One thing that is great about joining the NFT Community at this particular point in time (11/2021 at the writing of this article) is that basically, everyone is still kind of “new”.
So you don’t really have to worry about not knowing the cool new lingo so much because it’s still being adopted and made up as the community grows.
(Plus, the people in the NFT world are actually really nice).
But, it is kind of confusing at first. It’s nothing like your normal Twitter timeline.
I can remember, before I got on NFT Twitter, opening my timeline and wanting to return back to the real world right away because it was all bad news and nasty people.
But it’s a whole different world when your feed is full of NFT people. They are actually kind and funny and helpful.
So while it’s fun to learn these creative new words, don’t be intimidated by them either. They are spoken by your future frens*.
(*we’ll learn this one in a minute).
19 Phrases You’ll See Over & Over on NFT Twitter & Discord
#1 gm
We’ll start off with the essential and simple gm. Stands for Good Morning.
This is kind of like the NFT secret handshake. It doesn’t have to be morning. If you see someone say “gm!”, you say it back. It’s the rules.
In my mind, when I see a “gm” I imagine a slight chin nod of acknowledgment along with it.
#2 gn
Following up on gm is of course, gn for good night.
What’s great about gm and gn is first of all the community is global so you can see gm and gn at any hour of your day because of time zones.
But I also love to see a gn from someone and it’s 6am their time. It’s a different world where people are not so ruled by normal schedules.
#3 gmi/wagmi
You’ll see there’s no particular order here, but I did choose gmi to be third after the all important gm/gn because it is my personal favorite acronym that I’ve learned since joining the NFT world.
It stands for Gonna Make It! or We All Gonna Make It. It’s to celebrate a win like minting a rare NFT from a drop that sold out in 30 seconds.
If you weren’t sure before, you feel sure now that you are gonna make it because suddenly it all seems so possible.
The flip side of wagmi is ngmi.
That’s “Not Gonna Make It”. It’s used best when referring to someone who is showing a bit of a lack of faith.
You listed your NFT because the floor dropped a few SOL for a day? ngmi.
#4 Drop
Drop is used as a verb and a noun in the NFT world. The “Solstead drop is coming up” refers to the date the NFTs for that project can be minted.
Or you could use it like, “When are you going to drop your own NFT project?”
#5 Mint
Minting refers to the process of getting digital art on the blockchain. (Oh I guess we have to do blockchain next..)
For the non-technical of us, what is important to understand is that minting is the first time one or a series of NFTs is available to be purchased.
Minting is a dopamine hit. You never really know for sure what you are going to get or whether you will get anything at all before the project sells out.
It’s very exciting.
#6 Blockchain
The blockchain is a ledger. It’s a record of all of the transactions that happen and it is basically unhackable and infallible.
There are two that you’ll hear about most when it comes to NFTs, Ethereum and Solana.
It holds the proof that YOU own the token that is represented by the cute Bear you bought with some SOL. It’s the part that the “can’t you just right-click-save?” people don’t understand.
#4 Wen
Wen is when and I don’t know why that was not completely obvious to me the first time I saw it, but it wasn’t.
It’s usually used as a question: Wen? or Wen drop?
It’s a chant you might see from a very excited Discord community on or just before minting day.
#5 Fren(s)
Fren is friend. I don’t know why it is comforting to see or hear, but it is.
It’s like all the hard sounds are taken out and left behind a cozy little term of endearment.
#6 Rugged
Rugged is bad.
It means an NFT project was minted and then the creators split.
They pulled the rug out from under the people that minted NFTs from their project in good faith and have no intention of doing any of the things they promised that would to help build a valuable NFT community.
Basically, if you’ve been rugged, the NFT you minted is practically worthless.
#7 Fiat
Fiat is the money you use when you go to Target. It’s the money you have that is backed by your government. It’s the opposite of crypto.
It’s also used to describe anything outside of the realm of your crypto life. As in, “I love my crypto Twitter account. I never look at my Fiat Twitter anymore”.
#8 Liquidity
If you have liquidity then you have some SOL or ETH to buy the NFT that you want.
If you are illiquid, you’ve spent all your SOL or ETH (guess we’ll talk about SOL and ETH next) to buy NFTs. So your wallet is probably full of art, but if you wanted to buy more, you’re going to make a move. Either sell some NFT’s or get yourself more SOL or ETH.
