Are you confused by some of the terms used on CoinSpeaker? To get you started, here is the beginning of our glossary of cryptocurrency, fintech and markets terms.
A virtual location where cryptocurrency can be sent to and from. It consists of alphanumeric characters and can be shared publicly in the form of text or QR code. Cryptocurrency address is not intended to be permanent, as it represents itself a token, designed for a single transaction use only.
A method of distributing tokens and coins to a large number of wallet addresses. Airdrop campaigns are usually initiated by cryptocurrency creators to increase the popularity of a token or coin. Creators can distribute their tokens either by selecting recipients at random, or by publishing the event in airdrop-related bulletin boards or newsletters.
The highest peak of coin's price for the whole period of its existence, according to market capitalization rate. (Opposite term: All-Time-Low)
The lowest peak of coin’s price for the whole period of its existence, according to market capitalization rate. (Opposite term: All-Time-High)
Any digital cryptocurrency similar to Bitcoin falls under the term "altcoin" ("alternative to Bitcoin").
Any policy or piece of legislation that is aimed at preventing money laundering activities and corruption. In crypto world it mostly regulates laundering money through cryptocurrencies into real-world cash.
API stands for Application Programming Interface. It represents itself a set of routines, protocols, and tools for building software applications. Basically, an API specifies how software components should interact.
The annual percentage rate (APR) is the amount of interest gained per year. It is usually charged to borrowers and paid to investors or lenders. It is usually given in the form of a percentage of the ratio of the original amount involved.
Annual Percentage Yield (APY) is the interest rate made off savings or investments, with the compound effect affecting its overall value at the end of the year. The value of the interest is paid after an agreed period, increasing the value of the initial amount, and in doing so, increasing the value of the next interest amount.
Cryptocurrency arbitrage is a practice that allows you to take advantage of differences in price by buying a crypto on the exchange where the price is low and then immediately selling it on another exchange where the price is high.
A phenomenon when one loses all the invested capital by shorting Bitcoin. The term comes from a well-known case, when a Romanian cryptocurrency investor insisted upon shorting BTC, reffering to such successful experience in the past, but lost all his capital when the price of BTC rose from USD 300 to USD 500.
Short version of the term "Application Specific Integrated Circuit". Stands for a microchip designed for a special application, such as a particular kind of transmission protocol or a hand-held computer. In crypto sphere it represents itself a little computer built specifically for mining a certain coin or a set of coins.
An application-specific integrated circuit, or ASIC, is a microchip designed and manufactured for a very specific purpose. ASICs designed for Bitcoin mining were first released in 2013. For the amount of power they consume, they are vastly faster than all previous technologies and already have made GPU mining financially unwise in some countries and setups.
A very strong marketing tool, which is though used for the wrong reasons. A deceptive practice where a sponsor is masked or hidden, making it seem as though a marketing message came from and is strongly supported by the community when it is not.
A smart contract technology that enables the exchange of one cryptocurrency for another without using centralized intermediaries, such as exchanges.
An account book designed to provide evidence of individual transactions, which is normally used to verify that a transaction has been carried out, or to verify the authenticity of products or transactions.
Automated Market Makers are decentralized exchanges that make use of mathematical equations to automatically compute and determine how much each token should go for on the market. In other words, they are algorithms that generate price quotations for tokens to be traded on the market. The equation used changes over time with each systemic protocol.
A quantity of a specific cryptocurrency is called a "bag".
A bagholder is someone who holds bags of cryptocurrency. The term majorly refers to those who hold big amounts of a specific cryptocurrency instead of selling them, when its price is rapidly declining.
A person who expects the price of cryptocurrency to decline and stays pessimistic to market volatility.
A trap initiated by a group of traders for the purpose of manipulating the price of a cryptocurrency. It works like this: traders sell big amount of a specific cryptocurrency in order to artificially bring about its price decline. Other traders, fooled by their trap, sell their assets, thus diving the price down, after which the initiators of bear trap buy them again. When the price rebounds, the initiators receive high profits.
Bitcoin is a form of electronic money independent of traditional banking, bitcoins started circulating in 2009 and have become the most prominent of several fledgling digital currencies. For more details see bitcoin guide.
A machine that allows a person to purchase Bitcoin by using cash or debit card.
A design document for introducing features or information to Bitcoin. This is the standard way of communicating ideas since Bitcoin has no formal structure.
A business license of virtual currency activities, issued to cryptocurrency companies in New York by the New York State Department of Financial Services (NYSDFS).
The controversial business license issued for cryptocurrency companies in New York State. Created and provided by the New York State Department of Financial Services (NYSDFS).
A constituent part of Bitcoin. There are 1,000,000 bits in one Bitcoin.
A container or collection of transactions proceeding on a blockchain. Each block contains a cryptographic hash of the previous block, a timestamp, and transaction data (generally represented as a Merkle tree).
An online browser which allows to view all transactions that has taken place on the blockchain, as well as the transaction histories and balances of addresses.
The number of blocks in the chain between any given block and the very first block in the blockchain.
The new bitcoins that are used for rewarding eligible cryptocurrency miners for each block they mine successfully as a motivation for miners to continue acting in the best interest of the blockchain by legitimately taking part in the process.
The reward given to a miner which has successfully hashed a transaction block. This can be a mixture of coins and transaction fees, depending on the policy used by the cryptocurrency in question, and whether all of the coins have already been successfully mined. Bitcoin currently awards 25 bitcoins for each block. The block reward halves when a certain number of blocks have been mined, 210,000 in bitcoin’s case.
