Crypto Glossary
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
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0x
The 0x protocol is an open protocol that enables the peer-to-peer exchange of assets on the Ethereum blockchain. The 0x protocol was launched in 2017. It was built by 0x Labs, an organization based in San Francisco that is focused on creating new markets in the 0x ecosystem. The goal of 0x Labs is to create the necessary infrastructure for the emerging cryptocurrency economy and to enable markets to be created that couldn’t have existed before.
The protocol itself is not a decentralized exchange but allows for the creation of decentralized exchanges that can be used in broad applications.
3D Model Rendering
3D rendering is the process of turning information from a 3D model into a 2D image. 3D rendering can be used to create a variety of images, from the intentionally non-realistic to what’s called photorealistic. The latter look so much like images captured by a traditional camera that most consumers can’t tell the difference between a 3D rendering and a “real” photo
401k Plan
A 401(k) Plan is a defined-contribution retirement account that allows employees to save a portion of their salary in a tax-advantaged manner. The money earned in a 401(k) Plan is not taxed until after the employee retires, at which time their income will typically be lower than during their working years.
51% Attack
A 51% attack is a potential attack on a blockchain network, where a single entity or organization is able to control the majority of the hash rate, potentially causing a network disruption. In such a scenario, the attacker would have enough mining power to intentionally exclude or modify the ordering of transactions. They could also reverse transactions they made while being in control – leading to a double-spending problem.
A
Address
Address is a place where cryptocurrency can be sent to and from, in the form of a string of letters and numbers. A cryptocurrency address can be shared publicly in the form of text or QR code to those who want to send you cryptocurrency.
Airdrop
Airdrop is a marketing campaign that distributes a specific cryptocurrency or token to an audience. It is usually initiated by the creator of a cryptocurrency in order to encourage the use and build the popularity of the coin or token. Most airdrop campaigns run with mechanics such as receiving coins or tokens in exchange for simple tasks like sharing news, referring friends, or downloading an app.
Algorithm
Algorithm is a process or set of rules to be followed in problem-solving or calculation operations, usually by a computer, although humans tend to follow steps algorithmically as well (let’s say doing math or following a recipe).
All Time Low (ATL)
An All-Time Low (ATL), or a record low is the lowest price yet since a financial instrument was unveiled. All-time lows can be recorded per year, month, per week, or day. For Bitcoin, ATLs usually follow bad news about the coin or waning interest from holders and users.
Alpha
A software development team often works to release its product in stages. A common practice is to solicit input and advice from a community, such that ideas, suggestions, and improvements can be shared and incorporated before a final product is released to the general public.
Altcoin
Altcoin is the term given to describe alternative digital assets, such as a coin or token that is not Bitcoin. This nomenclature comes from the idea that Bitcoin is the original cryptocurrency and that all others are then considered “alternate” or “alternative” coins.
Altcoin Trader
An Altcoin trader is a person who trades cryptocurrencies, But not with Bitcoin, Because Bitcoin is not Altcoin. Top altcoins: Eth, BNB, DOT, ADA, LTC, XRP. link, etc.
AML
Anti-money laundering (AML) is a broad term for laws and regulations put in place to prevent criminals from making money illegally or moving illicit funds. While many illegal activities are targeted by AML laws, some of the most important are tax evasion, public corruption, and market manipulation through methods such as wash trading.
Anarcho-capitalism
A political philosophy and school of thought that believes in removing centralized states in favor of self-ownership, private property and free markets. Many of the early adopters of Bitcoin were proponents of anarcho-capitalism, believing it would give power and control back to the masses.
API
API stands for Application Programming Interface. It is a set of routines, protocols, and tools for building software applications. APIs specify how software components should interact, such as what data to use and what actions should be taken.
Arbitrage
A practice of taking advantage of differences in price of the same commodity in two or more markets or exchanges. For example, cryptocurrency prices on Korean exchanges can be different from those on US exchanges. An arbitrage trader would be in both markets in order to buy in one and sell in another for profit.
