51% Attack
A 51% attack on a blockchain refers to a miner or a group of miners trying to control more than 50% of
a
network's mining power, computing power or hash rate. People in control of such mining power can block
new transactions from taking place or being confirmed.
Airdrop
A marketing campaign that distributes a specific cryptocurrency or token to an audience.
All-Time-High (ATH)
The highest point (in price, in market capitalization) that a cryptocurrency has been in history.
All-Time-Low (ATL)
The lowest point (in price, in market capitalization) that a cryptocurrency has been in history.
Addresses
(Cryptocurrency addresses) are used to receive and send transactions on the network. An address is a
string of alphanumeric characters, but can also be represented as a scannable QR code.
Agreement Ledger
An agreement ledger is distributed ledger used by two or more parties to negotiate and reach
agreement.
Alt Coin
An alt coin is a Bitcoin alternative. There are many hundreds of alt coins currently being marketed.
Attestation Ledger
A distributed ledger providing a durable record of agreements, commitments or statements, providing
evidence (attestation) that these agreements, commitments or statements were made.
ASIC
ASIC is an acronym for "Application Specific Integrated Circuit". ASICs are silicon chips specifically
designed to do a single task. In the case of bitcoin, they are designed to process SHA-256 hashing
problems to mine new bitcoins.
Arbitrage
Arbitrage is the practice of quickly buying and selling the same asset in different markets to take
advantage of price differences between the markets.
Ashdraked
A situation where you lose all your money, more specifically when you lose all your money shorting
Bitcoin trading against the trend.
Atomic Swap
A way of letting people directly exchange one type of cryptocurrency for another on a different
blockchain or off-chain without a centralized intermediary such as an exchange.
Automated Market Maker (AMM)
An automated market maker (AMM) is a system that provides liquidity to the exchange it operates in
through automated trading.
Block
Blocks are packages of data that carry permanently recorded data on the blockchain network.
Blockchain
A blockchain is a shared ledger where transactions are permanently recorded by appending blocks. The
blockchain serves as a historical record of all transactions that ever occurred, from the genesis
block
to the latest block, hence the name blockchain.
Block Height
Block height refers to the number of blocks connected together in the block chain. For example, Height
0, would be the very first block, which is also called the Genesis Block.
Block Reward
A form of incentive for the miner who successfully calculated the hash in a block during mining.
Verification of transactions on the blockchain generates new coins in the process, and the miner is
rewarded a portion of those.
Bagholder
A person who holds large quantities, or bags, of a cryptocurrency. Often used to describe such a
person
when the price of that cryptocurrency is declining.
Bear
A person who is pessimistic about market prices and expects them to decline. This person is also known
to be "bearish" about the market or price.
Bear Trap
A technique played by a group of traders, aimed at manipulating the price of a cryptocurrency. The
bear
trap is set by selling a large amount of the same cryptocurrency at the same time, fooling the market
into thinking there is an upcoming price decline. In response, other traders sell their assets,
further
driving the price down. Those who set the trap then release it, buying back their assets at a lower
price. The price then rebounds, allowing them to make a profit.
BitLicense
A business license issued to cryptocurrency companies in New York, created and provided by the New
York
State Department of Financial Services (NYSDFS).
Bitcoin ATM (BTM)
A machine from which you can withdraw bitcoin.
Bitcoin Improvement Proposal (BIP)
A technical design document providing information to the Bitcoin community, describing new proposed
features, processes or environments affecting the Bitcoin protocol. Suggested changes to the protocol
are submitted as a BIP. The BIP author is responsible for soliciting feedback and consensus for his or
her suggested improvements within the community, and documenting dissenting opinions.
Bits
A sub-unit of one bitcoin. There are 1,000,000 bits in one bitcoin.
Block Explorer
An online tool to view all transactions that has taken place on the blockchain, network hash rate and
transaction growth, among other useful information.
Bollinger Band
A tool developed by Bollinger to help in the recognition of systemic pattern recognition in prices; it
is a band that is plotted two standard deviations away from the simple moving average, or exponential
moving average in some cases.
Bonding Curve
A bonding curve is a mathematical curve that defines the relationship between the price and the supply
of a given asset.
Bots
Automated trading software bots that execute trade orders extremely quickly, based on a preset
algorithm
of buy-and-sell rules.
Brute Force Attack (BFA)
A method of trial-and-error in which automated software generates and tries a large number of possible
combinations in order to crack a code or key.
Bubble
A bubble describes a situation where market participants drive prices up above their value, which is
usually followed by a steep, rapid drop in prices as the market corrects.
Bug Bounty
A reward offered for finding vulnerabilities and issues in computer code. It is often offered by
cryptocurrency companies like protocols, exchanges and wallets to identify potential security breaches
or bugs before they are exploited by unfriendly parties.
Bull
A person that is optimistic and confident that market prices will increase, this person is also known
to
be "bullish" about the market or price.
Bull Trap
A bull trap occurs when a steadily declining asset appears to reverse and go upward, but soon resumes
its downward trend.
Burned
Cryptocurrency tokens or coins are considered “burned” when they have been purposely and permanently
removed from circulation.
Buy The Dip (BTD/BTFD)
An enthusiastic exclamation by supporters of a cryptocurrency to buy while prices are at a low point.
When a coin is rallying higher and there is a dip in price, you should buy all such dips as the price
is
expected to keep going higher.
Buy Wall
A buy wall is a disproportionately large buy limit order placed on a cryptocurrency exchange.
Byzantine Fault Tolerance (BFT)
Byzantine Fault Tolerance (BFT) is the property of a computer system that allows it to reach consensus
regardless of the failure of some of its components.
Byzantine Generals' Problem
A situation where communication that requires consensus on a single strategy from all members within a
group or party cannot be trusted or verified.
Central Ledger
A central ledger refers to a ledger maintained by a central agency. Bitcoin is decentralised because
it
is not maintained by a central body but a community on the internet.
