Crypto terminology, decoded.
A fast-scanning dictionary for blockchain concepts, specs, and on-chain data.
Account Model
A ledger design where balances are tracked by accounts rather than discrete outputs.
Address
A public identifier used to receive cryptocurrency on a blockchain network.
Air-gapped Wallet
A wallet kept on a device that has never been connected to the internet.
Airdrop
A distribution of free or claimable tokens to eligible wallets, often used to reward users or bootstrap a network.
Algorithmic Stablecoin
A stablecoin that targets a peg using algorithmic supply rules rather than full collateralization.
All Time High (ATH)
The highest price a cryptocurrency or traded asset has ever reached, often used as a market cycle benchmark.
All Time Low (ATL)
The lowest recorded price for a cryptocurrency or traded asset, used to compare drawdowns and market cycles.
Altcoin
Any cryptocurrency other than Bitcoin, or more broadly a non-leading coin within a specific market category.
Altseason
A market phase when many altcoins outperform Bitcoin and attract rising liquidity, attention, and trading volume.
AMM (Automated Market Maker)
A decentralized exchange mechanism that prices trades against liquidity pools using smart-contract formulas.
Annual Percentage Rate (APR)
The yearly interest rate without accounting for compound interest.
Annual Percentage Yield
The effective annual return after accounting for compounding, commonly used to compare yield products.
Anti-Money Laundering
Laws and processes that aim to prevent illicit funds from being disguised as legitimate.
Ape
Slang for entering a trade or project quickly with high conviction and limited due diligence.
Arbitrage
The practice of exploiting price differences for the same or related assets across markets.
ASIC
Specialized hardware built to perform one algorithm extremely efficiently, commonly used in proof-of-work mining.
Asset
A resource with economic value that can be owned, controlled, or used to provide future benefit.
Atomic Swap
A trustless exchange of assets across chains using time-locked contracts.
Backup
A redundant copy of critical wallet data (seeds, descriptors, keys) stored to recover funds if a device is lost.
Bagholder
An investor who continues holding a cryptocurrency after major losses, often hoping for a future recovery.
Batching
Combining many payments into a single transaction to reduce fees and chain load.
Bear Market
A prolonged period of declining prices and negative sentiment.
Bearish
Negative market sentiment or positioning that expects prices to fall or remain weak.
Bech32
An address encoding format with error-detection used by Bitcoin and others.
Bid-Ask Spread
The difference between the highest bid and lowest ask price for an asset.
BIP39 Passphrase
An optional secret added to a BIP39 seed that creates a different wallet; losing it means losing access.
Bit
A sub-unit of Bitcoin, equivalent to 100 satoshis.
Bitcoin (BTC)
The first widely adopted cryptocurrency, using proof of work and a fixed 21 million coin supply.
Bitcoin Cash (BCH)
A Bitcoin-derived cryptocurrency focused on low-fee, peer-to-peer electronic cash with larger on-chain blocks.
Bitcoin Improvement Proposal (BIP)
A design document proposing changes or standards for Bitcoin.
Block
A batch of valid transactions added to a blockchain, linked to the previous block by a cryptographic hash.
Block Explorer
A website or tool for viewing blockchain data like transactions, addresses, and blocks.
Block Height
The position of a block in a blockchain, counted from the genesis block at height zero.
Block Reward
The new coins and transaction fees paid to the miner or validator that successfully adds a block.
Blockchain
A distributed ledger made of cryptographically linked blocks that record transactions under shared consensus rules.
Bridge
Infrastructure that enables moving assets or messages across blockchains.
Bug Bounty
A program offering rewards to security researchers who responsibly disclose vulnerabilities.
Bull Market
A prolonged period of rising prices and optimistic sentiment.
Bullish
Positive market sentiment or positioning that expects prices to rise or fundamentals to improve.
Burn
The permanent removal of coins or tokens from spendable circulation, usually by destroying them or making them unspendable.
Buy High Sell Low
A losing pattern of buying after prices have already risen and selling after they fall, often due to emotion.
Buy Low Sell High
A basic trading principle of buying at lower prices and selling at higher prices, easier to state than execute.
