Terminology of Cryptocurrency and Blockchain
51% Attack
When one or a group of miners control greater than 50% of the network’s mining hashrate or computational power.
Ad Hoc
Only created or done when necessary.
Address
Used to send and received transactions. Often a user’s public key
Airdrop
A free distribution of a coin to potential users
Algorithm
A sequence of unambiguous instructions used for the purpose of solving a problem.
All or None Order (AON)
An order that must be executed in its entirety or not executed at all.
All-Time High (ATH)
The highest price of a cryptocurrency in a base currency, such as a dollar, BTC, ETH, or TCH
Allocation
Percentage distribution of tokens. For example a project may allocate 40% of tokens to their team.
Alpha
A first look at a product released by a team to get feedback, usually in a less mature state than in beta.
Altcoin
A cryptocurrency that is alternative to Bitcoin. Used to describe cryptocurrencies that are not Bitcoin.
Anti-Money Laundering (AML)
A framework consisting of legal and regulatory procedures to minimize and curb the flow of funds that are generated from illegal or dubious activities.
Application Programming Interface (API)
A collection of functions and procedures that allow users to interact/communicate with the data of an application or service, such as an exchange, to execute the features of the service programmatically.
Application-Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC)
An Integrated Circuit customized for maximum performance in a particular use, rather than general-purpose use.
Arbitrage
Buying and selling of assets over different markets in order to take advantage of differing prices on the same asset.
ASIC-resistant
Achieved by requiring a large amount of memory when mining. This means that additional physical area is needed on the chip. As a result an ASIC would experience no significant speed increase.
Asking Price
Lowest price a seller is willing to accept on a sell order.
Asynchronous
Does not occur at the same time.
Atomic Swap
Smart contract technology that enables exchange of one cryptocurrency for another without using centralized intermediaries, such as exchanges.
Attack surface
Different points in software environments where an attacker can attempt to enter data or extract data.
Bags
The portfolio of altcoins one is holding
Batching
Processing transactions in a group.
Bear
A negative trend in prices of a market
Bear Trap
A false signal that there has been a reversal in a rising price trend.
Benchmark
Measuring performance of one thing by comparing it with another.
Beta
An early access program for users to test out a product and for a team to get feedback.
Bid Price
The price at which a buyer is willing to pay for an asset, security or commodity.
Bitcoin Pizza
The infamous Papa John’s Pizza that cost Laszlo Hanyecz 10,000 Bitcoin when he offered the sum to anyone who bought a pizza for him online and ordered it to his door.
Black Swan Event
An event that is often unexpected and deviates from the expected result.
Block
Files that store transaction data which is permanently recorded on a Blockchain. When a new transaction is created on a Blockchain, it is added to a block along with other new transactions. Once a block is added to a Blockchain, it is immutable.
Block Explorer
An online Blockchain webpage which allows users to browse information about blocks, transactions, balances, and transaction histories.
Block Height
The number of blocks in the chain between itself and the genesis block.
Block Reward
Coins awarded by the blockchain network to cryptocurrency miners for each solved block.
Blockchain
A decentralized, digitized ledger that records transaction information about a cryptocurrency in a chronological order.
Bollinger Band
A Technical Analysis tool. Volatility bands above and below a simple moving average. The wider the bands are, the more volatile a market is at that time.
Bounty
A reward posted by a group or individual to incentivize certain work, behavior (such as referrals), or development.
Breakeven Multiple
The multiple of the current price by which an asset needs to appreciate in order to reach its previous all-time high
Broker-Dealer
An individual or company that trades securities for itself or on behalf of customers.
BUIDL
Derived from HODL, a term referring to keeping your heads down and focusing on building your product.
Burn
The process of removing coins or tokens from circulation permanently, reducing the total supply.
Business-to-Business (B2B)
A type of project that is serving enterprise needs.
Business-to-Business-to-Consumer (B2B2C)
A type of project that utilizes business, groups, or other organizers to reach a larger audience of individual end users.
Business-to-Consumer (B2C)
A type of project that caters to individual end users.
Buy the Dip (BTD)
A term used to describe purchasing more of a cryptocurrency when the price falls.
Buy Wall
A large buy order or many buy orders stacked at a certain price.
Byzantine Fault Tolerance (BFT)
The characteristic which defines a system that tolerates the class of failures that belong to the
Byzantine Generals Problem
A game theoretical situation in which participants in a network need to coordinate consensus in action — in the army analogy, generals must decide if they decide to attack or withdraw, but that their communication or teammates may be sabotaged or traitors. Using algorithms such as Proof of Work Consensus models, blockchains and decentralized systems are able to achieve consensus and thus solve the Byzantine Generals Problem
Candidate Block
A temporary block created by mining nodes using transactions from the memory pool. Each mining node tries to add this candidate block to the blockchain.
