Oracle Heartbeat
An oracle heartbeat is the maximum allowed time between reference-price updates before a protocol treats the feed as stale or forces extra safety checks.
Category
DeFi Risk Primitives
These concepts explain how DeFi lending systems measure collateral quality, trigger liquidations, and account for losses.
How to recognize this theme
Terms used to define borrowing safety and protocol loss conditions.
In a daily board, this category groups terms by their shared role. Look for four cards that describe the same mechanism, risk area, or workflow rather than four words that merely sound similar.
Educational context
These entries are vocabulary notes for learning. They are not project endorsements, token recommendations, exchange rankings, or trading signals.
Collateral Factor
A collateral factor is the percentage of an asset's value that a lending protocol allows users to borrow against, reflecting liquidity and risk assumptions.
Liquidation Threshold
A liquidation threshold is the health boundary at which a lending position becomes eligible for forced unwinding to protect lenders from further collateral shortfall.
Bad Debt
Bad debt is the unpaid liability that remains after collateral liquidation fails to cover what a borrower owes, creating a loss for the system or its backstop.