OGGlossary OSSolana vocabulary rebuilt for builders.
ENPT-BRES
Web3

Protocol (DeFi)

A set of smart contracts deployed on-chain that together provide a specific decentralized financial service such as lending, trading, or liquid staking. Each DeFi protocol defines its own rules for deposits, withdrawals, fees, and governance through immutable or upgradeable program logic. Examples on Solana include Marinade (liquid staking), Raydium (AMM), Drift (perpetuals), and Kamino (automated vaults). Users interact with protocols by sending transactions to their program addresses.

IDprotocol-defiAliasDeFi Protocol
Plain meaning

Plain meaning

Start with the shortest useful explanation before going deeper.

A set of smart contracts deployed on-chain that together provide a specific decentralized financial service such as lending, trading, or liquid staking. Each DeFi protocol defines its own rules for deposits, withdrawals, fees, and governance through immutable or upgradeable program logic. Examples on Solana include Marinade (liquid staking), Raydium (AMM), Drift (perpetuals), and Kamino (automated vaults). Users interact with protocols by sending transactions to their program addresses.

Mental model

Mental model

Use the quick analogy first so the term is easier to reason about when you meet it in code, docs, or prompts.

Think of it as a building block that connects one definition to the larger Solana system around it.

Technical context

Technical context

Place the term inside its Solana layer so the definition is easier to reason about.

Wallets, signing flows, dApps, and key management concepts.

Why builders care

Why builders care

Turn the term from vocabulary into something operational for product and engineering work.

This term unlocks adjacent concepts quickly, so it works best when you treat it as a junction instead of an isolated definition.

AI handoff

AI handoff

Use this compact block when you want to give an agent or assistant grounded context without dumping the entire page.

Protocol (DeFi) (protocol-defi)
Category: Web3
Definition: A set of smart contracts deployed on-chain that together provide a specific decentralized financial service such as lending, trading, or liquid staking. Each DeFi protocol defines its own rules for deposits, withdrawals, fees, and governance through immutable or upgradeable program logic. Examples on Solana include Marinade (liquid staking), Raydium (AMM), Drift (perpetuals), and Kamino (automated vaults). Users interact with protocols by sending transactions to their program addresses.
Aliases: DeFi Protocol
Related: DeFi (Decentralized Finance), Smart Contract, Composability
Glossary Copilot

Ask grounded Solana questions without leaving the glossary.

Use glossary context, relationships, mental models, and builder paths to get structured answers instead of generic chat output.

Open full Copilot workspace
Explain this code

Optional: paste Anchor, Solana, or Rust code so the Copilot can map primitives back to glossary terms.

Ask a glossary-grounded question

Ask a glossary-grounded question

The Copilot will answer using the current term, related concepts, mental models, and the surrounding glossary graph.

Concept graph

See the term as part of a network, not a dead-end definition.

These branches show which concepts this term touches directly and what sits one layer beyond them.

Branch

DeFi (Decentralized Finance)

Financial services built on blockchain smart contracts that operate without traditional intermediaries (banks, brokers). DeFi includes lending, borrowing, trading, insurance, and derivatives. Key properties: permissionless (anyone can participate), composable (protocols can be combined), transparent (open-source, auditable). Solana DeFi TVL has exceeded $5B, led by Jupiter, Raydium, Marinade, and Kamino.

AMM (Automated Market Maker)Lending Protocol
Open term
Branch

Smart Contract

Self-executing code deployed on a blockchain that automatically enforces the terms of an agreement when conditions are met. Smart contracts are immutable once deployed (unless upgradeable), transparent, and trustless. On Solana they're called 'programs'; on Ethereum they're written in Solidity and run on the EVM. They enable DeFi, NFTs, DAOs, and other decentralized applications.

ProgramEVM (Ethereum Virtual Machine)
Open term
Branch

Composability

The ability of blockchain protocols to interact with and build upon each other like building blocks ('money legos'). A lending protocol can accept LP tokens as collateral, which were minted by a DEX, which uses an oracle for pricing—all in a single transaction. Solana's CPI mechanism and shared account model make composability a core design principle.

Cross-Program Invocation (CPI)
Open term
Next concepts to explore

Keep the learning chain moving instead of stopping at one definition.

These are the next concepts worth opening if you want this term to make more sense inside a real Solana workflow.

Web3

DeFi (Decentralized Finance)

Financial services built on blockchain smart contracts that operate without traditional intermediaries (banks, brokers). DeFi includes lending, borrowing, trading, insurance, and derivatives. Key properties: permissionless (anyone can participate), composable (protocols can be combined), transparent (open-source, auditable). Solana DeFi TVL has exceeded $5B, led by Jupiter, Raydium, Marinade, and Kamino.