A decentralized, distributed and public digital ledger that is used to record transactions across many computers so that any involved record cannot be altered retroactively, without the alteration of all subsequent blocks. Blockchain technology eliminates the third party from the process of proceeding transactions, thus, providing high security and speed levels to both sender and receiver.
a technical analysis tool developed by Bollinger, that is used for characterizing the prices and volatility over time of a financial instrument or commodity, using a formulaic method.
A trading software tool based on a preset algorithm of buy-and-sell rules that allows users to automate their crypto trading strategy.
An attack which is used to generate codes, keys or passwords by using the trial-and-error methods. It works like this: an automated software generates and tries a large number of possible combinations in order to allow you to access the system.
The term that refers to a specific situation on crypto market, when market participants initiate the prices to rapidly increase, after which causing their rapid drop as the market corrects.
A special program offered by many websites, organizations and software developers, that allows individuals to receive recognition and compensation for reporting bugs, especially those pertaining to exploits and vulnerabilities.
"Bull" or "bullish" usually refers to a person, who strongly believes that the prices are going to increase.
A false signal, that refers to a declining trend in a stock, index or other security that reverses after a convincing rally and breaks a prior support level. The move "traps" traders or investors that acted on the buy signal and generates losses on resulting long positions.
A process of eliminating the coins by rendering it unusable or unspendable.
A situation where a large limit order has been placed to buy when a cryptocurrency reaches a certain value. Sometimes such method is used by traders who seek to create a certain impression in the market or to prevent a cryptocurrency from falling.
A situation, when the two nodes can communicate safely across a network, knowing that they are displaying the same data.
A situation where spread out units need to coordinate their behavior or action but cannot trust each other to get organized.
Candlesticks have a wick and a body. The wick is the line, and the fat green or red portion is the body. Based on price movements, the candlestick will display trading activity. They show price action and tell you what happened to the price of an asset in a given time frame.
Physical fiat currency, such as paper money or coins.
CeFi stands for centralized finance, which is a system in which people can only trade and borrow cryptocurrencies through the use of collaterals.
A general ledger that contains all the accounts for recording transactions relating to a company's assets, liabilities, owners' equity, revenue, and expenses.
A central processor, or main processor, is the electronic circuitry within a computer that carries out the instructions of a computer program by performing the basic arithmetic, logic, controlling, and input/output (I/O) operations specified by the instructions.
An organization structure in which a small number of nodes is in control of an entire network.
A synonym to the term "fork".
In a system called Unspent Transaction Output, Bitcoin transactions are proceeded in the form of inputs and outputs. The difference between the whole output and input is sent back as change.
A kind of fraud related to credit cards, when a paying customer asks the issuing bank to reverse a transaction made with a merchant.
An algorithm for performing encryption or decryption in order to convert information into cipher or code.
A much reliable metric than Total Supply for defining the market capitalization. The term refers to the amount of a stock or currency that is on the market. This is related to other measurements of tokens supply.
A local desktop computer or workstation that is capable of accessing and processing blockchain transactions.
The term usually refers to closing price in financial stocks.
The process of bitcoin mining utilizing a remote datacenter with shared processing power. This type of cloud mining enables users to mine bitcoins or alternative cryptocurrencies without managing the hardware.
A private owner or an enterprise, that partially controls a cryptocurrency wallet.
Any cryptocurrency that operates on the market.
The content of the 'input' of a generation transaction. While regular transactions use the 'inputs' section to refer to their parent transaction outputs, a generation transaction has no parent, and creates new coins from nothing. The coinbase can contain any arbitrary data.
Cold storage, or the synonym - cold wallet, represents itself the hardware device for storing Bitcoin or other altcoins in the offline mode. It is currently considered to be the most secure way to store cryptocurrency.
The term "confirmation" in crypto industry usually refers to the transactions, which are included in a block of blockchain. Each separate block represents itself only one confirmation. According to a specific number of confirmations defined and required by different exchanges, the transaction can be identified as final.
A specific order and content of blocks, as well as transactions contained in those blocks, which the participants of the network have agreed on.
A privately operated blockchain in which a consortium shares information not readily available to the public, while relying on the immutable and transparent properties of the blockchain.
A negatively colored term that refers to reverse movement of at least 10% in a cryptocurrency or general market, to adjust for over- or under-valuations.
A kind of cyber attack in which a hacker hijacks a target's processing power to mine cryptocurrency on the hacker's behalf.
An asset class that consists not only of decentralized cryptocurrencies, but also of commodities, digital goods and services that combine the technologies and markets.
A digital asset that uses strong cryptography to secure financial transactions, control the creation of additional units, and verify the transfer of assets.
A hash function which takes an input (or 'message') and returns a fixed-size string of bytes. It is extremely easy to calculate a hash for any given data.
A way of protecting information and communications through the use of codes so that only those for whom the information is intended can read and process it.
A custodial set-up is one in which private keys are being held by the service provider while they provide a login account
Any activist advocating widespread use of strong cryptography and privacy-enhancing technologies as a route to social and political change.
Some Internet content kept on darknets, the access to which requires special software, configurations or authorization. Such content cannot be indexed by search engines, so it is majorly used for criminal activities.
The official start of token sale during the ICO event.
The term is used when the prices rapidly go up after a long period of decrease.
The process of distributing and dispersing power, which is not controlled or managed by any central authority. The principles of decentralization stand for transparency, security and high speed of transactions proceeded between sender and receiver, while totally eliminating any necessity for third party interference.