Buy The Dip (BTD)
Buying after a price drop in the hope that the decline is temporary and the asset will recover.
Canonical Transaction Ordering
A Bitcoin Cash rule that orders transactions in a block by transaction ID rather than dependency order.
CashAddr
The native address format for Bitcoin Cash (BCH), using a human-readable prefix and Base32 encoding with strong error detection.
CashFusion
A Bitcoin Cash privacy protocol that combines many inputs and outputs to weaken transaction-link analysis.
CashShuffle
A Bitcoin Cash CoinJoin protocol that mixes equal-value outputs to make transaction history harder to trace.
CashTokens
A native token and covenant capability on Bitcoin Cash enabling fungible and non-fungible tokens without smart-contract gas.
Centralized Exchange (CEX)
A custodial platform that matches orders and holds user funds.
Chain Reorganization
A network event where the active chain tip switches to a different branch with more accumulated work.
Chain Split
A permanent divergence into two or more incompatible blockchain histories.
Checksum
A small piece of data derived from a message to detect errors in transmission or entry.
CheckTemplateVerify
A proposed Bitcoin opcode that would enable simple covenants by committing to a template of future transactions.
Circulating Supply
The estimated number of coins or tokens currently available to the market, excluding locked or unissued supply.
Coin Age
The time since a UTXO was created; used in analysis, privacy, and some staking systems.
Coin Control
Manual selection of specific UTXOs when creating a transaction.
Coin Selection
The algorithm a wallet uses to choose which UTXOs to spend, impacting fees, privacy, and change.
CoinJoin
A privacy technique that combines multiple users’ inputs and outputs in a single transaction.
Cold Storage
Keeping private keys offline to reduce risk of remote compromise.
Collateral
Assets pledged to secure a crypto loan, margin position, or smart contract obligation until repayment.
Composability
The ability for applications and protocols to permissionlessly build on and integrate with each other.
Confirmations
The count of blocks confirming a transaction, usually including the block that first contains it.
Consensus
The process by which blockchain participants agree on valid transactions, blocks, and ledger history.
Covenant
A script technique that restricts how coins can be spent in the future, enforcing policies at the UTXO level.
CPFP
A fee-bumping technique where a new transaction spends an unconfirmed output and pays a high fee to incentivize miners to include both.
Cryptocurrency Exchange
A cryptocurrency exchange is a platform for buying, selling, or trading digital assets through crypto or fiat markets.
Custodial Wallet
A wallet where a third party controls the private keys on your behalf.
DAO (Decentralized Autonomous Organization)
A DAO is an on-chain organization where members coordinate proposals, treasury actions, and rules through transparent governance processes.
Dead Cat Bounce
A dead cat bounce is a brief price rebound during a larger downtrend that later fails and resumes the decline.
Death Spiral
A death spiral is a severe proof-of-work feedback loop where falling hash rate slows blocks, weakens confidence, and drives more miners away.
Decentralization
Decentralization distributes control across many participants, reducing single points of failure, censorship, or unilateral rule changes.
Decentralized Application (DApp)
A decentralized application (DApp) uses smart contracts or decentralized networks to provide app logic without a single operator controlling the backend.
Decentralized Exchange
A decentralized exchange (DEX) lets users trade digital assets from their wallets through smart contracts or peer-to-peer settlement.
DeFi
DeFi uses smart contracts to provide permissionless financial services such as trading, lending, borrowing, and asset issuance.
Delegated Proof of Stake (DPoS)
Delegated Proof of Stake lets token holders vote for a limited validator set that produces blocks for the network.
Depeg
A depeg occurs when a pegged asset such as a stablecoin trades materially away from its intended reference price.
Derivation Path
A derivation path is the structured notation wallets use to derive specific keys and addresses from an HD wallet seed.
Deterministic Wallet
A wallet that derives all keys and addresses from a single seed phrase, enabling easy backup and recovery.
Diamond Hands
Diamond hands means holding an asset through volatility or pressure to sell, usually as a meme about conviction and risk tolerance.
Difficulty Adjustment Algorithm (DAA)
A DAA is the consensus rule that recalibrates mining difficulty so average block time stays near target as hash rate changes.