Ashdraked
A situation where you lose all your money, more specifically when you lose all your money shorting Bitcoin. This was based on a story of a Romanian trader who continued to short BTC when it went from $300 to $500, since he had made a lot of profit doing so historically. Adapt your trading strategy!
ASIC
Short for ‘Application Specific Integrated Circuit’; it is a mining equipment that is used specifically to mine a certain cryptocurrency. Often compared to GPUs, ASICs are specially created and bought for mining purposes and offer significant efficiency improvements and power savings due to its narrow use case.
Astroturfing
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.
ATH
The term “All-Time High” relates to the highest price that an asset has achieved on an exchange, for the current trading pair that is being referenced. For example, if a share of stock in XZY Corp comes to IPO at a price of $5 per share, then trades as high as $20 per share, before falling to $10 in a certain period of time, we could say that the “All-Time High” for the XZY Corp share price was $20.
Atomic Swap
Atomic swap is a technology based on smart contracts that enables the exchange of different cryptocurrencies without the need for a centralized market or other intermediaries. Also known as atomic cross-chain trading, atomic swaps involve the trade of one cryptocurrency to another, even if they are running in different blockchain networks.
Attack 51%
If more than half the computer power or mining hash rate on a network is run by a single person or a single group of people, then a 51% attack is in operation. This means that this entity has full control of the network and can negatively affect a cryptocurrency by taking over mining operations, stopping or changing transactions, and double-spending (reusing) coins.
Attestation Ledger
An attestation ledger is an account book designed to provide evidence of individual transactions. It is generally used to “attest” that a financial transaction took place, or to prove authenticity of transactions or products.
B
Bag
In the crypto space, the word bag refers to the coins, and tokens one is holding as part of their portfolio. Typically, the term is used to describe a significant amount of a particular cryptocurrency. There is no defined minimum, but when the value is relatively high, one could say they are holding “heavy bags” of a certain coin or token.
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 Market
The term bear market refers to a negative trend in the prices of a market. It is widely used not only in the cryptocurrency space but also in the traditional markets, such as stocks, bonds, real estate, and commodities markets.
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.
Bitcoin
Bitcoin is a digital form of money that runs on a distributed network of computers “nodes”. In a broader sense, though, many people often use the word Bitcoin to refer to a few different things: a digital currency, a decentralized public ledger, a protocol, or simply the big ecosystem that encompasses all of these.
Bitcoin ATM “BTM”
A machine from which you can Buy or Sell Bitcoin and get Cash. Example: BTC to USD, BTC to EUR, etc.
At the moment in the world are 7586+ active bitcoin ATM machine
Bitcoin Halving
Bitcoin Halving is an event that occurs approximately every four years and prevents coin inflation while halving the reward for miners for a mined block.
Bitcoin Improvement Proposal “BIP”
Bitcoin Improvement Proposal is 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.
BitLicense
A business license issued to cryptocurrency companies in New York, created and provided by the New York State Department of Financial Services (NYSDFS).
Bits
Bits is a sub-unit of one bitcoin. Any form of money needs to be easily broken down into sub-units to allow an equal exchange for goods or services. And bitcoin is wonderfully divisible, with its smallest unit being the tiny 0.00000001 of a bitcoin – a unit known as a ‘satoshi’. There are 1,000,000 bits in one bitcoin.
Block
A container or collection of transactions occurring every time period on a blockchain. In short, the term block refers to computer files that store transaction data. These blocks are arranged in a linear sequence that forms an endless chain of blocks – hence, the term blockchain.
Block Explorer
An online tool to view all transactions that have taken place on the blockchain, network hash rate, and transaction growth, among other useful information. In short, a block explorer is a tool that provides detailed analytics about a blockchain network since its first day at the genesis block. We can say a block explorer acts as a search engine and browser where users can find information about individual blocks, public addresses, and transactions associated with a specific cryptocurrency.