Candlestick
Vertical bar graphs used in financial markets to indicate recent activity of the price of an asset — the top and bottom of the candlestick indicate the opening and close prices within a specified time window for the bar, and the lines that extend from it, known as wicks, indicate the total ranges, from high to low, within that time interval.
Capitulation
When investors ‘give up’ and exit their position as quickly as possible to seek an investment which is less risky.
Casper
A PoS protocol in which malicious actors are punished.
Censorship Resistance
Referring to the immutability of Blockchain. Once a transaction enters the blockchain, it is extremely difficult to alter.
Central Bank
A financial institution that acts as a monetary authority and manages a states currency, interest rates and money supply.
Central Processing Unit (CPU)
A computer component that performs interpretation and execution of most commands from computer hardware and software.
Centralized
One single entity (or group) has authority
Cipher
A method for encrypting messages. Ciphers do not involve meaning like codes would, they are algorithms.
Circulating Supply
The best approximation of the number of unlocked tokens/coins for a cryptocurrency.
Client
The receiving end or requestor of a service.
Cliff Time period before the vesting schedule commences and tokens/coins start being released into circulation
Clock Drift
When one clock does not run at the exact rate of the reference clock.
Closed source Code that is kept private and not shared with the public.
Coin A cryptocurrency or digital cash that is independent of any other platform, which is used as exchange of value.
Coin Market Cap (CMC)
CoinMarketCap provides diverse range of crypto data. Get up-to-date listing prices, available supply, trade volume, and market capitalizations on CoinMarketCap.
Cold Storage
An offline crypto wallet, often referring to hardware not connected to the internet, such as a Ledger
Cold Wallet
A wallet that is not connected to the internet. Watch our video to learn more.
Collateral
Pledging of something against a loan to guarantee repayment.
Colored Coins
Creating coins using the bitcoin network which would be used to represent real world assets.
Command Line Interface (cli)
A user interface that is controlled by typing commands.
Commit
When someone adds or changes part of a source code within a repository.
Confirmation
Once a transaction has been broadcasted to a network, it may be included in a block that is published to the network at which point, it will gain a confirmation. A confirmation represents a degree of permanence on a blockchain.
Confirmation Time (Block Time)
The average time it takes to add one block to the blockchain
Confluence
When someone combines multiple trading strategies to create another strategy.
Consensus Mechanism
The theoretical approach to get the decentralized, trustless network to all agree.
Credentials
Personal information. Examples include username, password, email address, qualifications and many more.
Cryptography
Cryptography is a method of storing and sending data in a form so that it can only be read and processed by its intended recipient.
Custody
Ownership of one’s funds or assets; in crypto, holding custody of a wallet and its assets also means holding the private keys and the responsibility of keeping funds safe.
Daemon
A process operating in the background waiting for a specific event or condition in order to be activated.
Dark pool
Private exchanges or groups that lack transparency and are not accessible by the public.
Day Trading
Buying and selling assets on the same day multiple times with the intention of profiting
Dead Cat Bounce
Trading term referring to a recovery in price of an asset following a significant drop.
Decentralized
When no single entity (or group) has authority.
Decentralized Applications (dApps)
Applications that run on a P2P network of computers rather than one central computer. This allows the software to run on the internet without being controlled by a single entity.
Decentralized Autonomous Cooperative (DAC)
An organization that is controlled by shareholders rather than a central authority.
Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO)
In general, a system of hard coded rules that define which actions an organization will take. The DAO may also refer to: specifically the DAO that was on Ethereum
Decentralized Exchange
An exchange which does not require users to deposit funds to start trading and does not hold the funds for the user. Instead, users trade directly from their own wallets.
Decoupling
When an altcoin no longer follows the price trend of bitcoin.
Deflation
Divergence occurs when the price of an asset and a certain indicator (e.g. MACD, RSI) are heading in opposite directions.
Delegated Proof of Stake (DPoS)
A consensus mechanism where token holders vote on delegates to do the validation of the network on their behalf. Delegates are periodically shuffled.
Delisting
The process of removing a token from an exchange that could be voluntarily or unvoluntarily.
Demurrage
Cost of holding or owning a currency.
Denial of Service (DoS)
An attack with the intent of disrupting a network, making it inaccessible to its users.
Deposit
Sending in money or cryptocurrency to recharge an account
Depth Chart
A visual representation of the order book
Difficulty
A measure of how difficult is to find a hash below a specific target
Difficulty Bomb
A significant increase in mining difficulty for a proof-of-work coin. This term is often used in reference to Ethereum’s exponentially increasing difficulty.