Distributed Ledger
A distributed ledger is a replicated record shared across many nodes, keeping participants synchronized on transactions or state.
Dollar Cost Averaging (DCA)
Dollar cost averaging buys a fixed amount at regular intervals to reduce timing risk and smooth entry prices over time.
Double Spend
A double spend is an attempt to spend the same coins twice by getting one conflicting transaction accepted over another.
Dump
A dump is a rapid wave of selling that pushes an asset's price lower, often driven by panic, profit-taking, or manipulation.
Dust
Dust is a tiny coin or token balance that is uneconomical to spend because fees or policy rules outweigh its value.
Dust Limit
The minimum output value a node or miner relays because smaller outputs cost more to spend than they are worth.
Dusting Attack
A dusting attack sends tiny coin amounts to many addresses, hoping later spending patterns reveal which addresses share an owner.
DYOR (Do Your Own Research)
DYOR means independently checking claims, risks, and incentives before investing in or relying on a crypto project.
Emission Schedule
An emission schedule defines when and how quickly new coins or tokens enter circulation.
Entropy
Entropy is the randomness used to generate secure wallet seeds, private keys, and nonces in cryptographic systems.
ERC-20 Token
ERC-20 is Ethereum's common fungible token standard, defining transfers, balances, approvals, and supply queries.
ERC-721 Token
ERC-721 is Ethereum's standard for non-fungible tokens, where each token ID represents a unique asset.
Escrow
Escrow holds funds until agreed conditions are met, using a trusted custodian, multisig, or smart contract logic.
Ethash
Ethash was Ethereum's memory-hard proof-of-work mining algorithm before The Merge; some Ethereum-family chains still use variants.
Ethereum (ETH)
Ethereum is a proof-of-stake smart contract blockchain; ETH is its native asset used for gas, staking, and settlement.
Ethereum Improvement Proposal (EIP)
An EIP is the formal proposal process for Ethereum protocol changes, interfaces, and application standards.
Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM)
The EVM is the deterministic runtime that executes smart contract bytecode on Ethereum and EVM-compatible networks.
Exchange Token
An exchange token is issued by a trading platform to offer benefits such as fee discounts, rewards, access, or governance.
Exit Liquidity
Exit liquidity refers to late buyers whose demand lets earlier holders sell into a rally, often after hype or promotion.
Extended Private Key (xprv)
A BIP32 extended private key that can derive child private keys for a whole wallet branch.
Extended Public Key (xpub)
A BIP32 extended public key that derives many child public keys and addresses without revealing private keys.
Extended Public Key (YPub) (ypub)
A wallet-specific extended public key prefix that signals a nested SegWit address type to compatible software.
Externally Owned Account (EOA)
An EOA is an Ethereum account controlled by a private key, used to sign transactions and hold ETH or tokens.
Fair Launch
A fair launch distributes a token or project without privileged insider allocation, pre-mine, or private sale advantages.
Faucet
A crypto faucet gives out small amounts of coins or tokens so users can try wallets, transactions, or a new network.
Fee
A transaction fee is the amount paid for block inclusion, compensating block producers and discouraging spam.
Fee Market
A fee market is the competition for block space where users bid transaction fees for faster inclusion.
Fee Rate
A fee rate is the transaction fee per unit of size, such as satoshis per vbyte, used to prioritize block inclusion.
Fiat Currency
Fiat currency is government-issued money that is legal tender and not directly backed by a commodity like gold.
Finality
Finality is the point at which a transaction is considered irreversible or economically impractical to revert.
Flash Loan
A flash loan is an uncollateralized DeFi loan that must be borrowed and repaid within the same transaction.
Flippening
The flippening is a hypothetical event where another cryptocurrency surpasses Bitcoin by market capitalization.
FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out)
FOMO is the fear of missing out on gains, often causing impulsive buying during fast price moves or social hype.
Fork
A fork is a blockchain divergence caused by competing blocks, software changes, or incompatible consensus rules.
Front-Running
Front-running means acting on knowledge of a pending trade or transaction to execute first and capture an advantage.
