Lexique: Cryptomonnaie

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Altcoin

Ce mot est la fusion des termes "**alt**ernative" et "**bit**coin". On appelle ALTCOIN toutes les crypto-monnaies apparues après le Bitcoin.

ASIC

(Application Specific Integrated Circuit). Ce sont des puces informatiques puissantes créées dans un but spécifique et unique : le minage des crypto-monnaies.

ATH

All Time High : c'est le cours le plus haut obtenu par une crypto.

Atomic Swap

L'atomic swap est une technique permettant l'échange d'un coin ou d'un token contre un autre, sans passer par l'intermédiaire d'une plateforme d'échange. Les atomic swaps utilisent la technologie des contrats intelligents pour sécuriser l'échange, et rembourser les participants si l'un d'eux ne respecte pas ses engagements.

Attaque à 51 %

Une attaque à 51 % se produit quand une seule entité contrôle la majorité de la puissance de calcul d'une blockchain fonctionnant sur le modèle de preuve de travail. Celui qui mène cette attaque serait alors en mesure de réaliser une double dépense.

Bear run

Marché baissier.

Bitcoin

Le bitcoin a été la première crypto-monnaie. C'est une monnaie numérique décentralisée permettant des échanges de pair à pair. Elle a été développée en 2018 par une personne, ou un groupe, connu uniquement du pseudonyme de Satoshi Nakamoto. Le bitcoin est divisible à la 8ème décimale que l'on nomme satoshi en hommage au créateur du bitcoin, Satoshi Nakamoto. Il est déflationniste (sa valeur augmente), car il n'y aura pas plus de 21 millions de BTC émis à échéance 2140.

  • A noter : le Bitcoin (avec un B majuscule) désigne la blockchain support.*

Bitcoin Network

Il s'agit du réseau décentralisé peer-to-peer qui supporte la blockchain. C'est lui qui traite toutes les transactions Bitcoin.

Bitcoin Pizza Day

Le 22 Mai 2010, le développeur Laszlo Hanyecz s'est fait livrer 2 pizzas en échange de 10.000 bitcoins. Ce jour, qui est celui du premier achat d'un bien physique en bitcoins, est désormais connu comme le "Bitcoin Pizza day".

Bitcoin Protocol

Le protocole cryptographique Open Source, qui fonctionne sur le réseau Bitcoin, définit les «règles» de fonctionnement du réseau.

Bitcoin Transaction

Une transaction est un fichier qui dit : "Pierre donne X Bitcoin à Jeanne" et est signé par la clé privée de Pierre. Après signature, une transaction est diffusée dans le réseau, envoyée d'un "peer" à tous les autres "peer". La transaction est connue presque immédiatement par l'ensemble du réseau. Mais seulement après un certain temps, elle est confirmée. Tant qu'une transaction n'est pas confirmée, elle est en attente et peut être falsifiée. Quand une transaction est confirmée, elle est irréversible.

Bloc

Un bloc est un ensemble de transactions. Pour qu'une transaction s'effectue, le bloc doit être validé par les nœuds de la blockchain.

Bloc de genèse

Il s'agit du premier bloc d'une blockchain. Ce bloc ne peut contenir aucune transaction mais il est possible d'y écrire tout type de données. Le premier bloc de la blockchain Bitcoin a été miné le 3 janvier 2009 à 18h15.

Block Reward

Une forme de récompense pour le mineur qui a calculé avec succès le hachage dans un bloc pendant le mining de crypto-monnaies. La vérification des transactions sur la blockchain génère de nouveaux Coins dans le processus, et le mineur se voit reversé en récompense une partie de ceux-ci. Le block Reward est composé du block Subsidy plus l’ensemble des frais (fees) .

Block Subsidy

(Subvention de block en français). Approximativement, toutes les 10 minutes, un nouveau bloc Bitcoin est créé, contenant de nouveaux bitcoins : c’est ce qu’on appelle communément le "Block Subsidy". En 2020, le block subsidy est de plus de 6 BTC

Block Timestamp

Chaque bloc contient une Time stamp dans Unix. Ils aident à rendre plus difficile pour un hacker de manipuler la blockchain.

Blockchain

L’inventeur du Bitcoin et de la Blockchain est un inconnu mais cela serait attribué à un pseudonyme : Satoshi Nakamoto. La chaîne de blocs (en anglais blockchain) est une technologie de stockage et de transmission d’informations, transparente, sécurisée, et fonctionnant sans organe central de contrôle (donc sans tiers de confiance). C’est un registre de transactions décentralisé et distribué entre tous les utilisateurs, qui permet de sécuriser les échanges, cela a notamment donné naissance au Bitcoin qui utilise cette technologie.Cette décentralisation remet en cause le rôle des tiers de confiance traditionnels et notamment les plateformes intermédiaires (AirBnb, Booking, Uber, Blablacar, Ebay, Priceminister,…) qui constituent aujourd’hui le cœur de la révolution numérique. On passe d'une économie verticale (top-down avec pouvoir centralisé) à une économie horizontale… L’intérêt des banques pour cette technologie illustre aussi leur conscience du défi qui se présente : adopter cette nouvelle technologie, l’intégrer à leurs systèmes d’information, maîtriser les codes d’un dispositif reposant sur la transparence et la décentralisation, au contraire des organisations existantes. Leur implication et la maitrise du protocole d’échange et de la technologie Blockchain sont un moyen de conserver la maitrise des données et d’éviter la désintermédiation.

Blockchain privée

La sécurité, le contrôle et l’organisation des pouvoirs de décisions relèvent de l’organe central (une personne morale) investit de la gouvernance et qui engage sa responsabilité. L’ensemble de cette organisation doit être régi par des statuts et un règlement intérieur de fonctionnement. On peut aussi parler de blockchain "hybride" ou "consortium" dans le cas où elle est contrôlée par un groupe.

Blockchain publique

C’est un registre (ledger) ouvert à tous (de telles blockchains sont dites permissionless). La blockchain est caractérisée par son ouverture totale : tout le monde peut y accéder, sans censure, et effectuer des transactions et tout le monde peut participer au processus de consensus. Il n’y a ni registre central ni tiers de confiance.

Bull run

Marché haussier.

Bulle spéculative

Une bulle spéculative se produit quand le prix d'un actif excède largement sa valeur réelle. Une hausse initiale du prix entraîne des anticipations de hausse future, ce qui attire de nouveaux investisseurs sur le marché.

Clé privée

Une clé privée permet à l’utilisateur d’une blockchain d’initier une transaction en signant son message.

Clé publique

Une clé publique sert d’adresse sur une blockchain. Accessible à tous, elle permet à un émetteur de s’adresser à un destinataire. L'on peut dire qu’une adresse correspond, en quelque sorte, à un numéro de compte (unique au monde) que vous pouvez trouver sur un RIB bancaire classique. La clé publique ne permet pas de retrouver la clé privée qui en est à l'origine, c'est pour cette raison qu'elle peut être diffusée largement.

Cloud mining

Location d'une puissance de calcul pendant un certain temps.

Cold storage

Le moyen le plus sûr de stocker vos clés privées est de les conserver hors ligne dans un cold storage. Il peut s'agir soit d'un hardware wallet ou d'un paper wallet. Ces wallets (portefeuilles) sont connus comme cold wallet ( littéralement portefeuilles à froid).

Consensus

Le consensus informatique dans le domaine des systèmes distribués est un moyen pour les nœuds (participants) de se mettre d’accord sur la validité d’une transaction et de mettre à jour le grand livre avec un ensemble cohérent de faits confirmés.

Cryptographie

La cryptographie consiste à crypter des messages à l'aide de clés de chiffrement. La majorité des crypto-monnaies reposent sur un système de cryptographie dite "asymétrique". Cette forme de cryptographie fonctionne avec une paire de clés, l'une privée et l'autre publique, liées entre elles par un algorithme à courbes elliptiques (ECDSA).

Crypto-monnaie

Monnaie électronique en pair à pair, basée sur les principes de la cryptographie pour valider les transactions et la génération de la monnaie elle-même. Le bitcoin est la première jamais créée et la plus célèbre de ces monnaies. Contrairement aux monnaies étatiques, la crypto-monnaie n'est pas sécurisée par une institution mais par un système appelé la blockchain. De plus, il n'y a ni pièces ni billets pour procéder aux échanges, tout se passe en ligne.

Cypherpunks

Les cypherpunks sont un groupe informel de personnes qui agissent, depuis la fin des années 1980, pour préserver les libertés individuelles au moyen d'un système d'échange anonyme. Ils ont toujours estimé qu'il fallait protéger les données numériques du gouvernement et des entreprises.

DAO

Une DAO est un regroupement de smart contracts écrits dans une blockchain. Il s'agit donc d'une forme d'entreprise se voulant complètement autonome, transparente et décentralisée. Une DAO n'a aucune forme juridique, ni même de réalité physique, elle n'existe que par sa présence dans une blockchain.

DAPP

Une application décentralisée (DApp) est une application qui est open source, fonctionne de manière autonome, a ses données stockées sur une blockchain, est incitée sous la forme de Tokens cryptographiques et fonctionne sur un protocole qui montre une preuve de valeur.

Day-to-day Trading

Le day-to-day trading, littéralement "trading au jour le jour", est le fait d'essayer de faire des bénéfices sur de petits sauts de la bourse, sans prendre en compte la tendance générale du marché.

DeFi

Finance décentralisée. Elle reprend les différents concepts de la finance traditionnelle (prêts, emprunts, échanges, assurance, bourse, …) mais de pair à pair en remettant la confiance entre les mains de la blockchain via des algorithmes automatisés qui respectent des règles transparentes et prédéfinies.

Difficulté

Cela fait référence à la facilité avec laquelle un bloc de données d'informations de transaction peut être miné avec succès. Ce terme est utilisé dans le monde des mineurs de crypto-monnaies.

DLT

La DLT (distributed ledger technology) est une technologie de registre distribué. Cela signifie que le registre est simultanément enregistré et synchronisé sur un réseau d'ordinateurs. Il évolue par l'addition de nouvelles informations préalablement validées par l'entièreté du réseau et destinées à ne jamais être modifiées ou supprimées. Chaque membre du réseau possède en permanence la dernière version du registre distribué.

Double dépense

La double dépense est un problème spécifique aux monnaies numériques. C'est la situation dans laquelle un individu malveillant tente de dépenser deux fois une même somme d'argent. La blockchain Bitcoin a permis de régler le problème de la double dépense sans avoir recours à un tiers de confiance.

Dump

Intervient après un "Pump" et consiste à vendre en masse les crypto-monnaies pour dégager d'importantes plus-values (objectif : faire vendre à bas coût --> vise les weak hands).

ERC-20

Ethereum Request for Comments - Tokens standards échangés sur la blockchain Ethereum. Ces tokens (ou jetons), à l'inverse des ERC-721, sont fongibles entre eux.