Confirmation
The successful act of hashing a transaction and adding it to the blockchain.
Consensus
Consensus is achieved when all participants of the network agree on the validity of the transactions,
ensuring that the ledgers are exact copies of each other.
Cryptographic Hash Function
Cryptographic hashes produce a fixed-size and unique hash value from variable-size transaction input.
The SHA-256 (Signature Hash Algorithm) computational algorithm is an example of a cryptographic hash.
Candlesticks
A candlestick chart is a graphing technique used to show changes in price over time. Each candle
provides 4 points of information opening price, closing price, high, and low. Also known as "candles"
for short.
Capitulation
A period of strong selling activity, where investors give up their positions and sell their holdings
as
quickly as possible.
Cash
Cash is the most liquid form of money: physical coins and banknotes in the most narrow sense of the
term.
Central Bank Digital Currency
CBDCs are digital currencies issued by a central bank whose status as legal tender depends on
government
regulation or law.
Centralized
A centralized organizational structure is one in which a single node or a small number of them are in
control of an entire network.
Centralized Exchange (CEX)
Centralized exchanges (CEXs) are a type of cryptocurrency exchange that is operated by a company that
owns it in a centralized manner.
Chain Split
Chain splits are another term used to describe cryptocurrency forks — the separation of a single
original coin into several independently managed projects.
Cipher
A cipher is any algorithm that can be used to encrypt and decrypt information.Chain splits are another
term used to describe cryptocurrency forks — the separation of a single original coin into several
independently managed projects.
Circulating Supply
The best approximation of the number of coins that are circulating in the market and in the general
public's hands.
Cloud Mining
Cryptocurrency mining with remote processing power rented from companies.
Co-Signer
A person or entity that has partial control and access over a cryptocurrency wallet.
Coin
A coin can refer to a cryptocurrency that can operate independently or to a single unit of such
cryptocurrency.
Coinbase
In mineable cryptocurrencies, a coinbase is the number of coins that are generated from scratch and
awarded to miners for mining every new block.
Confirmation Time
The time elapsed when a transaction is submitted to the network and the time it is recorded into a
confirmed block.
Cold Storage
Offline storage of cryptocurrencies, typically involving hardware non-custodial wallets, USBs, offline
computers, or paper wallets.
Cold Wallet
A cryptocurrency wallet that is in cold storage, i.e. not connected to the internet.
Collateralized Debt Position (CDP)
A collateralized debt position is held by locking collateral in smart contracts to generate
stablecoins.
Consortium Blockchain
A privately owned and operated blockchain where a consortium shares information not readily available
to
the public, while relying on the immutable and transparent properties of the blockchain.
Correction
A correction is a pullback of an asset's price of at least 10% to adjust for over-valuation.
Cryptoasset
A cryptoasset is any digital asset that uses cryptographic technologies to maintain its operation as a
currency or decentralized application.
Cryptocurrency
Cryptocurrencies are digital currencies that use cryptographic technologies to secure their operation.
Cryptographic Hash Function
Cryptographic hash functions produce a fixed-size hash value from a variable-size transaction input.
Cryptography
A field of study and practice to secure information, preventing third parties from reading information
to which they are not privy.
Cryptojacking
The use of another party's computer to mine cryptocurrency without their consent.
Custodial
Custodial cryptocurrency businesses are the ones that are in possession of their customers’ funds for
the duration of the use of their services.
Cypherpunk
The cypherpunk movement promotes the use of cryptography and other privacy-focused technologies to
advance social and political progress.
Dapp
A decentralized application (Dapp) is an application that is open source, operates autonomously, has
its
data stored on a blockchain, incentivised in the form of cryptographic tokens and operates on a
protocol
that shows proof of value.
DAO
Decentralized Autonomous Organizations can be thought of as corporations that run without any human
intervention and surrender all forms of control to an incorruptible set of business rules.
Distributed Network
A type of network where processing power and data are spread over the nodes rather than having a
centralized data centre.
Difficulty
Difficulty, in Proof-of-Work mining, is how hard it is to verify blocks in a blockchain network. In
the
Bitcoin network, the difficulty of mining adjusts verifying blocks every 2016 blocks. This is to keep
bitcoin block verification time at ten minutes.
DeFi
DeFi (decentralized finance) is the creation of an ecosystem of financial tools built on blockchain.
Dead Cat Bounce
A temporary recovery in prices after a prolonged decrease.
Decentralized
Decentralization refers to the property of a system in which nodes or actors work in concert in a
distributed fashion to achieve a common goal.
Decentralized Exchange (DEX)
A peer-to-peer exchange that allows users to buy and sell cryptocurrency and other assets without a
central intermediary involved.
Decryption
The process of transforming data that has been rendered unreadable through encryption back to its
unencrypted form.
Delisting
The removal of an asset from an exchange either as a request from the project team or as a decision
made
by the exchange.
Deflation
Reduction of the general level of prices in an economy. May also refer to deflationary monetary
policy,
such as Bitcoin, where there is a fixed supply of coins.
Delegated Proof-of-Stake (dPOS)
A consensus mechanism where users can vote for delegates producing blocks on the blockchain, with
votes
proportional to their stake. It aims to increase efficiency and environmental friendliness of
blockchain
consensus protocols.
Depth Chart
A graph that plots the requests to buy (bids) and the requests to sell (asks) on a chart, based on
limit
orders. The chart shows the point at which the market is most likely to accept a transaction.
Derivative
A contract deriving its value from the performance of an underlying asset, index or interest rate.
Derivatives Market
A public market for derivatives, instruments such as futures contracts or options, which are derived
from other forms of cryptocurrency assets.
Deterministic Wallet
A type of wallet that derives keys from a starting point called a seed. As long as you have this seed,
you are able to backup and restore any wallet.
Digital Commodity
An intangible asset that is transferred electronically, and has a certain value.
Digital Currency
Digital currency, also known as digital money or electronic money or electronic currency, is a type of
currency available only in digital form, allowing for instantaneous transactions and borderless
transfer-of-ownership.
