exist on computers, light wallets exist on devices and as browser extensions.

A basic wallet allows for the viewing of its balance and the sending and receiving of funds, but wallets can have many other functions, including: delegating the wallet’s funds to a stake pool, registering to vote in [Project Catalyst](https://builtoncardano.com/project-catalyst), displaying the wallets NFTs, hardware wallet integration, and using integrated DeFi services.

Games on the blockchain are games that utilize an element of blockchain technology. Amongst others, this includes: using the blockchain’s distributed nature to store the game program, using a blockchain-based oracle to certify a game’s source of randomness, and utilizing NFTs as in-game characters, items, or rewards.

Until now gamers have always had to “pay-to-play” and rarely reap any financial reward or return from their game-playing hours and monetary input. Integrating the blockchain into games provides gamers with the opportunity for financial returns, allowing them to “play-to-earn”, “learn-to-earn”, and “build-to-earn”.

This earning can be in the form of tokens or NFTs. Utilizing NFTs in games allows users to take their in-game items, characters, and achievements outside of the game, verify that they’re theirs, and to sell them to others outside of the game interface. Who can then use them in-game themselves.

The term incubator is often used in the same sentence as the terms [launchpad](https://builtoncardano.com/search?q=launchpad) and [accelerator](https://builtoncardano.com/search?q=accelerator), but the three have their own subtle differences. Many incubators also operate an accelerator and/or a launchpad.

Incubators provide services to new startups and entrepreneurs that aim to help them overcome the hurdles encountered by new businesses and people who are not familiar with the business world. This assistance and these services include:

- Business setup
- Regulatory compliance
- Business training
- Networking and partners
- Marketing
- Access to funding from banks, angel investors, and venture capital

Incubators will often offer mentors and advisors experienced in a new business's particular field to help them succeed. More often than not, an incubator will operate in a certain field or niche e.g. finance or media.

The term launchpad is often used in the same sentence as the terms [incubator](https://builtoncardano.com/search?q=incubator) and [accelerator](https://builtoncardano.com/search?q=accelerator), but the three have their own subtle differences. Many launchpads also operate an accelerator and/or an incubator. But what does a launchpad do?

A launchpad connects new projects to investors, and allows the project to raise funds by giving investors access to an exclusive, early, and often discounted, token sale. So the project gets the funds in needs to proceed with development and investors get tokens at a discounted rate before they’ve even hit the market. To offer security to their investors, and to uphold their name, launchpads will conduct through KYC into the projects applying to be on their launchpad.

Some launchpads will also offer many of the same services offered by [incubators](https://builtoncardano.com/search?q=incubator) to the fledgling projects that conduct token sales through them.

Launchpads are often a sidearm of an exchange, of both the centralized or decentralized varieties, as they already have the capacity to sell tokens and can then offer a guaranteed place for the tokens to be listed once the project is ready to release them to the public.

Memecoins are blockchain tokens that are typically designed around a joke or comical theme, and generally have no inherent use and, many will argue, little to no perceivable value. What value most memecoins garner is almost exclusively derived from community driven demand.

The name memecoin, also meme coin, is derived from what is widely regarded to be the first memecoin ever created, Dogecoin. Dogecoin was designed around the popular internet meme [Doge](https://duckduckgo.com/?q=doge+meme&iax=images&ia=images) and its rise to memecoin stardom is often attributed to multiple endorsements by Elon Musk. 

Memecoins and their uses have evolved slightly since their initial inception in late 2013, yet the vast majority of memecoins still have little to no use case.

MMORPG stands for:

*Massive-Multiplayer-Online-Role-Playing-Game*

In these games players take the role of characters and interact with many other players, and non-player characters, in an ever-evolving world. Unlike many other games, when the player leave an MMORPG game the time in the game continues to pass by, the storyline continues to evolve, and other players continue to play.

The player goals in MMORPG games vary greatly but almost always foster collaboration with other players. Characters in these games are usually highly customizable and are able to progress and advance their stats through playing and/or collecting or purchasing in-game items.

The most popular example of a MMORPG game is [World of Warcraft](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_of_Warcraft).

NFT stands for *Non-Fungible Token*. An NFT is a unique token that cannot be changed, copied, or destroyed.

Non-fungible is the opposite of fungible, fungible means: “replaceable by an identical item”. For this reason NFTs are regularly described as irreplaceable.

An NFT is a blockchain based -also called as tokenized- representation of a digital or real world asset that can be used to verify authenticity as well as ownership.

Non-custodial programs or applications do not hold the custody of your assets. This means that there is no third party company or person who is responsible for the security of the assets.

Non-custodial can be applied to [wallets](https://builtoncardano.com/search?q=wallet), where the user is the sole proprietor of their private keys. This means that you, and you only, are responsible for securing your assets.

The non-custodial tag can be used by platforms and applications other than wallets, such as NFT [marketplaces](https://builtoncardano.com/search?q=marketplace), [peer-to-peer](https://builtoncardano.com/search?q=peer-to-peer-p2p) swapping platforms, and blockchain bridges. When non-custodial is used with regard to these platforms then assets are locked up in smart contracts, and no person has custody over the assets as they are secured by the code of the smart contract.

*If your wallet is non-custodial this means that only you have the ability to recover access to your wallet. This means that you should store your recovery seed and a backup of your password in a very secure location.*

In the ancient world oracles were people through whom the Gods spoke directly to the inhabitants of earth. In the blockchain and crypto world oracles are a service that provides off-chain data to smart contracts running on a blockchain.