Diluted Market Cap
The market value of a company’s outstanding shares plus the market value of dilutives such as stock options and convertibles. The latter market value is computed by assuming the dilutives were changed to stocks today, multipliying by the current stock price.
Dip
A momentary drop in price of an asset
Discount Token
A type of utility token used to give users or early adopters a perk or incentive to prepay for access of a certain network, protocol, software, or service
Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS)
An attack where multiple systems are used to attack a target, such as a server, website or network, resulting in a Denial of Service (DoS) for the users of the targeted server, website or network.
Distributed Ledger Technology
Another term for blockchain technology or decentralized databases
Divergence
Divergence occurs when the price of an asset and a certain indicator (e.g. MACD, RSI) are heading in opposite directions.
Diversification
In the investment context, diversification refers to the allocation of funds across different types of assets and jurisdictions in order to reduce the investment risk.
Do Your Own Research (DYOR)
A valuable piece of advice. It’s always wise to research a coin yourself instead of following what others say.
Dollar Cost Averaging (DCA)
Investing fixed dollar amounts over regular periods of time regardless of the price of the asset.
Double Spending
When a given amount of coins are spent more than once. Usually as a result of a race attack or a 51% attack.
Dust
A tiny transaction or amount that is not worth sending with fixed cost fees
Eclipse Attack
When the majority of peers on the network are malicious and monopolize the network in order to prevent specific nodes from receiving information from honest nodes.
Encryption
Conversion of information or data into a secure code in order to prevent unauthorised access to the information or data.
Enterprise Ethereum Alliance (EEA)
The industry’s first global standards organization to deliver an open, standards-based architecture and specification to accelerate the adoption of Enterprise Ethereum.
ERC-20
A technical standard used on the Ethereum Blockchain. ERC stands for Ethereum Request for Comments. ‘20’ is the unique proposal ID number.
ERC-721
An ethereum based non-fungible token
Ether
The underlying token powering the Ethereum Blockchain.
Exchange
A marketplace for cryptocurrencies where users can buy and sell coins.
Exchange Traded Fund (ETF)
A fund that tracks an index, a commodity, bonds or a basket of assets. For instance, an ETF that tracks the S&P 500 is holding a certain composition of shares in companies within the respective index, thus replicating it. An ETF that tracks the oil price could do so either by holding shares in oil-related companies, whose stock price movement serves as a benchmark for the oil price, or by physically holding oil. In the latter case, investors in an oil ETF would indirectly own oil through their shares in the ETF and thus, the price movement of the ETF would represent that of the oil price.
Exchange Value
Depicts the value of a good/service as a unit of another good/service.
Explain Like I’m 5 (ELI5)
Explaining a concept in very basic terms such that a 5 year old could understand.
Exponential Moving Average (EMA)
A type of moving average which places more significant weight on the most recent data points. As opposed to a Simple Moving Average.
Fault Tolerance
See Byzantine Fault Tolerance (BFT)
Fear of Missing Out (FOMO)
Anxiety that you might be missing out on an exciting opportunity.
Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt (FUD)
A strategy used to spread insecurity among customers or investors.
Federated Byzantine Agreement
A type of Byzantine Consensus in which the verification and identity of nodes does not have to be known prior to agreement, allowing for open membership and decentralization.
Fiat
Money that a government has declared to be legal tender.
Field-Programmable Gate Array (FPGA)
A type of Integrated Circuit that can be configured or set up for a specific purpose by the end user “in the field”
Fill or Kill Order (FOK)
A buy or sell order which must be executed immediately or else it will be cancelled.
Finality
The state of a confirmed transaction that cannot ever be reversed.
First Mover Advantage
A first mover is a company that enters a certain market first, thus securing the advantage of establishing strong brand recognition and customer loyalty before anyone else.
Flippening
The name for when (if) Ethereum overtakes Bitcoin in market cap
Forced Liquidation
When a broker forcibly liquidates an investors position as a result of their position falling below the margin requirement.
Fork
See Hard Fork or Soft Fork
Formal Verification
Using mathematically rigorous proofs to ensure certain properties of cryptographic algorithms and blockchain mechanisms
Full Node
Computers that fully implement the entirety of rules of an underlying blockchain network and completely validate transactions and blocks on a blockchain.
Fundamental Analysis
Fundamental Analysis (FA) — evaluating an asset based on its underlying characteristics and traits as an effort towards arriving at an intrinsic value of the asset.
Fungible
Indistinguishable and non-unique; in the case of bitcoin, each bitcoin is treated as the same.
Gains
Aggregate returns from holding tokens
Game theory
A concept of strategic decision-making within an environment of competing actors. Key to the concept is that a player’s decisions directly impact the payoff of all actors, thus forcing a rational player to make decisions by considering the decisions that other actors may make.