FUD (Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt)
FUD means fear, uncertainty, and doubt spread through negative, exaggerated, or misleading claims.
Full Node
A full node independently validates blocks and transactions, enforcing a blockchain's consensus rules without trusting a third party.
Funding Rate
A funding rate is the periodic payment between long and short perpetual futures positions that helps anchor price to spot.
Fungible Token
A fungible token has interchangeable units, so each unit of the same token is equivalent for payment, accounting, or trading.
Futures
Futures are derivatives for long or short exposure to an asset; crypto markets commonly use perpetual futures with no expiry.
Gas
The metered unit of computational work on EVM chains, paid in the native token to run transfers and smart contracts.
Gas Limit
A cap on the gas a transaction or block may consume on EVM chains, limiting execution cost and network load.
Gas Price
The fee rate paid per unit of gas on EVM chains, usually quoted in gwei and used to price transaction execution.
Genesis Block
The first block in a blockchain, hardcoded as the starting point for all later blocks and the ledger's initial state.
Governance
The processes a blockchain community or protocol uses to propose, decide, and implement changes.
Governance Token
A token that grants proposal, voting, or delegation rights in a protocol's governance process.
Gwei
An ETH denomination equal to one billion wei, commonly used to quote gas fee rates on Ethereum-like chains.
Halving
A scheduled reduction in block subsidy that cuts new coin issuance, often by half, at predetermined block heights.
Hard cap
The maximum supply a cryptocurrency protocol permits, enforced by consensus rules or token contract logic.
Hardware wallet
A physical signing device that keeps private keys isolated while approving cryptocurrency transactions.
Hash
A fixed-size digest produced by a one-way function, used for data integrity, identifiers, signatures, and proof-of-work.
Hash rate
The number of proof-of-work hash attempts performed per second by mining hardware or an entire network.
Hashed Time-Locked Contract (HTLC)
A contract that locks funds with both a hash condition and a deadline, enabling atomic swaps and routed payments.
Hodl
Crypto slang for holding an asset through volatility instead of reacting to short-term market moves.
Hot wallet
An internet-connected wallet used for convenient spending or dApp access, with higher exposure to online threats.
Hyperinflation
Extremely rapid inflation in which a currency loses purchasing power quickly and public confidence breaks down.
ICO
A token-based fundraising sale where a project sells new coins or tokens, often before the product is fully launched.
IEO
A token sale administered through a cryptocurrency exchange, combining fundraising with exchange-led onboarding and listing support.
Immutability
The practical resistance of confirmed blockchain history to alteration, created by consensus, replication, and economic cost.
Impermanent loss
The underperformance an AMM liquidity provider can face versus simply holding the deposited assets when prices diverge.
Indexer
Software that parses blockchain data into queryable databases so wallets, explorers, and apps can retrieve information quickly.
Inflation
A sustained rise in the general price level, reducing a currency's purchasing power over time.
Instamine
A launch pattern where an unusually large share of supply is mined very early, raising fairness and concentration concerns.
Interoperability
The ability of blockchains, wallets, and applications to exchange assets, messages, or data across different systems.
IPFS
A peer-to-peer file network that retrieves content by cryptographic identifier rather than by a server location.
J-curve
A pattern where early results decline or lag before improving sharply, often discussed in startups and token economies.
JIT liquidity
A strategy that adds AMM liquidity just before a trade and removes it shortly after to capture fees with limited exposure.
JoinMarket
A non-custodial CoinJoin system for Bitcoin where makers and takers collaborate to improve transaction privacy.
JOMO (Joy Of Missing Out)
Joy of Missing Out is relief or satisfaction from avoiding a hyped trade that does not fit your risk plan.
JSON-RPC
A lightweight request-response protocol many blockchain nodes use for transaction broadcast and chain queries.
Jurisdictional arbitrage
Choosing a legal or regulatory environment that better fits a crypto business, protocol, or personal activity.
Keccak-256
A 256-bit Keccak hash function used in Ethereum for addresses, function selectors, event topics, and tooling.
Key pair
A matched private key and public key used to prove control, verify signatures, and derive cryptocurrency addresses.
Keystore
An encrypted wallet file that stores private keys or seed material, usually protected by a user password.