Digital applications or programs that exist and run on a blockchain or P2P network of computers instead of a single computer, and are outside the purview and control of a single authority.
A new fundraising concept initially proposed by Vitalik Buterin, which unites the major benefits of Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs) and Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs) in order to improve the current format of digital token sales.
An enterprise that is run through rules encoded in smart contracts.
A peer-to-peer exchange where traders can buy and sell cryptocurrency without any third party intervention.
The process of transforming data that has been rendered unreadable through encryption back to its unencrypted form.
DeFi or Decentralized Finance is a system that enables users to trade cryptocurrencies without the need for collateral or a third party.
Economic term that refers to the overall decline in prices for goods and services caused very low inflation rate.
A consensus algorithm maintaining irrefutable agreement on the truth across the network, validating transactions and acting as a form of digital democracy.
A constantly changing visual chart that displays the total number of orders to buy and sell an asset and thus, demonstrates the point at which the market is most likely to accept a transaction.
A financial contract between two or more parties that derives its value from an underlying asset, in this case, cryptocurrencies.
A market where derivatives, futures contracts or options are being traded.
A system of deriving keys from a single starting point known as a seed. The seed allows a user to easily back up and restore a wallet without needing any other information and can in some cases allow the creation of public addresses without the knowledge of the private key.
This number determines how difficult is it to hash a new block. It is related to the maximum allowed number in a given numerical portion of a transaction block’s hash. The lower the number, the more difficult it is to produce a hash value that fits it. Difficulty varies based on the amount of computing power used by miners on the computing network. If large numbers of miners leave a network, the difficulty would decrease.
A measure of how difficult it is to find a hash below a given target. The Bitcoin network has a global block difficulty.
An interchangeable good or product which can be exchanged in against of any other commodities without any mentioned value. In a digital world, this digitized commodity which is exchanged virtually with their intrinsic value.
Electronic form of currency, which is usually contrasted to fiat paper money. It is valued practically similar to fiat currency, but can be instantly transacted to any part of the globe without any need for third party intermediaries.
An online or networked identity adopted or claimed in cyberspace by an individual, organization or electronic device. These users may also project more than one digital identity through multiple communities. In terms of digital identity management, key areas of concern are security and privacy.
A mathematical scheme generated by key encryption, which is used for verifying the authenticity of digital messages or documents.
A long green or red bar found on a graph showing the changes in price of a cryptocurrency, in relation to the green and red candles found on price charts.
A graph that is directed and without cycles connecting the other edges. The edges of the directed graph only go one way.
A consensus, when various computers in a network decide to work in accordance with the principle of decentralization, abandoning the intervention of any intermediaries.
A kind of cyber criminal activity, targeted at making an electronic device or a network unavailable by overloading the system with requests.
Distributed are called the ledgers, in which the data is stored across a network or decentralized nodes. The term is used not only in relation to cryptocurrency.
The technology of storing data in distributed ledgers.
A type of network, which stores data in decentralized nodes, which are not controlled by any authority.
In crypto field, the term referrers to a person who owns a large quantity of cryptocurrency. This person stands in the middle between "whale" (the owner of bigger amount of crytpo) and "fish" (the owner of less amount).
The short term for "Bitcoin Dominance", which means an index that compares the market cap of Bitcoin with the overall market capitalization.
Repeating selling of the same asset.
A situation, when a person sells all his crypto assets.
A collective selling of the assets with an aim to make the prices decline.
Usually referred to harmful activity, when someone uses minuscule transactions so that to flood and slow the network.
Also known as Emission Curve, Emission Rate, and Emission Schedule is the speed at which new cryptocurrency coins are created and released.
A member-driven standards organization whose charter is to develop open, blockchain specifications that drive harmonization and interoperability for businesses and consumers worldwide.
A technical standard used for smart contracts on the Ethereum blockchain for implementing tokens.
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.
Excrow represents itself a legal concept, where two parties proceed transaction and use third party as a guarantor, who holds their financial instruments or assets.
Crypto asset similar to Bitcoin, which is used for operations within Ethereum platform.
Special documentation which describes core protocol specifications, client APIs, and contract standards for the Ethereum platform.
A virtual state machine that operates as a runtime environment for smart contracts in Ethereum. Smart contract code that executes in the EVM is isolated from the network, filesystem, and other processes of Ethereum.
Cryptocurrency exchanges represent themselves special platforms designed for trading crypto assets.
A collection of securities that tracks a basket of assets such as stocks, bonds, and cryptocurrencies but can be traded like a single stock.
A reward system usually used by businesses first launching their altcoins and tareted at attracting users. According to faucet reward system, users are granted with altcoins for completing different tasks.
Paper money or simply cash, usually opposed to crypto assets. Fiat currency is always backed by the government.
An asset, coin or token, which has a specific value in cash, as it is "pegged" to fiat currency backed by government.
Sometimes also referred as "minnow". The term is used to describe a person, who owns small and insignificant amount of cryptocurrencies. Lowest in the "fish - dolphin - whale" hierarchy.
The term referred to a situation, when the total market capitalization of a specific cryptocurrency (Ethereum, for instance) grows bigger than the total market capitalization of Bitcoin.
Initially, the term is mostly used in the field of buying and selling real estate to describe an investment strategy, when a person buys something in a bid to gain profit later in a short period of time. In crypto field, the term describes an investment strategy, when one purchases tokens during ICO, before their appearance on the exchanges.
An acronym for 'fear of missing out' phenomenon, when somebody is afraid to miss some potentially profitable investment and regret this in the future.
Blockchain fork represents itself a chain split, when an alternative blockchain appears and operates simultaneously with the initial one.