Block Height
The number of blocks preceding the block in question on the blockchain, or can be thought of as total blocks in the chain before this point.
Block Reward
An incentive for a miner who successfully calculates a valid hash in a block during mining. By contributing to the security and liveness of the chain, the miner is rewarded with this incentive, ensuring that miners continue to act in the best interest of the blockchain by legitimately taking part in the process (instead of hacking it).
Blockchain
A blockchain is a continuously growing, append-only, list of records called blocks, which are linked and secured using cryptography.
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.
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”
Brute Force Attack is 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 Market
The term bull market refers to a positive trend in the prices of a market. It is broadly used not only in the cryptocurrency space but also in the traditional markets. In short, a bull market concerns to a strong market uptrend that presents meaningful rising prices over a relatively short period of time. When compared to traditional markets, cryptocurrency markets are smaller and consequently more volatile. Therefore, it is quite common to see strong and consistent bull runs, where a 40% price increase in 1 or 2 days is quite common.
Bull Trap
A false market signal where the declining trend of an asset appears to be on the upturn, but does not actually materialize, leading bulls to lose money after going long.
Burned
When a coin or token has been made permanently unspendable or unusable.
Buy The F**** Dip – BTD / BTFD
Buy The F**** Dip an enthusiastic exclamation by supporters of a cryptocurrency to buy while prices are at a low point.
Buy Wall
A situation where a large limit order has been placed to buy 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 falling below that value, as demand will likely outstrip supply when the order is executed.
Byzantine Fault Tolerance “BFT”
Byzantine Fault Tolerance is a property of fault-tolerant distributed computing systems, reaching consensus through a mechanism, where components may fail and there may be imperfect information. For example, Bitcoin is Byzantine Fault Tolerant, utilizing the Proof-of-Work system to reach a consensus on the blockchain. Its applications are beyond blockchain, including messaging and networking systems, among others.
Byzantine Generals Problem
Byzantine Generals Problem is a situation where communication that requires consensus on a single strategy from all members within a group or party cannot be trusted or verified. An example of this agreement problem is where a group of generals, encircled around a city, must decide whether to attack or retreat. Every general must agree to attack or retreat, or everyone will be worse off. Some generals may be treacherous, voting falsely, and messengers may deliver false votes. Under these circumstances, a consensus must be reached. In cryptocurrency, when network participants post false or inaccurate information to others about transactions taking place, it could lead to network failure.
C
Candlesticks
Candlesticks 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.
Cash
Cash is physical form of a currency, such as banknotes or coins.
Central Ledger
A ledger maintained by a centralized agency (such as a bank) that records all financial transactions.
Central Processing Unit (CPU)
Central Processing Unit, also known as a processor or CPU, is defined as the “brains” of the computer, coordinating different components running on a computer. CPU clock speed is measured in gigahertz or GHz for short.
Centralized
The concept of centralization relates to the distribution of power and authority in an organization or a network. When a system is centralized, it means that the planning and decision-making mechanisms are concentrated at a particular point within the system.
Chain Split
Chain Split is another term used to describe Fork and is accordingly a situation where a blockchain splits into two separate chains. Chain Splits generally happen in the crypto world when new governance rules are built into the blockchain’s code.
Change
Bitcoin transactions are made up of inputs and outputs, in a system called Unspent Transaction Output. When you send bitcoins, you can only send them in a whole output, and the rest are sent back as change.
Chargeback
A demand made by a credit-card provider for a retailer to make good on the loss on a fraudulent or disputed transaction, reversing said payment or money transfer after it was authorized.
Cipher
The name given to the algorithm that encrypts and decrypts information.
Circulating Supply
The best approximation of the number of coins that are circulating in the market and in the general public’s hands.
Close
Refers to the closing price; similar to the same term used in financial stocks.
Cloud Mining
Mining with remote processing power rented from companies operating outfits in countries like Iceland, where the electricity is abundant and cost-efficient, and the ambient temperature is cold year-round. Another term for this is mining contract.
