A shared ledger kept in sync by a network of computers, with entries added in cryptographically linked blocks so the record is very hard to alter. For art, it records who made, minted, sold and owns a work.
I think what I'm most excited about is a happy medium between the absolute radical transparency of the blockchain space and the mentorship, guidance and filtering that galleries can provide.
Snowfro, Snowfro and Ciphrd on a Symbiotic Relationship
Some of the concepts that were used by artists and by others in this space in just a colloquial way were basically a recoding of some formalist terms, like medium specific or blockchain native.
maltefr, Protocol Art & Blockchain Formalism