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What is ZK (zero-knowledge) Zero-knowledge proofs (ZK proofs) are a cryptographic technique that allows one party (the prover) to convince another party (the verifier) that a statement is true — without revealing any information beyond the truth of the stateme...

What is restaking Restaking is a mechanism that allows tokens already staked to secure one network to be simultaneously used as economic security for additional services or protocols. Instead of each new service having to build its own validator set and bootst...

What is an AVS An AVS (Actively Validated Service) is a decentralized service that relies on a set of validators who actively perform tasks and put economic stake at risk to guarantee honest behavior. Unlike a smart contract that executes passively when called...

What is MEV MEV (Maximal Extractable Value) is the profit that block producers — validators, miners, or sequencers — can capture by strategically ordering, inserting, or excluding transactions within the blocks they produce. Because the entity assembling a blo...

What is a sequencer A sequencer is the component in a Layer 2 (L2) network responsible for receiving user transactions, ordering them, and producing L2 blocks before the final data is submitted to the underlying Layer 1 chain for settlement. In most current L2...

What is a GPU in crypto AI A GPU (Graphics Processing Unit) is a processor originally designed for rendering graphics that has become the dominant hardware for AI workloads. GPUs excel at parallel computation — performing thousands of simple mathematical opera...

What is a validator A validator is a network participant that verifies transactions, proposes new blocks, and helps maintain the integrity of a blockchain. In proof-of-stake (PoS) and related consensus mechanisms, validators lock up (stake) tokens as collatera...

What is a blockchain node A node is a computer that runs a blockchain's software, maintains a copy of the ledger, and participates in the network by receiving, validating, and relaying transactions and blocks. Nodes are the physical infrastructure that keeps a...

What is consensus in blockchain Consensus is the process by which all participants in a blockchain network agree on the current state of the shared ledger. Without consensus, there would be no way to determine which transactions are valid, which blocks are fin...

What is Proof of Stake (PoS) Proof of Stake (PoS) is a consensus mechanism in which participants lock up (stake) their tokens as collateral to earn the right to validate transactions and produce new blocks. Instead of competing to solve computational puzzles (...

What is Proof of Work (PoW) Proof of Work (PoW) is a consensus mechanism in which participants called miners compete to solve computationally difficult mathematical puzzles. The first miner to find a valid solution earns the right to add the next block of tran...

What is Delegated Proof of Stake (DPoS) Delegated Proof of Stake (DPoS) is a consensus mechanism in which token holders do not validate blocks themselves but instead vote for a limited set of delegates who perform block production and validation on the network...

What is Proof of Staked Authority (PoSA) Proof of Staked Authority (PoSA) is a consensus mechanism that combines elements of Proof of Stake (PoS) and Proof of Authority (PoA). In a PoSA system, a limited set of validators is pre-approved or permissioned (the A...

What is slashing Slashing is a penalty mechanism in Proof of Stake (PoS) blockchain networks that punishes validators for behavior that threatens network security or integrity. When a validator is slashed, a portion of their staked tokens is destroyed (burned)...

What are mainnet, testnet, and beta Every blockchain network and crypto project goes through stages of development before (and after) full public launch. The three most common labels for these stages are testnet, beta, and mainnet. Understanding what each stag...

What do active, in development, and migration mean The Project status field in a DecAIHub project card describes the current lifecycle stage of the project being reviewed. The three most informative values — active, in development, and migration/merger — tell ...

What is a token standard A token standard is a set of technical rules that defines how a token behaves on a specific blockchain. It specifies the programming interface -- which functions the token's smart contract must implement, what events it must emit, and ...

What is a token model A token model describes the role that a token plays within a project's ecosystem. While a token standard defines the technical format (how a token is transferred, tracked, and approved), the token model answers a fundamentally different q...