Ethereum

Plateforme décentralisée basée sur une blockchain et conçue pour que ses utilisateurs puissent y négocier des «smart contracts» sur la base d’une cryptomonnaie dédiée, l’ether. Il s’agit du principal concurrent du bitcoin. Ethereum (créée en 2014 par Vitalik Buterin) vise à bâtir un Web où les intermédiaires entre les clients et les services qu’ils recherchent n’existent plus. Si je veux, par exemple, conclure un contrat numérique avec vous, pourquoi est-ce que j’aurais besoin d’un avocat pour cela ? Mettons-nous d’accord sur les modalités de ce contrat. Dans l’infrastructure d’Ethereum, celui-ci n’est pas modifiable ou falsifiable puisque sa sécurité est garantie par un protocole cryptographique. On s’économise des frais d’avocat tout en gagnant en sécurité. Cette idée peut s’appliquer à d’autres services comme les réseaux sociaux, les sites de financement participatif, eBay, Airbnb…

Exchange

Plateforme qui permet de trader entre une multitude de cryptomonnaies à faible coût (exemple : Kraken, Binance, Coinbase, Coinhouse,…).

FOMO

(Fear of Missing out). C'est la peur de manquer quelque chose d'important qui développe une certaine dépendance psychologique pour rester en ligne (notamment pour regarder l'évolution des cours).

Hachage

On nomme fonction de hachage une fonction particulière qui, à partir d'une donnée fournie en entrée, calcule une empreinte servant à identifier rapidement, bien qu'incomplètement, la donnée initiale. Les fonctions de hachage sont utilisées en informatique et en cryptographie. Le Bitcoin utilise l'algorithme SHA-256 (Secure Hash Algorithm) comme système de preuve de travail. La fonction SHA-256 est devenue en 2002 un standard fédéral de traitement de l'information, elle produit un haché de 256 bits.

Halving

Selon la politique monétaire codée au sein de Bitcoin, la quantité de nouveaux bitcoins émis par bloc doit réduire avec le temps, éventuellement se rapprochant de 0% en 2140 : c’est ce que l’on appelle le halving. La récompense que touchent les mineurs pour chaque bloc miné est divisée par deux, approximativement tous les 4 ans. Ce processus permet de réduire l'offre de bitcoins sur le marché. Le 3ème halving bitcoin a eu lieu le 11 mai 2020 (le premier halving a eu lieu le 28 novembre 2012, le second le 9 juillet 2016). La diminution des revenus générés par le halving a tendance à réduire la production, car le minage devient immédiatement beaucoup moins rentable, et il amène indirectement dans les semaines qui suivent à une pénurie progressive sur le marché. C'est cette pénurie qui cause une explosion des cours et le début d’un marché haussier. C’est généralement à ce moment que le prix du bitcoin s’envole.

Hard Fork

Modification des règles de consensus qui a pour effet de rendre les nouvelles règles incompatibles avec les précédentes (c'est le cas, à titre d'exemple, si l'on augmente la taille maximale des blocs minés). Cet assouplissement du protocole peut (mais pas forcément) mener à un split de la monnaie (Exemple : Ethereum et Ethereum Classic) car tous les nœuds du réseau doivent se mettre à niveau.

Hashrate

C'est un indicateur quantitatif de la puissance de calcul d'une machine de minage. La cryptomonnaie est la roche, le mineur celui qui tient la pioche et le hashrate définit la force qu'il faudra pour décrocher du minerai.

Hodl

C'est un terme qui définit le fait de détenir et de stocker des crypto-monnaies pendant une longue période. Cette expression provient d'une faute d'un utilisateur sur le forum Bitcoin Talk. Celui-ci a écrit plusieurs fois HODL au lieu de Hold.

ICO

Initial Coins Offering. Elles permettent à de jeunes pousses, dont l'activité est basée sur une blockchain, de lever des fonds publics… sans avoir à ouvrir leur capital. Elles constituent pour certains un bon moyen pour diversifier leurs investissements en crypto-monnaies. Si elles sont plus risquées, les investisseurs espèrent obtenir des rendements importants. Concrètement, les fondateurs émettent des "jetons" (les tokens) sur un marché ouvert où ils se négocient généralement contre des crypto-devises (notamment l'Ether). Ces "jetons" représentent parfois un équivalent de parts de l'entreprise (voire de ses bénéfices futurs) ou, plus fréquemment, la monnaie virtuelle avec laquelle sera payée l'utilisation de la solution qu'elle développera.

Interopérabilité

C'est la capacité de communiquer des informations entre les différentes blockchains. Pour beaucoup, ce n'est que lorsque les différentes blockchains seront interopérables qu'elles pourront être adoptées par les entreprises et les institutions.

Lightning Network

Il s'agit de regrouper les micro-transactions hors de la blockchain, sur des "canaux". Ainsi, seule une transaction globale est propagée sur le réseau. Cela permet de réaliser des transactions à des coûts très faibles, car étant faites hors blockchain principale.

Masternode

Essentiellement dans le cadre du PoS (Preuve d'enjeu). Il s'agit d'un serveur détenant un exemplaire complet de la blockchain et qui a pour mission d’apporter des fonctionnalités au protocole lors de la validation des transactions.

Mempool

(Memory Pool) Avant d'être regroupées dans un bloc, et validées par le réseau, les transactions sont mises en attente et stockées dans ce que l'on appelle un mempool, jusqu'à ce qu'elles soient captées par un mineur et insérées dans un bloc.

Minage / Mining

Processus qui consiste à résoudre un défi informatique. Si imposé par une proof of work, on parle de mineurs / Si imposé par une proof of stake, on parle de forgeurs.

Mineurs

Les mineurs (en référence aux chercheurs d'or) sont des particuliers ou des structures qui mettent la puissance du processeur de leurs ordinateurs au service de programmes de vérification et de validation des transactions. Les mineurs sont les noeuds chargés d'ajouter les blocs sur une blockchain. Les mineurs de crypto-monnaies sont récompensés pour leur travail en tokens de cette monnaie.

Monnaies Fiat

Les monnaies Fiat sont les monnaies "classiques" utilisées tous les jours dans le monde (euro, dollar, yen, …). Elles sont dotées du cours légal, régulé par le gouvernement.

NFT

(Non-fungible token). Les tokens NFT, étant non-fongibles, ils ne sont pas échangeables contre d'autres tokens "simples". Le NFT est donc un jeton numérique stocké sur une blockchain possédant des caractéristiques qui lui sont propres. Le 11/03/21, l'œuvre de l'artiste Beeple (The First 5.000 days) s'est vendue pour 69,3 millions de dollars sur le site de la plateforme de vente aux enchères Christie's. Ce NFT représente un collage de ses 5.000 œuvres, qu'il a créé tous les jours pendant 14 ans consécutifs.

Nœuds

(Participants). Ordinateur relié au réseau et doté d’un programme relayant les transactions.

Oracles

Ils interviennent lorsqu’il faut vérifier une condition externe à la Blockchain (exemple : vérifier qu’un colis a bien été reçu).

Proof of Stake

(Preuve d’enjeu ou de participation). L’utilisateur doit prouver la possession d’une certaine quantité de crypto-monnaie pour prétendre pouvoir valider des blocs supplémentaires dans la chaîne de blocs et pouvoir toucher la récompense, s’il y en a une, attribuée à l’addition de ces blocs. Il existe de nombreux dérivés de cette preuve d'enjeu comme la "preuve de possession" (proof of hold), fondée sur la durée de possession, la "preuve d'utilisation" (proof of use), en fonction du volume de transactions, la "preuve d'importance" (proof of importance), reposant sur la réputation, ou encore la "preuve de destruction" (proof of burn) qui revient à détruire des cryptomonnaies pour obtenir la confiance du réseau.

Proof of work

(Preuve de travail, minage). Il s'agit d'une méthode d'ajout des blocs à la blockchain. Les utilisateurs doivent exécuter plusieurs fois les algorithmes de hachage ou calculer des puzzles mathématiques selon des algorithmes pour valider les transactions électroniques. Pour valider un bloc, chaque noeud doit donc résoudre un problème cryptographique complexe dont le but est de trouver une "signature" à son bloc. Ce processus est appelé le "minage".

Pump

il s'agit de l'association d'un nombre significatif d’investisseurs (exemple : pools de mineurs) qui se mettent en commun pour faire grimper le prix d’une crypto-monnaie à une date précise. Puis, lorsque le groupe l’a décidé ils vendent tous en même temps (Dump) aboutissant à l'effondrement de la valeur visée. Le Pump sert donc à propager de fausses rumeurs afin de susciter des vagues d'achat sur un titre (généralement « obscur ») et profiter rapidement de la montée artificielle des cours ainsi provoquée pour réaliser une forte plus-value. Il existe de gros pools de mineurs (principalement chinois) qui pratiquent le pump and dump sur les petites capitalisations en investissant massivement sur une shitcoin pour faire monter artificiellement le prix en chandelle et créer un buzz qui va attirer tous les gogos du net (phase pump) … et quand les gogos achètent au plus haut en croyant avoir trouvé la perle rare, ils vendent massivement et le prix retombe comme un soufflé (phase dump).

Récompenses de minage

Les mineurs de crypto-monnaies sont rémunérés pour leur travail par ce que l'on appelle une récompense de minage. La récompense des mineurs de bitcoins diminue périodiquement au cours d'un événement appelé "halving".

Registres distribués

Les blockchains publiques sont des registres distribués : tous les membres du réseau disposent d'une copie du registre. Ce type de réseau fonctionne sans organe de contrôle. Chaque nœud valide et enregistre les transactions simultanément.

Réseau pair à pair

Un réseau pair à pair permet à deux utilisateurs d'échanger des informations sans avoir à utiliser un serveur central. Les blockchains publiques comme Bitcoin ou Ethereum sont des réseaux pairs à pairs.

RSI

L'indicateur Relative Strenght Index permet de connaître l'état d'un indice. S'il est en survente c'est un potentiel signal d'achat et s'il est en surachat c'est un potentiel signal de vente.

Satoshi Nakamoto

C'est le pseudonyme utilisé par la personne, ou le groupe, qui a développé le protocole Bitcoin. Sa fortune est estimée à un million de bitcoins, mais ceux-ci n'ont jamais été utilisés, vendus ou transférés. L'identité de Satoshi Nakamoto reste inconnue à ce jour.

Scalabilité

La scalabilité désigne la capacité d'un système à croître pour répondre à l'augmentation de demande. La scalabilité d'une blockchain correspond aux mises à niveau qui lui permettent de traiter un plus grand nombre de transactions.

Scalping

Action consistant à effectuer des trades très courts de l'ordre de quelques secondes et ainsi jouer sur les variations faibles du marché.

SegWit

(Segregated Witness) : Amélioration du protocole Bitcoin permettant l’implémentation de nouvelles améliorations comme, par exemple, la rapidité et les coûts de transactions. Le SegWit permet de séparer les signatures de transactions du reste des données contenues dans chaque bloc, augmentant ainsi le nombre des transactions traitées.

