Glossary

A

  • ATH

    All-Time High. The highest price up to the date. For instance, Bitcoin achieved its ATH in December 2017 when its price climbed to $20 000.

  • AML

    Anti-money laundering. AML usually refers to a set of rules and regulations that aims to combat illicit activities such as money laundering or terrorism financing. Adherence to these rules is commonly present in cryptocurrency exchanges that accept fiat money such as euros or dollars.

  • Altcoin

    An alternative cryptocurrency.

  • Airdrop

    A way to distribute new coins through donating them to users according to predetermined rules.

  • Address

    An address represents an account in a cryptocurrency network and allows to receive cryptocurrencies. For instance, a Bitcoin address looks like this: 1K31KZXjcochXpRhjH9g5MxFFTHPi2zEXb

B

  • Bull Market

    Refers to the long-term trend of increasing prices on a given market.

  • Blockchain

    Is the underlying technology used in many cryptocurrencies where transactions are stored in blocks that are mathematically linked together, and thus create the chain of blocks in a public ledger that is distributed across the network, and can't be tampered with. 

  • Block

    A single building unit of a blockchain in which transactions are stored.

  • Bitcoin

    Bitcoin is the first and oldest cryptocurrency created by Satoshi Nakamoto. Typically, “Bitcoin” refers to the network underlying the currency, and “bitcoin” refers to the unit of account within the network. Bitcoin is a global decentralized network providing an alternative digital currency without having any central authority.

  • Binance

    The biggest cryptocurrency exchange, originally founded in 2017 in China, and later moved across multiple jurisdictions.

  • Bear Market

    Refers to the long-term trend of decreasing prices on a given market. 

C

  • Cryptocurrency

    Is a decentralized digital currency backed by strong cryptography that operates on a distributed network, and is independent of national states.

  • Cold Wallet

    A type of cryptocurrency wallet which stores cryptocurrencies offline, and therefore cannot be compromised through a distant attack. Typically it is a hardware wallet.

  • Centralization

    A trait of a system with a hierarchical structure controlled by a central authority. National fiat currencies are typically governed in such a way as they are regulated by central banks. 

D

  • Double-spend Attack

    Refers to an attack where an adversary spends the same coin twice in two different transactions.

  • Decentralized autonomous organization (DAO)

    DAO is built by a set of smart contracts deployed on top of a decentralized network, and governed by its shareholders in a decentralized manner.

  • Decentralized applications

    Applications operating on top of decentralized networks such as Ethereum in the form of smart contracts.

  • Decentralization

    It is a trait of a peer-to-system that absents hierarchy, and where all nodes in a network are equal.

E

  • Ethereum

    Ethereum is the second biggest cryptocurrency by market capitalization. Its the major platform for decentralized applications.

  • ERC-20

    A smart contract standard for fungible tokens of the Etheruem network.

  • Encryption

    A technique that enables to hide content, e.g. the communication between two parties, from undesired parties. Encryption is achieved via various cryptography protocols.

F

  • Fork

    Multiple Meanings:
    1. Split of a network into different networks.
    2. Change of the protocol.
    There are two different forks.

  • FOMO

    Fear Of Missing Out

  • Flippening

    A term referring to dethroning Bitcoin from its 1st rank by market capitalization.

  • Finality

    The trait of a transaction when it is considered to be final, and thus irreversible. In Bitcoin, transactions are considered to be final after 60 minutes. In some blockchains, transactions reach finality much sooner. 

  • FIAT

    The fiduciary money mandated in circulation by the government which does not have any inherent value.

G

  • Genesis block

    Is the first block of a given blockchain from which all other blocks are derived.

H

  • HODL

    Is derived from “Hold” and means to have a long position in a certain asset.

  • Hashrate

    Is the amount of accumulated computational power in proof-of-work networks. The higher the hashrate the more secure is the network.

  • Hardware Wallet

    Is a physical type of so-called cold wallet that keeps the private keys offline, and therefore secure against distant cyber attacks. The most renowned hardware wallets are Ledger and Trezor.

  • Hard Fork

    Implementation of new protocol rules that are not compatible with the previous version of the protocol. Therefore, nodes that do not implement the new rules won't be able to communicate with those that do implement it, and thus the split happens. 