Software fork stands for a situation, when developers modify some already existing technology in order to create a totally new project.
An acronym for “fear, uncertainty and doubt”, which is used to describe the act of intentional misleading people in relation to some cryptocurrency by spreading false negative information about it.
A person, who intentionally spread false negative information about a specific cryptocurrency in a bid to mislead people and spoil this cryptocurrency's reputation (see also FUD).
Nodes that download a blockchain’s entire history in order to observe and enforce its rules
An analysis carried out before making a decision to invest into a specific crypto asset. It includes full research of the technology, on which the asset is based, the team behind it, and the prospects of growth.
Derivative financial contracts, legally standardized, which allow to buy or sell specific crypto assets or commodities at a predetermined price at a specified time in the future.
Some increase in crypto asset's value or a profit made on selling it.
The execution fee for every operation made within Ethereum platform.
The term is related to the Ethereum network and means the maximum amount of gas, which a user is eager to spend on a transaction.
The term is related to Ethereum network and means the price, which a user is attempted to spend on a transaction in order to make it higher prioritized.
The very first block in the chain. Modern versions of Bitcoin number it as block 0, though very early versions counted it as block 1. The genesis block is almost always hardcoded into the software of the applications that utilize its block chain.
Also referred to as 'block 0' or 'block 1'. The first block of data in a chain that is validated to form a new blockchain.
A crypto asset, which is backed by gold. In other words, a crypto asset which value is equal to some specific amount of gold - for example, one physical gram of gold equals to one coin.
Initially, it represented itself a computer chip designed for 3D modelling. In crypto field, it is used for efficient mining.
Referred to Ethereum's gas cost denomination.
Criminal activity targeted at manipulating some other computer for malicious purposes.
The process, which represents itself the reduction of the reward you gain for mining blocks.
The maximum amount of money that can be raised during Initial Coin Offering (ICO) on tokens distribution. When the hard cap is reached, the ICO is usually announced as finished, and investors can no more participate in the event.
The term referrers to radical change made in the protocol that makes previously invalid blocks or transactions valid (or vice-versa). A hard fork requires all nodes or users to upgrade to the latest version of the protocol software.
The act of performing a hash function on input data of arbitrary size, with an output of fixed length that looks random and from which no data can be recovered without a cipher. An important property of a hash is that the output of hashing a particular document will always be the same when using the same algorithm.
Any function used to map data of arbitrary size to data of a fixed size.
Hash Power, or Hash Rate, represents itself a unit of measurement for the computing power, which is required by the network to operate continuously. According to the amount of hashes produced per second, the Hash Rate of a computer may be measured in kH/s, MH/s, GH/s, TH/s, PH/s or EH/s
The unknown amount of money that a startup aims to receive during an Initial Coin Offering (ICO). It works as follows: the team sets some specific time limit, during which the coins are being sold directly to people (not enterprises or big investors). The main purpose of hidden cap is to make the tokens go public and attract smaller investments.
An innovative digital wallet that allows for automatic generation of a hierarchical tree-like structure of private/public addresses (or keys), thus solving the problem of the user's generating them himself.
The abbreviation stands for “Hold On for Dear Life” and describes a situation, when one holds his assets for a long period of time without selling them, no matter of any price changes on the market.
A spin on the investing lingo ‘hold’ — Hold On for Dear Life. A crypto trader who buys a coin and does not see himself selling in the foreseeable future is called a hodler of the coin.
A wallet that a third party service provider hosts for you.
The online storage (opposed to Cold Storage which is offline), where private keys or other private data is stored and which allows for quick access to cryptocurrencies.
An approach that combines the security level of Proof-of-Stake and the governance and energy efficiency of Proof-of-Work consensus distribution algorithm.
An open source collaborative effort created to advance cross-industry blockchain technologies. It is a global collaboration, hosted by The Linux Foundation, including leaders in finance, banking, IoT, supply chain, manufacturing and technology.
The term referrers to something that can never be changed or deleted.
Impermanent losses are losses arising from the provision of liquidity. In other words, it is often termed as a variation in staking an asset to providing capital investment on that asset. This also arises from volatility in digital currency pairs and losses only become permanent when liquidity is withdrawn for good.
The financial term that describes the situation on the market, when prices rapidly go up, while the purchasing value of money decreases.
A structured way to crowdsource human resources, business development, marketing, and user acquisition. They offer network tokens in exchange for contributions to the ecosystem.
A crowdfunding event, usually held by startups, which is based on selling some specific amount of cryptocurrency in the form of tokens to investors and crypto enthusiasts. This way of raising funds has no legal regulation, and thus, is not considered to be totally safe anymore, after a range of various scams stroke the market in the past few years.
IDO is known for Initial DEX Offering, the updated version of the Initial Exchange Offering (IEO) but now on DEX Exchange. The first IDO was conducted on June 17, 2019 by Raven Protocol (RAVEN) on Binance DEX exchange.
Similar to ICOs, but the focus is on the offering of tokens with proven (or unproven) intrinsic utility in the form of software or usage in an ecosystem.
An activity, which is committed in a very short time-frame, that allows coins to be distributed to investors in an unfair or uneven manner. It is usually practiced in the period right after the launch of a specific cryptocurrency.
An entity or a person that represents some "third party" involved into the process of transacting funds between a seller and a buyer.
The term opposed to the term FOMO ("Fear of Missing Out"). An abbreviation stands for “Joy of Missing Out” and means one's joy about being not involved into the cryptocurrency trading process, especially when the prices are declining or some criminal activity is revealed during ICO.