SegWit2x

Activation du SegWit suivit de l’augmentation de la taille des blocs à 2MB. Il est supporté par les plus gros pools de minage, Coinbase, Bitpay et les autres compagnies de la DCG (Digital Currency Group).

Shitcoin

Coin ou token qui n'a aucun avenir à long terme.

Smart Contracts

Contrats intelligents qui sont des programmes autonomes exécutant automatiquement les termes d’un contrat, sans qu’une intervention humaine ne soit nécessaire après leur lancement.

Soft Fork

Modification des règles de consensus qui vise à les rendre plus strictes; la nouvelle version du protocole reste donc compatible avec les anciennes.

Stable Coin

Un stable coin est un type de crypto-monnaie dont la valeur est stable. Son cours peut être adossé à celui d'une monnaie fiat, comme le dollar, l'euro ou le yen, à celui de matières premières, comme le pétrole, ou encore à celui d'autres crypto-monnaies.

Staking

Le terme staking (littéralement "empiler") désigne le processus de rétention et de verrouillage de fonds dans un portefeuille crypto pour assister les opérations d'un réseau blockchain. Cela consiste essentiellement à bloquer une quantité d'une crypto-monnaie pour recevoir des récompenses à intervalle régulier.

Tiers de confiance

Un tiers de confiance est une entité, comme une banque ou un notaire, chargée de certifier des transactions pour le compte de tiers. La blockchain permet de réaliser des transactions sécurisées sans avoir recours à ces intermédiaires.

Token

(jeton). C’est une unité de compte qui représente une forme d’actif, dont les caractéristiques sont entièrement programmables. On peut imaginer que cela représente un droit de vote, ou un droit futur à bénéfice, ou bien un moyen de paiement. Les possibilités sont à peu près infinies. Ces tokens sont émis par des sociétés afin de financer leur développement en proposant aux utilisateurs d’acheter ceux-ci pour bénéficier de certains droits ou privilèges sur la plateforme à venir. Tous les tokens ne se valent donc pas, mais tous se monnayent : étant donné que ces tokens sont considérés comme des actifs au sens financier du terme, ils peuvent être cédés, échangés ou achetés, notamment sur des plateformes d’échange dédiées. De fait, ceux-ci ont une valeur marchande et peuvent donc facilement être revendus. Il est à noter que les "crypto coins" ont leur propre blockchain (c'est le cas notamment avec le bitcoin et l'ether), tandis que les tokens sont créés sur une blockchain existante (exemple : Tether).

Weak Hand

Personne vendant dès que le cours d’une monnaie baisse trop rapidement, en général sous le coup de la panique.

Whales

On entend souvent parler de "whales" dans l'écosystème blockchain. Ce terme fait référence à un individu qui dispose d'une très grande quantité de crypto-monnaie, et dont les trades peuvent affecter le cours du marché.

White paper

Il s'agit d'un document complet écrit par les porteurs d'un nouveau projet de blockchain ou de crypto-monnaie. Il permet, entre autres, d'en développer l'intention, l'utilisation et de donner diverses informations techniques.

Anglais

  1. , A

1hr Stands for data for the past 1 hour.

24hr Stands for data for the past 24 hours.

30d Stands for data for the past 30 days.

51% Attack 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.

7d Stands for data for the past 7 days.

AMLD5 The European Union’s 5th Anti-Money Laundering Directive (AMDL5) is an update to the union’s Anti-Money Laundering (AML) framework.

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.

ASIC An acronym for application-specific integrated circuit — a device designed for the sole purpose of mining cryptocurrencies.

ASIC-Resistant This term usually applies to blockchains and mining algorithms, designed to give no benefit for ASICs over consumer grade hardware.

Abstract Abstract is something that exists in thought as an idea.

Account An account is essentially a whose purpose is to track the financial activities of a specific asset/

Adam Back Adam Back is a world-renowned British cryptographer, cypherpunk and crypto industry figure from the United Kingdom.

Address A place where cryptocurrency can be sent to and from, in the form of a string of letters and numbers.

Air Gap If data cannot be accessed, then it cannot be infected or corrupted — this is the concept of an air gap.

Airdrop A marketing campaign that distributes a specific cryptocurrency or token to an audience.

Airnode Airnode is an oracle node and API blockchain gateway that is readily deployed by API providers who want to engage in the API3 blockchain protocol and put their data feeds on-chain.

Algo-Trading (Algorithmic Trading) Algo-trading is an automated trading system where buy and sell orders are placed according to the rules of a computer program or algorithm.

Algorithm A process or set of rules to be followed in problem-solving or calculation operations, usually by a computer.

Algorithmic Market Operations (AMOs) Algorithmic Market Operations (AMOs) automatically control the supply of algorithmic stablecoins while improving scalability, decentralization, and transparency.

Algorithmic Stablecoin An algorithmic stablecoin actually uses an algorithm underneath, which can issue more coins when its price increases and buy them off the market when the price falls.

All-Time-High (ATH) The highest point (in price, in market capitalization) that a cryptocurrency has been in history. *see All-Time-Low (ATL).

All-Time-Low (ATL) The lowest point (in price, in market capitalization) that a cryptocurrency has been in history. *see All-Time-High (ATH).

Allocation Allocation is the allotment of equity or tokens that may be earned, bought, or reserved for a specific team, group, investor, institution, or another similar entity.

Alphanumeric Alphanumeric phrases consist of both letters and numerals, or characters.

Altcoin As Bitcoin is the first cryptocurrency that captured the world’s imagination, all other coins were subsequently termed “altcoins,” as in “alternative coins.”

Altcoin Trader A person who trades cryptocurrencies alternative to Bitcoin.

Amazon S3 Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3) is a scalable, high-speed, and inexpensive web-based cloud storage service to store and retrieve data anytime and anywhere.

Anarcho-capitalism A political philosophy originally conceived by American economist Murray Rothbard that has now been embraced by many members of the crypto community.

Angel Investor A person who financially backs a new business venture or startup.

Annual Percentage Rate (APR) The amount of interest a borrower must pay each year is known as the annual percentage rate (APR). The annual percentage rate (APR) is determined by multiplying the periodic interest rate by the number of periods in a year that the periodic rate is used.

Annual Percentage Yield (APY) Annual percentage yield (APY) is the rate of return gained over the course of a year on a specific investment. Compounding interest, which is computed on a regular basis and applied to the amount, is factored into the APY.

Anonymous Anonymity is when something is not known or named.

Anti-Fragile A quality attached to an asset that means it performs better when exposed to volatility and shocks.

Anti-Money Laundering (AML) A set of international laws enacted to curtail criminal organizations or individuals laundering money through cryptocurrencies into real-world cash.

Antivirus A piece of software designed to protect against malicious software and cyber attacks in general.

Apeing Apeing is when a cryptocurrency trader buys a token shortly after the token project launch without conducting thorough research.

Arbitrage Arbitrage is the practice of quickly buying and selling the same asset in different markets to take advantage of price differences between the markets.

Ashdraked The complete loss of a trader's total invested capital, specifically as a result of shorting Bitcoin.

Ask Price The minimum price that a seller is willing to accept for an asset. The ask price is also sometimes referred to as the offer price.

Asset-Backed Tokens Asset-backed tokens are digital claims on a physical asset and are backed by that asset.

Astroturfing The practice of disguising marketing campaigns or otherwise sponsored messaging as the unprompted views of genuine community members.

Asynchronous Events that do not occur simultaneously or at the same rate are referred to as asynchronous.

Atomic Swap The transfer of cryptocurrency from one party to another, without the use of an exchange or other intermediary.

AtomicDEX AtomicDEX offers a cryptocurrency wallet and DEX in one application that is available for multiple platforms.

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.

Auction An auction is a public sale through a bidding process where an asset is sold to the highest bidder.

Audit An audit is a process where developers inspect the underlying code and/or algorithm that compose systems and applications.

Augmented Reality (AR) Augmented Reality (AR) is an immersive experience that improves the value and usage of real-world items using computer-generated intuitive information sent through a variety of sensory modalities such as sound, touch, smell, and sight.

Authentication Authentication is a process that confirms a user's identity using passwords, SMS codes, fingerprints, and other forms of ownership proofs before granting access to sensitive and/or personal information.

Automated Market Maker (AMM) An automated market maker (AMM) is a system that provides liquidity to the exchange it operates in through automated trading.

B BEP-2 (Binance Chain Tokenization Standard) A technical standard for tokens on Binance Chain.

BEP-20 BEP-20 is a Binance Smart Chain token standard created with the intention of extending ERC-20.

BEP-721 BEP-721 is a Binance Smart Chain (BSC) token standard that enables the generation of non-fungible tokens (NFTs). It is considered to be an extension of ERC-721 that is one of the most popular NFT standards.

Bag Crypto slang for a large quantity of a specific cryptocurrency. Alternatively (but less frequently) used to refer to the contents of an individual's crypto portfolio.

Bagholder An investor who continues to hold large amounts of a specific coin or token, regardless of its performance.

Bakers Baking is the process that Tezos uses in order to append new blocks of transactions to its blockchain.

Baking Baking is a process that is used by Tezos in order to append new blocks of transactions onto its blockchain.

Bandwidth The quantity of data capacity available for transactional activity on a network is known as bandwidth.

Bank for International Settlements (BIS) The BIS is an international financial institution that promotes global monetary stability.

Banking Secrecy Act (BSA) The Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) was implemented in the United States in 1970 to prevent criminals from concealing or laundering their illegal gains.

Banking as a Service (BaaS) BaaS platforms provides a higher level of financial transparency options by letting banks open up their APIs for third parties in order to develop new services.

Basket A basket, when used in the cryptocurrency space, refers to a collection of digital currencies managed as a single asset.

Batch Auctions Batch auctions are a trading mechanism in which individual orders are grouped together and executed simultaneously.

Beacon Chain A blockchain that coordinates shard chains, manages staking and the registry of validators in a PoS cryptocurrency, such as Ethereum 2.0.

Bear Someone who believes that prices in a given market will decline over an extended period. Such a person might be referred to as “bearish.”

Bear Trap The attempted manipulation of a specific cryptocurrency’s price, based on the coordinated activity of a group of traders.

Bearwhale A bearwhale is a person who has a high number of cryptocurrencies and uses their massive account to drive the price down and profit out of it.

Benchmark Benchmarking is a method of comparing the performance of your asset or investment portfolio to that of similar assets to see whether there is a gap that can be bridged by increasing performance indicators.

Bid-Ask Spread Bid-ask spread is the difference between the highest price which a buyer is willing to pay for an asset as well as the lowest price that a seller is willing to accept.

Bit A bit is a basic unit of information in computing.

BitLicense A business license permitting regulated virtual currency activities, issued by the New York State Department of Financial Services.