Digital Identity
Digital representations and storage of personal information such as name, address, social security
number and more; on the blockchain, digital identity can be decentralized and used for identity
verification in a secure manner.
Digital Signature
A digital code generated by key encryption that is attached to an electronically transmitted document
to
verify its contents and the sender's identity.
Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) Attack
A cyber-attack in which the perpetrator seeks to make a machine or network resource unavailable,
disrupting services of a host connected to the internet, by overloading the system with requests so
that
legitimate requests cannot be served.
Distributed Ledger
Distributed ledgers are ledgers in which data is stored across a network of decentralized nodes. A
distributed ledger does not necessarily involve a cryptocurrency and may be permissioned and private.
Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT)
The technology underlying distributed ledgers. This term is most often discussed in the context of
enterprise use cases around adoption of distributed ledger technology.
Dominance
Also known as BTC Dominance for Bitcoin Dominance, it is an index that compares the market
capitalization of Bitcoin with the overall market cap of all other cryptocurrencies in existence.
Double Spending
A situation where a sum of money is (illegitimately) spent more than once.
Dump
To sell off all your coins.
Dumping
The action of collective market sell-offs, creating downward price movement.To sell off all your
coins.
Dust Transactions
Minuscule transactions that flood and slow the network, usually deliberately created by people looking
to disrupt it.
Dusting Attack
When a scammer sends tiny amounts of a cryptocurrency to random users’ wallets, and then analyzes and
tracks the subsequent transactions in order to identify the specific users behind each address.
Dusting Attack
When a scammer sends tiny amounts of a cryptocurrency to random users’ wallets, and then analyzes and
tracks the subsequent transactions in order to identify the specific users behind each address.
Eclipse Attack
When the majority of peers on the network are malicious and monopolize the network in order to prevent
specific nodes from receiving information from honest nodes.
Ethereum
"The Other Blockchain" Ethereum is a blockchain-based decentralized platform for apps that run smart
contracts, and is aimed at solving issues associated with censorship, fraud and third party
interference.
Exchange
Where you Buy or Sell bitcoin and altcoins to or from your bank or credit card or from various coins
on
the open market. There are internal wallets yet the exchanges have the private keys to the wallets so
it's never safe to store the cryptocurrency on these Exchanges for a long period of time.
ERC-20
A token standard for Ethereum, used for smart contracts implementing tokens. It is a common list of
rules defining interactions between tokens, including transfer between addresses and data access.
ERC-721
A token standard for non-fungible Ethereum tokens. An Ethereum Improvement Proposal introduced in
2017,
it enables smart contracts to operate as tradeable tokens similar to ERC-20 tokens.
Enterprise Ethereum Alliance (EEA)
A group of Ethereum developers, startups and large corporations working together to commercialize and
use Ethereum for business applications.
Escrow
An escrow is a contractual arrangement in which a third party receives and disburses money or
documents
for the primary transacting parties, with the disbursement dependent on conditions agreed to by the
transacting parties. This is possible to be automated using smart contracts on the blockchain.
Ether
The form of payment used in the operation of the distribution application platform, Ethereum, in order
to incentivize machines into executing the requested operations.
Ethereum Improvement Proposal (EIP)
Ethereum Improvement Proposals (EIPs) describe standards for the Ethereum platform, including core
protocol specifications, client APIs, and contract standards.
Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM)
A Turing-complete virtual machine that enables execution of code exactly as intended; it is the
runtime
environment for every smart contract. Every Ethereum node runs on the EVM to maintain consensus across
the blockchain
Exchange Traded Fund (ETF)
A security that tracks a basket of assets such as stocks, bonds, and cryptocurrencies but can be
traded
like a single stock.
Fakeout
A situation where a trader enters a position betting on a price movement that quickly reverses or
ultimately doesn’t happen.
FOMO
An acronym that stands for "Fear of Missing Out" and in the context of investing, refers to the
feeling
of apprehension for missing out on a potentially profitable investment opportunity and regretting it
later.
FUD
An acronym that stands for “Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt.” It is a strategy to influence perception of
certain cryptocurrencies or the cryptocurrency market in general by spreading negative, misleading or
false information.
Faucet
A cryptocurrency reward system usually on a website or app, that rewards users for completing certain
tasks. It is mostly a technique used when first launching an altcoin to interest people in the coin.
Fiat Currency
A legal tender issued by a government or a central bank such as Federal Reserve which issues US
Dollars
and Reserve Bank of India which issues Indian Rupees
Flipping
The term for constantly rotating your AltCoins on a trading platform trying to catch the raising
percentages as the coins constantly go up in value.
Fork
Forks create an alternate version of the blockchain, leaving two blockchains to run simultaneously on
different parts of the network
Fiat-Pegged Cryptocurrency
Also known as "pegged cryptocurrency,"" it is a coin, token or asset issued on a blockchain that is
linked to a government- or bank-issued currency. Each pegged cryptocurrency is guaranteed to have a
specific cash value in reserves at all times.
Flippening
A situation hoped for by Ethereum fans, where the total market cap of Ethereum surpasses the total
market cap of Bitcoin.
Full Node
Nodes that download a blockchain’s entire history in order to observe and enforce its rules.
Futures
A futures contract is a standardized legal agreement to buy or sell a particular commodity or asset at
a
predetermined price at a specified time in the future. They are different from forward contracts,
which
can be customized for each trade and can be conducted over-the-counter, instead of being traded on an
exchange.
Gains
Gains refer to an increase in value or profit.
Gas
A term used on the Ethereum platform that refers to a unit of measuring the computational effort of
conducting transactions or smart contracts, or launch DApps in the Ethereum network. It is the "fuel"
of
the Ethereum network.
Gas Limit
A term used on the Ethereum platform that refers to the maximum amount of gas the user is willing to
spend on a transaction.
Gas Price
A term used on the Ethereum platform that refers to the price you are willing to pay for a
transaction.