Gas
Execution fee for every operation made on certain blockchain networks.
Gas Limit
The maximum amount of fees one is willing to pay for a transaction — once a transaction has accrued the cost of the gas limit without getting filled, the transaction will fail. This is in place to prevent low-ball transactions that clog up networks.
General Public License
A type of “copy left” license first created by the Free Software Foundation for the GNU project that allows all users to modify and distribute any version of the software, allowing for open-source software to be maintained and improved by users.
Genesis Block
The first block of a blockchain, sometimes referred to as block 0
GitHub
A site/system/folder/repository where a team can share, collaborate, and save their open source code
Gossip
When nodes share information with other nodes.
Governance
The activity of monitoring whether a certain set of policies finds proper implementation.
Graphics Processing Unit (GPU)
Primarily used to boost the performance of video and graphics, however, are frequently used in mining coins with a Proof of Work consensus algorithm.
Gwei
Gwei is a denomination of Ether. 1,000,000,000 wei = 1 Giga wei (Gwei)
hackathon
An event where developers and builders alike compete against each other in order to create usable software within a certain time period matching specific requirements set by the host.
Halving
When the block reward of a crypto asset, such as bitcoin, drops to one-half of what it was before; this is used to create a decaying rate of issuance to arrive at an eventual finite supply of a crypto asset.
Hard Cap
The maximum amount of funds a project intends to raise in their ICO.
Hard Fork
A significant change in the protocol of a blockchain network that makes all previous and future valid blocks, invalid (or vice-versa).
Hardware Wallet
A cryptocurrency wallet which stores the owners’ private keys within the hardware device. Trezor and Ledger are examples of hardware wallets.
Hash
The output of a hash function.
Hash function
A function which converts an input into an encrypted output of fixed length. Hashes are created using an algorithm.
Hashrate
The speed at which you are outputting hash functions. Usually measured in hashes per second.
Hedging
An investment strategy used to reduce risk. Moving assets into something less volatile.
High Frequency Trading (HFC)
A program trading platform which utilises the computational power of powerful computers in order to analyse multiple markets through the use of complex algorithms. Profitabilty of HFC is often tied to trade execution speed.
High Net Worth Individual (HNWI)
Individuals with a considerable amount of investible funds.
HODL
A typo of “Hold” originating from bitcointalk that has also been retrofitted to be an acronym for Hold on for Dear Life — to maintain ownership of coins and not sell.
Honeypot
A mechanism used in computer security used to detect or counteract unauthorised access of information systems.
Hot Wallet
A wallet that is connected to the internet. Watch our video to learn more.
Howey Test
One of multiple tests that may classify an assset as a security.
Iceberg Order
A conditional order to buy or sell a large amount of assets in smaller predetermined quantities.
Immutability
Unable to change or be changed.
Improvement Proposals A process for collecting suggestions for updates to an open source blockchain, such as BIP for Bitcoin or EIP for Ethereum
Incubator
An accelerator program that boosts projects from early stages to develop and grow
Index
A financial instrument used to track the price value of a given asset or basket of assets
Indicator
A statistical tool used in Technical Analysis to suggest a possible trend for an asset.
Inflation
Inflation happens when the inflation rate rises above 0%. It represents an increase in the general price level of goods and services. It can be triggered among others through the extension in money supply or when the overall economic demand of goods and services exceeds the respective supply.
Initial Coin Offering (ICO)
A fundraising method in which new projects will sell their cryptocurrency to investors.
Initial Exchange Offering (IEO)
Where a project first lists and offers its tokens on an exchange, skipping an ICO.
Institutional Investor
An entity that pools money to purchase securities on behalf of its members.
Integrated Circuit
Sometimes referred to as a chip or a microchip. It is an electronic circuit that can function as computer memory, micro processors, oscillators, amplifiers, and more.
Intellectual Property
Intangible and intellectual inventions and creations such as names, symbols, designs, images that are protected by patents, trademarks and copyrights.
Internal Transactions
Value transfers on the ethereum network that are executed by smart contracts
international money remittance
The transfer of funds across country borders, traditionally by expensive options such as wire or other inter-bank transfer.
Internet of Things (IoT)
Connected devices that can transmit data to one another
Interoperability
A concept of allowing blockchains to be compatible with each other and build upon each other’s features and use-cases.
InterPlanetary File System (IPFS)
A protocol for distributed content storage and access.
IOU
A promise for future payment or debt of service.
Issuance
Release of asset or token
Keccak
A family of cryptographic sponge functions (pronounced “ketchak”)
Know Your Customer (KYC)
A standard procedure in the finance industry which allows companies to identify their customers.
Ledger
A hardware wallet used for storing cryptocurrencies. A Ledger is also a cold wallet as it does not connect to the internet.
