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Glossary
Hello, thank you very much for getting here, if you always confused by the descriptions in some articles in the industry. Here, we have organized the terminology for your convenience.
A
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.
Airdrop A way to promote cryptocurrencies by sending some free tokens to traders
Algorithmic Stablecoin Algorithmic stablecoins are tokens pegged to a fiat currency which is usually the US dollar, purely through software and specific conditions.
All-Time-High (ATH)
The highest point (in price, in market capitalization) that a cryptocurrency has been in history.
Altcoin
Coins althernative to Bitcoin
Application Programming Interface (API)
It is a software that acts like an intermediary or a bridge that lets two applications talk to each other. It is the one that lets applications, data and devices interact.
Application-Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC)
Refers to specialized computers that are made to do a very specific task (eg. calculate hashes for Bitcoin's Proof-of-Work)
Arbitrage
A strategy where investors buy a currency in a market and sell it at a higher price in another market to gain profit.
ASIC Resistant
A term used to describe cryptocurrency proof-of-work protocols that are resistant to Application-Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), by packing in various parameters that make it difficult for ASICs to have a competitive edge against consumer hardwares.
Ask Me Anything (AMA)
Ask me anything refers to actions where individuals of certain profession (eg. fireman, nurse, journalists) or company (eg. CEO of Tesla) conduct a session for users to ask them questions.
Atomic SWAP
Atomic Swap refers to the exchange of cryptocurrencies that operate in different block chains without intermediaries.
B
Bearish
A term used to indicate negative sentiment towards the market or an asset, where investors believe that there will be downward price movement.
Bear Market
Contrary to bull market, it indicates the direction of the market going for downward trend.
Bitcoin ATM
A machine from which you can buy or sell Bitcoin. Typically also offers different types of cryptocurrencies.
Bitcoin Evangelist
Individuals who are passionate about Bitcoin, and are dedicated in spreading knowlege about Bitcoin
Block
In the context of blockchain, block refers to the collection of transactional data or information that are bundled together in a predetermined size.
Blockchain
In Bitcoin's case, blockchain describes its decentralized, public ledger which contains transactional information.
Block Confirmation
Refers to the number of confirmation a particular block has. Each block ahead of the referenced block adds one block confirmation to it.
Block Explorer
Application or websites which display information such as status of transactions or data contained in a block of a given public blockchain network.
Block Height
A number that is used to indicated the position of a particular block within a blockchain
Block Reward
One of the mechanisms built into a blockchain to incentivize validators
Bots
Refers to software or programmes that automatically trade based on preset behaviours.
Bounty
Public tasks available for anyone for a reward
BUIDL
An advice for investors to contribute new projects on blockchain rather than holding cryptocurrencies and waiting for the price to increase
Bullish
A term used to indicate positive sentiment towards the market or an asset, where investors believe that there will be upward price movement.
Bull Market
A bull market indicates the direction of the market going in an upward trend.
Burned Tokens
Tokens which have been sent to addresses whose private key are not known, effectively becoming unusable.
Buy Wall
Anomalously large buy order(s) at a single price point that reflects as a "wall" in the order book.
Byzantine Fault
A byzantine fault is where an error has occured, yet a computer system does not know due which component/what failed to the lack of information and continues to iterate on a given instruction.
Byzantine Generals’ Problem
A term used to describe the situation a single strategy which requires consensus from all members within a group who cannot be trusted or verified
C
Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC)
It is a digital fiat currency issued by the central banks, contrary to cryptocurrency that issued by non-legislative party.
Centralized
An organization structure wherein a small handful of actors have control over the entire network.
Central Ledger
Central data repository of a company or bank
Circulating Supply
An approximation of the number of coins or tokens that are currently not locked and available for public transactions.
Cloud Mining
Mining on blockchains through rented processing power rented from companies that host the physical equipment.