Setting a higher gas price will incentivize miners to prioritize that transaction over others.
Genesis Block
The first block of data that is processed and validated to form a new blockchain, often referred to as
block 0 or block 1.
Gold-Backed Cryptocurrency
A coin or token issued that represents a value of gold; for example, one physical gram of gold equals
one coin. The gram of gold is stored in a safe and can be traded with other coin holders.
Governance Token
A governance token is a token that can be used to vote on decisions that influence an ecosystem.
Graphical Processing Unit (GPU)
More commonly known as a graphics card, it is a computer chip that creates 3D images on computers, but
has turned out to be efficient for mining cryptocurrencies.
Gwei
The denomination used in defining the cost of gas in transactions involving Ether.
Hard Fork
A type of fork that renders previously invalid transactions valid, and vice versa. This type of fork
requires all nodes and users to upgrade to the latest version of the protocol software.
Halving
Bitcoins have a finite supply, which makes them a scarce digital commodity. The total amount of
bitcoins
that will ever be issued is 21 million. The number of bitcoins generated per block is decreased 50%
every four years. This is called "halving". The final halving will take place in the year 2140.
Hash
The act of performing a hash function on the output data. This is used for confirming coin
transactions.
See this for a detailed explanation
Hashrate
Measurement of performance for the mining rig is expressed in hashes per second. Mh/S (mega hash per
second)is the speed that a graphics processor, GPU, can hash per second.
Hodl
From Reddit: HODL is used for "hold" - it's a term that was invented by a psycho who did a typo and it
became famous. Whenever people talk here (reddit website) about holding their coins, they would rather
say "hodl your bitcoins". Also "hold on for dear life".
Hard Cap
The maximum amount that an ICO will raise. If a hard cap is reached, no more funds will be collected.
Hidden Cap
Hidden cap is an unknown limit to the amount of money a team elects to receive from investors in its
initial coin offering (ICO). The purpose of a hidden cap is to even the playing field by letting
smaller
investors put in money, without the large investors forming an accurate understanding of the total cap
and adjusting their investment as a result.
Hierarchical Deterministic Wallet (HD Wallet)
A wallet that uses Hierarchical Deterministic (HD) protocol to support the generation of
crypto-wallets
from a single master seed using 12 mnemonic phrases.
Hosted Wallet
A wallet managed by a third-party service.
Hot Storage
The online storage of private keys allowing for quicker access to cryptocurrencies.
Hot Wallet
A cryptocurrency wallet that is connected to the internet for hot storage of cryptoassets, as opposed
to
an offline, cold wallet with cold storage.
Hybrid PoW/PoS
A hybrid PoW/PoS allows for both proof-of-stake and proof-of-work as consensus distribution algorithms
on the network. This approach aims to bring together the security of PoW consensus and the governance
and energy efficiency of PoS.
Hyperledger (Hyperledger Foundation)
Hyperledger is an umbrella project of open source blockchains and blockchain-related tools started by
the Linux Foundation in 2015 to support the collaborative development of blockchain-based distributed
ledgers.
Iceberg Order
A conditional order to buy or sell a large amount of assets in smaller predetermined quantities in
order to conceal the total order quantity.
Immutable
A property that defines the inability to be changed, especially over time.
Impermanent Loss
Impermanent loss is when a liquidity provider has a temporary loss of funds because of volatility in a
trading pair.
Index
A financial instrument used to track the price value of a given asset or basket of assets
Inflation
A general increase in prices and fall in the purchasing value of money.
Initial Coin Offering (ICO)
An Initial Coin Offering (also called an ICO) is an event in which a new cryptocurrency sells advance
tokens from its overall coinbase, in exchange for upfront capital. ICOs are frequently used for
developers of a new cryptocurrency to raise capital.
Initial Exchange Offering (IEO)
An initial exchange offering (IEO) refers to a fundraising event where a cryptocurrency exchange
raises money on its own platform, as opposed to an ICO, where a team conducts the fundraising.
Instamine
A period in time, shortly after launch, when a large portion of total mineable coins or tokens are
mined in a compressed time frame, and may be unevenly and quickly distributed to investors.
Internet of Things
Internet of Things (IoT) is a global interconnected network of devices, sensors and software that can
collect and exchange data with each other in real-time over the Internet.
KYC
Acronym for "Know Your Customer," this process refers to a project's or financial institution’s
obligations to verify the identity of a customer in line with global anti-money laundering laws.
Leverage
A loan offered by a broker on an exchange during margin trading to increase the availability of funds
in trades.
Ledger
An append-only record store, where records are immutable and may hold more general information than
financial records.
Litecoin
A peer-to-peer cryptocurrency based on the Scrypt proof-of-work network. Sometimes referred to as the
silver to bitcoin's gold.
Lightning Network
The Lightning Network is a "second layer" payment protocol that operates on top of a blockchain.
Theoretically, it will enable fast, scalable transactions between and across participating nodes, and
has been touted as a solution to the Bitcoin scalability problem.
Limit Order / Limit Buy / Limit Sell
Orders placed by traders to buy or sell a cryptocurrency when a certain price is reached. This is in
contrast with market orders at which a cryptocurrency is sold at the current best available price.
Liquidity
How easily a cryptocurrency can be bought and sold without impacting the overall market price.
Liquidity Pool
Liquidity pools are crypto assets that are kept to facilitate the trading of trading pairs on
decentralized exchanges.
Liquidity Provider
Liquidity providers are decentralized exchange users who fund a liquidity pool with tokens they own.
Listing
The addition of an asset to an exchange either as a request from the project team or as a decision
made by the exchange.
Liveness
Liveness is the guarantee that a system will continue to provide data and that no central party can
just shutdown their servers or censor data going to a smart contract.
Long
A situation where you buy a cryptocurrency with the expectation of selling it at a higher price for
profit later.
