Glossary
Sui words, in plain English
Short definitions for the words you'll run into. Education only, never price talk.
- Address
- A long string starting with 0x that identifies a place on Sui where coins and items can live. Like an account number, it's safe to share so people can send you things.
- Airdrop
- Free tokens sent to many wallets. Real ones exist, but "claim your airdrop" links are one of the most common scams. If it asks you to connect a wallet or sign something, slow down.
- Blockchain
- A shared record that many computers keep in sync, so no single company controls it. Sui is a blockchain.
- Bridged (wrapped) token
- A copy of a token from another network, made usable on Sui by a bridge. It can share a name with the original, like "USDC," but it isn't the same coin. See: Accepting stablecoins
- Custodial / non-custodial
- Custodial means a company holds your coins for you, like an exchange. Non-custodial (self-custody) means only you can move them, and only you are responsible for access. See: Wallets without a seed phrase
- DeepBook
- A shared trading engine built into the Sui ecosystem that apps plug into to match buy and sell orders. Most people only use it indirectly, through an app.
- Epoch
- Sui's unit of time for bookkeeping, roughly one day. Staking rewards and some settings update each epoch.
- Explorer
- A website that shows public Sui activity. Paste an address or transaction ID to see what happened. Useful for checking that a payment really arrived. See: Accepting stablecoins
- Gas
- The small network fee for doing anything on Sui. It's paid in SUI unless an app pays it for you.
- Mainnet / testnet
- Mainnet is the real Sui network with real value. Testnet is a practice copy for developers, where tokens are worthless.
- Move
- The programming language used to write apps (smart contracts) on Sui.
- Multisig
- A wallet that needs approval from more than one key, or lets any of several keys work. Useful for backups and for business accounts where two people must approve. See: Wallets without a seed phrase
- Mysten Labs
- The company that originally built Sui and makes the Slush wallet. It is separate from the Sui Foundation.
- Nautilus
- A Sui tool that lets an app run a calculation off the blockchain in a sealed, checkable environment, then prove the result on-chain.
- NFT
- A one-of-a-kind item on a blockchain, like a ticket, a game item or art. On Sui, NFTs are objects.
- Object
- Sui's basic building block. Coins, NFTs and app data are all objects, and each one has an owner and its own ID.
- Passkey
- A login that unlocks with Face ID, a fingerprint or your device PIN instead of a password. On Sui a passkey can sign transactions, and it only works on the site that created it, which blocks lookalike sites. See: Wallets without a seed phrase
- Phishing
- A fake website, message or pop-up built to trick you into giving up a login, a code or a recovery phrase, or approving a bad transaction. See: Spotting fake sign-ins
- Private key
- The secret that controls a wallet. Your recovery phrase is a human-readable way to back it up. Never share either.
- Recovery phrase (seed phrase)
- Usually 12 or 24 words that can restore a wallet anywhere. Whoever has them controls the wallet. No real support person will ever ask for them. See: Phantom to Slush
- Salt
- A hidden number used with your Google or Apple login to work out your zkLogin address. The wallet usually stores it for you. If it's lost, that address can't be reached. See: Wallets without a seed phrase
- Seal
- A Sui tool for locking data with encryption and setting rules about who can unlock it, such as paying subscribers.
- Self-custody
- Holding your own coins with no company in between. You have full control, and full responsibility for keeping access.
- Slush
- The Sui wallet made by Mysten Labs. It runs in a browser, as a phone app or on the web, and supports both Google or Apple sign-in and recovery phrases. See: Phantom to Slush
- Sponsored transaction
- A transaction where an app pays the gas fee for you. The app pays the fee but doesn't decide what the transaction does, and you still have to approve it. See: What apps can and can't do
- Stablecoin
- A token designed to stay worth a fixed amount, usually one US dollar, backed by the company that issues it. Examples on Sui include USDC and USDsui. See: Accepting stablecoins
- Staking
- Assigning your SUI to a validator to help secure the network. Staked SUI stays yours, and the network pays rewards for it. Rewards and rules vary, so read the details first.
- SUI
- The Sui network's own token, used for gas and staking. We write "Sui" for the network and "SUI" for the token.
- Sui
- A public blockchain network. Not to be confused with SUI, its token.
- Sui Foundation
- The nonprofit that supports the Sui network's growth. Sui Harbor is not affiliated with it.
- SuiNS (.sui names)
- Sui's name service. It lets a readable name like name.sui, also written @name, point to an address, so you don't have to copy long strings.
- Token
- A digital asset on a blockchain. SUI, USDC and USDsui are all tokens on Sui.
- Transaction
- Any action recorded on Sui, like sending coins or using an app. Each one gets a transaction ID (also called a digest) you can look up.
- USDC
- A dollar stablecoin issued by Circle. "Native" USDC is issued directly on Sui. Check that you have the native version, not a bridged copy. See: Accepting stablecoins
- USDsui (Sui Dollar)
- A dollar stablecoin for Sui issued by Bridge, a Stripe company. It went live in March 2026. See: Accepting stablecoins
- Validator
- One of the computers, run by independent operators, that check transactions and keep Sui running.
- Wallet
- An app that shows what's at your address and lets you approve transactions. It's a window into the network, not where your coins are stored. See: Phantom to Slush
- Walrus
- A storage network built alongside Sui for large files like images, video and app data.
- zkLogin
- Sui's built-in way to open a wallet by signing in with Google, Apple, Facebook or Twitch. There's no seed phrase, and Google never learns your wallet address. See: Wallets without a seed phrase
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