Cold Storage
Offline storage of cryptocurrencies which is arguably safer as they also require physical access (eg. hardware wallet, paper wallets)
Cold Wallet
Wallets that are offline and require physical access to certain devices (eg. hardware wallet, paper wallets)
Consensus
Consensus is achieved in a blockchain system when all participants agree on the content of the next block that will be added onto the blockchain.
Cryptocurrency
A form of digital currency that utilizes cryptographic protocols to record ownership and prevent counterfeiting
Cryptography
A discipline or field of study which practices using cryptography to convert human-readable information that can only be deciphered by individuals who have the knowledge to.
Custody
Protective care or guardianship of an asset.
D
Decentralized
A system where there are no centralized points of failure or organization with no central authority figure.
Decentralized Applications (dApps)
Applications that run on decentralized peer-to-peer networks such as Ethereum.
Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO)
Open source and decentralized systems that do not require centralized operators or controllers.
Decentralized Finance (DeFi)
Decentralized Finance (DeFi) refers to the movement of building decentralized financial applications that have no central authority and is censorship free.
Decryption
The process of decrypting data that was previously encrypted (made unreable) back to a readable form.
Degen
Cryptotrading without Due Diligence and research - basically gambling
Delegated Proof-of-Stake (dPOS)
A consensus mechanism where selected members of a network are voted as delegates to validate transactions and produce blocks on a blockchain.
Derivatives
A financial instrument which derives its value from the performance of an underlying asset or index (eg. gold, crude oil)
Derivatives Market
A market for derivatives which are instruments such as futures or options whose value is derived from an underlying asset.
Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) Attack
A common cyber-attack tactic where a perpetrator diverts large amounts of traffic towards a particular network or service in an effort to disrupt normal services.
Distributed Ledger
Ledgers whose data is stored and synced across a network of nodes.
Dominance
Typically refers to Bitcoins' market capitalization dominance.
Do Your Own Research (DYOR)
An advice for investors to do their own research on the coins they wanted to invest in
Dump
A common term used to describe downward market movement, or to describe the action of selling an individuals holdings.
Dutch Auction
A Dutch Auction, also know as an "inverted" auction, starts off with high asking price that decays over time until a pre-determined floor price.
E
EIP (Ethereum Improvement Proposal)
Refers to improvement proposals for Ethereum, used to introduce features or any updates on the Ethereum network.
Encryption
In cryptography, encryption is a process of encoding information the original form of information called plaintext via an algorithm called cipher. The encrypted message is now called ciphertext. Only authorized parties can decipher the ciphertext and convert back it to the original plaintext.
ERC-1155
ERC-1155 token standard allows each token ID to represent both non-fungible (NFTs) and fungible tokens which may have their metadata, token supply and other attributes.
ERC-20
ERC-20 is one of the most widely used token standards in Ethereum to create fungible, exchangeable tokens.
ERC-721
ERC-721 is one of the most widely used token standards in Ethereum to create non-fungible, exchangeable tokens.
Ethereum Name Service (ENS)
Ethereum Name Service (ENS) is a look-up service that allows Ethereum users to find websites or send and receive funds via simple names.
Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM)
Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) is the environment in which all smart contracts are executed.
Exchange Traded Fund (ETF)
An exchange-traded fund (ETF) is a form of security that tracks a collection of securites such as stocks, bonds, index or cryptocurrency but tradeable like a single stock.
F
Faucet
A faucet usually represents a site or app where a user can navigate to for small rewards repeated over time.
Fear of Missing Out (FOMO)
Refers to the feeling of apprehension for missing out on a potentially profitable investment opportunity and regretting it later. Generally an expression describing investors' fear of missing out the good timing of buying cryptocurrencies that could eventually be profitable
Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt (FUD)
A strategy to dissuade people from buying a particular cryptocurrency by spreading false information
Fiat-Pegged Cryptocurrency
Cryptocurrencies are pegged to an underlying asset.
Frontrun
To intercept a particularly large AMM buy order for the purpose of purchasing an reselling the assets back to the buyer before the order transaction is mind on the blockchain.