The abbreviation stands for “Know Your Customer” and refers to a project’s or financial institution’s obligations to verify the identity of a customer, according to global anti-money laundering laws.
Initially, the term represents itself a short version of the brand name "Lamborghini". Since Lamborghini car became a hallmark of rich cryptocurrency owners community, the shorthand "Lambo" also stands for a rapid increase in cryptocurrency prices on the market, and is usually used in such phrases as "When Lambo?" which means "When the prices are going to rise again?".
A record of financial transactions that cannot be changed.
A loan provided to an investor by a broker or exchange that controls the investor's trading account.
A "Layer 2" payment protocol that operates on top of a blockchain-based cryptocurrency (like Bitcoin). It enables fast transactions between participating nodes and has been touted as a solution to the Bitcoin scalability problem. ... Lightning Network implementation also simplifies atomic swaps.
Orders placed by traders to buy or sell a cryptocurrency when a certain price is reached.
The term is used to measure how easily a specific cryptocurrency can be bought and sold without affecting the market price.
Liquidity pools are essentially groups of tokens that are locked in a smart contract. They are used to enhance transactions by providing liquidity and are majorly employed by a host of decentralized exchanges a.k.a DEXes. Liquidity pools help to provide fair negotiations and prices for buyers who want to buy at a low price and sellers who want to sell at a high price.
Litecoin is a fork of Bitcoin created as its improved alternative. Some people say if Bitcoin is a gold, then Litecoin is a silver. Please, check litecoin guide for more details.
A situation when one purchases cryptocurrency and waits for a long time for its price increase in order to sell it with high profit.
LP tokens perform the same functions as shares held in index funds. They are assets that are given to investors who provide liquidity in a transaction. By increasing the liquidity pool, your tokens earn you a portion of the transaction fees that are accumulated over time. These tokens can also be used in trading on a decentralized exchange.
A blockchain protocol that is independently developed in contrast to a testnet or a project running on top of other popular networks, such as Ethereum.
A situation when the value of investor's account falls below the margin maintenance amount. When it happens, the broker insists on investor's adding a specific amount of money or securities, so that to meet the required minimal value and continue trading.
The practice of using borrowed funds from a broker to trade a financial asset, which forms the collateral for the loan from the broker.
In crypto field, the term refers to either online or offline space, where cryptocurrency dealings are being conducted.
A special metric that is used to identify the real value of a specific cryptocurrency, as well as its position in the rating of other cryptocurrencies.
Any order for purchasing or selling a specific cryptocurrency at its current price on the market. As long as there are willing sellers and buyers, market orders are filled. It is considered to be the simplest type of orders, and is usually used in cases when certainty of execution is a priority over the price of execution.
Components of blockchain network, similar to simple nodes, but with much broader mission. Masternodes represent themselves servers that store the entire blockchain and allow not only for mining function, but also for anonymizing transactions, clearing transactions, and participating in governance and voting.
The maximum number of coins that will ever exist in a lifetime of a specific cryptocurrency. If a coin reaches its max supply cap, it means that this coin can't be mined or produced from now on anymore.
A data structure that is used in computer science applications. In bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, Merkle trees serve to encode blockchain data more efficiently and securely. They are also referred to as "binary hash trees."
1 microbitcoin also known as a 'bit' or 0.000001 BTC.
A very small financial transaction conducted online on an exchange for common digital goods and services, such as pages of an ebook or items in a game.
Cryptocurrencies that allow for generating new cryptocurrencies through the process of confirmation. Miners create blocks through contributing their hash power and receive rewards in the form of newly-created cryptocurrencies.
A miner is a person or an enterprice that participates in the process of mining new cryptocurrencies.
The process of generating new cryptocurrencies through adding blocks to a blockchain network.
Mining contract or "cloud mining" represents a space where users can rent or invest into mining capacity online.
A setup uniting a number of miners in a bid to combine their computing power and gain economies of scale and competitiveness in finding the next block on a blockchain. It is also called "group mining".
A reward that miners gain from contributing their computer powerto proceed transactions.
A computer that is used for mining activities. The rig might be a dedicated miner where it was procured, built and operated specifically for mining or it could otherwise be a computer that fills other needs, such as performing as a gaming system, and is used to mine only on a part-time basis.
The same as "fish". Refers to the one that owes some insignificant amount of cryptocurrency.
A service which is used 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.
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.
Any learning technique that aids information retention or retrieval in the human memory. Mnemonics make use of elaborative encoding, retrieval cues, and imagery as specific tools to encode any given information in a way that allows for efficient storage and retrieval.
Also referred to as money remitters or money transfer services. In the legal code of the United States, money transmitters transfer funds or provide payment services. In most states define anyone who receives money to transmit money to another location by any means, including wire, facsimile, electronic transfer or payment instrument, as a money transmitter.
The term "moon" refers to a phenomenon, when a cryptocurrency increase in price and holds this high point for a long time. The question “When moon?” is practically similar to the question “When Lambo?”
A trend-following momentum indicator that shows the relationship between two moving averages of a security's price. The MACD is calculated by subtracting the 26-period Exponential Moving Average (EMA) from the 12-period EMA.
One of the first platforms created by Jed McCaleb which allowed for fiat-to-bitcoin exchange. The name Mt. Gox was created as an acronym for “Magic: The Gathering Online Exchange.” In 2014, the exchange shut down after about 850,000 bitcoin was declared lost or stolen.
A specific type of digital signature that guarantees very high security level as it requires more than one key to authorize a transaction.
