Guide to 2021's tech buzzwords

This year, technology chief executive officers drew inspiration from a 1990s sci-fi novel while Reddit investors' lexicon seeped into the mainstream as 'diamond hands' and 'apes' shook Wall Street. If you are still scratching your head as the year wraps up, here is a short glossary.

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ALTCOIN

The term covers all cryptocurrencies aside from Bitcoin, ranging from Ethereum, which aims to be the backbone of a future financial system, to Dogecoin, a digital currency originally created as a joke and popularised by Tesla CEO Elon Musk.

A decentralised autonomous organisation (DAO) is generally an Internet community owned by its members and run on blockchain technology. DAOs use smart contracts - pieces of code that establish the group's rules - and automatically execute decisions.

In recent months, crowd-funded crypto group ConstitutionDAO tried and failed to buy a rare copy of the US Constitution in an auction held by Sotheby's.

Decentralising, or the transfer of power and operations from central authorities like companies or governments to the hands of users, emerged as a key theme in the tech industry.

Such shifts could affect everything from how industries and markets are organised to functions like content moderation of platforms. Twitter, for example, is investing in a project to build a decentralised common standard for social networks, dubbed Bluesky.

Fabs, short for semiconductor fabrication plants, entered the mainstream lexicon this year as a shortage of chips from fabs was blamed for the global shortage of everything from cars to gadgets.

Tesla released a test version of its upgraded Full Self-Driving (FSD) software - a system of driving-assistance features like automatically changing lanes and making turns - to the wider public this year. The name of the much-scrutinised software has itself been contentious, with regulators and users saying it misrepresents the system's capabilities as driver attention is still required.

GameFi is a broad term referring to the trend of gamers earning cryptocurrency through playing video games, with players making money through mechanisms like getting financial tokens for winning battles in the popular game Axie Infinity.

The metaverse broadly refers to shared, immersive digital environments which people can move between and may access via virtual reality or augmented reality headsets or computer screens.

Some tech CEOs are betting that it will be the successor to the mobile Internet. The term was coined in the dystopian novel Snow Crash three decades ago. This year, CEOs of tech companies from Microsoft to Match Group have discussed their roles in building the metaverse. In October, Facebook renamed itself Meta to reflect its new metaverse focus.

A term popularised this year, thanks to the COP26 or United Nations climate talks in Glasgow, net zero means a country, company or product does not contribute to global greenhouse gas emissions. This is usually accomplished by cutting emissions, such as through reducing the use of fossil fuels, and balancing any remaining emissions with efforts to soak up carbon, like planting trees.

Critics say any emissions are unacceptable.

Non-fungible tokens (NFTs), which exploded in popularity this year, are a type of digital asset that exists on a blockchain, which is a record of transactions kept on networked computers.

In March, a digital collage by American artist Beeple sold for nearly US$70 million (S$95 million) at Christie's, the first-ever sale by a major auction house of art that does not exist in physical form. The work was connected to an NFT offering proof of ownership.

Tech companies waxed lyrical this year about tools for live audio conversations, rushing to release features after the buzzy, once invite-only app, Clubhouse, saw an initial surge amid Covid-19 lockdowns.

This deliberate misspelling of "stocks", which originated with an Internet meme, made headlines as online traders congregating in forums like Reddit's WallStreetBets drove up stocks including GameStop and AMC.

The lingo of these traders, calling themselves "apes" or praising the "diamond hands" who held positions during big market swings, has become mainstream.

Web3 is used to describe a potential next phase of the Internet: a decentralised Internet run on record-keeping technology blockchain.

This model, where users would have ownership stakes in platforms and applications, would differ from today's Internet, known as Web2, where a few major tech giants like Facebook and Alphabet's Google control the platforms.

REUTERS