Learn the language of the Web3 world

GM Reds! Manchester United has spent the past century defining football for fans around the world. With our first range of digital collectibles, our community will help us create the next one, using the power of Web3. 

Before you register for the club's official digital collectibles, take a moment to learn some of the lingo. It will help you on your journey as we travel through Web3 together. To the moon!

ACRONYMS AND INITIALISMS

All cultures have their own in-jokes and made-up terms. Web3 is no different; it’s quickly creating a whole new dictionary of special lingo and secret phrases. Take a look at the acronyms and initialisms below so you can speak the same language as seasoned veterans. 

 

• DYOR: stands for Do Your Own Research. Football coaches would never go into a game without scouting the opposition. Similarly, no one should own or trade digital collectibles before carrying out their own diligence.

• GM: stands for Good Morning. A popular greeting in Web3 circles that people say at the start of the day.

• GN: stands for Good Night. People use this to say goodbye at the end of the day. 

• GMMU: Good Morning Man Utd. This term is quickly catching on among United’s Web3 community on Discord. It’s a play on words of GGMU: Glory Glory Man Utd.

• WGMI - We’re Gonna Make It. Community members use this term to encourage each other. For example, United fans could say it at the start of a Premier League season or when we’re 2-1 up in the 90th minute.

SLANG

The section above contains longer phrases shortened down to a few letters. This section defines unusual words and expressions that you’re certain to come across on your Web3 journey. They don’t make complete sense when you first see them. But just like VAR, which took a bit of getting used to, the words below will become second nature in no time. 

• Wen: a deliberate misspelling of When. People often start a question about a project’s prospects with Wen, like ‘Wen Premier League?’. This would mean, ‘When will United win the Premier League?’

• Diamond Hands: these are people who hold digital collectibles through the bad times, because they believe in the project. Similar to football fans who stick by their team through rough patches.

• Probably nothing: this is a jokey term in online circles, and people use it to ironically downplay a significant event. Someone might say, ‘Probably nothing, but United just had their best start to a Premier League season in 11 years.’ 

• Rekt: deliberate misspelling of Wrecked. This is when a person loses lots of money through a bad trade or investment. It means their funds are wiped out, like when a football club goes into administration.

• To The Moon: this is Web3 speak for saying that a project or a token price is going to keep going up and up. E.g. with Erik ten Hag in charge at Manchester United, we’re going to the moon.

SAFETY

We prioritise our community’s safety above everything, in the real world and the digital. So while you’ll be safe when you’re using our platforms, it’s always wise to know how to stay protected if you venture out into the wider world of Web3. The terms below will help you do that.

 

• Digital wallet: also known as a Web3 wallet, you can use these to store cryptocurrencies or NFTs. They also act as your gateway to the blockchain, like a special access card.

• Public Key: this is a unique sequence of numbers and letters that acts as the address for your digital wallet. You can share it with people so they can send you digital collectibles.  Sharing your public key is completely safe; no one will be able to steal or impersonate you just by knowing your public key.

• Private Key: this is like a password for accessing your digital wallet. Never share your private key with anyone. If they have it, they can access your wallet and take what’s in there.

• Rug Pulls: from the term ‘pulling the rug out from your feet’, rug pulls are when a project team or a platform intentionally deceives users in order to take their money. To avoid rug pulls, always research a project before buying into it. 

• Phishing: these are fake messages from bad actors who want to trick people into something. Phishing attacks usually come in the form of dodgy links via email, Discord and Twitter.

COLLECTIBLES

Digital collectibles are at the heart of Manchester United’s Web3 project. We’re taking memorabilia that you know and love - like football stickers and match day programmes - but evolving them with the power of Web3. Here are some of the terms that are common in collectibles chat.

 

• 1/1: also known as one of one, these are collectibles that are completely unique. For instance, football stickers are not 1/1 because there are multiple versions of the same sticker. Bruno Fernandes is a 1/1 because there’s only one of him. 

• Traits: these are the features of a collectible. Different traits can give a collectible different levels of rarity and value. It’s similar to how a United shirt’s traits are colour, sleeve length, collar, crest and sponsor logo position.

• PFP: this stands for Profile Picture. It’s a type of NFT-based art that people use as their image on social media. Some PFPs can have use beyond just being a picture; they can give you priority tickets to football games or special access to your favourite player.

• Mint: minting is the process of publishing a collectible onto a blockchain. Once it’s minted, it can be owned, shown to friends, or traded.

• Floor price: the lowest market price for a collectible. Items selling at floor price are often those with the least valuable traits or those that the holder wants to sell quickly.

TECHNOLOGY

Without the tools that underpin Web3, we wouldn’t be able to offer our fans secure ownership over their very own piece of Man Utd heritage. Learning and understanding what the terms below mean will help you understand what makes this new technology so revolutionary.

 

• Blockchain: these are linked-up collections of records that can’t be tampered with or rewritten. Once a new block of transactions is recorded and added to the chain, it is saved securely for eternity. Anyone is able to look up any record on a blockchain using free search engines on the internet. Blockchains are the basis of the Web3 revolution.

• Nodes: thousands of separate nodes store a blockchain’s full history of records. This stops any single person or entity from falsifying the recorded data, because the information is not kept in one place. Nodes are distributed globally across thousands of people’s personal computers. Anyone can volunteer to run a node, in order to keep the blockchain secure.

• Cryptocurrency: each blockchain has its own cryptocurrency and users need to pay a small amount of it to use the blockchain’s services. With Tezos, the club’s official blockchain partner, usersyou pay in XTZ to carry out transactions on the network. 

• Gas: the small fees you need to pay (in cryptocurrency) to make a blockchain transaction. Gas fees go to the people who run nodes as their reward for securing the network.

• Smart Contract: these are agreements that automatically execute on a blockchain when certain criteria are met. For example, if United bought a player using smart contracts, the payment would be sent via blockchain the moment the player turned up at Old Trafford and signed on the dotted line.