Glossary
Aavegotchi after reading GotchiGlossary
If you've just begun exploring the world of DeFi, welcome to this corner of the internet! This glossary aims to provide you with some information that will hopefully help you wrap your head around some DeFi basics. If you're completely new to this space, this glossary will also provide you with an overview of some terms you can expect to see when navigating the Aavegotchi world, to help boost your understanding further.
When you're done reading this and hopefully have a better understanding of these terms, feel free to hop over to the ONBOARDING SECTION and dive into ecosystem proper.
Aavegotchi-related
Aarchitect
Our community developers! Check out some of the tools and mini-games they have created. Get to know our Aarchitects here.
Aartist
Our aartistically-inclined frens from the Gotchi community. Our Aartists frens have designed some of the beaautiful wearables your Gotchis are wearing. Get to know them here.
Aavegotchi
Aavegotchis are pixelated ghosts living on the Ethereum blockchain, backed by the ERC-721 standard. Their value is determined by rarity level, which is calculated via multiple factors, such as base traits, amount of staked collateral, and equipped wearables.
Baadge
Baadges are non-transferable ERC-1155 NFTs that commemorate your Gotchi's participation in a special event. Once a Baadge is sent to your Gotchi, it resides in their Gotchi Pocket forever.
Baadges could be earned in a variety of ways:
- Getting into the Top 10/100 for Rarity Farming
- Participating in an event
- Voting in a major AavegotchiDAO vote
- Breaking a mini-game's high score
- .....And many more!
Keep your eyes out for more Baadges. They will be announced by the team as and when they become available.
Check out the Baadge page for the complete list of Baadges.
Baard
Enjoying those lovely chiptunes in some of our mini-games? They are created by our Baards, our community musicians!
Drop Tickets
Drop Tickets are ERC-1155 NFTs that are fully tradable on the Aavegotchi Baazaar. Each Drop Ticket represents one entry into the NFT Raffles, where you can win Aavegotchi Portals and REALM Parcels.
Raffle Tickets could also be converted into Drop Tickets.
Gotchi Pocket
Each Aavegotchi has a Gotchi Pocket. This serves as an inventory for them, allowing them to store equipped wearables, GHST tokens received from rarity farming, and Baadges.
Technically, a Gotchi Pocket is an escrow address.
Gotchus Alchemica Exchange
The native Decentralized Exchange (DEX) of Aavegotchi. It will support the trading of GHST-Gotchus Alchemica pairs. Check out the Gotchus Alchemica Exchange (GAX) page for more.
Haunts
Haunts are the editions of Aavegotchis. Haunt numbers are generated sequentially (e.g. Haunt 2 comes after Haunt 1) and these numbers are indicated on the Aavegotchi. There is no stats differences between Haunts.
Raffle Tickets
Raffle Tickets are tickets that are used to enter Raffles to win limited edition wearables. Raffle tickets are consumed upon use.
Raffle Tickets could also be converted into Drop Tickets for the purchase of REALM parcels.
Spirit Force
Spirit Force refers to the amount of collateral (maTokens) locked within the gotchi. Gamers can top up or reduce the amount of Spirit Force within the Aavegotchi. However, there is a minimum level of Spirit Force that an Aavegotchi requires, which is dependent on their Base Rarity Score.
Spirit Point
Spirit Point refers to the point a gotchi gets when it levels up. Kinda like stat points from RPG games. You get 1 spirit point per 3 levels.
uGOTCHI Token
uGOTCHI tokens are minted via Unicly and represent direct ownership of the uGOTCHI Collection. At launch, the collection is comprised of "The Aastronauts", the first five Aavegotchis to exist on Ethereum.
The collection includes some of the rarest and most expensive Aavegotchis to date. Even when nakey, these Aavegotchis already boast very high rarity scores and super rare eyes (the only traits that wearables can’t even affect a little bit). But these ERC-721 Aavegotchis are not the only NFTs in the collection. Each wearable they have equipped is also an ERC-1155 NFT, many of which are extremely rare and powerful items.
The Collection's Aavegotchis are still able to participate in Rarity Farming.
On 16 May 2021, Pixelcraft introduced Unopened Portal 2, the third lowest tokenID of Haunt 1, into the uGOTCHI collection.
For more details on the The Aastronauts and the uGOTCHI Token, check out the uGOTCHI Page.
Wearables
Clothing/equipment that your Aavegotchi wears. They conform to the ERC-1155 standard. Each wearable has their own rarity, stats that they improve or worsen, a maximum quantity, and an equipment slot that they take up.
