DLT Terms 100: a learner's glossary based on ISO 22739:2024

arXiv:2610.30596 · cs.CY, cs.CR · Submitted 2026-10-22 · Read on arXiv

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Introduction to the show: ident: Security Radio. Generated commentary on the latest security and cryptography papers.

Nadia: I'm Nadia.

Elias: And I'm Elias, here with Priya.

Nadia: We're looking at the paper: "DLT Terms 100: a learner's glossary based on ISO 22739:2024".

Elias: Here's the gist of the paper. The gist We propose “DLT Terms 100” aimed at improving literacy regarding blockchain (distributed ledger technology: DLT) by categorizing and labeling terms based on their frequency of appearance in representative domestic and international literature and their difficulty level Blockchain and Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) have advanced through proof-of-concept (PoC) trials

1, 2, 3: and practical applications in specific fields, and global standardization efforts

4, 5: However, widespread social implementation has not yet been achieved compared to early expectations This is partly due to a shortage of highly skilled engineers and a lack of literacy to evaluate the technology correctly While companies conduct employee training to improve DLT literacy, the rising cost of education makes establishing efficient programs an urgent priority In Japan, “blockchain” was added to the IT Passport exam syllabus in 2019

6: , making DLT a required basic knowledge for professionals A primary barrier to understanding DLT is the terminology gap between business practitioners and engineers, arising from two factors First, confusion caused by financial analogies; for example, while a “wallet” manages private keys, many mistakenly believe assets or non-fungible tokens (NFTs) are stored inside it

7: Second, interdisciplinary complexity; a “token” refers to assets in DLT but an authentication device in security These overlaps delay comprehension for both business and IT departments Proposal of “DLT Terms 100” Our research question is: What technical commentary materials effectively improve DLT literacy?

Nadia: We propose the “DLT Terms 100” (Table 1), a learner’s glossary based on ISO 22739:2024

8: , balancing international standards with practical application Currently, empirical experiments and evaluations to verify the effectiveness of our proposed glossary have not yet been conducted Therefore, future work will evaluate how much this list reduces communication costs between engineers and practitioners The “DLT Terms 100” we propose is designed to serve as a guide for beginners to progressively deepen their learning To achieve this, the 100 terms included in ISO 22739 were categorized into eight domains, and the terms in each category were organized into three levels of difficulty Classification by Difficulty The difficulty of each term was classified into three levels (1 to 3) based on the following criteria The difficulty levels were set based on the inclusion of the terms in the in-house training materials used at the author’s company, as well as the comprehension level of the users of these materials, establishing the importance of the terms for practitioners Difficulty 1: Basic terms that serve as an entry point to the technology, appearing in news and general business books Even non-experts have heard of them, and their meanings can be inferred from the context Difficulty 2: Practical terms related to the specific operations of DLT and the processes required when using services These terms are necessary for actually handling the technology or understanding intermediate-level explanatory articles Difficulty 3: Specialized terms that involve implementation-level details, distributed computing theory, and advanced governance These terms are often strictly handled in official documents and academic papers It is recommended that all practitioners understand low-difficulty terms and that DLT specialists understand and acquire High-difficulty terms selectively depending on their work field 1) System Infra.

Elias: & Components, 2) Data Structure & Recording, 3) Cryptography & Security, 4) Consensus & Validation failure, 5) Transactions & Operations, 6) Assets & Incentives, and 7) Governance & Access Control are the eight domains Difficulty levels were set based on the inclusion of the terms in the in-house training materials used at the author’s company, as well as the comprehension level of the users of these materials 2.3 Term Highlighting via Frequency Analysis investigated the extent to which the terms included in ISO 22739 align with commercially available technical references Specifically, we checked the presence or absence of the 100 headwords included in ISO 22739:2024 and their synonyms in the following four references As a result of the investigation, the coverage rates of the terms were 77% for 1), 59% for 2), 67% for 3), and 71% for 4) There were 37 terms that appeared in all four investigated documents, and there were only five terms that did not appear in any of the four investigated documents The terms (23 terms) that do not appear in ISO 23257 can be considered of low importance On the other hand, the terms (5 terms) presented at the beginning of ISO 23257 can be considered important for using the document, and it cannot be assumed that the reader has already understood them Furthermore, the terms (15 terms) that appeared only in ISO 23257, all of which are compound words with the prefix DLT such as “DLT account”, can be said to be not yet widely used The glossary does not include trademarks in accordance with the fact that ISO 22739:2026 does not include specific product names or service names (trademarks, etc.) In practice, it is also necessary to understand DLT-related trademarks, so it may be considered to add trademarks, etc., as appropriate when using the list 4) References are listed in the final section of the paper The references include

8: International Organization for Standardization.

Nadia: ISO 22739:2024 Blockchain and distributed ledger technologies — Vocabulary, Standard, 2024 and

1: Yusuke Kaneko and Shuntaro Tanaka and Tomoyuki Kimura and Jun Okumura and Shigeyuki Azuchi and Shigeyuki Osada.