BitPay BitPay is a Bitcoin payment service provider.

Bitcoin ATM (BTM) An automated teller machine (ATM or cashpoint) that allows the user to buy and sell Bitcoin.

Bitcoin Improvement Proposal (BIP) The standard format for documents proposing changes to Bitcoin.

Bitcoiner A person who is bullish on Bitcoin.

Bitcointalk Bitcointalk is the most popular online forum dedicated to Bitcoin, cryptocurrency and blockchain technology.

Bits A commonly used unit, or subdivision, of a single Bitcoin.

Block A file containing information on transactions completed during a given time period. Blocks are the constituent parts of a blockchain.

Block Explorer An application enabling a user to view details of blocks on a given blockchain. Also known as a blockchain browser.

Block Height A value describing the number of blocks preceding a given block in the blockchain.

Block Reward The coins awarded to a miner or group of miners for solving the cryptographic problem required to create a new block on a given blockchain.

Block Size In blockchain technology, block size refers to the amount of data about transactions a single block in the chain can carry.

Block Time Block time refers to the approximate time it takes for a blockchain-based system to produce a new block.

Blockchain A distributed ledger system. A sequence of blocks, or units of digital information, stored consecutively in a public database. The basis for cryptocurrencies.

Blockchain 1.0 Blockchain 1.0 is the first generation of blockchain technology, which focuses on cryptocurrency and decentralization.

Blockchain 3.0 Blockchain 3.0 is the final developmental stage of blockchain technology, which predicts global, institutional and enterprise adoption.

Blockchain Explorer A blockchain explorer is simply a search engine allowing users to browse through blockchain records.

Blockchain Trilemma The blockchain trilemma is the set of three issues that plague blockchains: decentralization, security and scalability.

Bollinger Band A tool developed by Bollinger to help in the recognition of systemic pattern recognition in prices; it is a band that is plotted two standard deviations away from the simple moving average, or exponential moving average in some cases.

Bonding Curve A bonding curve is a mathematical curve that defines the relationship between the price and the supply of a given asset.

Bots Automated software that can carry out tasks such as cryptocurrency trades.

Bounty A cryptocurrency bounty is a reward users receive for performing tasks assigned by a given blockchain or project.

Brave Browser Brave Browser

Breaking In the world of cryptocurrencies, breaking the forward compatibility of cryptoassets is seen in hard forks of a cryptocurrency.

Brian Armstrong Brian Armstrong is the founder of Coinbase, one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges in the United States.

Bridges A blockchain bridge allows the seamless transfer of data or tokens between two different blockchain projects.

Browser Extension A browser extension is a plugin for an internet browser that adds additional features.

Brute Force Attack (BFA) An attempt to crack a password or key through automated trial and error.

Bubble When an asset is traded at a price exceeding that asset's intrinsic value.

Bug Bounty A reward offered for the identification of vulnerabilities in software.

Bug Exploit A bug exploit is an attack that take advantage of a system's vulnerabilities.

Bull A person that is optimistic and confident that market prices will increase, this person is also known to be "bullish" about the market or price.

Bull Trap A bull trap occurs when a steadily declining asset appears to reverse and go upward, but soon resumes its downward trend.

Burn/Burned Cryptocurrency tokens or coins are considered “burned” when they have been purposely and permanently removed from circulation.

Buy The (F*******) Dip (BTD/BTFD) An enthusiastic exclamation by supporters of a cryptocurrency to buy while prices are at a low point.

Buy Wall A buy wall is a disproportionately large buy limit order placed on a cryptocurrency exchange.

Byzantine Fault Tolerance (BFT) Byzantine Fault Tolerance (BFT) is the property of a computer system that allows it to reach consensus regardless of the failure of some of its components.

Byzantine Generals’ Problem A situation where communication that requires consensus on a single strategy from all members within a group or party cannot be trusted or verified.

C C++ C++ is an extension of the C programming language that allows cross-platform developments and capabilities.

Call Options Call options are financial contracts that give an option buyer the right, but not the obligation, to purchase a stock, bond, commodity or other asset at a specific price.

Candlesticks A candlestick chart is a graphing technique used to show changes in price over time. Each candle provides 4 points of information opening price, closing price, high, and low. Also known as “candles” for short.

Capital Capital is most commonly defined as the large sum of money you would use to invest.

Capital Funds Capital funding is the money provided in the form of debt or equity to operate a company.

Capitulation Capitulation is the process of selling assets or cryptocurrencies at a significant loss because you have lost hope or belief that it will ever increase in price.

Casascius Coin A physical unit of Bitcoin that comes in the form of brass, silver or gold-plated coins.

Cash Cash is the most liquid form of money: physical coins and banknotes in the most narrow sense of the term.

CeDeFi CeDeFi, or centralized decentralized finance, combines traditional centralized financial services with decentralized applications, merging conventional regulatory policies with modern financial products and infrastructure.

Censorship Resistance Censorship resistance refers to the idea that no party can prevent anyone from participating in a given platform or network.

Central Bank In contemporary economies, the central bank is responsible for the formulation and transmission of monetary policy, as well as for the regulation of member banks.

Central Bank Digital Currency CBDCs are digital currencies issued by a central bank whose status as legal tender depends on government regulation or law.

Central Ledger A central ledger is a physical book or a computer file used to record transactions in a centralized manner.

Central Processing Unit (CPU) A central processing unit (CPU) is the part of a computer that is in charge of interpreting and executing programs and coordinating the work of all other components.

Centralized A centralized organizational structure is one in which a single node or a small number of them are in control of an entire network.

Centralized Exchange (CEX) Centralized exchanges (CEXs) are a type of cryptocurrency exchange that is operated by a company that owns it in a centralized manner.

Chain Split Chain splits are another term used to describe cryptocurrency forks — the separation of a single original coin into several independently managed projects.

Change Change — a concept relevant to cryptocurrencies that use the UTXO model — is the number of coins sent back to a user after they use their unspent outputs to initiate a transaction.

Changpeng Zhao (CZ) Changpeng Zhao (CZ) is the founder of crypto exchange Binance.

Chargeback A chargeback is the return of money to the payer of a certain transaction, most commonly one that was made with a credit or debit card.

Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) The Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) is one of the largest exchanges dealing in the trading of futures and options in the United States.

Cipher A cipher is any algorithm that can be used to encrypt and decrypt information.

Ciphertext Ciphertext is a result of encryption that has been performed on plaintext through the usage of an algorithm

Circulating Supply The best approximation of the number of coins that are circulating in the market and in the general public’s hands.

Client A client is software that can access and process blockchain transactions on a local computer. A common application of this is a cryptocurrency software wallet.

Close Refers to the closing price; similar to the same term used in stock trading.

Cloud Cloud servers are typically located throughout different data centers all over the world.

Cloud Mining Cryptocurrency mining with remote processing power rented from companies.

Co-Signer A person or entity that has partial control and access over a cryptocurrency wallet.

Code The action of coding is to write programming statements for a program.

Coin A coin can refer to a cryptocurrency that can operate independently or to a single unit of such cryptocurrency.

Coin Mixer Coin mixers allow users to mix up transactions between different cryptocurrency addresses, so they become untraceable and cannot be followed back to the initial sender or receiver of the assets.

Coinbase In mineable cryptocurrencies, a coinbase is the number of coins that are generated from scratch and awarded to miners for mining every new block.

Cold Storage Offline storage of cryptocurrencies, typically involving hardware non-custodial wallets, USBs, offline computers, or paper wallets.

Cold Wallet A cryptocurrency wallet that is in cold storage, i.e. not connected to the internet.

Collateralized Debt Position (CDP) A collateralized debt position is held by locking collateral in smart contracts to generate stablecoins.

Collateralized Stablecoin A “collateralized stablecoin” is a stablecoin that is entirely or almost entirely backed by collateral held in a reserve.

Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) is an independent federal regulatory agency responsible for regulation the U.S. derivatives market.

Composable Token A composable token is an ERC-998 token, a standard extension to any non-fungible token, adding the ability for non-fungible tokens to own other non-fungible (ERC-721) and fungible (ERC-20) tokens.

Confirmation In cryptocurrency, a confirmation is a measure of how many blocks have actually passed since a transaction was added to a blockchain.

Confirmations A cryptocurrency transaction is considered confirmed when it is included in a block on the blockchain. Each new block after the first one is an additional confirmation for that transaction.

ConsenSys ConsenSys is a blockchain technology company that offers developer tools alongside enterprise solutions.

Consensus Consensus is achieved when all participants of the network agree on the order and content of the blocks in the blockchain.

Consensus Mechanism A consensus mechanism is an underlying technology behind the main functionalities of all blockchain technology, which makes them an essential operating feature of all cryptocurrencies.

Consortium Blockchain A privately owned and operated blockchain where a consortium shares information not readily available to the public, while relying on the immutable and transparent properties of the blockchain.

Contract Account A contract account is an account that has a crypto balance and associated code.

Core Wallet A core crypto wallet is able to contain the entire blockchain, rather than just a piece of a blockchain.

Correction A correction is a pullback of an asset’s price of at least 10% to adjust for over-valuation.

Craig Wright Craig Wright is an Australian computer scientist associated with Bitcoin SV.

Craig Wright Craig Wright is an Australian computer scientist that has publicly claimed to be Bitcoin inventor Satoshi Nakamoto.

Cross-Border Trading Cross-border trading in financial markets and trade finance represents the opportunity to trade globally using a local currency.

Cross-Chain Cross-chain is a technology that enhances the interconnection between blockchain networks by allowing the exchange of information and value.

Cross-Chain Communication Cross-chain communication between blockchains allows different protocols to verify data and transactions without the intervention of a centralized third-party service.

Crowdfunding Crowdfunding enables fundraisers to collect money from a large number of people through a variety of different platforms.

Crowdloan The practice of new projects to raise funds through DOT or KSM tokens for slots on Kusama or Polkadot network.

Crypto Debit Card A crypto debit card is a type of debit card that allows its holder to pay for goods and services using cryptocurrencies.

Cryptoasset A cryptoasset is any digital asset that uses cryptographic technologies to maintain its operation as a currency or decentralized application.

Cryptocurrency Cryptocurrencies are digital currencies that use cryptographic technologies to secure their operation.

Cryptocurrency Money Laundering Cryptocurrency money laundering is a method criminals use to legitimize and enshroud funds by changing fiat to digital currency and then routing it through many pathways. It is an attempt to lose any authorities who may be tracing the money.

Cryptocurrency Pairs Exchanges utilize cryptocurrency pairs in order to facilitate the trade between different tokens.

Cryptographic Hash Function Cryptographic hash functions produce a fixed-size hash value from a variable-size transaction input.

Cryptography A field of study and practice to secure information, preventing third parties from reading information to which they are not privy.

Cryptojacking The use of another party’s computer to mine cryptocurrency without their consent.