On-chain functions, i.e. smart contracts, cannot access real world data on their own. This is problematic when a smart contract is trying to provide the real-time price of financial assets to users, or when it needs to determine the outcome of a sporting event for a gambling protocol, or even when it has been asked to use something measurable in the real world, such as the temperature or quantity of snowfall, in its calculations. Oracles can feed any real world data onto the blockchain for use by smart contracts.

Data is collect it in a variety of ways: APIs, websites, sensors, etc, and can be manual input by humans. This data is collect by nodes and is then passed on to the oracle service that then supplies the smart contract with the data. Having one node supplying data means a central point of failure, and a high potential for manipulation of the data. As a result oracle services usually use a network of nodes to build a consensus of the correct data point and to prevent the data from being manipulated, thereby helping to ensure trust in the data they supply.

Order books are used to record and settle buy and sell orders placed by users in a traditional financial market. On decentralized exchanges, DEXs, operating an order book orders are placed into a smart contract at either a specific price or “market price” i.e. the current price. Market price orders are executed immediately against existing trades but orders placed at a specific price are locked into the smart contract and wait for orders to come along to fill them. This often means waiting for the price of the asset to move to the price they stipulated for their order. During this time the user’s assets are locked in the smart contract and are not available to the user.

Users are often given the ability to put “limits” on their orders, which is a time limit that automatically cancels the order if it is not fulfilled in the stated amount of time. This returns the locked assets to the user unchanged. Users are also given the ability to cancel these trade at any time, which, again, returns the assets to the user unchanged.

Peer-to-peer is a common term in computing which means that a network of computers share or pool their resources. Tasks can then be partitioned between participates in the network, all of whom are on a level playing field. A blockchain, like Cardano, is an example of a complex peer-to-peer network. where every node in the network takes on some responsibility of up-keeping the whole. 

In the blockchain world peer-to-peer is commonly used to mean an interaction, typically a transaction, that happens between two individuals without a 3rd party or intermediary middleman facilitating the exchange. Often these transactions are facilitated by a platform and code, not an overseeing 3rd party.

Play-to-earn is a term usually associated with blockchain based games, however it can also be a feature of gamified learning systems, although this can sometimes be called [learn-to-earn](https://builtoncardano.com/search?q=learn-to-earn). In play-to-earn games users will typically acquire tokens as they reach milestones or complete tasks in the game. The play-to-earn element of a game can be as simple as earning tokens like XP points for completing task or more complex with earnings tied to large milestones achieved in the game.

The play-to-earn model is put forth as a model that allows people to earn things with tangible value as they play a game, as opposed to the more common XP points that only have in-game value. A player’s earning can be in the form of fungible tokens, NFTs, or a combination of both, it all depends on how the game designer builds these elements into the game. These rewards can then be sold on the open market or, more often than not, they can be used in an in-game ecosystem where the player can trade their tokens or NFTs for in-game items.

Play-to-mint games require the individual to play a game to unlock access to the minting of an NFT or token. Often, the player still needs to pay a price, beyond the transaction fee, to mint the asset.

Plutus is the smart contract platform and language of Cardano and is written in the functional programming language of Haskell. The Plutus platform is used to write and release smart contracts to the Cardano blockchain.

There are multiple tools for learning how to use Plutus to create smart contracts on Cardano. Some of them are official and released by [IOHK](https://builtoncardano.com/iohk) but many have been made and open sourced by community members.

This section of [Built on Cardano](https://builtoncardano.com/built-on-cardano) lists tools for both Stake Pool Operators, SPOs, and stake pool delegators. The majority of tools listed here have been created to facilitate the searching and/or discovery of stake pools on the Cardano network by delegators. Each pool explorer is unique and has its own method and system for exploring stake pools on Cardano, along with its own unique way of displaying them. Many of these tools also have novel, secondary functionalities that are interesting and useful to the right user.

Other tools listed here are for stake pool operators and give them the means to monitor their pools and to see why they might not be working. Regular users who are interested can also use some of these tools to monitor the pool they are staking to.

SDK stands for *Software Development Kit*.

A SDK is a specific set or package of tool designed to jump start a developer's journey or development in a certain area. SDKs are often used to create applications with advanced functions and can also include:

- Informational or educational content
- Programing libraries
- [APIs](https://builtoncardano.com/search?q=api)

SDKs are used by developers of all levels to assist them in their goals and developers on Cardano can find multiple SDKs created and [open sourced](https://builtoncardano.com/search?q=open%20source) by members of the community.


Blockchains technology is being used to improve supply chains by introducing verifiability, immutability, and transparency to supply chain tracking.

Blockchains technology allows products to be verifiably tracked from source to destination, with each scan immutably stored and time stamped to the blockchain with these data points being available for anyone to view. 

Using this technology to track products from the source to the consumer helps to increase consumer confidence and to combat the counterfeiting of products; providing consumer protection whilst also foster greater trust in business partnerships.

Twitter Spaces are live, public, audio conversations that any member of Twitter can schedule and host. This organizer can add co-hosts to discuss topics along with them and listeners can request to speak by tapping a button on their screen.

Twitter Spaces have become an increasingly popular way for project to host discussions for their communities to listen in on as the format also give the listener the option to raise their hand and interject with a question or opinion, enhancing community involvement and providing a different experience to the podcast model that is traditionally used for these discussions.

There are also cohorts of people in the Cardano community who host regular Twitter Spaces to talk about a variety of topics inside and outside of Cardano.

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