Kimchi premium
A regional crypto price premium where assets trade higher on South Korean exchanges than on global markets.
Know Your Customer (KYC)
Compliance procedures that verify customer identity and risk before providing regulated financial or crypto services.
KYT (Know Your Transaction)
Know Your Transaction is transaction monitoring that assesses crypto activity for sanctions, fraud, and AML risk.
Lambo
Crypto slang for wealth fantasies and speculative hype, symbolized by asking when profits will buy a Lamborghini.
Layer-1
The base blockchain layer that defines consensus, transaction validity, settlement, and data availability.
Layer-2
A protocol built around a Layer-1 to move activity off the base chain while relying on it for settlement or security.
Leverage
Borrowed or synthetic exposure that increases position size, amplifying both gains and losses.
Lightning Network
A Bitcoin Layer-2 payment channel network for fast, low-value payments that settle back to the base chain.
Limit Order
An order to buy or sell an asset at a specified price or better, without guaranteeing execution.
Liquidation
The forced closure of a leveraged position when collateral falls below required margin.
Liquidity
How easily an asset can be bought or sold in size without causing a large price move.
Liquidity mining
Token rewards paid to users who supply liquidity to pools or protocols, usually to bootstrap market depth and usage.
Liquidity pool
A smart contract reserve of assets that enables AMM trading, lending, or swaps without a traditional order book.
Locktime
A transaction field or script condition that delays when funds can be spent or when a transaction becomes valid.
Mainnet
Mainnet is the live, production blockchain where real-value transactions occur, as opposed to test networks.
Majority Attack
A potential attack on a blockchain network where a single entity gains control of the majority of the network's hash rate.
Maker-taker fees
Maker-taker fees differentiate between adding liquidity (maker) and removing liquidity (taker), with different fee schedules and rebates.
Market Cap
Market cap estimates a cryptocurrency's total circulating value by multiplying price by circulating supply.
Market maker
A market maker quotes buy and sell prices to provide liquidity, earning the spread and/or incentives.
Market Order
A market order buys or sells immediately at the best available prices, prioritizing execution over price certainty.
Masternode
Specialized servers on a blockchain network that perform advanced functions, require significant coin collateral, and receive rewards for their services.
Maximalist
An individual or entity who strongly believes in the superiority of a specific cryptocurrency and primarily or exclusively invests in and advocates for it.
Maximum Supply
The predetermined total number of a cryptocurrency that will ever exist, enforced by the protocol's rules.
Mempool
A temporary storage space in a node for pending transactions that have not yet been included in a confirmed block.
Mempool Pinning
A tactic that makes an unconfirmed transaction difficult to replace or fee-bump, delaying confirmation.
Merkle tree
A Merkle tree is a binary tree of hashes that enables efficient verification of large data sets, used in blockchains for transaction inclusion proofs.
MEV (Maximal Extractable Value)
MEV is the value that block producers or transaction sequencers can extract by reordering, inserting, or censoring transactions.
Microtransaction
A microtransaction is a very small-value payment enabled by low fees and fast confirmations, useful for tipping, content, and IoT.
Miner
A miner is a participant who provides computational work to find blocks and secure proof-of-work blockchains.
Mining
The process by which new coins or tokens are minted and transactions are confirmed on a blockchain through computational work.
Mining Difficulty
Mining difficulty measures how hard it is to find a valid proof-of-work block and adjusts to keep average block times near target.
Mining Pool
A collective of miners who pool their computational resources to mine blocks more consistently and share the rewards proportionally.
Miniscript
A structured language for expressing Bitcoin script spending policies that are easier to analyze, compose, and secure.
Minting Baton
A unique token that grants the ability to create more of a specific SLP token, commonly used in the Bitcoin Cash ecosystem.
Mnemonic
A sequence of words used to generate and recover a private key, typically 12 or 24 words long.
Mooning
A term used when a crypto asset experiences a rapid and significant increase in value.
Multi Signature
A type of digital wallet that requires signatures from multiple private keys to authorize transactions.
Nakamoto Consensus
A probabilistic consensus mechanism using proof-of-work where the longest valid chain is considered authoritative.