Cryptology Cryptology is the scientific study of cryptography as well as cryptanalysis.

Currency Currency is a medium of exchange that defines value.

Custodial Custodial cryptocurrency businesses are the ones that are in possession of their customers’ funds for the duration of the use of their services.

Cypherpunk The cypherpunk movement promotes the use of cryptography and other privacy-focused technologies to advance social and political progress.

D DYCO (Dynamic Coin Offering) DYCO (dynamic coin offering) is a new crowdfunding model developed by DAO Maker that employs utility tokens that are backed by USD.

DYOR The acronym of Do Your Own Research — encouraging investors to complete due diligence into a project before investing.

Dark Web A portion of the internet existing on darknets not indexed by search engines, that can only be accessed with specific software, configurations or authorizations.

Data Privacy Data privacy refers to the area of data protection and security that is responsible for the handling of sensitive data.

Date of Launch A term used for when ICOs will put up their tokens for sale.

Day Trading Day trading is the practice of frequently buying and selling assets in order to make a profit on intraday changes in their price.

DeFi A movement encouraging alternatives to traditional, centralized forms of financial services.

DeFi Aggregator A DeFi aggregator brings together trades across various DeFi platforms into one place.

DeFi Degens DeFi degenerates. A subculture associated with a disreputable corner of decentralized finance known for pump and dump schemes.

Dead Cat Bounce A temporary recovery in prices after a prolonged decrease.

Dead Coin A cryptocurrency that is no longer in existence.

Decentralized Decentralization refers to the property of a system in which nodes or actors work in concert in a distributed fashion to achieve a common goal.

Decentralized 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 that 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) A decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) is founded upon and governed by a set of computer-defined rules and blockchain-based smart contracts.

Decentralized Database A decentralized database is a modern-day storage solution that combines decentralized technologies with cutting-edge computing to randomly store data and files across multiple nodes, delivering high security and unmatched availability while being completely censorship-resistant.

Decentralized Exchange (DEX) A peer-to-peer exchange allowing users to trade cryptocurrency without the need for an intermediary.

Decentralized Identifier (DID) A decentralized identifier, or DID, refers to an ID that can be issued by an autonomous, independent, and decentralized platform that acts as a proof of ownership of digital identity.

Decentralized Payment Network A decentralized payment network refers to a system where users, customers and vendors can exchange money without having to trust any third party to keep the network secure and operational.

Decentralized Social Media Decentralized social media is a social media platform that is based on blockchain.

Decryption The process of transforming encrypted data back into a format that is readable by a user or machine.

Deep Web The "deep web" is the part of the internet that is hidden from regular search engines.

Deflation A decline in the general level of prices for goods and services in an economy.

Delegated Proof-of-Stake (dPOS) An alternative to the Proof-of-Stake and Proof-of-Work consensus algorithms.

Denial-of-Service (DoS) Attack A denial-of-service attack aims to temporarily make a computer or network service unavailable to its intended users.

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 financial instrument deriving its value from the value of an underlying asset.

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 cryptocurrency wallet in which keys and addresses are created from a single seed.

Dex Aggregator DEX aggregators are a relatively new type of blockchain-based service that allow cryptocurrency traders to benefit from a large variety of financial tools in a single interface, often providing better liquidity and prices on different crypto pairs.

Diamond Hands Diamond Hands is a popular term on social media platforms. It refers to people who hold their coins even if their portfolio drops in value by more than 20%.

Difficulty A measure of how hard it is to validate a new block on a blockchain.

Digital Digital technologies are these electronic tools that have the ability to generate, store or even process data.

Digital Art Digital art is art and media that is made by using digital technology.

Digital Asset A digital asset refers to the digital representation of something of value.

Digital Asset Custodian A digital asset custodian is responsible to look after digital assets on behalf of an investor or client.

Digital Barter Economy Eliminating the inherent weaknesses of the traditional barter economy, a digital barter economy makes it easier to trade both physical and virtual items anywhere in the world.

Digital Commodity A commodity that exists digitally, as opposed to in “meatspace.”

Digital Currency A currency that exists only in digital form, as opposed to traditional physical currencies.

Digital Identity Information used by a person or entity to identify themselves to a computer or network.

Digital Signature A method for proving the authenticity of a digital communication.

Dildo No, not that. The red or green “candles,” or vertical lines, on graphs showing cryptocurrency market data.

Dip A dip is when markets experience a short or protracted downturn.

Directed Acyclic Graph (DAG) A way of structuring data, often used for data modelling, and increasingly as a consensus tool in cryptocurrencies.

Distributed Consensus Collective agreement reached among nodes in a network.

Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) Attack An attempt by a bad actor to disrupt the operation of an application, server or network by flooding it with traffic.

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) A database that is shared by multiple participants, in multiple places. The basis for blockchains.

Distributed Network A network in which the data and applications are dependent on multiple sources, as opposed to one location.

Diversification Diversification is a risk-management strategy that mixes a wide variety of investments within a portfolio.

Documentation Documentation is a part of token economies that stores all the details of an asset on the blockchain.

Dolphin Someone with a moderate holding of cryptocurrency.

Dominance A measure of Bitcoin's value in the context of the larger cryptocurrency market.

Dorian Nakamoto Dorian Nakamoto is a Japanese-American physicist who some believe to be Satoshi Nakamoto.

Double Spending The potential for a digital currency to be spent twice.

Dump A sudden sell-off of digital assets.

Dumping A collective market sell-off that occurs when large quantities of a particular cryptocurrency are sold in a short period of time.

Dust Transactions Miniscule amounts of Bitcoin in a wallet — with a value that would be outweighed by the cost of a transaction fee.

Dusting Attack An attack that aims to uncover the identity of a wallet’s owner, information that can subsequently be used in phishing scams.

E E-Signature An electronic signature, or e-signature, is any electronic mark (sign, sound, symbol, etc.) used in the palace of a physical signature in signing a document or contract.

ELI5 Short for “explain like I’m five” — a plea for simplicity when crypto concepts are being explained.

ERC-20 Tokens designed and used solely on the Ethereum platform.

ERC-721 A token standard for non-fungible Ethereum tokens.

Elliott Waves The Elliott Wave Theory is an essential tool for many stock and crypto market traders.

Email Spoofing Email spoofing is a technique that is used in order to trick users into thinking that a message actually came from a different person.

Emission The speed at which new coins are produced and released.

Encryption Encryption is a method through which information can be made into code.

Enterprise Ethereum Alliance (EEA) A group of organizations and companies working together to further develop the Ethereum network.

Escrow A financial instrument where assets or cash are held by a third party while a buyer and a seller complete a deal.

Ether The form of payment used in the operation of the distribution application platform, Ethereum.

Ethereum Improvement Proposal (EIP) Ethereum Improvement Proposals (EIPs) describe standards for the Ethereum platform, including core protocol specifications, client APIs, and contract standards.

Ethereum Transaction Ethereum transaction are cryptographically signed instructions to initiate a transaction to update the state of the Ethereum network.

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 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 FATF Travel Rule The FATF Travel Rule requires virtual asset service providers to regulate information sharing for certain large transactions.

FOMO An acronym that stands for "Fear of Missing Out."

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. *see FUDster.

FUDster Someone that is spreading FUD.

Faucet A cryptocurrency reward system usually on a website or app, that rewards users for completing certain tasks.

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 On-Ramp A fiat-on ramp is a way to get cryptocurrency from fiat, or regular money.

Fiat-Pegged Cryptocurrency A coin, token or asset issued on a blockchain that is linked to a government or bank-issued currency.

Financial Action Task Force (FATF) The FATF is a global organization that sets global standards to combat money laundering and terrorist financing (AML/CFT).

Financial Crime Enforcement Network (FinCEN) The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) is a federal regulatory bureau of the United States Treasury.

Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre (FINTRAC) The Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre (FINTRAC) of Canada is the nation’s financial intelligence agency.

First In, First Out First in, First Out (FIFO) is an inventory method used to specify your cost-basis when calculating your taxes.

Fish Someone who has a small crypto investment.

Flash Crash A flash crash is a market condition where an asset’s price falls very rapidly within a very brief time interval.

Flash Loan Attack Flash loan attacks are when malicious actors exploit a smart contract.

Flash Loans Flash loans are a type of uncollateralized lending used in decentralized finance (DeFi).

Flippening A hypothetical scenario where Ethereum's market cap overtakes Bitcoin's.

Flipping An investment strategy where you buy something with the goal of reselling for a profit later, usually in a short period of time.

Fork (Blockchain) Forks, or chain splits, create an alternate version of the blockchain, leaving two blockchains to run simultaneously.

Fork (Software) When an entirely new program has been developed from source code, taken from an open source software.

Fractional Stablecoins A fractional stablecoin is one that is backed in two ways: collaterally-backed and algorithmically modified.

Front Running Front running is when you place a transaction in a queue when you have knowledge of a future transaction.

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.”

Funding Payments Funding payments are periodic payments between traders. These are designed to reduce the discrepancy between the perpetual market price and the spot market price.

Fungible In cryptocurrency, fungibility is when a coin or token can be replaced by any other identical coin or token.

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.

What Is the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN)? The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) is a U.S. bureau that analyzes financial transactions to prevent financial crimes.

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. *see Gas Limit and Gas Price.

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.

Gavin Wood Gavin Wood is the co-founder of Parity Technologies, and one of the founders of Ethereum.

Gems Gem is a term for relatively unknown low-cap coins that have immense potential or are grossly undervalued.

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.

Geotagged NFT Geotagged non-fungible tokens (NFT) feature 3D versions of the street art alongside the corresponding geo-location. They allows art aficionados to own both the virtual and physical artwork without the need to remove the actual infrastructure it was originally painted on.

Geth Geth, short for Go Ethereum, is a command-line interface that allows developers to run full Ethereum nodes, mine the cryptocurrency and execute smart contracts.

GitHub GitHub is one of the most popular code hosting platforms, allowing developers to collaborate on various projects.

Gold-Backed Cryptocurrency A coin or token issued that represents a value of gold; for example, one physical gram of gold equals one coin.

Governance In the world of cryptocurrencies, governance is defined as the people or organizations that have decision-making powers regarding the project.

Governance Token A governance token is a token that can be used to vote on decisions that influence an ecosystem.

Graphical Processing Unit (GPU) More commonly known as a graphics card, it is a computer chip that creates 3D images on computers, but has turned out to be efficient for mining cryptocurrencies.

Group Mining As opposed to solo mining, group mining is when multiple people mine together.

Gwei The denomination used in defining the cost of gas in transactions involving Ether.

H 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.”

Hacking Hacking is the process of using a computer to manipulate another computer or computer system in an unauthorized fashion.

Hal Finney Hal Finney was a cryptographer and programmer who pioneered Bitcoin’s development and worked with Satoshi Nakamoto.

Halving An event in which the total rewards per confirmed block halves.

Hard Cap A hard cap is the absolute maximum supply of a digital asset.

