What do the names of major brands in Crypto mean?

The world of cryptocurrencies hides a lot of interesting things, and sometimes the name of a project alone is enough to give one a headache to think about.

This is because projects are often inspired by complex technologies as a foundation, such as ZKSync (zero-knowledge proofs), or based on little-known stories in the history of cryptocurrencies.

Recently, The Block shared an article explaining the origin of the names of some famous cryptocurrency companies.

From familiar names like Binance, Coinbase, to philosophical names like DARMA Capital or Delphi Digital, they all contain interesting stories about the technology, vision, and mission of the founders.

Binance - Binary and Finance

“Binance” is a combination of “binary” and “finance”. Binary is an information representation system using only two symbols 0 and 1, which is the basis of all digital encryption/decryption systems. Finance is simply finance.

Binance wants to show the intersection of these two elements in the cryptocurrency sector.

Coinbase - Coinbase transaction

Coinbase, the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the United States, derives its name from “coinbase transaction” - a special type of transaction in the architecture of Bitcoin.

Coinbase transaction is the first transaction in each block, created by the trainer to receive block rewards. In other words, this is a transaction that puts new coins into circulation.

Castle Island Ventures - Name a place

This venture capital fund was founded by Nic Carter and Matt Walsh, two renowned investors and researchers in the industry. “Castle Island” is the name of a landmark in South Boston that served as a British army fort during the American War of Independence.

The acronym for foundation (CIV) is also a pun, alluding to the Civilization turn-based strategy game that Nic Carter loved.

Interestingly, Nic Carter had never been here when he founded the foundation, the name was chosen because Matt Walsh had many beautiful childhood memories here. Initially, Carter wanted to name the fund “Starling VC,” but was opposed by key investors.

Dragonfly Capital - Dragonfly signals spring

Dragonfly Capital is a well-known venture capital fund in the cryptocurrency sector. “Dragonfly” is inspired by the poem “The little pond” by Yang Wangli, a famous Song poet.

Dragonflies are the first animals to appear signaling spring. Co-founder Hasseb Qureshi believes that cryptocurrencies are like spring, bringing new beginnings to society, so the name Dragonfly is very appropriate.

DARMA Capital — Crypto Engaged Mission

Although the acronym “Digital Asset Risk Management Advisors” does not quite coincide with the concept of “dharma” (karma) in Buddhist philosophy, founder Andrew Keys said he was inspired by the word “dharma”.

One's Dharma is their life's mission, and Keys feels her mission is tied to the development of blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies.

Delphi Digital - Landmarks in Greece

“Delphi” is a famous place name in Greece, home to the temple of Apollo and famous for the prophecies of the Pythian priestess.

Just as the temple of Delphi is where people turn to for advice and guidance, Delphi Digital also aspires to be a reputable source of knowledge, leading the growth of the cryptocurrency industry.

In 2022, the company organized a sightseeing visit to the temple of Delphi.

Ostium - Latin inspiration

This decentralized trading platform aims to connect DeFi (decentralized finance) and TradFi (traditional finance).

“Ostium” in Latin means “port”, inspired by the ancient port city of Ostia Antica, an important trading center of the Roman empire.

Phylax - Guardian

“Phylax” in ancient Greek means “protector”. The name fits in with the project's goal of solving security issues in the cryptocurrency sector.

Phylax is developing a “trusted layer” for Ethereum, making it easier for developers to test and prevent attacks on their projects.

Polygon - Polygon

Polygon's layer 2 network was originally named Matic, in reference to the Plasma technology the platform uses to scale Ethereum.

Later, as Polygon expanded into the multi-chain ecosystem, the name “Polygon” (polygon) was chosen to represent this vision. Polygon wants to become the “Internet of Blockchains”, connecting different blockchains to each other.

Scroll - As easy as surfing the phone

The name is both a pun (“Scaling with a RollUp”, “Smart Contract RollUp”), and represents the project's goal of scaling Ethereum and building user-friendly tools.

The development team wants users to be able to interact with Scroll as easily as if they were “surfing” their phones.

SingularityNET - Artificial Intelligence surpasses humans

The “singularity” is the hypothetical moment when artificial intelligence overtook human intelligence.

SingularityNET is a platform that helps AIs connect and collaborate with each other, towards creating a more “transcendent” AI in the future. They want to create a world where AI can help people, not pose a threat.

Superstate - Superimposed state

Prior to founding Superstate, CEO Rob Leshner created the decentralized lending platform Compound. “Compound” is a simple, understandable name that properly demonstrates the functionality of the platform.

But coming to naming the Superstate is much harder. Finally, they chose a term in quantum physics as “superstate” (superposition state). Simply put, a “superstate” is like something that can both exist in the real world and exist in the virtual world (blockchain) at the same time.

The name sounds complicated, but it reflects exactly what Superstate is trying to do: connect real-world assets to the blockchain world.

Tron - Towards a Decentralized Ideal

Justin Sun is not afraid to admit that he was inspired by the movie “TRON” when naming his blockchain.

The film is about the fight against centralized control, which is in line with the decentralized ideal of blockchain and is also the core principle of Tron.

The above are just some good examples of the origin of the names of famous brands in the field of cryptocurrencies. Each name has its own meaning, reflecting the vision, mission and also the interesting story behind the project.

The world of cryptocurrencies is always hiding something new and unexpected. In the future, there will certainly be more projects with unique names and meanings. And who knows, you yourself will be the creator of one of them?