Style guide
Balanced voice and tone, writing style, and terminology.
The Balanced style guide provides helpful guidelines for all written communication, so you can be more confident and consistent when writing about or for Balanced. It’s your guide to writing style, usage, and voice.
In general:
- Use British English.
- Use sentence case for all headings, phrases, and button labels. When used in a sentence, surround with single quote marks ( Click ‘Borrow bnUSD’. ).
- Avoid creating unnecessary proper nouns. Instead, describe the thing/behavior.
- Avoid decorative punctuation like exclamation marks ( ! ), except when used sparingly on Twitter and Telegram.
- Avoid smiley emoji (😊😅😂😍😎😱): Balanced is a utility, not a person. Okay to use gesture emoji, like 👏🙌🙏💪.
- Avoid the 🚀 emoji, talking about impact to the ICX price, over-hyping financial returns, and comparing BALN to equity/shares/dividends.
DeFi is intimidating to the majority of people, so Balanced speaks to investors like an experienced and compassionate financial partner. It provides them with the information they need to take a position in the markets, but doesn’t push them one way or the other – it gives them the space to make their own decisions.
Balanced content is:
- 1.Direct and plainspoken. Balanced doesn’t speak in jargon or weasel around issues. It respects peoples’ time and gives them the information they need in a clear, concise format – right at the moment they need it.
- 2.Transparent and unbiased. Balanced is upfront about the risks, how it works, and what”s in the pipeline. It doesn’t push people to take actions that benefit itself at their expense.
- 3.Approachable. Balanced is a community project that welcomes people with warmth, empathy, and a little bit of cheek. While friendly, Balanced doesn’t draw attention to itself.
Balanced maintains a cool, consistent tone, with carefully selected words and a rhythm that rolls off the tongue. When it comes to completing transactions, the content should be even more direct, focused strictly on the task at hand.
airdrip. Not airdrop. Delegated ICX holders can claim free Balance Tokens every week through the ICON community airdrip initiative.
Balanced, Balanced DAO, Balanced Network. The name of the platform. Prefer Balanced. Use Balanced DAO to emphasise the community and governance aspect, and Balanced Network to refer to the entire protocol and all activity within it.
Balanced app. The interface people use to open and manage a position or swap ICON-based assets.
Balanced assets. Assets native to Balanced. It will launch with 3:
- Balanced Dollars (bnUSD): the first synthetic asset, pegged to the US Dollar.
- Balance Tokens (BALN): the Balanced governance token
- Balanced Worker Tokens (BALW): entitle the holders to Balance Tokens in exchange for working on the platform.
Balanced DEX, Balanced exchange. The Trade page of the Balanced app. Prefer Balanced exchange to avoid jargon, but okay to use Balanced DEX when talking to experienced traders.
Balance Tokens. Note capitalisation. Not Balance tokens or Balanced Tokens. Also known as BALN or BALN tokens, but avoid using BALN tokens in the UI.
collateral. Lowercase. The ICX deposited into Balanced to take out a loan.
cryptoasset. One word. Use to refer to assets on Balanced, if assets isn’t clear enough in the context. Prefer over cryptocurrency, which implies the assets are a currency when they could be backed by an ecosystem (BTC, ICX), product (AAPL, BALN), or commodity (OIL, XAU). But it’s okay to use cryptocurrency when cryptoasset would be repetitive.
dapp. Lowercase. Pronounce “dapp”, not “dee-app”. Stands for decentralised app, and is used to refer to most blockchain products, including Balanced. Use app in most contexts, especially when writing for a less technical audience.
DApp, Dapp, dApp, dapp. With so many styles, and DApp as the most common variation in the ICON ecosystem, why make dapp the standard?
It’s more efficient to write and pronounce.
DeFi. Clarify with the first use that it stands for decentralised finance if the context isn’t clear.
ICON blockchain. Use when it’s not clear that ICON is a blockchain, or to get an SEO boost. See also ICON Network.
ICON Network. The official name of the blockchain, to be used in all contexts except when “ICON” alone is sufficient for clarity, or when it’s not clear that ICON is a blockchain (in which case, “ICON blockchain” is more appropriate).
loan. The amount borrowed from Balanced in the form of Balanced Dollars (bnUSD).
mint. The process of creating new money or tokens, such as Balanced Dollars and NFTs.
platform, product. Prefer over protocol. Use platform to refer to the entirety of Balanced, including the smart contracts and infrastructure. Use product to refer to the UI/app investors interact with.
sICX. staked ICX.
stablecoin. One word. Also stable currency. A coin that maintains a consistent value, like Balanced Dollars, which is pegged to the US Dollar.
users. Avoid. Prefer terms like participants, borrowers, liquidity providers.
Last modified 11mo ago