Full Node
Full Nodes are computers that verify the set of rules that are built into the protocols of a given cryptocurrency.
Futures
An agreement between two counterparties that obligates them to transact in the future based on the contract terms set.
G
Gas
A unit of measurement of the computational effort in conducting transactions or smart contracts on Ethereum blockchain.
Gas Limit
A term refers to the maximum amount of units of gas user's willingness to spend on a transaction on Ethereum blockchain.
Gas Price
A term refers to the amount of price user is willing to pay for a transaction on Ethereum blockchain.
Genesis Block
It is the first block of data that is processed and validated to form a new blockchain, typically called as 'block 0' or 'block 1'.
Golden Cross
It is a bullish signal in technical candlestick pattern by comparing two lines of short-term moving average and long-term average. It is a golden cross when the short term moving average broke its long-term moving average.
Gwei
The monetary domination of gas, involving Ether
H
Halving
Event that serves to reduce in half the reward of the Proof-of-Work miners that operate in the blockchain network.
Hard Fork
It is a permanent divergence of a blockchain into two blockchains. The original blockchain does not recognize the new version.
Hash
A hash function is an output code (unique and alphanumeric) that we obtain from an input string,
Hashrate
Total processing power of a blockchain or what is the same, are the amount of hash values that can be made in a period of time.
HODL
A crypto slang of saying holding the assets rather than selling it. A crypto slang encouraging investors to hold on to their assets rather than selling it.
Hot Wallet
It is a tool that store your cryptocurrencies and always connected to internet
I
Impermanent Loss
Temporary loss of funds due to volatility leading to divergence in price between token pairs provided by liquidity providers.
Initial Coin Offering (ICO)
Initial Coin Offering (ICO) is the equivalent of Initial Public Offering (IPO), where a company/cryptocurrency venture raises funds through crowd sales.
IEO
Initial Exchange Offering (IEO) is a spin-off of Initial Coin Offering (ICO), where the sale of tokens are conducted on an exchange rather than by the coin team themselves.
IPO
Initial Public Offering (IPO) refers to the process where a public company offers newly issued shares to the public and as a result raise capital from public investors.
InterPlanetary File System (IPFS)
The InterPlanetary File System (IPFS) is a peer-to-peer network and distributed file system protocol for storing and transferring data.
Internet of Things (IoT)
It is a system that lets any devices that are connected to internet to comunicate with each other without human-to-human or human-to-devices interactions.
K
KYC (Know Your Customer)
KYC stands for "Know Your Customer", a process for business entities are required to verify its clients and assessing them.
L
Ledger
A record of financial transactions that cannot be changed, only appended with new transactions.
Leverage
It is an investment strategy to gain potential return of the investment by borrowing the money
Lightning Network
It is the "second layer" or an off-chain of payment protocol that operates on top of a blockchain. Payments on this network do not need block confirmation and it will be instant.
Limit Order / Limit Buy / Limit Sell
Orders placed by traders to buy or sell a cryptocurrency when a certain price is reached
Liquidity
How easily a cryptocurrency can be bought and sold without impacting the overall market price.
M
Multisignal (multi-signature)
They are wallets that require more than one key for transactions to be authorized.
Margin Call
Margin call takes place when investor's margin account falls below the required amount to stay afloat.
Margin Trading
It is a way of investing by borrowing money from a broker (or in crypto, an exchange or platform) to trade
Market capitalization (market cap)
In Crypto, market cap is measured by multiplication of the circulating supply of tokens or currency and its current price
Market Maker
Participant of the market who creates buy and orders
Market Order / Market Buy / Market Sell
A market order is a buy or sell order of stocks or cryptocurrency at the best price available in the current market as soon as possible.
Market Taker
Participant of the market who buys and sells from currently existing orders
Merkle Tree
A Merkle tree is also known as a hash tree in cryptography. It is a tree where every lead node is labelled with cryptographic hash of a data block, and every non-leaf node is labelled with the hash of the labels of its child nodes. It is used to verify of data stored within it and transferable in and between computers.
