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A-Z
WORD
DESCRIPTION
A
- AML
- Anti Money Laundering regulation. Most governments have some form of this for financial and crypto exchanges.
- Address
- A Bitcoin address is a string of alphanumeric characters that bitcoins can be sent to and from. Bitcoin addresses can be shared publicly, and provided to others that want to send you bitcoin.
- Airdrop
- The mechanism that enables a user or a company to distribute cryptos from their active wallet on the blockchain.
- Altcoin
- Any alternative digital currency to Bitcoin.
B
- BTC
- An abbreviation of bitcoin.
- Bear Market
- A period in the evolution of a financial system when most of the assets are following a downward trend. The opposite of a bull market.
- Benchmark
- A value asset indicator that is used to assess its performance throughout a particular period.
- Bit
- A commonly used unit to designate the subunit of a bitcoin. 1,000,000 bits is equal to one bitcoin (BTC)
- Bitcoin
- A cryptocurrency created in 2009 that uses peer-to-peer technology to facilitate payments.
- Block
- A record in the blockchain contains transactions that occurred during a certain period of time, usually about 10 minutes. If the bitcoin blockchain is like a ledger, then a block can be considered a page in the ledger.
- Blockchain
- A public record of Bitcoin transactions arranged in chronological order. It acts as the authoritative account of every bitcoin and crypto transaction that has ever occurred.
- Bubble
- A well-worn financial expression to indicate a market where investors are pouring money into a stock or investment opportunity and grossly overvaluing it usually followed by a market collapse in that asset.
C
- Central Bank
- A country’s main bank for issuing currency, overseeing monetary policy and sometimes setting interest rates.
- Cold Storage
- The storage of Bitcoin private keys in any way that is not connected to the internet. Common forms of cold storage include hardware wallets, external drivers, paper wallets, and offline computers.
- Confirmation
- A formal agreement by nodes that a transaction or block is valid. Transactions receive confirmations when they are included in a block. All transactions are considered unconfirmed until they are added to a block, with each additional block serving as another confirmation. The more confirmations a transaction has, the less likely it is to be reversed.
- Crypto Exchange
- Similar to any trading exchange, such as for shares, but dealing in cryptocurrencies.
- Cryptocurrency
- Any of the so-called digital currencies such as bitcoin, Ethereum, etc. They may be called currencies, but they are (mainly) not recognized as such by governments in the same way as traditional ‘flat’ currency such as dollars, pounds etc.
- Cryptography
- A branch of mathematics that concerns the practice and study of techniques for secure communication in the presence of an adversarial third party. In the context of bitcoin, cryptographic techniques are used to create secure wallets, sign transactions, and link blocks to each other.
- Custody/Custodial Services
- The service provided by a crypto exchange or sometimes a bank to take custody of your wallet and conduct cryptocurrency transactions on your behalf.
- Custody/Custodial Services
- The service provided by a crypto exchange or sometimes a bank to take custody of your wallet and conduct cryptocurrency transactions on your behalf.
D
- DeFi
- Short for decentralized finance. Refers to a variety of financial applications that use cryptocurrency or blockchain technology to create services that eschew financial intermediariess.
- Double spend
- When a malicious user attempts to spend their bitcoin twice at the same time.
E
- Encryption
- The process of encoding information so that only the intended recipient can decode and read it.
F
- FUD
- An acronym that stands for Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt. Used in investment contexts to refer to the baseless or exaggerated claims made to induce negative sentiment about assets.
- Fake Fake
- A case in which an investor sets up a purchase anticipating a price movement that never takes place, or moves in the opposite direction.
- Fiat Currency
- This is taken to mean the internationally recognized and accepted traditional currencies issued by governments, such as dollars, pounds euros etc.
H
- Hash
- 1) A mathematical function that converts any input to an encrypted output of a fixed length. 2) A unique identifier for bitcoin transactions.
- Hash rate
- The measuring unit for the processing power of the bitcoin network. The hash rate is also an important security metric, since more hashing power in the network equals greater security.
- Hodl
- An intentional misspelling of the word “hold”, now a shorthand for an approach to cryptocurrency that rejects trading based on short-term price moves.
- Hot Wallet
- Any type of wallet that is connected to the internet.
I
- ICO
- Initial Coin Offering. A type of fundraising method where investors are allowed to buy into an offering and receive a new cryptocurrency token in return.
K
- KYC
- Know Your Customer, one form of compliance or regulation that is required of bodies dealing in digital currency.
L
- Layer 2
- A method of increasing the scalability of a blockchain by building a second layer network on top of it.
M
- Miner
- A computer that confirms Bitcoin transactions by spending electricity performing tedious and difficult mathematical calculations. Miners are sometimes rewarded with transaction fees and new bitcoins.
- Multi-Signature
- A bitcoin transaction that requires signatures from more than one key before it can be executed.
N
- Node
- A participant in the bitcoin network that holds a copy of the full bitcoin blockchain.
O
- Open Source
- Any software that is free and open to use, usually stored in a public repository and shared publicly. Anyone can use the code or contribute improvements.
P
- P2P
- Short for peer-to-peer. Refers to systems that allow users to interact directly with each other, without the recourse to a third party.
- Paper Wallet
- A type of wallet where private keys are printed or written on a piece of paper. Considered a type of cold wallet.
- Private Key
- A string of alphanumeric characters that proves the right of the user to spend bitcoins from a specific wallet.
- Public Key
- A string of alphanumeric characters derived from a private key. Public keys act as an address, and allow the holder to receive bitcoin.
Q
- Quantitative Easing (QE)
- A monetary policy used by central banks in order to stimulate the economy. Roughly speaking, the central bank buys bonds and share holdings from major investment bodies such pension funds – these bodies then have the cash to reinvest. Done en-masse it provides a big injection of money into the economy. Referred to by detractors as “printing money”.
S
- SSHA-256
- Short for Secure Hash Algorithm 256. The specific hash function used by the Bitcoin protocol.
- Satoshi
- The smallest unit of a bitcoin. There are 100,000,000 satoshis in one bitcoin, so one satoshi = 0.0000001.
- Satoshi Nakamoto
- The anonymous founder of bitcoin.