Native Asset
The primary built-in currency of a blockchain used for fees, incentives, and security.
Network Effects
Network effects occur when a product or protocol becomes more useful as more people, services, or liquidity connect to it.
Node
A device that participates in a blockchain network, with roles varying from transaction validation to block creation.
Non-custodial Wallet
A wallet where you control the private keys, without relying on a third party to hold your funds.
Non-fungible Token (NFT)
A non-fungible token is a unique on-chain token representing a distinct asset, right, identity, or collectible.
Nonce
A nonce is a value miners vary in a block header while searching for a hash that satisfies proof-of-work difficulty.
Not Your Keys, Not Your Coins
A warning that if you don’t control the private keys, you don’t truly control the funds.
Off-chain
Activity that occurs outside the base blockchain, often for speed, privacy, or cost efficiency.
On-chain
On-chain activity is recorded directly in blockchain transactions and becomes part of the confirmed ledger.
OP_RETURN
An opcode in Bitcoin's scripting language that allows data to be written onto the blockchain, while marking the output as unspendable.
Opcode
A fundamental element of Bitcoin's scripting language that enables complex transactions.
Open Interest
Open interest is the total number of active derivative contracts that have not yet been closed or settled.
Opt-in RBF
A Bitcoin policy allowing unconfirmed transactions to be replaced by a higher-fee version from the same inputs.
Options
Derivatives granting the right, not the obligation, to buy (call) or sell (put) an asset at a specified strike price by a certain date.
Oracle
A system that supplies on-chain smart contracts with trustworthy off-chain data.
Order Book
A real-time list of buy and sell orders organized by price level on an exchange.
Ordinals
Ordinals assign serial numbers to satoshis and use inscriptions to associate on-chain data with specific sats.
Orphan Block
An orphan or stale block is a valid block that is not part of the chain with the most accumulated work.
Output
A spendable unit of cryptocurrency created by transactions; referenced as an input when later spent.
Output Descriptor
A text representation that describes how to derive addresses and spend policies for a set of keys.
Over-the-counter (OTC)
Trades conducted directly between parties rather than through a public order-book exchange.
P2PK
Pay-to-Public-Key — an early Bitcoin output type that locks coins directly to a public key.
P2PKH
A common script type where the output can be spent by proving knowledge of the private key corresponding to a hashed public key.
P2SH
A script type where the output is locked to the hash of a redeem script, enabling features like multi-sig.
P2TR
P2TR is Bitcoin's Taproot output type, committing to a public key and optional hidden script tree.
Package Relay
The ability for nodes to relay groups of related transactions together so miners evaluate fees on the package total.
Paper Wallet
A physical printout or handwritten record of keys or a mnemonic used to control cryptocurrency funds.
Peer-to-peer (P2P)
A network model where participants interact directly without central intermediaries.
Permissionless
Open to anyone to use or participate without needing approval from a central authority.
Perpetual Swap
A derivative similar to a futures contract but without expiry, kept near spot via funding payments.
Premining
The act of mining or allocating a portion of cryptocurrency coins before the blockchain is publicly launched or officially released to the general public.
Price Discovery
The process by which markets determine an asset’s price through supply, demand, and information flow.
Privacy
The ability to transact without revealing sensitive information about identity, balances, or counterparties.
Privacy Coins
Cryptocurrencies that prioritize secure, private, and anonymous transactions through specialized cryptographic techniques.
Private Key
A cryptographic key used to sign blockchain transactions and derive public keys; ultimate proof of control over funds.
Proof of Stake
A consensus method where validators use staked cryptocurrency to create blocks and secure the network.
Proof of Work (PoW)
A consensus algorithm where computing power is used to solve complex problems, verify transactions, and create new blocks.
Protocol
The formal set of rules that define how participants in a network communicate and reach consensus.
Protocol Upgrade
A coordinated change to network rules that nodes adopt to gain new features or fixes.
PSBT
A standard format for exchanging unsigned or partially-signed transactions between wallets and signers.
Public Key
A cryptographic identifier derived from a private key; used to verify signatures and derive addresses.