Metaverse
The Metaverse is a virtual space where users are able to interact with each other in a computer generated environment.
Miners
Contributors to a blockchain taking part in the process of mining.
Mining
It is the process of the miners verify and adding transaction recors into a block.
Mining Pool
Combination of resources of several miners to obtain a higher mining power and thus achieve greater rewards for the opening of blocks.
Mining Reward
The reward resulting from contributing computing resources to process transactions
Moon
"Moon" or "To the moon" is a crypto slang that describes an exclamation when the cryptocurrencies prices are rising and when it hit the peak, the coin is said to be "mooning".
N
Node
Within the blockchain network, the nodes are computers that connect to the network and have an updated copy of the blockchain
Non-custodial
It is a decentralized type-of-wallet, where the users owns its private keys.
Non-Fungible Tokens (NFT)
They are collectible elements within the Ethereum blockchain under ERC-721, where each token refers to a single element with a certain value
O
Off-chain
It refers to transactions occuring outside the blockchain and executed instantly.
Open/Close
The price at which a cryptocurrency opens at a time period, for example at the start of the day; the price at which a cryptocurrency closes at a time period, for example at the end of the day.
Open Source
Open-source software is a type of software released under a license in which the copyright holder grants users the rights to study, change, and distribute the software to anyone and for any purpose.
Option
It is a financial instruments that refers to a contract offers the buyer the right to buy or sell an underlying assets at a specified price and time.
Oracles
In the context of crypto, oracles refers to services which verify real-world and provide data to blockchains/smart contracts.
Order Book
An electronic list of all buy and sell orders in an exchange
Over The Counter (OTC)
It refers to the process that cryptocurrencies are being traded outside exchange and it is done directly between two parties
P
Peer to Peer
A communication protocol that does not require a central hub. Users can make transaction among themselves.
Permissioned Blockchain
It is a private blockchain where the nodes must be previously authorized by a central entity.
Ponzi Scheme
A Ponzi scheme is also referred to as pyramid scheme, and typically takes the form of an investment scheme which pays existing investors with funds collected from new investors.
Portfolio
A portfolio consists all of your current crypto holdings in one place.
Pre-sale
A typically exclusive token sale event preceding a public ICO
Privacy Coins
Cryptocurrencies that are designed with transaction anonimity and user privacy in mind
Private Keys
The alphanumeric string which allows transactions from the cryptocurrency address
Proof of Stake (PoS)
A consensus algorthm that assigns block validation queue based on the coins/token locked in by the validator.
Proof of Work (PoW)
A consensus algorithm in which a block is validated via mathematical hashing
Protocol
The set of rules in a network in which participating members comply to allow proper communication.
Public Blockchain
An open sourced blockchain where participation is public and permissionless
Public Keys
The alphanumeric string which serves as a public receiving address in cryptocurrencies.
Pump and Dump Scheme
A market manipulation method to drive up the price of an asset before profiting by driving it back down.
Q
QR Code
Abbreviation "Quick Response Code", QR code is a machine readable optical label that stores up to 3Kb of data
R
REKT
A shorthand slang for “wrecked”, typically describes bad trades that results in losses.
ROI
Short for “Return on Investment”, the ratio between the net profit and cost of investing.
Relative Strength Index (RSI)
Relative Strength Index (RSI) is a popular technical indicator used to analyse financial markets. By charting the current and historical closing prices to evaluate overbought/oversold conditions, RSI oscillates between 0 - 100, with <30 indicating oversold and >70 indicating overbought.
S
Satoshi
A unit measure for the smallest divisible unit of a bitcoin. 1 bitcoin is equal to 100 Million Satoshi.
Satoshi Nakamoto
The pseudoym used in publishing the Bitcoin Whitepaper. Identity is unknown.
Second-Layer Solutions
Secondary network or framework built atop an existing blockchain to address transaction speed and scalability issues.