Paper summary: Elias: The paper "DLT Terms one hundred: a learner's glossary based on ISO twenty-two thousand seven hundred thirty-nine:two thousand twenty-four" essentially argues that we need clearer definitions for blockchain concepts to get more people involved in the technology <ref:2610.30596#pg1,DLT Terms 100: a learner's glossary based on ISO 22739:2024>.

Nadia: They propose this glossary as a learning tool based on the ISO twenty-two thousand seven hundred thirty-nine standard and they structured the terms into eight domains with three levels of difficulty to help beginners learn progressively <ref:2610.30596#pg1>.

Priya: So, thinking about it for those who are only listening to this show, what is the real implication of having such a defined vocabulary list in a field that is still developing?

Elias: It’s about creating a standardized way for people to talk about DLT so that the confusion between business and technical language doesn't stall implementation as much.

Nadia: They also noted that they haven't done empirical experiments yet to see exactly how much this list actually cuts down on communication costs between engineers and practitioners.

Elias: And they pointed out a limitation, which is that the paper hasn't verified the effectiveness of the glossary through those kinds of tests yet; it’s still a proposal for guidance.

Priya: So, in short, it’s a framework based on an international standard meant to bridge that literacy gap by giving everyone a common set of terms to refer back to.

Conclusion: Nadia: So we've looked at how they built this glossary, "DLT Terms one hundred" based on that ISO standard from twenty twenty four and what it does for people actually trying to understand blockchain stuff.

Elias: Yeah, the authors are trying to tackle that terminology gap between the business folks and the engineers who are building things.

Nadia: They're essentially creating a structured learning tool, categorizing terms by how often you see them in real literature and how hard they are to grasp.

Elias: It’s a systematic way to map out the concepts, so instead of just throwing random jargon at you, you have this tiered system starting with basic stuff.

Nadia: That makes sense for getting people started, but I'm wondering if the authors actually did their homework on how much this list really helps when people are actually working on projects.

Elias: They mentioned they haven't run any big experiments yet to prove it cuts down on communication costs between those two groups.

Nadia: Exactly, so the next question is whether this glossary is just a nice reference list or if it actually changes how fast things get built in the real world.

Yusuke KANEKO, Takumi AITA, Kohei ICHIHARA, Hiroki WATANABE

The Japan Research Institute, Ltd. · International Organization for Standardization

cs.CY, cs.CR

Submitted: 2026-10-22

Updated: 2026-10-23

License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

The gist: The gist We propose “DLT Terms 100” aimed at improving literacy regarding blockchain (distributed ledger technology: DLT) by categorizing and labeling terms based on their frequency of appearance

Key concepts

DLT (Distributed Ledger Technology): DLT is a technology that allows multiple parties to share and update a single, synchronized record of transactions across a network instead of relying on a central authority. It forms the backbone of blockchain systems, enabling secure and transparent data management without needing one single controlling entity.
Terminology Gap: This refers to the difference in language used between business practitioners and engineers when discussing DLT. This gap is caused by confusing financial terms with technical ones, such as mistakenly believing a 'wallet' stores assets instead of just private keys, which hinders clear communication.
Difficulty Levels (1-3): Terms are classified into three difficulty levels: Level 1 (basic entry points found in news), Level 2 (practical operational terms for service use), and Level 3 (specialized implementation details like cryptography). This structure guides learners from general awareness to expert knowledge.
ISO 22739:2024: This is the international standard used as the basis for the glossary. It provides a structured framework for categorizing and labeling DLT terms based on their frequency in literature and their inherent complexity, ensuring a consistent learning resource.

Summary

The gist

We propose “DLT Terms 100” aimed at improving literacy regarding blockchain (distributed ledger technology: DLT) by categorizing and labeling terms based on their frequency of appearance in representative domestic and international literature and their difficulty level

Motivation

Blockchain and Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) have advanced through proof-of-concept (PoC) trials [1, 2, 3] and practical applications in specific fields, and global standardization efforts [4, 5] However, widespread social implementation has not yet been achieved compared to early expectations This is partly due to a shortage of highly skilled engineers and a lack of literacy to evaluate the technology correctly While companies conduct employee training to improve DLT literacy, the rising cost of education makes establishing efficient programs an urgent priority In Japan, “blockchain” was added to the IT Passport exam syllabus in 2019 [6], making DLT a required basic knowledge for professionals A primary barrier to understanding DLT is the terminology gap between business practitioners and engineers, arising from two factors First, confusion caused by financial analogies; for example, while a “wallet” manages private keys, many mistakenly believe assets or non-fungible tokens (NFTs) are stored inside it [7] Second, interdisciplinary complexity; a “token” refers to assets in DLT but an authentication device in security These overlaps delay comprehension for both business and IT departments

Proposal of “DLT Terms 100”

Our research question is: What technical commentary materials effectively improve DLT literacy? We propose the “DLT Terms 100” (Table 1), a learner’s glossary based on ISO 22739:2024 [8], balancing international standards with practical application Currently, empirical experiments and evaluations to verify the effectiveness of our proposed glossary have not yet been conducted Therefore, future work will evaluate how much this list reduces communication costs between engineers and practitioners The “DLT Terms 100” we propose is designed to serve as a guide for beginners to progressively deepen their learning To achieve this, the 100 terms included in ISO 22739 were categorized into eight domains, and the terms in each category were organized into three levels of difficulty