Wearables can be won in Aavegotchi raffles or bought in the Aavegotchi Maall with GHST tokens.
Gotchiverse-specific
Lickquidator
The mortal enemies of Aavegotchis. Also, technically, their creators. Has a rapacious appetite for yield.
REALM Parcel
ERC721 NFT land owned in the Gotchiverse. Can equip Installations (Aaltar, Haarvester) and Tiles. Can also be surveyed and farm Alchemica.
Installations
ERC-1155 NFTs that can be placed on top of a REALM Parcel. Some have various purposes and utilities, and some are purely aesthetic.
Gotchus Alchemica
The building blocks of the Gotchiverse. Used to craft Installations and Tiles. Read the Gotchus Alchemica page for more information.
Vortex
A powerful portal between the Nether Realm (Gotchiverse) and Ether Realm (Ethereum) through which tokens can flow.
Spillover
Alchemica spread onto the surface of the Gotchiverse, whether by Alchemical Channeling, Reservoir emptying, or other special events.
Spillover Rate
The percentage of Alchemica that is spilled over during Alchemical Channeling or Reservoir emptying.
Spillover Radius
The distance that Alchemica is spilled during Alchemical Channeling or Reservoir emptying.
Alchemical Channeling
A ritual that summons Alchemica from the Gotchiverse to fall nearby an Aavegotchi.
Aesthetica
A subset of Installations. Purely a e s t h e t i c .
Tile
An ERC-1155 NFT that can be placed on a REALM parcel. Rests underneath the Installation layer.
Forge-specific
Schematic
Schematics are the blueprints for each specific wearable. Each wearable contains a schematic inside of it.
Core
Cores are what gives the wearable its BRS boosting power. Each Core represents two things: the rarity tier and the wearable slot.
Alloy
Alloy is the substance which forms all wearables in the Gotchiverse. It controls the overall supply of wearables. Depending on what you’re Forging, you’re going to need different amounts of Alloy.
Essence
If you want to craft Godlike items or Pets, you will need some Essence. The only way to obtain this mystical stuff is through Gotchi-sacrifice.
DeFi 101
"DeFi" stands for Decentralized Finance. It can be thought of as an ecosystem of applications and protocols that provide similar services to traditional financial institutions (ie, lending, borrowing, and accruing interests from saving, amongst others). However, there is one key difference - DeFi aims to do this in a decentralized manner with no middle man.
That means no banks taking a cut of your potential returns or providing you with negative interest rates. That also means no central point of failure where the entire system could collapse, or be subjected to a set of rules decided and implemented by a small group with concentrated power.
amTokens
amTokens are LP tokens from Aave's money market pools that is native to Polygon. They are NOT THE SAME as maTokens.
APY
APY stands for Annual Percentage Yield. This is the real rate of return earned on the savings you have deposited into a protocol, taking into account the effect of compounding your interest.
aTokens
aTokens are interest-bearing tokens from the Aave Protocol. For step-by-step instructions as to how to get aTokens, please refer to our Spirit Force page.
Automated Market Maker
A type of decentralized exchange (DEX) protocol that relies on a mathematical formula to price assets. Instead of using an order book like a traditional exchange, assets are priced according to a pricing algorithm.
This formula can vary with each protocol. For example, Uniswap uses x * y = k, where x is the amount of one token in the liquidity pool, and y is the amount of the other. In this formula, k is a fixed constant, meaning the pool’s total liquidity always has to remain the same. Other AMMs will use other formulas for the specific use cases they target. The similarity between all of them, however, is that they determine the prices algorithmically.
An AMM works similarly to an order book exchange in that there are trading pairs – for example, ETH/DAI. However, traders don't need to have a counterparty (another trader) on the other side to make a trade. Instead, they interact with a smart contract that “makes” the market for you.
Collateral
Collateral is a pretty straightforward concept. It refers to an asset you might put down as a form of guarantee to a lender, when borrowing money from them. If you cannot pay back your loan, your collateral will be used to pay your debt.
In the context of DeFi, this is how things might look:
Let's say you want to borrow some assets from a protocol. For this to happen, you will need to set down a portion of your other assets as collateral. If you don't pay your loan back, the protocol will not release your collateral back to you.
In the Aavegotchi metaverse, collaterals are also known as Spirit Force.