Co-Signer
A person or entity that has partial control and access over a cryptocurrency wallet.
Coin
Coin is a cryptocurrency or digital cash that is independent of any other blockchain or platform. The key feature of a coin is that of a currency, and the term may also be used to describe a cryptocurrency asset that is not a token.
Coinbase
First designed in the Bitcoin system, a coinbase is a compulsorily-included transaction on a block, the output of which directs where to send the mining reward. In the Bitcoin system, the coinbase has a 100-byte size input, where messages can be attached or used as an extra nonce.
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.
Confirmations
A transaction is only confirmed when it is included in a block on the blockchain, at which point it has one confirmation. Each additional block is another confirmation. Different exchanges require a different number of confirmations to consider a cryptocurrency transaction final.
Consensus
Consensus is achieved when all participants of the network agree on the order and content of blocks and transactions contained in those blocks.
Consortium Blockchain
A privately-owned and -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.
Correction
A correction is a (usually negative) reverse movement of at least 10% in a cryptocurrency or general market, to adjust for over- or under-valuations.
Crypto Angel Investor
Angel Investor Also called a seed or private investor, angel investors actively seek out opportunities to provide funding for entrepreneurs or start-up companies. They are often individuals with high net worth who are seeking new methods of expanding their wealth while simultaneously helping to launch an up and coming venture.
Crypto Fundamental Analysis
Crypto Fundamental Analysis This is a method of measuring core strengths that not only determines the risks associated with any cryptocurrency but also have a large impact on the cryptocurrency price action.
Crypto-jacking
The use of another party’s computer to mine cryptocurrency without their consent.
Cryptoasset
Cryptoassets leverage cryptography, consensus algorithms, distributed ledgers, peer-to-peer technology and/or smart contracts to function as a store of value, medium of exchange, unit of account, or decentralized application.
Cryptocurrency
A cryptocurrency is a digital medium of exchange using strong cryptography to secure financial transactions, control the creation of additional units, and verify the transfer of assets.
Cryptographic Hash Function
Cryptographic hashes produce a fixed-size and unique hash value from variable-size transaction input. The SHA-256 algorithm is an example of a cryptographic hash function.
Cryptography
A field of study and practice to secure information, preventing third parties from reading information to which they are not privy.
Custodial
Usually referring to the storage of keys, in relation to wallets or exchanges, a custodial set-up is one in which private keys are being held by the service provider while they provide a login account.
Cypherpunk
An activist who advocates for the mass adoption and use of strong cryptographic solutions and privacy-enhancing technologies to enact social and political progress.
D
Dark Web
A portion of internet content existing on darknets, not indexed by search engines, that can only be accessed with specific software, configurations or authorizations.
Date of Launch
Is a term used for when ICOs will put up their tokens for sale.
Dead Cat Bounce
A temporary recovery in prices after a huge 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 global goal.
Decentralized Applications (dApps)
A type of application that runs on a decentralized network, avoiding a single point of failure.
Decentralized Autonomous Initial Coin Offerings (DAICO)
A method for decentralized funding of projects, combining ideas from Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs) and Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs), proposed by Vitalik Buterin, creator of Ethereum. It introduces a form of governance in the ICO process, allowing backers to vote for the return of their funds if certain conditions are met.
Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAO)
An organization that is run through rules encoded in smart contracts.
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.
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.
Difficulty
A relative measure of how difficult it is to discover a new block. In Bitcoin, the difficulty is adjusted periodically as a function of how much hashing power has been deployed by the network of miners.
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.
Dildo
A dildo is 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.
Directed Acyclic Graph (DAG)
A directed acyclic graph or DAG is a structure that is built out in one single direction and in such a way that it never repeats.
Distributed Consensus
Collective agreement by various computers in a network enabling it to work in a decentralized manner without a central authority.
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.
Distributed Network
A type of network where processing power and data are spread over the nodes without a centralized data center or authority.
Dolphin
A person who owns a moderate quantity of cryptocurrency. This person does not qualify to be a whale, but has evolved from being a fish/minnow.