#9 SOL, ETH
SOL is the currency that you’ll need to purchase NFTs that are on the Solana blockchain.
ETH is the currency that you’ll need to purchase NFTs on the Ethereum blockchain.
There are others, too like ADA for the Cardano blockchain, but SOL and ETH are the big players at the moment.
#10 Right Click Save As
This is used to describe the people who do not understand NFTs and Blockchain technology.
As in, “She’s a “right-click save as-er” (doesn’t understand the difference between a non-fungible token and a picture you can save to your desktop.
Right-click Save As-ers are ngmi.
#11 Floor
Floor or floor price is generally used to define the lowest price offered on a Marketplace for a particular NFT. So for instance, “The floor for Solsteads right now is 50 SOL”.
That’s the cheapest one you can buy right now.
You’ll often hear, “Solsteads minted at 2 SOL and now the floor is 50!”.
#12 LFG
Let’s Fucking Go. To be honest this isn’t an NFT thing. I think it started with Tom Brady and, well, I’m not a fan so you won’t catch me saying this one.
But you will see statements like, “Solsteads floor is at 50 SOL! LFG!!!!!”
#13 1/1 of 10,000
There are NFT’s that are 1:1. Just one unique piece.
But, then, there are collections of NFTs at are 1/1 of 10,000. That’s 10,000 in one cohesive collection where each in the collection is completely unique.
#14 Rekt
I don’t think it’s hard to see that Rekt is not good.
Rekt means you lost. Money, usually. Maybe some pride, too.
You might hear, I got rekt on that BallerApes mint. They rugged and now I’m stuck with these worthless jpegs.
#15 Normie
Normies are sort of like the Right-Click Save As people.
But they are generally not even aware of NFTs as a thing, so they won’t even give you the, “Can’t you just right-click save that pic??” argument.
They will give you more of that blank stare when you start talking about NFTs.
#16 BTD or BTFD
BTD is Buy The Dip. It’s probably more often heard when referring to trading crypto, but it’s a good reminder if you are in NFTs, too.
Sometimes prices dip and the optimistic way to look at a dip, is to remember that it might be an excellent time to buy.
#17 Paperhands/Diamondhands
You’re going to hear these two a lot.
Paperhands are basically people that sell their NFTs for a quick profit. I don’t like this one and I don’t like how it’s used.
I don’t have a problem with people making a quick profit. It’s part of the game. If everyone held every NFT they ever bought, what would happen?
Diamondhands are the opposite.They are the people who hold one or some NFTs for the long term. This is great. It means you feel a connection to that NFT whether because of the art or the community or some other reason.
But no one Diamondhands everything. Part of the fun of NFTs is the opportunity to make some money, so occasionally selling for a few bucks is perfectly fine by me.
#18 Bearwhale
Bearwhale is kind of niche slang, but I think it’s a really creative term so I wanted to include it in the list.
According to my friend @salty3434, a bearwhale is a trader who is a whale but believes the market will come down thus sells off and brings the entire market down temporarily.
#19 Doxxed/Undoxxed
The world crypto and NFTs is big on anonymity. In fact, you’ll often see Tweets that address “anon” where anon is the collective “you”.
Almost no one uses their real names and also almost no one uses their own picture as an avatar.
So most people in NFTs are Undoxxed. You don’t know who they are and that’s perfectly fine.
Sometimes, in order to help build trust, a project team for an NFT wil be “doxxed”. Meaning they share some personal information and maybe a picture of themselves, like we did here as the Boopieverse team.
#20 Burner Wallet
This sounds sketchy.
It’s not. It’s very smart. When you mint, you should use a “burner wallet” that has only enough Sol (or ETH or whatever in it to cover the cost of minting.
No other NFTs and not every cent you have invested in crypto either. Just to be on the safe side. This is very easy to do in pretty much any wallet.
Now That You Can Speak the Language…
Hop into a Discord or start tweeting. The NFT community will welcome you!
WGMI!! LFGGGG!
PS! Special thank you to @salty3434, @oddbeetroot and @tekjed from the Boopieverse community for helping with the list!