DAICO
Stands for Decentralized Autonomous Initial Coin Offering. It is a new fundraising method that seeks to incorporate the best features of a Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO) with those of an Initial Coin Offering (ICO) in order to create a structure that provides a higher level of effectiveness to the token sale fundraising model. A DAICO is a model whereby investors have control over the funds collected once the fundraising is over. The investors could influence how developers have access to the funds and at what frequency through a "tap" mechanism. In addition, investors can also vote to do away with the project and have their funds returned.
DAO
Otherwise known as a Decentralized Autonomous Organization. These are organizations that are organizations governed by rules as encoded by smart contracts and controlled by its members. This is as opposed to traditional organizational models, which often tend to be governed by a small group of authority figures.
In the context of the AavegotchiDAO, what this means is that members of the ecosystem will be able to initiate and vote on proposals that will influence how the larger ecosystem will run. For instance, members might propose to increase the number of Portals available over time, amongst any other feature that they feel would help improve the community.
For more a more detailed explainer on DAOs, check out this page .
DEX
Otherwise known as a Decentralized Exchange. Such platforms allow users to handle transactions in a peer-to-peer manner, to obtain tokens through a user's own wallet with the help of smart contracts. This is as opposed to the way CEXs (Centralized Exchanges) work, which operate through a middleman (the CEX itself).
Some examples of DEXs include UniSwap, SushiSwap, and Balancer.
Some examples of CEXs include Binance, Coinbase and OKex.
Impermanent Loss
The difference between holding tokens in an automated market maker (AMM) and holding them in your wallet. It occurs when the price of tokens inside an AMM diverge in any direction. The more divergence, the greater the impermanent loss. The loss is “impermanent” because as long as the relative prices of tokens in the AMM return to their original state when you entered the AMM, the loss disappears and you earn 100% of the trading fees. However, this is rarely the case. More often than not, impermanent loss becomes permanent, eating into your trade income or leaving you with negative returns. Also commonly referred to as Divergence loss.
Liquidity Pools
These are pools of tokens that are locked in a smart contract. They are in turn used to facilitate trading by providing liquidity.
For a more detailed breakdown of these terms, check out Finematics's guide.
maTokens
maTokens are representations of Aave V2's aTokens on Polygon. They are developed by our very own Nick Mudge.
For step-by-step instructions on how to convert aTokens on Ethereum Mainnet to maTokens on Polygon, do refer to this maTokens guide.
maTokens are not the same as amTokens.
In the Aavegotchi game, maTokens are used as Spirit Force/Collateral.
Oracles
In order for Smart Contracts to execute, certain conditions need to be met. Information about the presence of these conditions needs to be fed to the blockchain that the contract is on. This is because blockchains typically do not have ready access to information outside of the chain. This is where oracles come into the picture. These entities provide the necessary data to trigger smart contracts.
Smart Contracts
Generally speaking, a smart contract is a self-executing contract with the "terms of agreement" between the users of the contract being directly written into the code of the contract itself. When these predetermined terms and certain conditions are met, the contract executes.
Staking
Staking a cryptocurrency essentially means to hold that currency, to help verify transactions and support the network. In exchange for doing so, stakers typically receive some kind of reward. In the Aavegotchi world for instance, $GHST stakers are rewarded with GLTR that they can use to speed up the crafting and upgrading of their Installations in the Gotchiverse.
Yield Farming
Very simply put, yield farming is a practice that allows users to earn rewards by depositing and lending their assets in a particular protocol.
This can happen in a variety of ways, but the most common mechanism is when depositers/borrowers earn coins from a protocol, by simply staking their ERC-20 tokens and/or stable coins on its platform. Usually, these rewards are used to incentivize potential depositers and borrowers to add liquidity to a particular platform.
General Terms
Aragon
Aragon is an open-source, community-driven project with the mission to empower freedom by creating tools for decentralized organizations to thrive.
The flagship product of the project is the Aragon client, a tool for creating and participating in decentralized organizations on Ethereum. The project is also building the Aragon Network, the world's first digital jurisdiction.
The Aragon project is stewarded by the Aragon Association, a non-profit entity based in Zug, Switzerland, and governed by Aragon Network Token holders.
Check out their site here.
Bell Curve
A bell curve is a common type of distribution for a variable, also known as the normal distribution. The term "bell curve" originates from the fact that the graph used to depict a normal distribution consists of a symmetrical bell-shaped curve. See this page for more information.
Chainlink VRF
A Verifiable Randomness Function (VRF) developed by Chainlink to generate randomness that is verifiable on-chain. It is used to provide proof that smart contracts are indeed using a tamper-proof source of randomness beyond their control. In the Aavegotchi project, the Chainlink VRF is used to randomize the generation of traits at the point of portal opening, raffle prizes, and parcel surveying.