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.
Dust Transactions
Minuscule transactions that flood and slow the network, usually deliberately created by people looking to disrupt it.
DYOR
Age-old adage: “Do Your Own Research”. Don’t just take people at their word.
E
ELI5
Stands for “Explain Like I’m 5”, an explanation so simple that even a five-year-old can understand it.
Emission
Emission, also known as Emission Curve, Emission Rate, and Emission Schedule, is the speed at which new coins are created and released.
Enterprise Ethereum Alliance (EEA)
A group of Ethereum developers, startups, and large corporations working together to commercialize and use Ethereum for business applications.
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.
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 EIP, Means describes 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
Cryptocurrency exchanges (sometimes called digital currency exchanges) are businesses that allow customers to trade cryptocurrencies for fiat money or other cryptocurrencies.
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.
F
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
Fiat currency is “legal tender” backed by a central government, such as the Federal Reserve, and with its own banking system, such as fractional reserve banking. It can take the form of physical cash, or it can be represented electronically, such as with bank credit.
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.
Fish
A fish, or minnow, is someone who holds insignificant amounts of cryptocurrencies, often at the mercy of whales who move the market up and down.
Flippening
A situation hoped for by Ethereum fans, where the total market cap of Ethereum surpasses the total market cap of Bitcoin.
Flipping
An investment strategy (mostly popularized by real estate investing) where you buy something with the goal of reselling for a profit later, usually in a short period of time. In the context of ICOs, flipping refers to the strategy of investing in tokens before they are listed on exchanges, then quickly reselling them for a profit when they start trading on exchanges in the secondary market.
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.
Fork (Blockchain)
Forks, or chain splits, create an alternate version of the blockchain, leaving two blockchains to run simultaneously. An example is Ethereum and Ethereum Classic, which was forked after the DAO hack.
Fork (Software)
A software fork, also known as a project fork, is when developers take the technology (source code) from one existing software project and modify it to create a new project. An example is Litecoin, which was a software fork of Bitcoin.
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.
FUDster
Someone that is spreading FUD.
Full Node
Nodes that download a blockchain’s entire history in order to observe and enforce its rules.
Fundamental Analysis (FA)
A method in which you research the underlying value of an asset by looking at the technology, team, growth prospects and other indicators. Some people perform fundamental analysis as part of an investment strategy called “value investing”.
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.
G
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 to one coin. The gram of gold is stored in a safe and can be traded with other coin holders.
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.
Group Mining
Another term used to describe a Mining Pool.
Gwei
The denomination used in defining the cost of gas in transactions involving Ether.
H
Hacking
Hacking is the process of using a computer to manipulate another computer or computer system in an unauthorized fashion.
Halving
An event in which the total rewarded bitcoins per confirmed block halves, happening every 210,000 blocks mined.
Hard Cap
The maximum amount that an ICO will raise. If a hard cap is reached, no more funds will be collected.
Hard Fork
Hard Fork is a type of protocol change that validates all previously invalid transactions and invalidates all previously valid transactions. This type of fork requires all nodes and users to upgrade to the latest version of the forked protocol software. In a hard fork, a single cryptocurrency permanently splits into two, resulting in one blockchain that follows the old protocol and the other that follows the newest protocol. Some examples are Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash, or Ethereum and Ethereum Classic.
Hash
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.
Hash Function
Any function used to map data of arbitrary size to data of a fixed size.
Hash Power / Hash Rate
A unit of measurement for the amount of computing power being consumed by the network to continuously operate. The Hash Rate of a computer may be measured in kH/s, MH/s, GH/s, TH/s, PH/s or EH/s depending on the hashes per second being produced.
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.
HODL
A type of passive investment strategy where you hold an investment for a long period of time, regardless of any changes in the price or markets. The term first became famous due to a typo made in a bitcoin forum, and the term is now commonly expanded to stand for “Hold On for Dear Life”.