Mainnet
An independent blockchain running its own network with its own technology and protocol. It is a live
blockchain where its own cryptocurrencies or tokens are in use, as compared to a testnet or projects
running on top of other popular networks such as Ethereum.
Margin Call
When an investor's account value falls below the margin maintenance amount. The broker will then
demand that the investor deposit additional money or securities to meet the minimum required
maintenance amount to continue trading.
Margin Trading
A practice where a trader uses borrowed funds from a broker to trade a cryptocurrency, which forms the
collateral for the loan from the broker. It can be relatively risky for inexperienced traders who may
receive a margin call if the market moves in the opposite direction of their trades. * Margin Bear
Position The position you are taking if you are going "short" on margin. * Margin Bull Position The
position you are taking if you are going "long" on margin.
Mempool
A node's mechanism for keeping track of unconfirmed transactions that the node has seen (but have not
yet been added to a block).
Mining
The process by which transactions are verified and added to a blockchain. This process of solving
cryptographic problems using computing hardware also triggers the release of cryptocurrencies.
Multi Signature
Multi-signature addresses provide an added layer of security by requiring more than one key to
authorize a transaction. Multi signature addresses have a much greater resistance to theft.
Market Capitalization / Market Cap / MCAP
Total capitalization of a cryptocurrency's price. It is one of the ways to rank the relative size of a
cryptocurrency.
Market Order / Market Buy / Market Sell
A purchase or sale of a cryptocurrency on an exchange at the current best available price. Market
orders are filled as buyers and sellers are willing to trade. This is in contrast with limit orders at
which a cryptocurrency is sold only at a specified price.
Masternodes
Masternodes are a server maintained by its owner, somewhat like full nodes, but with additional
functionalities such as anonymizing transactions, clearing transactions, and participating in
governance and voting. It was initially popularized by Dash to reward owners of these servers for
maintaining a service for the blockchain.
Max Supply
The best approximation of the maximum amount of coins that will ever exist in the lifetime of the
cryptocurrency.
Merkle Tree
A tree structure in cryptography, in which every leaf node is labelled with the hash of a data block
and every non-leaf node is labelled with the cryptographic hash of the labels of its child nodes. Hash
trees allow efficient and secure verification of the contents of blockchains, as each change
propagates upwards so verification can be done by simply looking at the top hash.
MicroBitcoin (uBTC)
One millionth of a bitcoin or 0.000001 of a bitcoin. Often confused as a fork of Bitcoin.
Microtransaction
A business model where very small payments can be made in exchange for common digital goods and
services, such as pages of an ebook or items in a game.
Mineable
Some cryptocurrencies have a system through which miners can be rewarded with newly-created
cryptocurrencies for creating blocks through contributing their hash power. Cryptocurrencies with this
ability to generate new cryptocurrencies through the process of confirmation is said to be mineable. *
Not Mineable Some cryptocurrencies are generated only through other mechanisms, such as annual
inflation through staking. These cryptocurrencies are said to be not mineable.
Miners
Contributors to a blockchain taking part in the process of mining. They can be professional miners or
organizations with large-scale operations, or hobbyists who set up mining rigs at home or in the
office.
Mining Contract
Another term for cloud mining, where users can rent or invest in mining capacity online.
Mining Pool
A setup where multiple miners combine their computing power to gain economies of scale and
competitiveness in finding the next block on a blockchain. Rewards are split according to different
agreements, depending on the mining pool. Another term for this is Group Mining.
Mining Reward
The reward resulting from contributing computing resources to process transactions. Mining rewards are
usually a mix of newly-minted coins and transaction fees.
Mining Rig
A computer being used for mining. A mining rig could be a dedicated piece of hardware for mining, or a
computer with spare capacity that can be used for other tasks, only mining part time.
Mixing Service
Also known as a tumbler, it is a service to improve the privacy and anonymity of cryptocurrency
transactions by mixing potentially identifiable or "tainted" cryptocurrencies with other unrelated
transactions, making it harder to track what the cryptocurrency was used for and who it belongs to.
Mnemonic Phrase
A mnemonic phrase (also known as mnemonic seed, or seed phrase) is a list of words used in sequence to
access or restore your cryptocurrency assets. It should be kept secret from everyone else. It is a
standard in most HD wallets.
Moon
A situation where there is a continuous upward movement in the price of a cryptocurrency. Often used
in communities to question when a cryptocurrency will experience such a phenomenon, saying "When
moon?" It is usually combined with "When Lambo?"
Moving Average Convergence Divergence (MACD)
A technical analysis method, it is a trend-following momentum indicator that shows the relationship
between two price moving averages. The calculation is done by subtracting the 26-day exponential
moving average (EMA) from the 12-day EMA.
Mt. Gox
Mtgox or Mt. Gox was one of the first websites where users could take part in fiat-to-bitcoin exchange
(and vice versa). In 2014, Mt. Gox was shut down after about 850,000 bitcoin was declared lost or
stolen. Mt. Gox was created in 2006 by Jed McCaleb who named it after Magic The Gathering Online
Exchange where users could use the cards like stocks. Jed later sold Mt. Gox to Mark Karpelès in 2011.
Network
A network refers to all nodes in the operation of a blockchain at any given moment in time.
No-coiner
A no-coiner is someone who has no cryptocurrency in his or her investment portfolio and firmly
believes that cryptocurrency in general will fail.
Node
A copy of the ledger operated by a participant of the blockchain network.
Non-Fungible Token
Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) are cryptocurrencies that do not possess the property of fungibility.
Non-custodial
Usually referring to the storage of keys, in relation to wallets or exchanges, a non-custodial setup
is one in which private keys are held by the user directly.
Nonce
When a transaction is hashed by a miner, an arbitrary number meant to be used only once is generated,
called a nonce.
Off-Ledger Currency
A currency that is created (minted) outside of the specified blockchain ledger but is accepted or
used.
On-Ledger Currency
A currency minted on-ledger and used on-ledger. An example of this would be the cryptocurrency,
Bitcoin.