Read more about the Chainlink VRF here.
Diamond Standard
The Diamond Standard is created by our very own Nick Mudge. The Diamond Standard enables people to write contracts with virtually no size limit in a modular and gas-efficient way.
Diamonds can be upgraded on the fly without having to redeploy existing functionality.
Standardizes contract interfaces and implementation details of diamonds, enabling software integration and interoperability.
A diamond is a contract that implements the Specification in this standard.
See here for more information.
ERC-20
A token standard for fungible token, in other words, they have a property that makes each Token be exactly the same (in type and value) of another Token. It provides functionalities such as transferring tokens from one account to another, getting the current token balance of an account and also the total supply of the token available on the network. Besides these, it also has some other functionalities such as approving an amount of tokens that can be spent by a third party account. See here for more information.
ERC-721
A free, open standard that describes how to build non-fungible or unique tokens on the Ethereum blockchain. While most tokens are fungible (every token is the same as every other token), ERC-721 tokens are all unique.
Think of them like rare, one-of-a-kind collectables.
For a full explanation of what the ERC-721 standard entails, check it out here.
ERC-998
ERC-998 is an extension to the ERC-721 standard that adds the ability for non-fungible tokens to own other non-fungible tokens and ERC-20 tokens.
Non-fungible tokens that implement ERC998 also implement the ERC-721 standard.
For a full explanation of what the ERC-998 standard entails, check it out here.
ERC-1155
A novel token standard that aims to take the best from previous standards to create a fungibility-agnostic and gas-efficient token contract. A single deployed contract may include any combination of fungible tokens, non-fungible tokens or other configurations (e.g. semi-fungible tokens).
GBM Auction
A novel auction method in which bidders are paid an incentive when they are outbid in real-time during the auction. In short, a person taking part in a GBM auction either wins the auction or leaves with more money than they started with.
GBM stands for Gonnaud-Bessire-McDonaugh.
First pioneered by Cryptograph back in 2019, the GBM auction is a patent-pending system, and Pixelcraft Studios has officially been licensed to use it for all Aavegotchi NFT Drops, including Haunt 2, REALM, and even Wearables.
For more information on the GBM Auction, check out the Cryptograph GBM Auction blog post.
Metaverse
A metaverse is a virtual world where you can interact with aspects of the world itself (like games or shops) as well as with other users.
Some examples of metaverses include the Gotchiverse in addition to projects like Second Life and Decentraland.
Non-Fungible Token
A non-fungible token (NFT) is a special type of cryptographic token which represents something unique, meaning it cannot be swapped out for any other token. Non-fungible tokens typically represent ownership of items such as wearables, works of art, or any other type of property.
The opposite of a non-fungible token is one that can be exchanged for any other of its kind, like USDC or Bitcoin. Tokens that can be swapped 1:1 for a coin of the same kind are known as fungible tokens.
Polygon
Polygon (Formerly Matic Network) is a scaling solution for public blockchains. Based on an adapted implementation of Plasma framework (Plasma MoreVP) - with an account based implementation, Polygon supports all the existing Ethereum tooling along with faster and cheaper transactions.
To transfer tokens from the Ethereum Mainnet to Polygon, please refer to this guide.
Read more about Polygon here.
Proof of Stake
Proof of Stake (PoS) is a kind of consensus mechanism that blockchains can use to agree upon a single true record of data history. In a PoS blockchain, validators commit stake to attest (or ‘validate’) blocks into existence.
Validators are the participants on the network who run nodes (called validator nodes) to propose and attest blocks on a PoS blockchain. They do so by staking crypto (in the case of Ethereum 2.0, ETH) on the network and make themselves available to be randomly selected to propose a block. Other validators then “attest” that they have seen the block. When a sufficient number of attestations for the block has been collected, the block is added to the blockchain. Validators receive rewards both for successfully proposing blocks (just as they do in PoW) and for making attestations about blocks that they have seen.
Read more about the Proof of Stake consensus mechanism here.
QuickSwap
QuickSwap is a permissionless decentralized exchange (DEX) based on Ethereum, powered by Polygon’s Layer 2 scalability infrastructure. By utilizing Layer 2 for transactions, QuickSwap users will be able to trade any ERC20 asset at lightning-fast speeds with near-zero gas costs.
QuickSwap can be accessed here.