Leverage
When an individual makes a trade in which, given a change in the price of an asset, the individual’s investment moves at a greater multiple of the asset. This can be achieved by investing in special financial instruments, or borrowing against existing collateral to invest again or double down in that asset.
Library
A collection of resources in a given programming language available for use by computer programs.
Light Node
A node which does not include a full copy of all past transactions of a blockchain
Lightning
Lightning network is a second layer operating on top of a blockchain, enabling increased transaction speed among participating nodes. This is one proposed scaling solution.
Limit Order
When a maker creates a new order for an asset by specifying the price and quantity one is willing to buy or sell at. A limit buy must be below the current price, or else it will instantly match with an existing order in the book, and a limit sell order must be above the current price for the same reason. There is no guarantee that a limit order will be filled.
Liquidation
When an investor exits their position for cash.
Liquidity
The availability of a specific asset in a market.
Listing
The process of getting a coin on an exchange
Main chain
The actual full, working blockchain of a given project.
Mainnet
A mainnet is the production environment of a cryptocurrencies blockchain network.
Mainnet Swap
When a coin switches from their ERC-20 or other token to a native on-chain token on their mainnet.
Maker
You become a “maker” when you place an order and it does not trade immediately, so your order stays in the order book and waits for someone else to fill/match with it later.
Malware A software program designed to harm or damage a computer system.
Margin Trading
Trading using borrowed funds — note: this is a high risk strategy and should only be done by experienced investors. See: leverage
Market Capitalization
The total trading value of a given coin — calculated by the product of the supply of the coin by the current price.
Market Order
When a taker picks the best available bid or ask for a cryptocurrency, taking the price and quantity available on the order book.
Masternode
Nodes on a network that often require a minimum amount of a given coin staked in order to access staking rewards.
Maximum Supply
The maximum amount of coins that will ever exist for a cryptocurrency.
Meetup
An informal gathering of people who share a particular interest in a certain subject.
Mempool The waiting room for all transactions that are verified and need to be included in the next block.
Merged Mining
When a smaller coin chooses a widely-adopted PoW algorithm that a more popular blockchain uses such that a miner can simultaneously mine for both chains and have an incentive to support both chains.
Merkle Tree
A hash based data structure which summarizes all transactions in a block.
Miner
An individual node or computer who is contributing computing power to a network
Minimum Viable Product (MVP)
A product with just enough features so that it can be released.
Mining
The verification of transactions on a blockchain network, in which transactions are added as entries into the blockchain ledger.
Mining Farm
A collection of many miners, often in a warehouse or large data center devoted to mining cryptocurrencies
Mining Pool
A collective of miners who aggregate their hash rate to increase their chance of finding a correct block, with the purpose of smoothing out their chances of payout for mining. Participants earn a proportion of the rewards earned by the pool that correlates to the share of hashrate they contributed to the pool’s entire hashrate
Mining rig
A computer system specifically designed for mining purposes.
Mobile Wallet
A cryptocurrency wallet accessible via app on a smartphone.
Monetary Policy
Refers to the policies of the central bank and other respective authorities within a monetary system to manage the money supply and interest rates. It aims to stimulate macroeconomic factors such as inflation, unemployment, consumption and economic growth.
Moon
When a coin goes astronomically up!
Moore’s Law
In general, the concept that technology improves over time at an exponential rate, simultaneously increasing productivity while lowering price.
Moving Average (MA)
An average across a certain set of past data points. It is called “moving” as it is continously recomputed as new data becomes available, by dropping the earliest data point and adding the newest.
Moving Average Convergence Diverence (MACD)
A technical indicator which shows relationship between the short term and long term price trends in order to anticipate future market trends. Calculated by subtracting the 26 day EMA from the 12 day EMA.
Multisignature
Wallet which requires another party to authorize a transaction before it is broadcasted to the network.
My Ether Wallet (MEW)
A web-based user interface for accessing ethereum based cryptocurrency wallets. MEW is a user interface, not a bank. Tokens are not stored on MEW.
Net Present Value
The difference between an initial investment and the sum of the present values of cash flows.
Nodes
Participants on a decentralized network, can come in light or full forms.
Non-fungible Token (NFT)
A special type of cryptocurrency that is unique and not interchangable.
Nonce
A one-use arbitrary string or number generated for a verification purposes to prevent replaying past transactions.
Off-chain
Transactions that occur off a given blockchain network, that may be later reported or batched together before submitted
Offshore account
An account that is registered in a jurisdiction that is different to the jurisdiction of the holder’s citizenship.
On-chain
Transactions that occur on the given blockchain network
Open Source Software
Software released under a license that gives users the ability and right to use, update, and distribute the software for any use in open, collaborative efforts.