Open term
Blockchain General

Smart Contract

Self-executing code deployed on a blockchain that automatically enforces the terms of an agreement when conditions are met. Smart contracts are immutable once deployed (unless upgradeable), transparent, and trustless. On Solana they're called 'programs'; on Ethereum they're written in Solidity and run on the EVM. They enable DeFi, NFTs, DAOs, and other decentralized applications.

Open term
Web3

Composability

The ability of blockchain protocols to interact with and build upon each other like building blocks ('money legos'). A lending protocol can accept LP tokens as collateral, which were minted by a DEX, which uses an oracle for pricing—all in a single transaction. Solana's CPI mechanism and shared account model make composability a core design principle.

Open term
Web3

Pump and Dump

Market manipulation scheme where promoters accumulate a low-cap token, artificially inflate its price through coordinated hype (social media shilling, fake partnerships), then sell their holdings at the peak, crashing the price. Especially prevalent with memecoins on Solana due to low launch costs on platforms like pump.fun.

Open term
Commonly confused with

Terms nearby in vocabulary, acronym, or conceptual neighborhood.

These entries are easy to mix up when you are reading quickly, prompting an LLM, or onboarding into a new layer of Solana.

Web3defi-general

DeFi (Decentralized Finance)

Financial services built on blockchain smart contracts that operate without traditional intermediaries (banks, brokers). DeFi includes lending, borrowing, trading, insurance, and derivatives. Key properties: permissionless (anyone can participate), composable (protocols can be combined), transparent (open-source, auditable). Solana DeFi TVL has exceeded $5B, led by Jupiter, Raydium, Marinade, and Kamino.

AliasDeFi
Open term
Related terms

Follow the concepts that give this term its actual context.

Glossary entries become useful when they are connected. These links are the shortest path to adjacent ideas.

Web3defi-general

DeFi (Decentralized Finance)

Financial services built on blockchain smart contracts that operate without traditional intermediaries (banks, brokers). DeFi includes lending, borrowing, trading, insurance, and derivatives. Key properties: permissionless (anyone can participate), composable (protocols can be combined), transparent (open-source, auditable). Solana DeFi TVL has exceeded $5B, led by Jupiter, Raydium, Marinade, and Kamino.

Open term
Blockchain Generalsmart-contract-general

Smart Contract

Self-executing code deployed on a blockchain that automatically enforces the terms of an agreement when conditions are met. Smart contracts are immutable once deployed (unless upgradeable), transparent, and trustless. On Solana they're called 'programs'; on Ethereum they're written in Solidity and run on the EVM. They enable DeFi, NFTs, DAOs, and other decentralized applications.

Open term
Web3composability

Composability

The ability of blockchain protocols to interact with and build upon each other like building blocks ('money legos'). A lending protocol can accept LP tokens as collateral, which were minted by a DEX, which uses an oracle for pricing—all in a single transaction. Solana's CPI mechanism and shared account model make composability a core design principle.

Open term
More in category

Stay in the same layer and keep building context.

These entries live beside the current term and help the page feel like part of a larger knowledge graph instead of a dead end.

Web3

Web3

The vision of a decentralized internet built on blockchain technology, where users own their data, identity, and digital assets. Web1 was read-only (static pages), Web2 is read-write (platforms like social media), Web3 is read-write-own (permissionless, user-sovereign). Web3 applications use wallets instead of logins and smart contracts instead of centralized servers.

Open term
Web3

dApp (Decentralized Application)

An application with its backend logic running on a blockchain as smart contracts rather than centralized servers. dApps typically have a traditional web frontend that interacts with on-chain programs via RPC. Users authenticate with wallets instead of username/password. Examples: Uniswap (Ethereum DEX), Jupiter (Solana DEX), Magic Eden (NFT marketplace).

Open term
Web3

Wallet

Software or hardware that manages cryptographic keys and enables users to sign transactions, view balances, and interact with dApps. Hot wallets (Phantom, Solflare, Backpack) are internet-connected for convenience. Cold wallets (Ledger, Trezor) store keys offline for security. Wallets don't actually 'hold' tokens—they hold the private keys that control on-chain accounts.

Open term
Web3

Seed Phrase (Mnemonic)

A 12 or 24-word human-readable backup of a wallet's master private key, generated using BIP-39 standard. The seed phrase can deterministically regenerate all derived keypairs (BIP-44 derivation paths). Losing the seed phrase means permanently losing access to all associated accounts. Never share, photograph, or store seed phrases digitally in plain text.

Open term