You don’t need to understand the technology behind blockchain in order to learn what can bring this technology to you. At the same time, if you start researching the topic on your own, you will encounter many terms explained below.

To make complex topics easy, understandable, and fun, I use oversimplification and daily life analogies.

• dApps are Apps which look the same for the end-user but are built on a blockchain. There is no company behind and no CEO. Instead, these networks are built, operated, and maintained by their users.

• Decentralization: If there are as many owners as users, the power is shared among all participants. This ensures that only changes, that the majority of the users are in favor of, have a chance of being implemented.

As the old saying goes, do not put all eggs in one basket. This is what blockchain is doing. Every basket is a user. And data is spread across a large network of computers. If one of those computers stops working, the remaining computers store the same data and will ensure the blockchain functioning.

• Distributed ledger technology (DLT) is an umbrella term for various technologies including blockchain.

• Immutable: I bet people will notice it rather quickly if you try to remove a brick from a lower brick wall layer. The same goes for blockchain. Users can add transactions that are placed over one another in a brick wall style. Changing a record (tampering) from a lower layer of the blockchain will not go unnoticed and will be sanctioned by the users.

• Interoperability: Do you work in an environment with many HR Systems which do not talk to each other and operate in silos? Most blockchains do not work across other blockchains yet. Latest generation blockchains are specifically designed to operate with other blockchains. This feature is called interoperability.

• Open Source: If you publish the receipt of your granny’s famous pumpkin pie, everybody will be able to replicate it. Open-source software works in a similar way: the code is published to serve the public for free, everybody will be able to read it, inspect it, recreate it, improve it, etc. As most blockchains are open source, shady functionalities such as user tracking or data collection become visible.

• Peer-to-peer (P2P) network: When computers are connected directly to each other without a central server.

• NFT (non-fungible token) is the digital certificate of ownership, e.g. contemporary digital art stored on a blockchain. Some people question the NFT value as art. Usually, NFTs are collectable items, e.g., animated animals, priced at several thousand USD, but it could be also music or a representation of a real-life object.

• Non-custodial, also self-custodial: When you deposit your money in a bank, the bank uses it for investments, loans etc. If the bank misinvests, in the worst case scenario, you might even lose your money. Blockchain eliminates this risk, takes power away from the banks (and any other intermediaries), and gives it back to the owners, who are usually advanced users empowered to protect their data and their digital assets on their own.

• Smart Contract: The conditions of a classical contract (if you deliver service X to me, I will pay you amount Y.) can be programmed on a blockchain. Once the event is confirmed, the payment (or the pre-agreed transaction) is triggered automatically with the nice side effect of being fast and cost-efficient.

• Trusted intermediaries: These are the people we rely on to complete a transaction, e.g. banks, brokers, Uber etc. As the blockchain connects sellers and buyers directly, there is no need for any central party or trusted intermediaries. Have you heard about banking without banks, insurance without insurers, contracts without lawyers, publishing without publishers?

• Trustless: It was very difficult for me to comprehend why trustless might be a positive feature. From a blockchain perspective, this term describes that blockchain transactions can be carried out without approval from a bank, lawyer, or any other middleman. Even if sellers and buyers do not know each other, the blockchain algorithm ensures that the transaction will be completed.

• Web3 (also «decentralized web», «fair internet», or “next-generation internet”): The concept is based on surprise surprise ;) blockchain, where the internet is a distributed network without any central player collecting, storing, and selling your data. Web3 “gives the power and the money back to the people.” Users control their own data. Users get paid for watching ads, for reading articles and playing games. Everybody can hold and transfer digital copyrights, digital currencies, digital art, etc., without the need for lawyers, financial institutions, or authorized dealers.