Hosted Wallet
Hosted Wallet is a hosted crypto wallet is a digital wallet in which your private keys are stored. In exchange, the wallet takes care of the backup and security of your funds.
Hot Storage
The online storage of private keys allowing for quicker access to cryptocurrencies.
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.
I
Immutable
A property that defines the inability to be changed, especially over time.
Inflation
A general increase in prices and fall in the purchasing value of money.
Initial Bounty Offering (IBO)
An Initial Bounty Offering or IBO in crypto is the limited-time process by which a new cryptocurrency is made public and distributed to people who invest time and skill into earn rewards in the new cryptocurrency, such as doing translation or marketing. Unlike an Initial Coin Offering where you can buy coins, an IBO requires more mental commitment from the receiver.
Initial Coin Offering (ICO)
A type of crowdfunding, or crowdsale, using cryptocurrencies as a means of raising capital for early-stage companies. It has come under fire due to the occurrence of scams and market manipulators.
Initial Token Offering (ITO)
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.
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.
Intermediary / Middleman
An intermediary, or middleman, is a person or entity that acts as the go-between different parties to bring about agreements or carry out directives.
J
JOMO
The opposite state of FOMO, JOMO stands for “Joy of Missing Out”. Most often used by no-coiners who declare their happiness that they are not involved in cryptocurrencies, usually when prices are declining or a scam ICO is revealed.
K
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.
Keys
A cryptographic key is a string of bits that is used by an encryption algorithm to convert encrypted ciphertext into plaintext and vice versa as part of a paired key access mechanism. Keys are usually randomly generated and, unlike a password, are not intended to be memorized by users.
L
Lambo
Shorthand for Lamborghini, an exotic car that people often refer to in their excitement over getting rich from cryptocurrencies. Often used in cryptocurrency communities when asking when prices may rise again by saying: “When Lambo?” It is usually combined with “When moon?”
Ledger
A record of financial transactions that cannot be changed, only appended with new transactions.
Leverage
A loan offered by a broker on an exchange during margin trading to increase the availability of funds in trades.
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.
Long
A situation where you buy a cryptocurrency with the expectation of selling it at a higher price for profit later.
M
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
Market
An area or arena, online or offline, in which commercial dealings are conducted. Usually referred to as the “crypto market”, which refers to the cumulative cryptocurrencies and projects operating within the industry.
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 Cap = Current Price x Circulating Supply
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.
mBTC
m฿ or mBTC are MilliBitcoin. 1 mBTC is equal to 0.001 Bitcoin “BTC”.
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
A process where blocks are added to a blockchain, verifying transactions. It is also the process through which new bitcoins or some altcoins are created.
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.
Minnow
Another term used to describe Fish.
Mixing Service
Also known as 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.
Mnemonics
Mnemonics are memory aids with a system such as letters or associations that help in recall.
Money Transmitter/Money Transfer License
In the legal code of the United States, a money transmitter or money transfer service is a business entity that provides money transfer services or payment instruments, whether it is real currency, cryptocurrency, or any other value. Money Transmitters in the US are part of a larger group of entities called money service businesses or MSBs.
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.
Multi-Signature (Multi-sig)
Multi-signature addresses provide an added layer of security by requiring more than one key to authorize a transaction.
N
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-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.
O
Off-Ledger Currency
A currency that is created (minted) outside of the specified blockchain ledger but is accepted or used.
Offline Storage
The act of storing cryptocurrencies in devices or systems not connected to the internet.
On-Ledger Currency
A currency that is both minted on the blockchain ledger and also used on the blockchain ledger, such as bitcoin.
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 software is a type of software released under a license in which the copyright holder grants users the rights to study, change, and distribute the software to anyone and for any purpose. It is also a philosophy, with participants believing in the free and open sharing of information in pursuit of the greater common good.
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.
P
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.
Peer to Peer (P2P)
The decentralized interactions between parties in a distributed network, partitioning tasks or workloads between peers.