Open Source Software (OSS)
Software which has the source code available for anyone to view, modify or improve.
Oracle
A data source or feed from a third party used for determining outcomes for smart contracts
Order Book
The complete list of outstanding buy and sell limit orders listed on an exchange or marketplace.
Orphan Block
A valid block mined by nodes on a network which are not included in the main chain.
Over The Counter (OTC)
Refers to the trade of assets, securities or commodities in ways other than on a formal exchange. It usually engages a dealer network that acts as an intermediary between the buy and sell side. OTC can be very critical when desiring to execute high volume trades by individually matching respective buy and sell sides. In contrast, a high volume market order on a formal exchange could substantially affect prices due to insufficient liquidity.
Overcollateralization
When a financial instrument, such as a stablecoin or loan, is backed by an amount of assets that exceeds the value of the instrument itself, to account for volatility of the underlying asset.
Paper Wallet
A pair of public and private keys that individuals can print out onto a sheet of paper for safekeeping (not recommended)
Partition
The general process of storing an entire set of data in smaller chunks.
Peer-to-peer (P2P)
When two or more computers are connected and share workload or resources without going through a separate centralised server or computer
Pegged currency
A currency where the price is designed to remain the same as a designated asset. For example: 1 USDT is pegged to 1 USD.
Phishing
A malicious attack where a bad actor will attempt to obtain the credentials of a user in order to gain unauthorised access into their account.
Pilot
An early beta user program (often free or cheap for participants) where a team can gain valuable feedback on their product
Plasma
An Ethereum off-chain scaling solution which may allow Etherum to greatly increase the transactions per second capablities.
Point of Sale
Defines the place where vendor and buyer get in contact. It can be the supermarket next corner as well the exchange to buy and sell crypto assets.
Ponzi Scheme
A scam in which new investors’ funds are used to pay returns promised to previous investors. Do not invest in these.
Premine
A PoW system in which the founding team got a head start in mining and already accumulated much of their coin while the network’s hashrate was low.
Prisoner’s Dilemma
An example in game theory which demonstrates why two individuals may not want to cooperate even though it may appear to be in their best interest.
Privacy Coin
A cryptocurrency that aims to keep user transaction data mostly private.
Private Key
Private string that acts like a password for one’s cryptocurrency wallet. Do not lose it or share it!
Private Sale
An early stage investment round for strategic investors with a considerable amount of investible funds.
Proof of Authority (PoA)
A consensus mechanism. All transactions on a network using PoA are validated by admins of the network. This is more of a centralized approach to consensus mechanisms and is more likely to be used for private blockchains.
Proof of Stake (PoS)
A consensus mechanism. It places priority on an investor’s stake of a certain token. The greater the investor’s stake, the more probable that the next block will be mined by this investor.
Proof of Work (PoW)
A consensus mechanism. It places priority on computational power. The greater the computational power within the network of a certain miner, the more probable that this miner will mine the next block.
Public Key
Keys that can be shared, like an email address, for other people to view and send to.
Public Sale
A later stage investment round for the public, including retail investors.
Pump and Dump
A type of market manipulation in which a group coordinates an effort to set buy orders, causing an artificial spike in price, before eventually crashing back down. These are dangerous and can cost investors lots of money in short amounts of time.
Race attack
When two transactions are created with the same funds at the same time, with the intention of spending those funds twice.
Rally
When a market recovers or increases in value suddenly.
Ransomware
A type of malware which takes over your computer and threatens to destroy or reveal files unless a ransom is paid.
Recovery Phrase
See Seed Phrase
Replay attack
Also known as a Playback attack — where valid transactions or data are repeated, delayed, or otherwise tampered to attack a network.
Resistance
A term in Technical Analysis (TA). When a price that is increasing finds resistance. Usually compared with previous highs.
Retail Investor
Regular, everyday investors and households, as opposed to institutional investors.
Return on Investment (ROI)
A measure used in order to assess the efficiency of an investment. The ratio between net profit and net cost.
Rich List
A list of addresses on certain blockchains that contain the most of that coin. See this bitcoin rich list for an example
Roadmap
A planned schedule of a project’s progress.
Robustness
The degree to which a network can withstand failure and disruption.
RSI
A trading indicator that attempts to capture momentum in an asset’s recent price behaviour. It determines overbought and oversold positions.
Satoshi
The smallest unit of the bitcoin currency recorded on the blockchain. It is a one hundred millionth of a single bitcoin (0.00000001 BTC), named after the pseudonymous founder of Bitcoin, Satoshi Nakamoto
Scaling
Increasing the throughput & processing capabilities of a blockchain
Scam
A deceitful and misleading act to take financial advantage over an individual or an entity.