Oracles
Oracles work as a bridge between the real world and the blockchain by providing data to the smart
contracts.
Offline Storage
The act of storing cryptocurrencies in devices or systems not connected to the internet.
One Cancels The Other Order (OCO)
A situation where two orders for cryptocurrency are placed simultaneously, with a rule in place to
enforce that if one is accepted, the other is cancelled.
Online Storage
The act of storing cryptocurrencies in devices or systems connected to the internet. Online storage
offers more convenience but also increased risk of theft.
Open Source
Open source is a term that originally referred to open source software (OSS). In crypto, Open source
contracts/code that is designed to be publicly accessible—anyone can see, modify, and distribute the
code as they see fit.
Open/Close
The price at which a cryptocurrency opens at a time period, for example at the start of the day; the
price at which a cryptocurrency closes at a time period, for example at the end of the day. In
general, these terms were more useful in traditional financial markets as there are fixed hours of the
day in which trading occurs.
Option
A contract giving the buyer the right, but not the obligation, to buy or sell an underlying asset or
instrument at a specified strike price. There are American and European options, the former of which
may be exercised at any time before expiration, and the latter exercised only at the expiration date.
Options Market
A public market for options, giving the buyer an option to buy or sell a cryptocurrency at a specific
strike price, on or before a specific date.
Oracles
An agent that finds and verifies information, bridging the real world and the blockchain by providing
data to smart contracts for execution of said contracts under specified conditions.
Orphan
A valid block on the blockchain that is not part of the main chain. They may come into existence when
two miners produce blocks at similar times, or caused by an attacker attempting to reverse
transactions. This is sometimes also known as a "detached block."
Over The Counter (OTC)
Over-the-counter is defined as a transaction made outside of an exchange, often peer-to-peer through
private trades. In jurisdictions where exchanges are disallowed or where amounts traded will move the
markets, traders will go through the OTC route.
Overbought
When a cryptocurrency has been purchased by more and more investors over time, with its price
increasing for an extended period of time. When this happens without any justifiable reason, the
cryptocurrency is considered overbought, and a period of selling is expected
Oversold
When a cryptocurrency has been sold by more and more investors over time, with its price decreasing
for an extended period of time. When this happens without any justifiable reason, the cryptocurrency
is considered oversold, and a period of buying is expected.
Peer to Peer Exchange
A person who owns bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies willing to sell it to you or you buy/sell to them.
Plasma
An Ethereum off-chain scaling solution which may allow Etherum to greatly increase the transactions
per second capabilities.
Ponzi
Where a lending platform is set up to accept payment but eventually disappears before fully paying
back their investors. Usually when they claim to payout more than they can actually afford to. Always
look for red flags with investing platforms before investing or you could potentially risk losing your
entire investment.
P2P Peer to Peer
Peer to Peer (P2P) refers to the decentralized interactions between two parties or more in a
highly-interconnected network. Participants of a P2P network deal directly with each other through a
single mediation point.
Public Address
A public address is the cryptographic hash of a public key. They act as email addresses that can be
published anywhere, unlike private keys.
Private Key
A private key is a string of data that allows you to access the tokens (cryptocurrency)in a specific
wallet. They act as passwords that are kept hidden from anyone but the owner of the address.
Proof of Stake
A consensus distribution algorithm that rewards earnings based on the number of coins you own or hold.
The more you invest in the coin, the more you gain by mining with this protocol.
Proof of Work
A consensus distribution algorithm that requires an active role in mining data blocks, often consuming
resources, such as electricity. The more 'work' you do or the more computational power you provide,
the more coins you are rewarded with.
Pyramid
Where an organization is set up on a referral to referral basis constantly accepting investments with
locked contracts in order to hold onto investors money. The more people underneath each other
investing in the system, is the only fuel for maintaining these infrastructures until they can no
longer withstand the demand for payouts. At this time, they will generally disappear or crumble.
Pair
Trade between one cryptocurrency and another, for example, the trading pair BTC/ETH.
Paper Wallet
A physical document containing your private key or seed phrase.
Permissioned Ledger
A ledger designed with restrictions, such that only people or organizations requiring access have
permission to access it.
Permissionless
Often used to describe blockchains, a system is said to be permissionless when there is no entity that
can regulate who can use it and how it can be used.
Phishing
When a scammer pretends to be a trusted institution or person to trick people into revealing sensitive
information such as Social Security numbers, passwords, banking details, etc., often through a malware
link disguised as legitimate.
Portfolio
A collection of cryptocurrencies or crypto assets held by an investment company, hedge fund, financial
institution or individual.
Pre-mine
When some or all of a coin's initial supply is generated during or before the public launch, rather
than being generated over time through mining or inflation. They may be used for legitimate purposes,
such as crowdfunding or marketing.
Pre-sale
A sale that takes place before an ICO is made available to the general public for funding.
Proof-of-Authority (PoA)
A blockchain consensus mechanism that delivers comparatively fast transactions using identity as a
stake.
Proof-of-Burn (PoB)
A blockchain consensus mechanism aiming to bootstrap one blockchain to another with increased energy
efficiency, by verifying that a cost was incurred in "burning" a coin by sending it to an unspendable
address.
Proof-of-Developer (PoD)
Any verification that provides evidence of a real, living software developer who created a
cryptocurrency, in order to prevent an anonymous developer from making away with any raised funds
without delivering a working model.
Proof-of-Replication
Proof-of-replication (PoRep) is the way that a storage miner proves to the network that they are
storing an entirely unique copy of a piece of data.
Proof-of-Spacetime
In simplest terms, PoSt means that someone can now guarantee that they are spending a certain amount
of space for storage.
Protocol
The set of rules that define interactions on a network, usually involving consensus, transaction
validation, and network participation on a blockchain.
Public Blockchain
A blockchain that can be accessed by anyone.