Permissioned Ledger
A ledger designed with restrictions, such that only people or organizations requiring access have permission to access it.
Platform
Platform refers to the parent blockchain of tokens. It may also refer to a cryptocurrency exchange on which you may trade cryptocurrencies.
Ponzi Scheme
A fraudulent investment involving the payment of purported returns to existing investors from funds contributed by new investors.
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.
Private Key / Secret Key
A piece of code generated in asymmetric-key encryption process, paired with a public key, to be used in decrypting information hashed with the public key.
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-Stake (PoS)
A blockchain consensus mechanism involving choosing the creator of the next block via various combinations of random selection and wealth or age of staked coins or tokens.
Proof-of-Work (PoW)
A blockchain consensus mechanism involving solving of computationally intensive puzzles to validate transactions and create new blocks
Protocol
The set of rules that define interactions on a network, usually involving consensus, transaction validation, and network participation on a blockchain.
Pseudonymous
Writing under a false name, such as “Satoshi Nakamoto”.
Public Address
A public address is the cryptographic hash of a public key, allowing the user to use it as an address to request for payment.
Public Blockchain
A blockchain that can be accessed by anyone.
Public key
This value does not have to be kept secret because the public key reveals nothing about the private key.
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.
Q
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.
R
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.
REKT
A shorthand slang for “wrecked”, describing a bad loss in a trade.
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.
Reverse Indicator
A person whom you may use as an indicator of how not to place buy or sell orders because they are always wrong at predicting price movements of cryptocurrencies.
Ring Signature
A method of increasing privacy, by fusing inputs of multiple signers with that of the original sender to authorize a transaction.
ROI
Short for “Return on Investment”, the ratio between the net profit and cost of investing.
S
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 (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.
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.
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 Phrase
Seed phrase is 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)
A Bitcoin Improvement Proposal (BIP) that aimed to fix transaction malleability on Bitcoin. In the past, when changing the “witness” information (signatures) on blocks, it would change the transaction ID and its subsequent hash; SegWit was aiming to fix this by segregating signature and block content; a side effect of this change was smaller block sizes and the ability to support second layer solutions.
Selfish Mining
A situation in which a miner mines a new block but does not broadcast this new block to the other miners. If this miner is able to find a second block faster than all other miners, then they would have created the longest public chain, invalidating all other blocks discovered in the time it took to execute this attack.
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.
SHA-256
A cryptographic hash function that generates a 256-bit signature for a text, used in Bitcoin Proof-of-Work (PoW). Standing for “Secure Hash Algorithm”, it is one of the SHA-2 algorithms, first designed by the NSA.
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.
Shiba Token
Shiba token is a Decentralized Meme Tokens, that grow into a vibrant ecosystem. SHIB is an experiment in decentralized spontaneous community building.
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
A smart contract is a computer protocol intended to facilitate, verify, or enforce a contract on the blockchain without third parties.
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.
Soft Fork (Blockchain)
A protocol upgrade where only previously valid transactions are made invalid, with most soft forks requiring miners to upgrade their mining software in order to enforce it.
Solidity
The programming language used by Ethereum 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.
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.
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.
Symbol
The ticker of a cryptocurrency; for example, Bitcoin’s symbol is BTC.
T
Taint
The percentage of cryptocurrency in an account that can be traced to another account.
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
An alternative blockchain used by developers for testing.
Tether
The Tether is often abbreviated as USDT on exchanges. This is a non-government regulated ‘stablecoin’ with a value of around 1 US dollar. The company behind this coin claims that every Tether in circulation is covered with real dollars on their bank account.
Think Long Term (TLT)
A mindset where you have a longer-term investment horizon of months to years.
This is Gentlemen
Originally an error in writing the full “This is it, gentlemen”. It is now used as an introduction for good news.
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 cryptoeconomic system. It does not have store of value on its own, but are made so that software can be developed around it.
Token Generation Event
The time at which a token is issued.
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.