  • Halving

    In Bitcoin, miners are rewarded for mining by a fixed amount of newly minted bitcoins. This amount halves every 4 years, and the beginning of each new period with slashed reward is called halving.

I

  • Interoperability

    The ability of protocols to understand each other. In the context of blockchains, this means that one transaction on blockchain A may trigger another transaction or event on a blockchain B.

  • IEO

    Initial Exchange Offering is a modification of ICOs as cryptocurrency projects raise money via an exchange that supervises the process, and makes the process more transparent. Most IEOs happen on exchanges such as Binance, Huobi, or Okex.

  • ICO

    Initial Coin Offering is a primary public sale of a new cryptocurrency that is used to raise funds for the development of the coin as well as other business activities. 

K

  • KYC

    Stands for “Know Your Customer “ and it is a standard rule adhered to by institutions in a financial environment that need to know their customers.

L

  • Liquidity

    The availability of an asset to a market, company, or individual. While Bitcoin has relatively high liquidity, some alternative cryptocurrencies have it much lower.

  • Lightning Network

    A scalability solution on top of Bitcoin that enables to send much more transactions with much lower fees.

M

  • Mining

    The process of transaction verification in blockchain networks. It consists of extensive computations that require lots of resources in terms of electricity.

  • Mainnet

    Is the production version of a blockchain network. Typically, the mainnet is preceded by a test net where new protocol features are tested. 

N

  • Node

    A basic unit of a distributed network and typically it is a server or PC. Each Blockchain network consists of hundreds or thousands of nodes.

O

  • Oracles

    A special kind of middleware service feeding blockchains with external data. Oracles are crucial for the functionality of many decentralized applications, and the most notable providers of this service are Chainlink and the Band protocol.

P

  • Public Key

    Always created in a pair with a private key, and fulfills a similar function as a banking account that identifies a receiver.

  • Proof of Work

    A dominant consensus mechanism used in Bitcoin, and other cryptocurrencies. It is often criticized for burning vast amounts of electricity.

  • Proof of Stake

    A consensus mechanism used in some blockchains to guarantee the security and integrity of a network. Unlike Proof-of-Work it does not consume electricity.

  • Private Key

    A private key is used to sign cryptocurrency transactions, and thus it allows its holder to unlock money stored on a corresponding public key. Therefore it needs to be kept private and secure. An example of a private key in a Bitcoin network looks like this: E9873D79C6D87DC0FB6A5778633389F4453213303DA61F20BD67FC233AA33262

  • Plasma Network

    Similarly to Lightning Network, Plasma is a scaling solution but for the Ethereum network.

  • Paper Wallet

    A type of a cold wallet that stores the private keys offline, and thus is more secure than online wallets.

S

  • Stable Coin

    A cryptocurrency pegged to a physical asset, typically national currencies such as dollars or euros that are stable in value.

  • Software wallet

    The most common type of wallet when it comes to cryptocurrencies. It can be used on a mobile phone or computer.

  • Soft Fork

    Implementation of new protocol rules which are compatible with the previous version of the protocol.

  • Smart contract

    A self-executable contract in the form of a software program that operates on top of a decentralized network.

  • Satoshi Nakamoto

    The alias of a person, or group of people, that created Bitcoin and whose identity remains unknown.

  • Satoshi

    The smallest denomination of Bitcoin. Each Bitcoin has 100 000 000 satoshis. The name is derived from the pseudonymous author of Bitcoin -- Satoshi Nakamoto.

T

  • Transaction

    In the context of cryptocurrencies, a transaction is any record of data made into the blockchain. Typically transactions contain data related to the change of ownership of coins.

  • TPS

    TPS stands for “Transactions per second” and is one of the most frequent metrics used when comparing the speed of blockchain networks. While Bitcoin is able to do 7 transactions per second, Ethereum can do 20, and some newer blockchains can do hundreds or thousands.

  • Token

    A cryptocurrency minted of top an underlying network such as Ethereum, EOS, or others.

V

  • Volatility

    The tendency to dynamic moves of the price level of an asset. Cryptocurrencies are quite volatile and their prices can fluctuate wildly.

  • Validator

    A node in a network that validates transactions.

W

  • Web 3.0

    A term used to describe various transformative technologies that reshape the wy we use the internet. One of these technologies is blockchain too.

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