Pump and Dump (P&D) Scheme
A form of securities fraud involving the artificial inflation of the price of a cryptocurrency with
false and misleading positive statements in order to sell previously-cheaply purchased stock at a
higher price.
QR Code
A machine-readable label that shows information encoded into a graphical black-and-white pattern. For
cryptocurrencies, it is often used to easily share wallet addresses with others.
REKT
A shorthand slang for "wrecked," describing a huge loss in a trade and almost got bankrupt with that
loss.
Raiden Network
An off-chain scaling solution aiming to enable near-instant, low-fee and scalable payments on the
Ethereum blockchain. It is similar to Bitcoin's proposed Lightning Network.
Rank
The relative position of a cryptocurrency by market capitalization.
Relative Strength Index (RSI)
A form of technical analysis that serves as a momentum oscillator, measuring the speed and change of
price movements, developed by J. Welles Wilder. It oscillates between zero and 100, where a
cryptocurrency is considered overbought when the indicator is above 70 and oversold when below 30.
Relative Strength Index (RSI)
A form of technical analysis that serves as a momentum oscillator, measuring the speed and change of
price movements, developed by J. Welles Wilder. It oscillates between zero and 100, where a
cryptocurrency is considered overbought when the indicator is above 70 and oversold when below 30.
Replicated Ledger
A copy of a distributed ledger in a network that is distributed to all participants in a
cryptocurrency network.
Ripple
A payment network built on distributed ledgers that can be used to transfer any currency. The network
consists of payment nodes and gateways operated by authorities. Payments are made using a series of
IOUs, and the network is based on trust relationships. The banking industry is adapting this platform.
Roadmap
A business planning technique which lays out the short and long term goals of a company within a
flexible estimated timeline.
SIM-Swap
SIM-swaps — sometimes referred to as port-out scams — have come into the spotlight as a major concern
for cryptocurrency holders in recent years.
Satoshi (SATS)
The smallest unit of bitcoin with a value of 0.00000001 BTC.
Satoshi Nakamoto
The individual or group of individuals that created Bitcoin. The identity of Satoshi Nakamoto has
never been confirmed.
Scam
A fraudulent or deceptive cryptocurrency or ICO.
Scrypt
An alternative proof of work system to SHA-256, designed to be particularly friendly to CPU and GPU
miners, while offering little advantage to ASIC miners.
A fraudulent or deceptive cryptocurrency or ICO.
SHA-256
SHA-256 is a cryptographic algorithm used by cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin. However, it uses a lot
of computing power and processing time, forcing miners to form mining pools to capture gains.
Smart Contracts
Smart contracts are contracts whose terms are recorded in a computer language instead of legal
language. Smart contracts can be automatically executed by a computing system, such as a suitable
distributed ledger system.
Soft Fork
A soft fork differs from a hard fork in that only previously valid transactions are made invalid.
Since old nodes recognize the new blocks as valid, a soft fork is essentially backward-compatible.
This type of fork requires most miners upgrading in order to enforce, while a hard fork requires all
nodes to agree on the new version.
Second-Layer Solutions
A set of solutions built on top of a public blockchain to extend its scalability and efficiency,
especially for micro-transactions or actions. Examples include Plasma, TrueBit, Lightning Network and
more.
Second-Layer Solutions
A set of solutions built on top of a public blockchain to extend its scalability and efficiency,
especially for micro-transactions or actions. Examples include Plasma, TrueBit, Lightning Network and
more.
Secure Asset Fund for Users (SAFU)
Secure Asset Fund for Users is an emergency insurance fund. On the 3rd of July, 2018, Binance
announced the Secure Asset Fund for Users.
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)
An independent agency of the United States federal government, responsible for enforcing federal
securities laws, proposing securities rules, and regulating the securities industry, the nation's
stock and options exchanges, and other related activities and organizations.
Seed
A single starting point when deriving keys for a deterministic wallet. It is usually presented as a
series of words to enable the owner to quickly backup or restore a wallet.
Segregated Witness (SegWit)
SegWit was an update to the Bitcoin protocol and stands for “segregated witness consensus layer”, a
technological feature created to optimise transactions in 2015. SegWit is the process by which the
block size limit on a blockchain is increased by removing signature data from Bitcoin transactions.
When certain parts of a transaction are removed, this frees up space or capacity to add more
transactions to the chain.A single starting point when deriving keys for a deterministic wallet. It is
usually presented as a series of words to enable the owner to quickly backup or restore a wallet.
Sell Wall
A situation where a large limit order has been placed to sell when a cryptocurrency reaches a certain
value. This can sometimes be used by traders to create a certain impression in the market, preventing
a cryptocurrency from rising above that value, as supply will likely outstrip demand when the order is
executed.
Sharding
Sharding is a scaling approach that enables splitting of blockchain states into partitions containing
states and transaction history, so that each shard can be processed in parallel.
Shilling
The act of enthusiastically promoting a cryptocurrency or ICO project.
Shitcoin
A coin with no obvious potential value or usage.
Short
A trading technique in which a trader borrows an asset in order to sell it, with the expectation that
the price will continue to decline. In the event that the price does decline, the short seller will
then buy the asset at this lower price in order to return it to the lender of the asset, making the
difference in profit.
Side Chain
A blockchain ledger that runs in parallel to a primary blockchain, where there is a two-way link
between the primary chain and sidechain. This allows the sidechain to operate independently of the
primary blockchain, using their own protocols or ledger mechanisms.
Silk Road
An online black market that existed on the dark web, now shut down by the FBI. It had accepted
bitcoins for transactions.
Simplified Payment Verification (SPV)
A lightweight client to verify blockchain transactions, downloading only block headers and requesting
proof of inclusion to the blockchain in the Merkle Tree.
Smart Contract Audit
A smart contract audit is a security check done by cybersecurity professionals meant to ensure that
the on-chain code behind a smart contract is devoid of bugs or security vulnerabilities.
Soft Cap
The minimum amount that an initial coin offering (ICO) wants to raise. Sometimes, if the ICO is unable
to raise the soft cap amount, it may be called off entirely.