Hard Fork (Blockchain) A type of protocol change that validates all previously invalid transactions, and invalidates all previously valid transactions.

Hardware Security Module A hardware security module is a type of computing device that secures digital keys and encrypts data.

Hardware Wallet A hardware wallet is a wallet for cryptocurrencies that usually resemble a USB stick.

Hash A hash is the output result of a hashing algorithm, which creates a unique, fixed-length string to encrypt and secure a certain selection of arbitrary data.

Hash Function Any function used to map data of arbitrary size to data of a fixed size. *see Cryptographic Hash Function.

Hash Power / Hash Rate A unit of measurement for the amount of computing power being consumed by the network to continuously operate.

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. *see Deterministic Wallet.

Honeyminer Honeyminer is a cryptocurrency mining app available for download on multiple devices.

Hosted Wallet A wallet managed by a third-party service.

Hot Storage The online storage of private keys allowing for quicker access to cryptocurrencies. *see Cold Storage.

Hot Wallet A cryptocurrency wallet that is connected to the internet for hot storage of cryptoassets, as opposed to an offline, cold wallet with cold storage. *See Cold Wallet.

Howey Test A test used to determine whether or not an asset is a security.

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 IOU An IOU, acronym for “I owe you,” is a document stating that one party owes a debt to another party.

Immutable A property that defines the inability to be changed, especially over time.

Impermanent Loss Impermanent loss is when a liquidity provider has a temporary loss of funds because of volatility in a trading pair.

In-the-Money / Out-of-the-Money In-the-money and out-of-the-money are options trading mechanisms that allow investors to benefit from additional tools to work with the market.

Infinite Approval Pre-approving smart contracts to enable the platform to spend any amount of your coins.

Infinite Mint Attack An infinite mint attack occurs when an unwanted entity or hacker mints an absurd ("infinite") amount of tokens within a protocol.

Inflation A general increase in prices and fall in the purchasing value of money.

Initial Bounty Offering (IBO) A novel way of launching a project that focuses on people contributing skills to a platform rather than money.

Initial Coin Offering (ICO) Short for Initial Coin Offering, an ICO is a type of crowdfunding, or crowdsale, using cryptocurrencies as a means of raising capital for early-stage companies.

Initial Dex Offering An initial dex offering (IDX) is an alternative to an initial coin offering (ICO).

Initial Exchange Offering A type of crowdfunding where crypto start-ups generate capital by listing through an exchange.

Initial Public Offering (IPO) An initial public offering (IPO) is the process of a company offering shares for purchase on the stock market for the first time.

Initial Token Offering (ITO) ITOs are similar to initial coin offerings — but have more of a focus on offering tokens with intrinsic utility in the form of software or usage in an ecosystem.

Insider Trading Insider trading happens when someone purchases or sells stocks while possessing private, material information about that stock.

Instamine When a large portion of a coin’s total supply is distributed to investors shortly after launch.

Insurance Fund An exchange insurance fund is used to cover any unexpected losses from leveraged trading. This fund is used to prevent traders from bankruptcy in the event of liquidations.

InterPlanetary File System (IPFS) The InterPlatery File System is a peer-to-peer, distributed system for storing and accessing files, as well as websites and applications, which relies on content addressing rather than location.

Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) The Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) is an American company founded in 2000 to purchase and operate global exchanges and clearing houses.

Interest Rates A time-dependent charge or return made in proportion to the amount of money deposited, borrowed or lent.

Intermediary/Middleman A person or entity that acts as the go-between different parties to bring about agreements or carry out directives.

Internet of Things Internet of Things (IoT) is a global interconnected network of devices, sensors and software that can collect and exchange data with each other in real-time over the Internet.

Intrinsic Value The intrinsic value of an asset depicts the asset’s actual worth based on a complex financial calculation rather than its current price.

Invest Investing is when you put money in a financial scheme with the intent of making a gain.

J, K, L JOMO The opposite state of JOMO stands for “Joy of Missing Out.”

Java Java is a general-purpose, class-based as well as object-oriented programming language.

Keylogger A keylogger or keystroke logging software is a spying tool often used by hackers to record keystrokes made by users.

Kimchi Premium Kimchi premium is a phenomenon occurring in South Korean crypto exchanges, making valuations appear higher than on other international exchanges.

Know Your Customer (KYC) Short for Know Your Customer, these are checks that crypto exchanges and trading platforms must complete to verify the identity of their customers.

Lambo Slang for the type of car that many crypto enthusiasts aspire to buy when their digital assets “moon” — or rise in value substantially.

Layer 0 Layer 0 is a network framework running beneath the blockchain. It is made up of protocols, connections, hardware, miners, and everything else that forms the foundation of the blockchain ecosystem.

Layer 2 Layer 2 is the name given to a scaling solution that enables high throughput of transactions whilst fully inheriting the security of the underlying blockchain that it is built on.

Layer-1 Blockchain A layer-1 blockchain is a set of solutions that improve the base protocol itself

Ledger A record of financial transactions that cannot be changed, only appended with new transactions.

Leverage Money that a trader borrows from a brokerage, enabling them to gain far greater exposure to a position than what their capital allows.

Light Node Light nodes are typically downloaded wallets and are connected to full nodes to further validate the information that is stored on the blockchain.

Lightning Network A second-layer protocol that is designed to solve Bitcoin’s scalability problem by allowing transactions to be processed more quickly.

Limit Order A limit order is a type of order to purchase or sell a security at a specified price or a better one.

Limit Order/Limit Buy/Limit Sell Tools that enable traders to automatically buy or sell cryptocurrencies on a trading platform when a certain price target is reached.

Liquidation Liquidation refers to the conversion of an asset or cryptocurrency for fiat or its equivalents.

Liquidity How easily a cryptocurrency can be bought and sold without impacting the overall market price.

Liquidity Bootstrapping Pool (LBP) A liquidity bootstrapping pool is essentially a contract that manages a core pool containing tokens to be used on an exchange.

Liquidity Pool Liquidity pools are crypto assets that are kept to facilitate the trading of trading pairs on decentralized exchanges.

Liquidity Provider Liquidity providers are decentralized exchange users who fund a liquidity pool with tokens they own.

Liquidity Provider Tokens (LP Tokens) Liquidity provider tokens or LP tokens are tokens issued to liquidity providers on a decentralized exchange (DEX) that run on an automated market maker (AMM) protocol.

Liveness A guarantee that a system will continue to provide data, and that no centralized authority can shut down its services.

Location Swap Location swap allows the change of claim to the assets manifested in the form of a token with no effect on other attributes.

Long A situation where you buy a cryptocurrency with the expectation of selling it at a higher price for profit later.

M Anti-Malware Anti-Malware is a type of application software that prevents, detects, and removes malware from computers & electronic devices.

Mainnet An independent blockchain running its own network with its own technology and protocol.

Malware Malware or malicious software refers to harmful programs utilized by bad actors to illegally access and/or compromise a computer, network or server.

Man-in-the-Middle Attack (MITM) a man-in-the-middle attack (MITM) attack is a general term for a cyberattack where a perpetrator positions himself in a conversation between two parties either to secretly eavesdrop.

Margin Call When an investor’s account value falls below the margin maintenance amount.

Margin Trading A practice where a trader uses borrowed funds from a broker to trade a cryptocurrency.

Market An area or arena, online or offline, in which commercial dealings are conducted.

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. *see Circulating Supply.

Market Maker, Market Taker The maker places an order (to buy or sell at a quoted price), while a taker accepts that placed order (to execute the buy or sell at the quoted price)

Market Order/Market Buy/Market Sell A purchase or sale of a cryptocurrency on an exchange at the current best available price.

Market Signal Through signaling, market participants are essentially creating a volatile market which can help to point out the opportunities to the investors.

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. *see Circulating Supply and Total Supply.

Medium of Exchange A medium of exchange can be seen as an intermediary instrument or system that is used to facilitate a sale, purchase or even trade of goods between parties.

Mempool A mempool is the node's collection of all of the unconfirmed transactions that it has seen.

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.

MetaMask An online digital wallet that allows users to manage, transfer and receive Ethereum, operating as an extension to a regular browser.

Metaverse A metaverse is a digital universe that contains all the aspects of the real world, such as real-time interactions and economies. It offers a unique experience to end-users.

MicroBitcoin (uBTC) One millionth of a bitcoin or 0.000001 of a bitcoin. Often confused as a fork of Bitcoin.

Micropayment A micropayment is essentially a small transaction that is carried out online and can be as small as a fraction of a cent.

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.

Minecraft Minecraft is a video game where players can essentially create and break apart different kinds of blocks in a three-dimensional world.

Miner Extractable Value (MEV) Miner extractable value (MEV) is a measure of the profit a miner can make through their ability to arbitrarily include, exclude, or re-order transactions within the blocks they produce.

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.

Minimum Viable Product (MVP) A minimum viable product (MVP) is a product that has enough features to attract early-adopter customers and validate a product idea.

Mining A process where blocks are added to a blockchain, verifying transactions. It is also the process through which new bitcoin or some altcoins are created.

Mining Contract Another term for cloud mining, where users can rent or invest in mining capacity online.

Mining Difficulty The mining difficulty of a cryptocurrency is how difficult it is to find the right hash for the next block.

Mining Farm A mining farm is when a group of miners mine together for a variety of advantageous reasons, like energy use.

Mining Pool An arrangement where a number of miners pool their resources to increase their chances of finding the next block.

Mining Reward The income that miners receive after finding and validating a block.

Mining Rewards Mining rewards are the rewards that crypto miners receive for mining a new block on the blockchain.

Mining Rig Equipment that is used for mining cryptocurrencies.

Minnow An alternative term to Fish, describing someone with a small crypto investment.

Mnemonic Phrase A list of words used in sequence to access or restore your crypto assets.

Mnemonics Mnemonics are memory aids with a system such as letters or associations that help in recall. *see Mnemonic Phrase.

Mobile Wallet A mobile wallet is a crypto wallet installed on a mobile device.

Money Laundering Money laundering is a technique used for illegal businesses to hide their money from the authorities.

Money Transmitter/Money Transfer License A business entity that provides money transfer services or payment instruments.

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?”

Moore's Law Moore's Law states that computers' speed and capability will increase every year, even as cost goes down.

Moving Average Convergence Divergence (MACD) A technical analysis method.

Mt. Gox A crypto exchange for buying and selling Bitcoin that closed in 2014 after a major hack.

Multi-Party Computation Multi-party computation (MPC) is a cryptographic mechanism that distributes computation operations across several parties where no singular entity can see the other parties’ data.

Multi-Signature (Multi-Sig) An added layer of security by requiring more than one key to authorize a transaction.

Multisignature Multisignature crypto wallets require more than a single signature to sign a transaction.

N Network A network refers to all nodes in the operation of a blockchain at any given moment in time.

Newb A newb is someone that is new to a certain industry.