Scrypt
An alternativehash algorithm to SHA-256， first used by Litecoin
Secure Sockets Layer (SSL)
A security protocol designed to create encrypted links a server and a browser.
Security
Any type of proof of ownership or debt that can be assigned a value. A tradeable financial asset.
Security Audit
A peer review of some smart contract or other blockchain code to identify and address potentially costly bugs or flaws in development.
Security Token
A token that has passed the Howey Test and is subject to federal securities and regulations. See also: Security
Seed Phrase
A group of passwords that can be decrypted into your private keys, which allow you to recover and access funds within your wallet
Seed Round
The first round of investment into a project
Segregated Witness (SegWit)
A process where the transaction signatures are separated from bitcoin transactions. Allowing more transactions to fit within one block.
Selfish Mining
In a proof-of-work system, where a miner finds a block and decides not to broadcast it to the network, thus allowing the miner to get a head start on the next block, and then overrule other miners once they find a second block because they have a longer chain than any other miner. The risk of this occurring increases when an individual has a higher share of the network’s hashrate, such as in a 51% attack.
Sell Wall
A large order or group of orders at the same price on the sell side of an order book. This is often referred to as a bearish signal.
Sentiment
The overall attitude within the community towards a certain coin, the market as a whole etc.
SHA-256 Short for Secure Hash algorithm a cryptographic hash algorithm that produces 256-bit (32-byte) signatures for a given string, used by Bitcoin.
Shadow
The lines extending from the colored bar in a candlestick chart that indicate the full low-high range of a trading pair within a certain time frame. Also referred to as wicks or whiskers.
Sharding
The process of breaking down a blockchain into smaller pieces, and storing just one such piece (shard) of the whole puzzle. This requires n many working participants in a decentralized system with n many shards.
Sharpe Ratio
The excess return over the risk-free rate per unit of standard deviation (risk).
Shilling
When someone strongly recommends or attempts to sell you on the idea of purchasing an asset. The person shilling is usually doing so out of self interests.
Ship
To release or publish a product or code.
Signal
When someone recommends either a buy or sell action. A buy signal will often contain a purchase price and a profit goal. Often considered a form of shilling
Simple Moving Average (SMA)
A type of moving average which places equal weight on all data points in the equation. As opposed to an Exponential Moving Average.
Simplified Payment Verification (SPV)
A method used in order to verify which transactions have been included in a block without downloading the whole block.
Smart Contract
Smart contracts are automated contracts that trigger certain action when predetermined conditions are met. It works like “If…then” conditions as for instance, it needs condition C met before money can be transferred from A to B. It became popular in the context of the Ethereum blockchain.
Snapshot
A record of your coin holdings at a certain point in time.
Soft Cap
A designated fund raising goal which if achieved, the ICO will be considered successful and the project development will proceed as planned.
Soft Fork
Change to the software protocol where only previously valid blocks/transactions are made invalid. Since old nodes will recognize the new blocks as valid, a softfork is backward-compatible
Software Development Kit (SDK)
A developer toolkit that includes all the tools, functions, and documentation to assist in using a certain software or API
Solidity
Programming language used for building smart contracts on Ethereum.
Sortino Ratio
A modification of the Sharpe Ratio. It is the risk-adjusted return of an investment and takes into consideration the investment’s actual rate of return, its required (minimum acceptable) rate of return and a corresponding risk measure.
Source Code
The codebase of a project. If it is shared by the organization or individuals that built it, it is said to be open-sourced.
Spread
The difference between the lowest ask price and the largest bid price.
Stablecoin
A cryptocurrency designed to be pegged to a specific value
Staking pool
Refers to a pool of coins that aims to improve its stake in a POS coin’s circulating supply to increase its chances to verify the next block.
Store of Value
A commodity, asset or currency that can be saved, retrieved and exchanged at a future date.
Support A term in Technical Analysis (TA). When a price that is decreasing finds ‘support. Usually compared with lows.
Swing
A quick, large change in prices.
Sybil Attack
An attack strategy in which fake accounts identities can be easily created, ruining the trustworthiness of a reputation system or other voting-based system.
Taker
The “taker” is someone who decides to place an order that is instantly matched with an existing order on the order book.
Tangle
A name used to describe IOTA’s DAG
Tank
A sharp drop in prices over a short period of time.
Technical Analysis (TA)
A method of trading where a trader will try to identify patterns and trends in charts by analyzing statistics obtained from previous trading activity.
Testnet
A testnet is a development network for a cryptocurrencies blockchain network.
Throughput
The amount of transactions a network can handle, often measured in TPS
Ticker
The trading “symbol” or shortened name (typically in capital letters) that refer to a coin on a trading platform. For example: TCH
Token
Fungible and tradable asset or a utility that is often found on a blockchain. Generally requires another platform to exist and operate, and has uses beyond being simply digital cash
Token Distribution
Distribution of a staking reward, an airdrop, etc.