Pump and Dump
A manipulative scheme to inflate the price of an asset and then sell it to unsuspecting investors.
QR Code
A machine-readable square barcode commonly used to share wallet addresses and payment requests.
Quadratic Funding
A matching mechanism that amplifies broad community support by weighting many small contributions more than a few large ones.
Quantitative Easing (QE)
A monetary policy where central banks create money to purchase assets, increasing liquidity and lowering interest rates.
Quantitative Tightening (QT)
A monetary policy where central banks reduce asset holdings or drain reserves to tighten financial liquidity.
Quantum Resistance
The ability of cryptographic systems to remain secure against attacks by quantum computers.
Quorum
The minimum number of participants required to make a decision or validate an action.
Quote Currency
The second asset in a trading pair, used to quote the price of the base asset and measure trade value.
Ransomware
Malware that encrypts a victim’s data and demands payment—often in cryptocurrency—for decryption.
Redeem Script
The script that defines spending conditions for a P2SH output; revealed and executed when the coins are spent.
Rekt
Slang for suffering heavy losses, often quickly, due to volatility, leverage, or liquidations.
Replace By Fee (RBF)
A Bitcoin node policy (BIP125) allowing an unconfirmed transaction to be replaced by a new one that pays a higher fee.
Replay Attack
When a valid transaction from one chain is maliciously or accidentally broadcast and accepted on another chain after a fork.
Replay Protection
Protocol or wallet techniques that prevent transactions from one chain being valid on another after a split.
Return on Investment (ROI)
A measure of profitability calculated as net gain divided by initial cost, often expressed as a percentage.
Ring Signature
A signature scheme that hides the true signer among a group, providing signer ambiguity.
Rollup
A Layer-2 technique that executes transactions off-chain and posts compressed proofs or data to the base chain.
Rug Pull
When project insiders drain liquidity or abandon a token, leaving holders with near-worthless assets.
Satoshi Nakamoto
The pseudonymous creator of Bitcoin, author of its white paper, and early maintainer of the software.
Satoshis (Sats)
The smallest standard unit of Bitcoin or Bitcoin Cash, equal to one hundred millionth of a coin.
Scalability Trilemma
The idea that blockchains face trade-offs among decentralization, security, and scalability when designing consensus and capacity.
Schnorr Signatures
A digital signature scheme with linear properties that can improve verification, multi-signature design, and privacy.
Seed Phrase
A human-readable backup that can recreate a wallet’s private keys, addresses, and spend authority.
SegWit
A Bitcoin upgrade that moved signatures into witness data, fixing third-party malleability and changing block capacity.
Self-Custody
Holding and securing your own private keys instead of relying on an exchange, custodian, or broker.
SHA-256
A 256-bit cryptographic hash function used for transaction IDs, Merkle trees, and proof of work.
Shamir's Secret Sharing
A cryptographic method to split a secret into multiple shares so any threshold subset can reconstruct it.
Shill
A person or action promoting a specific cryptocurrency, often for personal gain.
Shitcoin
A derogatory label for a cryptocurrency viewed as low-quality, scammy, unserious, or lacking durable utility.
Sidechain
An independent blockchain that runs in parallel to a main chain and is linked via a bridge or pegging mechanism.
Sighash
Signature-hash flags that define which transaction parts a signature commits to in Bitcoin-style scripts.
Signature
A cryptographic proof that a message was authorized by the holder of a private key.
Simplified Payment Verification (SPV)
A lightweight verification method that checks block headers and Merkle proofs without downloading full blocks.
Slippage
The difference between the expected trade price and the actual execution price after liquidity and timing effects.
Smart Contract
Programmatic rules executed by the blockchain to enforce agreements without intermediaries.
Soft Fork
A backward-compatible protocol change where upgraded nodes enforce stricter rules without splitting the network.
Spread
The gap between the best bid and best ask in an order book, representing an immediate trading cost.
Stablecoin
A cryptocurrency designed to maintain a stable value, typically pegged to a fiat currency like USD.
Staking
Locking or delegating tokens to support a proof-of-stake network or protocol in exchange for potential rewards.