Nick Szabo Nick Szabo is the inventor of Bit Gold and the use of smart contracts.

Nifty Gateway Nifty Gateway is an NFT platform owned by the Winklevoss twins.

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 The most basic unit of blockchain infrastructure that stores data.

Nominators Nominators are one of two main actors who are involved in a blockchain network that uses the nominated proof-of-stake (NPoS) consensus algorithm.

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.

Non-Fungible Token Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) are cryptocurrencies that do not possess the property of fungibility.

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.

Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) The Office of the Comptroller (OCC) is a U.S. Treasury branch that regulates all national banks, federal savings associations, federal branches and foreign bank agencies

Offline Storage The act of storing cryptocurrencies in devices or systems not connected to the internet.

On-Chain Transactions that are recorded on the blockchain itself and shared with all of the participants are done on-chain.

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.

Open Source Open source is 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 or the programming principle of software parts being extendable.

OpenSea OpenSea is a decentralized P2P platform for NFTs.

Optimistic Rollup An optimistic rollup is a type layer 2 scaling solution that relies on off-chain computation to trustlessly record transactions that happen in the layer 2.

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.

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.

Oracle Manipulation Oracle manipulation is when an oracle smart contract is manipulated by hackers.

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.

Order Book An order book comprises different key information regarding an asset.

Orphan A valid block on the blockchain that is not part of the main chain.

Orphaned Block An orphaned block is a block where the parent block does not exist or is unknown.

Over-the-Counter (OTC) Over-the-counter is defined as a transaction made outside of an exchange, often peer-to-peer through private trades.

Over-the-Counter (OTC) Trading Over-the-counter refers to the process of how securities are traded through a broker-dealer network as opposed to a centralized exchange.

Overbought When a cryptocurrency has been purchased by more and more investors over time, with its price increasing for an extended period of time.

Oversold When a cryptocurrency has been sold by more and more investors over time, with its price decreasing for an extended period of time.

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.

Parachain Parachains are application-specific data structures that run in parallel to each other within Polkadot.

Passive Income Passive income is money produced from investments that do not require the earner to be actively involved.

Password Manager A password manager is a tool or software that stores all sorts of passwords needed for online applications and services.

Paul Le Roux Paul Le Roux is a criminal kingpin that many believe could be the founder of Bitcoin, Satoshi Nakamoto.

Payee A payee is a party within an exchange of goods or even services that can receive payment.

Peer-to-Peer (P2P) The decentralized interactions between parties in a distributed network, partitioning tasks or workloads between peers.

Peg A “peg” is a specified price for the rate of exchange between two assets.

Pegged Currency A stablecoin is a currency whose value is pegged to a real-world asset, such as a fiat currency.

Permissioned Ledger A ledger designed with restrictions, such that only people or organizations requiring access have permission to access it.

Permissionless Often used to describe blockchains, a system is said to be permissionless when there is no entity that can regulate who can use it and how it can be used.

Perpetual Contracts A perpetual contract is a derivative similar to a futures contract but without an expiry date.

Phishing When a scammer pretends to be a trusted institution or person to trick people into revealing sensitive information such as Social Security numbers, passwords, banking details, etc., often through a malware link disguised as legitimate.

Phone Phishing Phone phishing, also known as a telephone scam or vishing (voice phishing), refers to the practice of using fraudulent and malicious phone calls to extort money or sensitive information from victims.

Physical Bitcoins A physical Bitcoin is a physical token that usually has an intricate design, as well as a public key and private key.

Platform On CoinMarketCap, platform refers to the parent blockchain of tokens. It may also refer to a cryptocurrency exchange on which you may trade cryptocurrencies.

Player Payout Player payouts is a new way of automatically paying online gaming participants immediately after the tournament ends.

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.

Post-Mine The retroactive creation of new coins following a cryptocurrency’s launch, before public mining is possible.

Pre-IDO Pre-IDO refers to token offerings before the actual initial DEX offering (IDO) takes place.

Pre-Mine When some or all of a coin’s initial supply is generated during or before the public launch.

Pre-Sale The sale of a cryptocurrency, ahead of it going public, to specific investors.

Prediction Market Prediction Markets are exchange-traded markets where the future outcomes of events are traded. It indicates the confidence of the crowd in a specific future event.

Price Impact The difference between market price and estimated price due to trade size.

Private Blockchain A private blockchain is a type of blockchain in which only a single organization has authority over the network.

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.

Programmability Programmability implies that something is capable of following instructions.

Proof-of-Authority (PoA) A blockchain consensus mechanism that delivers comparatively fast transactions using identity as a stake.

Proof-of-Burn Proof-of-burn is an attempt at creating a system that can prevent fraudulent transactions on a blockchain and can also improve the overall efficiency and functioning of the blockchain.

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-Donation Proof-of-donation refers to the integration of charitable donations into the functionality of a blockchain.

Proof-of-Replication Proof-of-replication (PoRep) is the way that a storage miner proves to the network that they are storing an entirely unique copy of a piece of data.

Proof-of-Spacetime In simplest terms, PoSt means that someone can now guarantee that they are spending a certain amount of space for storage.

Proof-of-Stake (PoS) A blockchain consensus mechanism in addition to Proof-of-Work that maintains the integrity of blockchain.

Proof-of-Validation Proof-of-validation (PoV) is a unique proof-of-stake (PoS) consensus mechanism that works to achieve consensus through staked validator nodes.

Proof-of-Work (PoW) A blockchain consensus mechanism involving solving of computationally intensive puzzles to validate transactions and create new blocks. *see Proof-of-Stake (PoS).

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 A public key refers to a series of alphanumeric characters used to encrypt plain text messages into ciphertext.

Pump and Dump (P&D) Scheme A form of fraud involving the artificial inflation of the price of a cryptocurrency with false and misleading positive statements.

Pyramid Scheme A pyramid scheme is a scam with a hierarchical top-down structure.

Q QR Code A machine-readable label that shows information encoded into a graphical black-and-white pattern.

Quantum Computing A computer that harnesses phenomena from quantum mechanics in order to perform much more efficient computations than older, classical computer technologies are capable of.

Quorum (Governance A quorum is the minimum number of members of an assembly or group that must be present at any of its meetings to make the proceedings of that meeting valid.

R REKT A shorthand slang for “wrecked,” describing a bad loss in a trade.

ROI Short for “Return on Investment,” the ratio between the net profit and cost of investing.

Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) is a type of technology that uses radio waves to passively identify a tagged item or individual.

Raiden Network An off-chain scaling solution aiming to enable near-instant, low-fee and scalable payments on the Ethereum blockchain, similar to Bitcoin's proposed Lightning Network.

Rank The relative position of a cryptocurrency by market capitalization.

Ransomware Ransomware is a type of malware used by hackers to steal or encrypt their victims’ files to extort them for a ransom in exchange for file decryption or restoration.

Rebase A token designed so that the circulating supply adjusts automatically according to price fluctuations.

Recovery Seed A recovery seed is a cryptographically derived security code composed of a list of random words, typically ranging between 12 and 14.

Regulated Regulation is when something is controlled by a specific set of rules.

Rehypothecation Rehypothecation is the practice where banks, and even the brokers themselves, use assets that have been posted as collateral by their clients for their own purposes.

Relative Strength Index (RSI) A form of technical analysis that serves as a momentum oscillator, measuring the speed and change of price movements.

Relay Chain The Relay Chain is the central chain that is used by the Polkadot network.

Repair Miners Repair miners are a proposed type of mining node within the Filecoin network.

Replay Attack Replay attacks are network security attacks where the comms between a sender and receiver is intercepted.

Replicated Ledger A copy of a distributed ledger in a network that is distributed to all participants in a cryptocurrency network.

Resistance (Line/Level) The highest price level of an asset during a specific period.

Retargeting A retargeting algorithm, also referred to as a difficulty adjustment algorithm, is used on proof-of-work blockchains, such as Bitcoin.

Revenue Participation Tokens Revenue participation tokens are a two token system that uses one participation token and one payout token.

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 CT (Confidential Transactions) RingCT is how transaction amounts are hidden in Monero.

Ring Signature A cryptographic digital signature that obfuscates the identities of two parties within a transaction.

Roadmap A roadmap is a high-level visual summary that helps map out the vision as well as the direction of a specific product.

Roger Ver Roger Ver, also known as Bitcoin Jesus, has been a long-term proponent of Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash.

Roth IRA Roth IRAs are generally the best investment option when you think your taxes will be higher in retirement than they are now.

Rug Pull A rug pull is a type of scam where developers abandon a project and take their investors' money.

Rust Rust is a multi-paradigm programming language, similar to C++.

Ryuk Ransomware Ryuk ransomware is a ransomware attack first discovered in August 2018.

S Shielded Transaction A shielded transaction is essentially a transaction that is between two shielded addresses.

SHA-256 A cryptographic hash function that generates a 256-bit signature for a text, used in Bitcoin proof-of-work (PoW).

SHO (Strong Holder Offering) A strong holder offering (SHO) is a fundraising mechanism where eligible investors are chosen based on their on-chain activities and other proprietary data sets.

SIM-Swap A type of scam that exploits two-factor authentication measures.

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.

Scaling Problem The scaling problem is the limitations of a blockchain's transaction throughout and ability to have fast and low cast transactions.

Scaling Solution A scaling solution is a method of enable a system to expand.

Scam A scheme that is designed to dupe people out of cash or crypto.

Scamcoin Coins that are created as "get rich quick schemes" by their developers are referred to as a scamcoin.

Scammer A scammer is someone that participates in a fraudulent scheme.

Script A computer script is a list of commands that are executed by a certain program or scripting language.

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.

Secure Element A secure element is a type of hardware chip that runs a specified number of applications.

Secure Multi-Party Computation (sMPC) SMPC is a subfield of cryptography that allows parties to compute a function while keeping the inputs private.

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.

Security Token A security token is essentially a digital form of traditional securities.

Security Token Offering A security token offering (STO) is a public offering where tokenized digital securities are sold.

Seed Phrase A single starting point when deriving keys for a deterministic wallet.

Segregated Witness (SegWit) A Bitcoin Improvement Proposal (BIP) that aimed to fix transaction malleability on Bitcoin.

Selfish Mining A situation in which a miner mines a new block but does not broadcast this new block to the other miners.

Sell Wall A situation where a large limit order has been placed to sell when a cryptocurrency reaches a certain value.

Semantic Web The ambition of the Semantic Web is to enable computers to manipulate information on our behalf.

Settlement Layer A settlement layer is a layer that essentially provides an anchor for an entire ecosystem.

Shard Essentially, a shard is a portion of a blockchain network that has been split into multiple shards, which has its own data.

Shard Chain In the world of cryptocurrencies, sharding can reduce the network congestion as well as increase transactions per second through the creation of new chains

Sharding Sharding is a scaling approach that enables splitting of blockchain states into partitions containing states and transaction history, so that each shard can be processed in parallel.