Tor
Tor is free software for enabling anonymous communication. The name is derived from an acronym for the original software project name “The Onion Router”. It consists of a network of volunteer relays to conceal users’ location and usage.
Total Supply
The total amount of coins in existence right now, minus any coins that have been verifiably burned.
Trade Volume
Is the amount of the cryptocurrency that has been traded in the last 24 hours.
Trading Bot
A trading bot is an algorithm that trades for a trader on a stock exchange or crypto exchange. Trading bots are used by both professionals and amateurs.
Transaction (TX)
The act of exchanging cryptocurrencies on a blockchain.
Transaction Fee
A payment for using the blockchain to transact.
Trezor
The Trezor is a popular ‘Hardware Wallet’, which supports multiple blockchains.
Trustless
A property of the blockchain, where no participant needs to trust any other participant for transactions to be enforced as intended.
Tumbler
Another name for a mixing service.
Turing-Complete
Turing-complete refers to the ability of a machine to perform calculations that any other programmable computer is capable of. An example of this is the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM).
U
uBTC
u฿ or uBTC are MilliBitcoin. 1 uBTC is equal to 0.000001 Bitcoin “BTC”.
Unconfirmed
A state in which a transaction has not been appended to the blockchain.
Unpermissioned Ledger
A public blockchain.
Unspent Transaction Output
An output of a blockchain transaction that has not been spent, and can be used as an input for new transactions.
USDT
See Tether for the meaning of USDT.
UTC Time
Coordinated Universal Time. It is the primary time standard by which the world regulates clocks and time, kept using highly precise atomic clocks combined with the Earth’s rotation.
UXTO
UXTO is the abbreviation of ‘Unspent Transaction Output’. The total balance of bitcoins on an address can be spread over multiple blocks in the blockchain. The unspent bitcoins have a UXTO attribute. By searching the blockchain for the UXTO’s, which belong to a ‘wallet’ address, the total spendable balance can be determined. This is displayed by the wallet when it is fully synchronised.
V
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.
Vaporware
A cryptocurrency project that is never actually developed.
Vaporware (aka Vapourware)
Vaporware is a term that comes from the software world to indicate announced, but not released or cancelled software. In the cryptocurrency world this also happens, but the term “Shitcoin” is more common.
Venture Capital
A form of private equity provided to fund small, early-stage firms considered to have high growth potential.
Virgin Bitcoin
A bitcoin that has never been spent.
Vitalik Buterin
Vitalik Buterin is a programmer of Canadian-Russian descent. He is the inventor of ‘Smart Contracts’ and co-founder of Ethereum.
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.
W
Wallet
A cryptocurrency wallet is a secure digital wallet used to store, send, and receive digital currency, and are divided into two categories: hosted wallets and cold wallets.
Wash Trade
A form of market manipulation in which investors create artificial activity in the marketplace by simultaneously selling and buying the same cryptocurrencies.
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.
When Lambo
The extended-expression for Lambo.
When Moon
The extended-expression for Moon.
Whitelist
A “Whitelist” is a list of approved participants, who may participate in an ICO or Pre-ICO. A ‘whitelist’ is not always used, but it is usually used to generate ‘hype’ and exclusivity for the ICO.
Whitepaper
A document prepared by an ICO project team to interest investors with its vision, cryptocurrency use and cryptoeconomic design, technical information, and a roadmap for how it plans to grow and succeed.
X
XBT
XBT is an alternative abbreviation for Bitcoin (BTC) and is the official ISO 4217 standard. It is country independent. The abbreviation for gold is XAU.
Y
Yellowpaper
A ‘yellowpaper’ is a research document. It describes a more in-depth and technical analysis. The purpose of this document is to inform those involved and interested.
YTD
Stands for Year to Date.
Z
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.
Zerocoin (protocol)
Zerocoin, also known as Zerocoin protocol, is originally a proposal to give Bitcoin a privacy function. It is currently implemented by, among others, the coins Zcoin and PivX. Read more about this in this detailed description of zerocoin.