Classification by Difficulty

The difficulty of each term was classified into three levels (1 to 3) based on the following criteria The difficulty levels were set based on the inclusion of the terms in the in-house training materials used at the author’s company, as well as the comprehension level of the users of these materials, establishing the importance of the terms for practitioners

** Difficulty 1: Basic terms that serve as an entry point to the technology, appearing in news and general business books Even non-experts have heard of them, and their meanings can be inferred from the context Difficulty 2: Practical terms related to the specific operations of DLT and the processes required when using services These terms are necessary for actually handling the technology or understanding intermediate-level explanatory articles Difficulty 3: Specialized terms that involve implementation-level details, distributed computing theory, and advanced governance These terms are often strictly handled in official documents and academic papers It is recommended that all practitioners understand low-difficulty terms and that DLT specialists understand and acquire High-difficulty terms selectively depending on their work field 1) System Infra. & Components, 2) Data Structure & Recording, 3) Cryptography & Security, 4) Consensus & Validation failure, 5) Transactions & Operations, 6) Assets & Incentives, and 7) Governance & Access Control are the eight domains Difficulty levels were set based on the inclusion of the terms in the in-house training materials used at the author’s company, as well as the comprehension level of the users of these materials 2.3 Term Highlighting via Frequency Analysis investigated the extent to which the terms included in ISO 22739 align with commercially available technical references Specifically, we checked the presence or absence of the 100 headwords included in ISO 22739:2024 and their synonyms in the following four references As a result of the investigation, the coverage rates of the terms were 77% for 1), 59% for 2), 67% for 3), and 71% for 4) There were 37 terms that appeared in all four investigated documents, and there were only five terms that did not appear in any of the four investigated documents The terms (23 terms) that do not appear in ISO 23257 can be considered of low importance On the other hand, the terms (5 terms) presented at the beginning of ISO 23257 can be considered important for using the document, and it cannot be assumed that the reader has already understood them Furthermore, the terms (15 terms) that appeared only in ISO 23257, all of which are compound words with the prefix DLT such as “DLT account”, can be said to be not yet widely used The glossary does not include trademarks in accordance with the fact that ISO 22739:2026 does not include specific product names or service names (trademarks, etc.) In practice, it is also necessary to understand DLT-related trademarks, so it may be considered to add trademarks, etc., as appropriate when using the list 4) References are listed in the final section of the paper The references include [8] International Organization for Standardization. ISO 22739:2024 Blockchain and distributed ledger technologies — Vocabulary, Standard, 2024 and [1] Yusuke Kaneko and Shuntaro Tanaka and Tomoyuki Kimura and Jun Okumura and Shigeyuki Azuchi and Shigeyuki Osada. “DeExam: A Decentralized Exam Administration Model using Public Blockchain”, In BIOTC 2021: 2021 3rd Blockchain and Internet of Things Conf. ACM, 2021, pp. 1–7 and [9] International Organization for Standardization. ISO 23257:2022 Blockchain and distributed ledger technologies — Reference architecture, Standard, 2022 and [10] Andreas M. Antonopoulos and David A. Harding. Mastering Bitcoin: Programming the Open Blockchain, 3rd Ed., O’Reilly Media, 2023 and [11] Carlo Parisi and Alessandro Mazza and Niccolò Pozzolini and Gavin Wood and Andreas M. Antonopoulos. Mastering Ethereum: Building Smart Contracts and DApps, 2nd Ed., O’Reilly Media, 2025 and [12] Juichiro Yamasaki and Shigetaka Azuchi and Yusuke Kaneko and Shigeyuki Osada. Introduction to Blockchain Technology: Theory and Practice (ブロックチェーン技術概論:理論と実践) (in Japanese).

Improvements for AI systems

Improved terminology clarity for cross-departmental communication by implementing DLT Terms 100 as a mandatory glossary for engineers and business practitioners to eliminate confusion caused by financial analogies or interdisciplinary complexity.
Enhanced system comprehension by categorizing technical knowledge into three difficulty levels (Basic, Practical, Specialized), allowing users to selectively acquire information based on their specific work field requirements.
Increased reference alignment accuracy by using the frequency analysis results to identify gaps where terms do not appear in ISO 23257 or where new compound terms like “DLT account” are not yet widely used.
Optimized learning paths for DLT professionals by mapping terms across eight distinct domains, ensuring a structured progression from fundamental IT components to advanced governance and applied technologies.

Abstract

We propose ``DLT Terms 100'' aimed at improving literacy regarding blockchain (distributed ledger technology: DLT). The pace of DLT's social implementation has been slower than initially expected, partly due to a shortage of engineers and literate individuals. In particular, the discrepancy between business and technical terminology, and the confusion caused by the repurposing of existing financial terms, are barriers to understanding the concepts and technologies. Our proposed glossary is based on ISO 22739:2024, and categorizes and labels terms based on their frequency of appearance in representative domestic and international literature and their difficulty level.