All nodes in a blockchain that operate simultaniously at a time.
The one that does not hold cryptocurrencies and does not believe in their success at all.
A single item of blockchain network operated by a participant.
The storage of keys to exchanges and wallets.
Nonce is a random string of data used as an input when hashing a transaction block. A nonce is used to try and produce a digest that fits the numerical parameters set by the Bitcoin difficulty. A different nonce will be used with each hashing attempt, meaning that billions of nonces are generated when attempting to hash each transaction block.
An abbreviation of "number used once". It is often a random or pseudo-random number issued in an authentication protocol to ensure that old communications cannot be reused in replay attacks.
A currency created outside of a specific blockchain, but is accepted by it.
The way of storing cryptocurrencies in an offline space (devices or systems not connected to the Internet).
A cryptocurrency that is both created and used within a specific blockchain ledger.
The term refers to a rule that works in a situation when two different cryptocurrency orders are placed together simultaniously. According to this rule, in case one order is accepted, the other one should be automatically declined.
The way of storing cryptocurrencies in devices or systems connected to the internet. It more convenient than offline storage, but offers lower security level.
A software, that allows for free usage, sharing, changing and distributing, is called "open source". The term is related to a philosophy, according to which free sharing of information works for common good.
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.
A public market for options.
In cryptography, a random oracle is an oracle that responds to every unique query with a random response chosen uniformly from its output domain. They are typically used when the proof cannot be carried out using weaker assumptions on the cryptographic hash function.
"Orphan block" os also known as a “detached block” and refers to a valid block outside of the main chain. It can appear when two miners produce blocks simultaniously or when a block undergoes cyber attack.
A valid block which is not a part of the main chain, but which was instead part of a fork that was discarded.
Over-the-counter (OTC) or off-exchange trading is done directly between two parties, without the supervision of an exchange. It is contrasted with exchange trading, which occurs via exchanges. A stock exchange has the benefit of facilitating liquidity, providing transparency, and maintaining the current market price. In an OTC trade, the price is not necessarily publicly disclosed.
Overbought describes a period of time where there has been a significant and consistent upward move in price over a period of time without much pullback. This is clearly defined by a chart showing price movement from the “lower-left to upper-right” like the chart shown below.
The term Oversold describes a period of time where there has been a significant and consistent downward move in price over a period of time without much pullback. Basically a move from the “upper-left to the lower-right.”
Trading pair of two crytos. For instance, BTC/ETH.
Paper Wallet is a physical piece of paper you print out that stores your altcoins in a secure, offline environment. Paper wallets are inherently impervious to hacking and other forms of internet theft but vulnerable to acts of nature (fire and flood), burglary, and human error (simply losing your wallet). Basically, all a paper wallet contains is a printed public key and private key for a respective address. The data is NOT stored on a computer. Often a paper wallet has a QR code of the public and private keys to make it easy when you need to get the key values on your computer or phone — you just scan the paper instead of manually typing the keys out.
A physical document that contains one's private key or mnemonic phrase.
A network, in which computer systems are connected to each other via the Internet. Files can be shared directly between systems on the network without the need of a central server. In other words, each computer on a P2P network becomes a file server as well as a client.
A ledger, the access to which is limited and requires special permissions.
The parent blockchain of tokens or a space for trading cryptocurrencies.
A form of fraud in which belief in the success of a non-existent enterprise is fostered by the payment of quick returns to the first investors from money invested by later investors.
The total number of cryptocurrencies that belong to a single person or entity.
The process of mining or creating of a number of crypto coins before the cryptocurrency is launched to the public.
A phase that takes place before the official token sale and allows investors to buy tokens before they go public. For companies, such activity represents itself a good chance to raise funds for their blockchain project.
Private Key is a private address that is paired with your public key. Private keys allow you to spend your coins or take them out of your wallet for using. The private key looks very similar to a public key but it’s slightly longer. You can get your public key from a private key but you can not get a private key from a public key. It is the key to the balance of the address. Whoever holds the private key owns the value of the address.
A tiny bit of code that is paired with a public key to set off algorithms for text encryption and decryption. It is created as part of public key cryptography during asymmetric-key encryption and used to decrypt and transform a message to a readable format. Public and private keys are paired for secure communication, such as email.
Proof of Concept (PoC) is a realization of a certain method or idea to demonstrate its feasibility, or a demonstration in principle, whose purpose is to verify that some concept or theory has the potential of being used. A proof of concept is usually small and may or may not be complete. PoC is also known as proof of principle. Proof of Concept in software development describes distinct processes with various objectives and participant roles. It may also refer to partial solutions involving a small number of users acting in business roles to establish whether a system satisfies certain requirements.
A blockchain consensus mechanism that delivers comparatively fast transactions using identity as a stake.
An alternative consensus algorythm, that tries to address the energy consumption issue of Proof-of-Wprk (PoW). PoB is often called PoW without energy waste.
The term refers to any verification that provides evidence of a real software developer who created a cryptocurrency. Majorly, PoD is used during the period of launching a new cryptocurrency to avoid frauds.
A Proof-of-Reserve (PoR) is an independent audit conducted by a third party to ensure that a custodian (such as a centralized crypto exchange) actually has, in its ownership, the assets it says it has.
PoS concept stands for the following principle of mining: the more coins a person holds, the more mining power he has.
A consensus that stands for an important way to validate coin transaction status and asset management.
A proof-of-work (PoW) system (or protocol, or function) is an economic measure to deter denial of service attacks and other service abuses such as spam on a network by requiring some work from the service requester, usually meaning processing time by a computer.
