Glossary
Reentrancy, MEV, MPC, MiCA, the terms that come up when we are paid to fix a problem.
Access Control
Restricting which addresses or roles can call privileged functions in a smart contract.
AMM (Automated Market Maker)
A type of DEX that prices and executes trades against a liquidity pool using a deterministic formula.
Approval Phishing
Phishing that tricks a user into granting a token approval that lets the attacker drain assets later.
DEX (Decentralized Exchange)
A peer-to-peer trading venue running on smart contracts, with no central custodian.
DORA (Digital Operational Resilience Act)
EU regulation requiring financial entities (including crypto-asset service providers) to manage ICT risk through documented controls and periodic threat-led penetration testing.
MEV (Maximal Extractable Value)
The value that can be extracted from block construction by reordering, including, or censoring transactions.
MiCA (Markets in Crypto-Assets)
The European Union's comprehensive regulatory framework for crypto-asset service providers and stablecoins.
MPC Wallet
A wallet using multi-party computation to split a single key across multiple parties so it never exists in one place.
Multi-Sig (Multi-Signature)
A wallet that requires multiple signatures from separate keys to approve a transaction.
Phishing
Social engineering attack that tricks a user into approving a malicious transaction or revealing credentials.
PSAN (Prestataire de Services sur Actifs Numériques)
France's regulated status for crypto-asset service providers, supervised by the AMF with technical security requirements set by ANSSI.
Reentrancy
A class of smart-contract vulnerability where an external call lets an attacker re-enter the calling function before its state is updated.
Responsible Disclosure
A practice in which security researchers privately notify a project of a vulnerability before publishing it.
Rollup
An L2 scaling solution that posts transaction data or proofs to an L1 to inherit its security.
Rug Pull
An exit scam where the team behind a project drains liquidity or steals funds, abandoning the project.
Safe (Gnosis Safe)
The leading multi-sig smart-contract wallet on EVM chains, used by most DAOs and protocol treasuries.
Sandwich Attack
An MEV strategy where an attacker places trades immediately before and after a victim's swap to extract slippage.
Smart Contract Audit
A manual and automated review of smart-contract code to identify security flaws before deployment.
Smart Contract Audit Report
The written deliverable of a smart contract audit, ranking each finding by severity with reproduction steps and remediation guidance.
Solidity
The dominant programming language for writing smart contracts on Ethereum and EVM chains.
Stablecoin
A cryptocurrency designed to maintain a stable price, usually pegged to USD.
