All terms
A score a protocol awards for usage, often hinting at a future airdrop without promising one.
Points programs award a number for depositing, trading or referring, displayed on a leaderboard. The unstated implication is that points will convert to tokens later. Protocols are careful not to promise this, because promising it changes the legal character of the thing entirely.
The result is people committing real capital and taking real risk in pursuit of a reward that has not been defined and may not arrive. Some points programs have converted generously. Others converted to very little, or not at all.
Treat points as a possible bonus on an activity you would do anyway, never as the reason to do it.
A protocol showing a points leaderboard for six months, then announcing a conversion rate that disappoints most of the leaderboard.
That points are a promise. They are a score with no stated conversion, no guaranteed airdrop and terms the protocol can change at any time. Farming them is a bet on a decision somebody else has not made yet.
Common questions
Do points always turn into a token?
Is farming points worth the risk?
Where this comes up on the site
The guides that actually use this word, rather than a list of everything we have written.
Where to go next
More defi terms
Want this explained out loud?
Some of these land faster in conversation than in writing. Sessions are one to one and you can ask anything, including the things that feel too obvious to ask.