Token Lockup
A period of time in which respective coins are not allowed to be sold or transferred.
Token Sale
The issuance of tokens in exchange for another cryptocurrency. Also referred to as an Initial Coin Offering
Token Velocity
The amount of transactions that happen for a given money supply or token.
Total Supply
The total amount of coins or tokens in existence for a cryptocurrency.
Trading Desk
A place for transactions of commodities, securities, or other financial instruments.
Trading fee
Fees paid by users looking to exchange one token or currency for another.
Trading Pair
A currency pair that denominates the price of a given currency in units of the base currency.
Transaction Fee
Fees paid by users of a network to the miners or other entities that process the transactions.
Transaction ID (TXID)
Transaction ID also referred to as a Transaction hash. This is a transaction identifier used to reference transactions on a blockchain.
Transaction Mining
An exchange model that rebates trading fees from transactions in the form of an exchange token. Similar to an ICO
Transactions Per second (TPS)
Refers to the amount of transactions that a blockchain is capable of processing each second.
Trezor
A hardware wallet used for storing cryptocurrencies. A Trezor is also a cold wallet as it does not connect to the internet. See also: Ledger
Trusted Execution Environment (TEE)
A specific area of a processor that allows for security, integrity, and confidentiality for a specific calculation or process of code.
Trustless
There is no single entity or individual that has authority over a system, which would otherwise require participants to trust the authority to ensure a frictionless functioning of the system. In a trustless system, consensus is reached across the network’s stakeholders.
Turing Complete
The property of a system that can theoretically calculate everything assuming sufficient memory.
Two Factor Authentication (2FA)
An additional layer of security known as “multi-factor authentication.
Unit-of-Account
A specific quantity in nominal monetary terms signifying an amount of real value
Unspent Transaction Output (UTXO)
Unlike spent outputs, unspent outputs are available to be used in new transactions.
User Interface (UI)
The interface where interactions between humans and machines occur. It establishes how a user can interact with a machine.
Utility Token
A token that fails the Howey Test as it is not designed as an investment.
Validator
A node on a network that verifies transactions
Vaporware
A project that has no product and no visible progress in development.
Verification Code
A code sent to a second device to ensure the identity of someone logging in to an account (see: 2FA)
Vesting
A schedule in which tokens may be eventually released from lockup to stakeholders or team members of a project -this prevents the owners of a token from immediately selling and cashing out right away.
Virtual Machine
An emulated computer system, or a distributed system that is designed to replicate the features of a computer’s architecture.
Vladimir Club
A metric referring to the cost of acquiring 0.01% of a coin’s marketcap at current market price.
Volatility
A measure of fluctuations in a coin’s price
Volume
The total value of a coin traded within a given period
Wall
A large amount of orders at a specific value in the order book
Wallet
Used to store cryptocurrencies. Different types include: Cold wallets, hot wallets, hardware wallets, and paper wallets
Wash Trading
The act of trading funds repeatedly between yourself and a small group of people.
Weak Hands
Term referring to investors that do not have strong confidence in a coin once the price starts dropping.
Web 1.0
The initial iteration of the web, when data was mostly read only. Also known as “read only” web.
Web 2.0
Also known as “read-write” web. When users had the ability to interact with other web users.
Web 3.0
Also known as “read-write-execute” web. When computers are able to interpret data in ways that a human would be able to.
Wei
The smallest denomination of Ether. 1 Ether = 1,000,000,000,000,000,000 Wei
Whale
A trader with a large position of a given cryptocurrency
Whiskers
The lines extending from the colored bar in a candlestick chart that indicate the full low-high range of a trading pair within a certain time frame. Also referred to as wicks or shadows.
Whitelist
A list of KYC-approved customers or investors that want to get in line to be the first to use, access, or invest in a project.
Whitepaper
Prospectus that outlines the technical aspects of the product, the problems it intends to solve, how it is going to address them, a description of the team, and a description of the token generation and distribution strategy. Usually issued before an Initial Coin Offering.
Wick
The lines extending from the colored bar in a candlestick chart that indicate the full low-high range of a trading pair within a certain time frame. Also referred to as whiskers or shadows.
Withdrawal
Taking money out of an account
Yellow Paper
A formal paper which includes all the research of a project.
Zero-Knowledge Proofs
Proofs to verify that transactions are valid without revealing any information about these transactions, providing privacy to the transaction while maintaining its legitimacy.
Zk-Snarks
“Zero-Knowledge Succinct Non-Interactive Argument of Knowledge” — an approach to zero knowledge proofs