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)
U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, an independant agency of the US Federal government which oversees federal securities laws, proposing securities rules, and regulating the securities industry.
Segregated Witness (SegWit)
A soft fork implementation to change the Bitcoin Protocol's transaction format to address Bitcoin's scalability issues whilst introducing new features.
Sell wall
Anomalously large sell order(s) at a single price point that reflects as a "wall" in the order book.
SHA-256
Abbreviation of "Secure Hashing Algoritm - 256", SHA-256 is part of the SHA2 that allows one-way hashing of any data into a 64 character string.
Sharding
A form of database partitioning which breaks up data into smaller segments.
Shilling
One who poses as a enthsiastic customer to swindle others as a form of covert advestising.
Shitcoin
A coin with no obvious potential value or usage.
Side Chain
A separate blockchain ledger that runs parallel with the primary blockchain.
Smart contracts
Self executing contracts on the blockchain without needing human executors or notary.
Software Development Kit (SDK)
It is a collection of software development tools in one package installation. It is designed to help developing applications for a specific device or operating system (OS).
Solidity
Object oriented programming languaged used in various smart contract blockchains.
Stablecoin
Cryptocurrency with a price peg to fiat currencies or commodity.
Staking
The state of locking-in significant amount of token to participate as a validator of a Proof-of-Stake network.
Stop-loss Order
Conditional market order to sell at the next available price, excuted if the price of an asset falls below set-upon limit
T
Testnet
Shorthand for "Test Network", testnets are staging areas for experimenting new blockchain features.
Token
Blockchain based unit of value issued by an organization, which grants token holders a right to participate in a network.
Token Generation Event (TGE)
An event in which new tokens (ussually on a smart contract platform) are created and distributed to the public.
Total Supply
All the tokens and coins that will exist in a cryptocurrency network.
Total Value Locked
Total Value Locked (TVL) represents the number of assets that are currently staked in a protocol or the total quantity of underlying amount of funds that a DeFi protocol has secured.
Trading Volume
The amount of the cryptocurrency that has been traded in the last 24 hours.
Transaction Fee
A payment to the network for performing a transaction to be recorded on the blockchain.
Transactions Per Second (TPS)
It is number of transactions done per second. For example, there are 10 transactions of Bitcoin done in 1-minute. The TPS would be 10 transactions/60 seconds = ~0.17 TPS.
Trustless
Entirely verifiable, without needing to trust or assume an action is done completely and in good faith.
Turing-Complete
A "turing complete" code or blockchain refers to the ability to read program-written codes.
U
Utility Token
Cryptocurrency tokens with specific utilities on a network besides being used as medium of exchange and investment vehicle.
UTC Time
"Universal Time Coordinated", can be used interchangably with Greenwich Mean Time (GMT).
V
Validator
A block-signing participant of a Proof of Stake blockchain network, whom have significant tokens staked on the network.
Venture Capital
Capital (funds) that is invested in a company that needs a substantial pool of funds to initiate.
W
Wallet
Software client that handles storage of cryptocurrencies and allows users to send cryptocurrencies.
Wallet Address
The address in which cryptocurrency can be stored, sent to and receive.
Watchlist
A personally defined list of values to watch over for activity or changes.
Wei
The smallest fraction of an Ether, with each Ether to 1000000000000000000 Wei.
Whale
Someone who holds an enormous amount of cryptocurrency and has the ability to wave the market
When Lambo
An expression used by investors to ask when the value of their investment could buy them a Lamborghini
When Moon
An expression used by investors to ask when the price of a coin would hit a peak
Whitelist
List of approved participants that will be given access to a token sale (ICO, IEO, STO etc...)
Whitepaper
An introductory paper to clearly explain an issue and a possible solution on the issue.
Y
Yield Farming
Yield farming involves putting cryptocurrency into a DeFi protocol to collect interest on trading fees.
YTD
Acronym for Year-to-date
Z
Zero Knowledge Proof
Cryptographic proof for 2 parties to verify a value without revealing what the value is.
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