A special regulation that covers the rules of interacting within a blockchain network, such as consensus, transaction validation, and network participation.
Refers to a false name that is used by a creator of something. For instance, Satoshi Nakamoto is a pseudonymous of Bitcoin founder.
A hashed version of the public key.
A blockchain network, the access to which is not limited and does not requires special permissions.
Public Key is like the bank account for your personal digital currency. It is where you store your coins. If you have multiple types of coins, you must have a separate wallet for each type. A wallet is a collection of public keys. So a wallet can contain one public key or one hundred. How much you decide to put in each is up to you and there is no cost. An example of a Bitcoin public key : 14euyjBip1t2aWax5ZSg5YGHR8WW34CnEj. Anyone can send you coins or you can transfer coins to other address as long as you have the private key.
A form of securities fraud that involves artificially inflating the price of an owned stock through false and misleading positive statements, in order to sell the cheaply purchased stock at a higher price.
A black-and-white pattern (code), that can be read only by machine scanning and allows to easily share the wallet address.
An off-chain scaling solution, enabling near-instant, low-fee and scalable payments. It's complementary to the Ethereum blockchain and works with any compatible token.
A position of a specific cryptocurrency in the rating of market capitalization.
A slang for “wrecked”. Refers to a situation when one loses a lot of money during the process of trading.
A momentum indicator that measures the magnitude of recent price changes to evaluate overbought or oversold conditions in the price of a stock or other asset.
A copy of a distributed ledger in a network which is distributed to all participants in a network of cryptocurrency world.
A person, who is almost always wrong, when predicting cryptocurrency price movements, is called "reverse indicator", which means that he indicates how not to place buy or sell orders.
A type of digital signature that can be performed by any member of a group of users that each have keys. Therefore, a message signed with a ring signature is endorsed by someone in a particular group of people.
An abbreviation for “Return on Investment”, which stands for the ratio between the net profit and cost of investing.
Satoshi is the smallest possible fraction of cryptocurrency available for transactions. It refers to 0.00000001 Bitcoin, and is named after Satoshi Nakamoto, the enigmatic creator of the first publicly-available digital currency.
The smallest unit of bitcoin with a value of 0.00000001 BTC.
A pseudonymous of the individual or group of individuals who created Bitcoin. The identity of Satoshi Nakamoto has never been confirmed.
In crypto sphere, the term refers to an ICO-fraud or the creation of a deceptive cryptocurrency.
An alternative Proof-of Work (PoW) algorithm to SHA-256, used in Bitcoin mining. Scrypt mining relies more heavily on memory than on pure CPU power, aiming to reduce the advantage that ASICs have and hence increasing network participation and energy efficiency.
A secondary framework or protocol that is built on top of an existing blockchain system. Two major examples of layer 2 solutions are the Bitcoin Lightning Network and the Ethereum Plasma.
The US Government agency, which stands for protecting investors from dangerous or illegal financial practices or fraud, by requiring full and accurate financial disclosure by companies offering stocks, bonds, mutual funds, and other securities to the public.
Almost the same as mneumonic phrase. A set of symbols, that is created by a wallet owner and is used for further restoring keys.
An implemented protocol upgrade that serves for increasing block capacity in the chain, when certain parts of a transaction are removed and new transactions should be added. Simply saying, Segregated Witness separates transaction signatures, so that to free up space in the chain.
Malicious mining strategy that is targeted at discrediting blockchain network integrity. Selfish miner is the one who withholds a successfully validated block from the rest of the mining pool network, and continues mining next block, thus demonstrating more proof-of-work compared to other miners.
An amount of limit orders, that is set to prevent sell orders from executing at a higher price than the price set for the 'wall' and causes downward price pressure on a given cryptocurrency. This tool is majorly used by whales who attempt to manipulate cryptocurrency price.
A computer security cryptographic algorithm created by the US National Security Agency (NSA) in collaboration with the National Institute of Science and Technology (NIST).
A specific type of database partitioning that splits very large databases into smaller ones (shards) running in parallel, so that to improve the transaction speed.
Any promotional activity that is targeted at raising money. Majorly refers to promoting ICOs.
Any coin that has no potential value or usage.
A method of trading assets, which is used when a trader wants to take quick advantage of the temporary decline in the asset's price. A trader borrows the asset, sells it and waits for its price to decline. When the price declines, a trader buys the asset, thus making fast profit.
A blockchain ledger that runs in parallel to the primary blockchain. Sidechain operates independently using its own protocols and ledger mechanisms and allows for data transfer to and from the primary blockchain.
An online black market already closed by FBI. The first modern darknet market majorly known as a platform for selling drugs.
A lightweight client that allows for validating transactions included into the block, without downloading the whole block.
A smart contract, or a cryptocontract, represents itself a computer protocol that controls cryptocurrency transfer guaranteeing its traceability, transparency, and irreversibility.
The minimal amount of money that a new project aims to raise during ICO. In case a soft cap is not met, the project returns all funds raised back to investors.
A change implemented to the software protocol where only previously valid blocks/transactions are made invalid. Most soft forks require miners to update their mining software.
An object-oriented, high-level language for implementing smart contracts that is used by Ethereum.
A contract of buying or selling a crypto asset for immediate settlement (payment and delivery) of the cryptocurrency on the 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.
A type of cryptocurrency that was designed to solve the problem of price volatility. Stablecoins are usually pegged to fiat money, precious or industrial metals.