Solidity
Solidity is Ethereum's programming language for developing smart contracts.
Spot
A contract or transaction buying or selling a cryptocurrency for immediate settlement, or payment and
delivery, of the cryptocurrency on the market.
Spot Market
A public market in which cryptocurrencies are traded for immediate settlement. It contrasts with a
futures market, in which settlement is due at a later date.
Stablecoin
A cryptocurrency with extremely low volatility, sometimes used as a means of portfolio
diversification. Examples include gold-backed cryptocurrency or fiat-pegged cryptocurrency.
Staking
Participation in a proof-of-stake (PoS) system to put your tokens in to serve as a validator to the
blockchain and receive rewards.
Staking Pool
A pool where stakeholders combine their staking power to increase their chance of successfully
validating a new block.
Stale Block
A block which was successfully mined but not included on the current longest blockchain, usually
because another block at the same height was added to the chain first.
A pool where stakeholders combine their staking power to increase their chance of successfully
validating a new block.
State Channel
A second-layer scaling solution that reduces the total on-chain transactions necessary, moving the
transactions off-chain and letting participants sign to the main chain after multiple off-chain
transactions.
Storage (Decentralized)
Decentralized storage refers to the concept of storing files online by splitting them into encrypted
fragments and delegating these fragments to multiple nodes on a distributed network, e.g. a
blockchain.
Symbol
The ticker of a cryptocurrency; for example, bitcoin's symbol is BTC.
Tangle
The Tangle is a blockchain alternative developed by IOTA, using directed acyclic graphs which only
builds in one single direction and in a way that it never repeats, and is quantum-computing resistant.
Technical Analysis / Trend Analysis (TA)
An evaluation method involving statistical analyses of market activity, such as price and volume.
Charts and other tools are used to identify patterns to underpin and drive investment decisions.
Testnet
A test blockchain used by developers to prevent expending assets on the main chain.
Transaction Block
A collection of transactions on the bitcoin network, gathered into a block that can then be hashed and
added to the blockchain.
Transaction Fee
All cryptocurrency transactions involve a small transaction fee. These transaction fees add up to
account for the block reward that a miner receives when he successfully processes a block.
Ticker
An abbreviation used to uniquely identify cryptocurrencies.
Timelock / Locktime
A condition for a transaction to only be processed at a certain time or block on the blockchain.
Timestamp
A form of identification for when a certain transaction occurred, usually with date and time of day
and accurate to fractions of a second.
Token
A digital unit designed with utility in mind, providing access and use of a larger crypto economic
system. It does not have a store of value on its own, but is made so that software can be developed
around it.
Token Generation Event
The time at which a token is issued.
Token Swap
Token swaps can refer to one of two things: 1. Direct exchange of a certain amount of one
cryptocurrency token for another between users facilitated by a special exchange service. 2. Migration
of a cryptocurrency token built on top of one blockchain platform to a different blockchain. Example -
Mainnet Launch.
Tokenize
The process by which real-world assets are turned into something of digital value called a token,
often subsequently able to offer ownership of parts of this asset to different owners.
Total Supply
The total amount of coins in existence right now, minus any coins that have been verifiably burned.
Trade Volume
The amount of the cryptocurrency that has been traded in the last 24 hours.
Transaction (TX)
The act of exchanging cryptocurrencies on a blockchain.
Trustless
A property of the blockchain, where no participant needs to trust any other participant for
transactions to be enforced as intended.
Unconfirmed
A state in which a transaction has not been appended to the blockchain.
Unspent Transaction Output (UTXO)
An output of a blockchain transaction that has not been spent, and can be used as an input for new
transactions.
Validator
A participant on a proof-of-stake (PoS) blockchain, involved in validating blocks for rewards.
Vanity Address
A cryptocurrency public address with custom letters and numbers, usually picked by its owner.
Venture Capital
A form of private equity provided to fund small, early-stage firms considered to have high growth
potential.
Volatility
A statistical measure of dispersion of returns, measured by using the standard deviation or variance
between returns from that same security or market index.
Volume
The amount of cryptocurrency that has been traded during a certain period of time, such as the last 24
hours or more. Volume can show the direction and movement of the cryptocurrency as well as a
prediction of future price and its demand.
Wash Trade
A form of market manipulation in which investors create artificial activity in the marketplace by
simultaneously selling and buying the same cryptocurrencies.
Wallet
A file that houses private keys. It usually contains a software client which allows access to view and
create transactions on a specific blockchain that the wallet is designed for.
Watchlist
A watchlist is a feature of the website where users can create their own lists of cryptocurrencies to
follow. Alternative definition A watchlist is a set of pages a user has selected to monitor for
changes.
Weak Hands
An investor prone to panic selling at the first sign of a price decline.
Wei
The smallest fraction of an Ether, with each Ether to 1000000000000000000 Wei.
Whale
A term used to describe investors who have uncommonly large amounts of crypto, especially those with
enough funds to manipulate the market.
Whitelist
A list of interested participants in an ICO, who registered their intent to take part or purchase in a
sale.
Whitepaper
A document prepared by an ICO project team to interest investors with its vision, cryptocurrency use
and crypto economic design, technical information, and a roadmap for how it plans to grow and succeed.
YTD
Stands for Year to Date.
Yield Farming
Yield farming involves earning interest by investing crypto in decentralized finance markets.Stands
for Year to Date.
Zero Confirmation Transaction
Alternative phrasing for an unconfirmed transaction.
Zero Knowledge Proof
In cryptography, a zero-knowledge proof enables one party to provide evidence that a transaction or
event happened without revealing private details of that transaction or event.
Zk-SNARKs
Zcash is the first widespread application of zk-SNARKs, a novel form of zero-knowledge cryptography.
Shielded transactions in Zcash can be fully encrypted on the blockchain, yet still be verified as
valid under the network’s consensus rules by using zk-SNARK proofs.