Shilling The act of enthusiastically promoting a cryptocurrency or ICO project.

Shitcoin A coin with no obvious potential value or usage.

Short A trading technique in which a trader borrows an asset in order to sell it, with the expectation that the price will continue to decline. In the event that the price does decline, the short seller will then buy the asset at this lower price in order to return it to the lender of the asset, making the difference in profit.

Side Chain A blockchain ledger that runs in parallel to a primary blockchain, where there is a two-way link between the primary chain and sidechain.

Side Channel Attack A side channel attack is a hacking method that exploits a computer’s inherent “tells" that unintentionally convey information.

Signal Signals are a call to action to either buy or sell an asset.

Silk Road An online black market that existed on the dark web, now shut down by the FBI.

Simplified Payment Verification (SPV) A lightweight client to verify blockchain transactions.

Slippage Slippage happens when traders have to settle for a different price than what they initially requested due to a price movement.

Smart Contract A smart contract is a computer protocol intended to facilitate, verify or enforce a contract on the blockchain without third parties.

Smart Contract Audit A smart contract audit is a security check done by cybersecurity professionals meant to ensure that the on-chain code behind a smart contract is devoid of bugs or security vulnerabilities.

Smart Token Smart tokens are simply regular tokens that not only transmit value they contain but also all the information needed to execute a transaction simultaneously.

Soft Cap The minimum amount that an initial coin offering (ICO) wants to raise.

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.

Solidity The programming language used by Ethereum for developing smart contracts.

Spoon (Blockchain) A hard spoon is a meta-protocol that exists on top of a blockchain.

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.

Spyware Spyware is a malware that records all of the activities on an electronic device.

Stablecoin A cryptocurrency with extremely low volatility, sometimes used as a means of portfolio diversification. Examples include gold-backed cryptocurrency or fiat-pegged cryptocurrency.

Staking Participation in a proof-of-stake (PoS) system to put your tokens in to serve as a validator to the blockchain and receive rewards.

Staking Pool Staking Pools allows users to combine their resources in order to increase their chances of earning rewards. This mechanism offers more staking power to the network to verify and validate new blocks.

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.

Stop-Loss Order A stop-loss order in trading allows investors to determine the lowest price at which they are willing to sell an asset and trigger an automatic sell order when and if this price is reached.

Storage (Decentralized) Decentralized storage refers to the concept of storing files online by splitting them into encrypted fragments and delegating these fragments to multiple nodes on a distributed network, e.g. a blockchain.

Storage Miners Storage miners are cryptocurrency miners who rely on offering sufficient storage space for nodes to reach consensus and validate transactions.

Store of Value A store of value is an asset, commodity or currency that can be saved, retrieved as well as exchanged in the future without it losing any value.

Substrate Substrate is a web app development framework developed by Parity Technologies.

Supercomputer A supercomputer is a superior version of a general-purpose computer, which has a significantly increased capacity and processing power.

Supply Chain A supply chain is the collection of steps that a product or service needs to go through before reaching the final customer.

Supply Chain Attack A supply chain attack is a tactic used by hackers to compromise third-party suppliers to major corporations, governments and organizations to gain valuable information.

Sybil Attack Sybil attacks undermine an online network by creating many IDs, accounts or nodes to upset the balance of power.

Symbol The ticker of a cryptocurrency; for example, Bitcoin's symbol is BTC.

Synthetic Asset Synthetic assets, sometimes referred to as synths, are a combination of cryptocurrencies and traditional derivative assets. In other words, synths are tokenized derivatives.

T Taint The percentage of cryptocurrency in an account that can be traced to another account.

Tamper-Proof Ledger A tamper-proof ledger is essentially any system of records that has the fundamental properties of a blockchain distributed ledger.

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.

Taproot Taproot is an instantiation of a soft fork for Bitcoin, intended to both improve privacy and improve other aspects tied to more complex transactions.

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.

The DAO The DAO is the first decentralized autonomous organization, which was created by a group of developers in April 2016.

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.

Throughput Throughput is how many actions can be completed in a given time frame.

Ticker An abbreviation used to uniquely identify cryptocurrencies. *see Symbol.

Ticker Symbol The ticker symbol is the unique combination of letters assigned to stocks or cryptocurrencies that makes them distinguishable on exchanges and other trading applications.

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.

Tipset A tipset is a set, rather than a chain, of blocks that make up a blockchain.

Token A digital unit designed with utility in mind, providing access and use of a larger crypto economic system.

Token Economy An economy of goods and services that can run without intermediaries and third parties with the help of the blockchain technology.

Token Generation Event The time at which a token is issued.

Token Issuance Token issuance is the process of creating new tokens and adding them to the total token supply of a cryptocurrency.

Token Sale A token sale refers to the initial offering of a cryptocurrency token to a private pool of investors before it officially goes on the market.

Token Standard The most common token standard today is the Ethereum Request for Comment or ERC.

Token Swap Token swaps can refer to one of two things: 1. Direct exchange of a certain amount of one cryptocurrency token for another between users facilitated by a special exchange service. 2. Migration of a cryptocurrency token built on top of one blockchain platform to a different blockchain.

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.

Tokenized Securities Tokenized securities are when the ownership of a security is materialized through the issuance of a token.

Toll Bridge A toll bridge is a bridge powered by a smart contract where a monetary value called a toll fee unlocks access to extra functionalities.

Tor Tor is a decentralized network that anonymizes users' web traffic by encrypting it and routing it through a series of relays before it reaches its final destination.

Total Supply The total amount of coins in existence right now, minus any coins that have been verifiably burned. *see Circulating Supply and Max Supply.

Total Value Locked (TVL) Тotal value locked represents the number of assets that are currently being staked in a specific protocol.

Trade Volume The amount of the cryptocurrency that has been traded in the last 24 hours.

Trading Bot A crypto trading bot is essentially a program that is designed to automate cryptocurrency asset trading on the behalf of the trader.

Trading Tournament Trading tournaments are unique crypto trading campaigns organized by cryptocurrency exchanges, encouraging users to trade more to win incentives, such as tokens, hardware wallets and more/

Trading Volume Тrading volume refers to the total number of shares (or tokens/coins) that have been exchanged between buyers and sellers of a given asset during trading hours of a certain day.

Transaction (TX) The act of exchanging cryptocurrencies on a blockchain.

Transaction Fee A payment for using the blockchain to transact.

Treasury Bills (T-Bills) Treasury bills (T-Bills) are short-term U.S. government debt obligations.

Trojan A trojan is a type of malware that is often disguised as legitimate software.

Trustless An environment where there is no centralized authority.

Tumbler A mixing service that helps make cryptocurrency funds and transactions more anonymous.

Turing-Complete A system that in principle could be able to solve any computation problem.

Two-Factor Authentication (2FA) Two-factor authentication (2FA) is method of access that requires two different forms of authentication.

Typosquatting Typosquatting is a deceptive practice used by scammers to trick people into entering a counterfeit website and compromising their private information.

U, V, W, X, Y, Z US Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) The US Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) is a financial intelligence and enforcement agency of the US Treasury Department.

UTC Time Coordinated Universal Time.

Unbanked Unbanked refers to those that are either unable to access banking services, or choose not to.

Unconfirmed A state in which a transaction has not been appended to the blockchain.

Unpermissioned Ledger A public ledger that is open to anyone, without being controlled by a single owner.

Unspent Transaction Output (UTXO) A transaction that is left unspent after being completed, similar to leftover change after making a purchase.

Unstoppable Domains Unstoppable Domains is the name of a San-Francisco based company that provides blockchain-based domain names to users.

Utility Token Tokens that are designed specifically to be able to help people use something.

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.

Venture Capital A form of private equity provided to fund small, early-stage firms considered to have high growth potential.

Verification Code A verification code is a security protection method that is used to avoid internet bots from abusing or even spamming various online services.

Virgin Bitcoin A bitcoin that has never been spent.

Virtual Automated Market Makers (vAMMs) A virtual Automated Market Maker (vAMM) is a system that provides synthetic (or virtual) liquidity, allowing traders to buy and sell derivatives entirely on the blockchain.

Virtual Reality (VR) Virtual reality (VR) technology is used to simulate an immersive artificial world that can mimic or transcend reality. V

Virus Computers are usually infected with a virus when a user unknowingly installs it via a downloaded file.

Vitalik Buterin Vitalik Buterin is one of the creators of Ethereum, the second-largest cryptocurrency after Bitcoin.

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 How much cryptocurrency has been traded over a set period, such as the past 24 hours.

Wallet A place where cryptocurrency users can store, send and receive digital assets.

Wallstreetbets (WSB) Wallstreetbets, otherwise known as /r/wallstreetbets or WSB, is a subreddit for participants to discuss stock and options trading.

WannaCry Ransomware WannaCry is a piece of ransomware that can infect and spread rapidly through a number of computer networks.

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.

Web 1.0 Web 1.0 is a term that is often used to describe the early version of the internet.

Web 2.0 Web 2.0 describes the current state of the web, which supports more user-generated content and stability for front-end users than its predecessor, Web 1.0

Web 3.0 Web 3.0 is the coming generation of the internet.

Web3 Foundation The Web3 Foundation was created to foster new technologies and applications in the field of decentralized web software protocols.

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 A phrase referring to when cryptocurrency holders will become rich enough to afford the purchase of a Lamborghini.

When Moon A phrase used to ask when the price of cryptocurrencies will explode.

White Label White Labeling allows a company to customize an existing product framework in order to rebrand and resell this product as their own.

Whitelist A list of interested participants in an initial coin offering, who registered their intent to take part or purchase in a sale.

Whitepaper A document released by a crypto project that gives investors technical information about its concept, and a roadmap for how it plans to grow and succeed.

Winding Down Winding down is the process of unwrapping tokens back to their original form in DeFi.

Winding Up In decentralized finance (DeFi), winding up essentially means wrapping crypto tokens through various projects in order to find the best yield.

YTD Stands for Year to Date.

Yield Farming Yield farming involves earning interest by investing crypto in decentralized finance markets.

Zero Confirmation Transaction Alternative phrasing for an unconfirmed transaction.

Zero Confirmation/Unconfirmed Transaction A zero confirmation or unconfirmed transaction is defined as an exchange that has not yet been recorded or verified on the blockchain

Zero Knowledge Proof Proving certain information or data is true without revealing it.

Zero Knowledge Rollup A zero knowledge rollup is a type of layer 2 scaling solution that relies on zero knowledge cryptography

Zero Knowledge Rollups A zero-knowledge rollup is a Layer 2 blockchain solution that performs computations and storage off-chain while funds are held in a smart contract.

Zero-Knowledge Proof In cryptography, a zero-knowledge proof enables one party to provide evidence that a transaction or event happened without revealing private details of that transaction or event.

Zk-SNARKs A proof that allows one party to prove it owns certain information without revealing it.