Staking in the cryptocurrency world means that the efficiency of the network is boosted by buying cryptocurrencies to verify transactions. As a reward for staking cryptocurrency, some companies offer incentives to buyers. These incentives are offered as interest. Staking also provides an alternative way of making money by holding coins. Asides from that, as the value of the coins keep on increasing so do the rewards.
The act of locking up one's coins or tokens to help verify transactions for cryptocurrencies with Proof of Stake consensus mechanisms. Stakers earn staking rewards for providing this service.
A successfully mined and complete with information block that no longer needs to be recorded or worked on and is not included into the current blockchain.
A secure space where transactions between parties can be proceeded off-chain (outside of the blockchain), so that to avoid sending all the data to the blockchain. Such transactions are authorized, so only the results of them are recorded on the blockchain.
Short designation of crypto assets. For example, BTC is a symbol of Bitcoin.
Synthetic Token is a digital currency that runs the Synthetix protocol. These tokens run on the Ethereum blockchain and provide a direct link to other assets like gold, Dollars, Pounds, etc. The tokens can be easily acquired on most fintech services; given that most are built on bitcoin or Ethereum blockchain systems.
The percentage of cryptocurrency in an account that can be traced to another account.
The transaction storing and processing mechanism of IOTA, a cryptocurrency network that was developed to enable fee-less micro-transactions for the growing ecosystem of Internet of Things (IoT) devices.
Analytical activity, which is conducted to monitor the coin history, its price and volume trends. Charts and other analytical tools created during technical analysis reveal the major patterns that may further help in making right investment decisions.
Another blockchain that is identical to the main one, which is used for testing updates without interrupting the processes in the main blockchain.
Refers to a situation when one plans his investment activity for months or years to come.
Initially the phrase was “This is it, gentlemen”. Usually used before telling good news.
The same as "symbol". An abbreviation that indicates cryptocurrency, for example, BTC is a ticker of Bitcoin.
A type of smart contract that sets a certain condition restricting transactions before specified time or block height.
A form of recording the exact time and date when the transaction was proceeded.
A virtual unit created for utility purpose, which allows to access some specified cryptoeconomic system. It does not represent any value on its own, but is designed to develop software.
An event, that is held to launch a token. Similar to Initial Coin Offering, but related to the release of tokens, not coins.
The process of converting physical assets into their digital representation that exists on the blockchain.
The acronym for "The Onion Router". Refers to an open-source software program that allows users to protect their privacy and security against a common form of Internet surveillance known as traffic analysis. Tor is also widely used in location-hidden services to provide anonymity to servers.
The total amount of coins that exist for a specific cryptocurrency, excluding the amount of coins that were burnt.
This is a widely used term in the world of decentralized finance (DeFi), to represent the total number of assets or cryptocurrencies available for trading in a protocol or liquidity pool. It serves as the reference frame of the digital currencies to measure progress and decline in overall value over a monitored period.
The amount of shares or contracts traded for a specified security per 24 hours.
The process of transferring cryptocurrency between the two parties on a blockchain.
A kind of fee that one should pay for transacting crypto on a blockchain.
Transactions proceeded on a blockchain are called trustless. That means that the two parties conducting a transaction don't need any third party to verify and approve it.
The same as mixing service. Refers to a service offered to mix potentially identifiable or 'tainted' cryptocurrency funds with others, so as to obscure the trail back to the fund's original source.
The term refers to any system or programming language able to compute anything computable given enough resources.
A state in which a transaction has not been accepted to the blockchain.
A publicly available blockchain.
The unspent output of a blockchain transaction that can be used as an input for new transactions.
Abbreviation that stands for "Coordinated Universal Time". The primary time standard by which the world regulates clocks and time.
A participant on a Proof-of-Stake (PoS) blockchain, who validates the blocks for rewards.
A cryptocurrency address, usually consisting of alphanumerical characters, that can be used by a cryptocurrency owner to share with anyone wishing to send funds.
A cryptocurrency project that has been actively promoted, but is never going to be really developed and become available to the public.
Funds that investors are eager to offer to startup companies that seem to be perspective.
A newly-mined bitcoin that has no transaction history yet.
Statistical financial indicator, that measures the pace at which prices move higher or lower, and how wildly they swing.
The quantity of cryptocurrency that has been traded during a certain period of time. It can demonstrate the direction and movement of the cryptocurrency as well as a prediction of future price and its demand.
A digital wallet that is used for storing, sending and receiving cryptocurrency.
A technique of manipulating cryptocurrency market by simultaneously selling and buying crypto for the purpose of creating artificial activity.
A feature on the website that allows a user to create the list of crypto assets in order to monitor their price.
Investors who tend to follow traditional trading rules, thus making their trading predictable.
The smallest denomination of Ether. 1 Ether = 1,000,000,000,000,000,000 Wei (1018).
Investors, who owe very large amounts of crypto and have enough power to influence the market are called "whales".
A list of people and entities, who are interested to take part in an upcoming ICO.
A document describing a project or a startup company, that is usually prepared before an upcoming ICO and is targeted at attracting potential investors.
Electronically transferring money from one person to another. Commonly used to send and retrieve fiat currency from bitcoin exchanges.
Yield farming is an investment option that allows you to earn more crypto. It involves selling out or lending crypto in the form of smart contracts generated by a sequence of computer algorithms. By undertaking this process, investors are allowed to earn. Yield farmers observe the market for the best lending market places to maximize their returns on investment by employing different strategies on a daily basis.
An abbreviation for "Year to Date".
Another naming of an unconfirmed transaction.
A method of verifying transactions without revealing any private details.