Staking Rewards
Token payouts earned by validators or delegators for participating in proof-of-stake security or protocol incentives.
Stop Limit Order
An order that activates at a stop price, then becomes a limit order that only fills at the limit price or better.
Taproot
A Bitcoin upgrade that enables more private and efficient spending using Schnorr signatures and script path commitments.
Testnet
A non-production blockchain network where developers test wallets, contracts, and upgrades using coins with no intended market value.
Throughput
The rate at which a blockchain processes transactions or data over time, often measured in TPS or bytes per block.
Timelock
A spending rule that prevents a transaction or output from being used until a specified time or block height.
Token
A digital asset issued on an existing blockchain, often representing value, rights, access, or unique ownership.
Tokenomics
The economic design of a token, including supply, issuance, distribution, utility, incentives, and unlocks.
Total Supply
The amount of a coin or token that currently exists, including circulating, locked, reserved, and escrowed units.
Total Value Locked (TVL)
The estimated value of assets deposited in a DeFi protocol, app, chain, or ecosystem at a point in time.
Transaction
A signed data message that asks a blockchain to transfer value, execute code, or update state.
Transaction Fee
The amount paid to miners or validators for including a transaction and consuming scarce block space or execution resources.
Transaction ID (TXID)
A transaction's unique identifier, usually derived by hashing its serialized contents according to the chain's rules.
Transactions Per Second (TPS)
A throughput metric showing how many transactions a network processes per second under defined conditions.
Trustless
A property where users rely on verifiable protocol rules instead of trusting a central operator or counterparty.
Two-Factor Authentication (2FA)
An account security method requiring two different proof factors, such as a password plus an app code or hardware key.
two-of-three multisignature
A wallet policy where any two of three independent keys can authorize a spend, balancing redundancy and theft resistance.
Uncle Block
A valid proof-of-work Ethereum block that was not canonical but could still be referenced for partial rewards.
Unconfirmed Transaction
A transaction seen by the network but not yet included in a block, so its confirmation count is zero.
Universal 2nd Factor (U2F)
A hardware-backed second-factor standard that uses security keys for phishing-resistant account login.
Unspent Transaction Output (UTXO)
A discrete spendable output on a UTXO blockchain, similar to a digital coin that must be spent whole.
User Activated Soft Fork (UASF)
A soft-fork activation approach where upgraded economic nodes enforce new rules at a planned time or height.
UTXO Consolidation
Combining many small unspent outputs into fewer larger ones to reduce future transaction size and fee overhead.
UTXO Set
The current database of all unspent transaction outputs that full nodes use to validate new spends.
Validator
A consensus participant that proposes, verifies, or attests to blocks, often after bonding stake in a proof-of-stake network.
Value Overflow Bug
A critical arithmetic error where transaction or supply calculations wrap around and create invalid amounts.
Vanity Address
A cryptocurrency address generated to contain a chosen prefix or pattern, found through repeated trial and error.
Vault
A wallet design that adds spending delays, recovery paths, or guardians to limit damage from key theft.
Velocity of Money
The rate at which a monetary unit changes hands, often used to compare holding behavior with transactional use.
Verifiable Delay Function (VDF)
A function designed to require a minimum sequential computation time while producing a proof that is quick to verify.
Verifiable Random Function (VRF)
A cryptographic function that produces random-looking output with a proof anyone can verify using a public key.
Verkle Tree
A commitment tree using vector commitments to create smaller state proofs than many Merkle tree designs.
Version Bits
A Bitcoin soft-fork signaling mechanism where miners set bits in the block version field to show readiness.
Vesting
A release schedule that unlocks tokens or equity-like rights over time, often using cliffs and gradual unlocks.
View Key
A read-only key that reveals selected wallet activity or balances without granting spending authority.
Virtual Machine
A deterministic execution environment that runs smart contract code the same way across validating nodes.
Volatility
The degree of variation in an asset’s price over time; higher volatility implies larger and more frequent price swings.
Volume
The amount of an asset traded over a period, measured in units of the asset, quote currency, or notional value.
Wallet
Software or hardware that manages crypto keys, creates addresses, signs transactions, and shows blockchain activity.
Watch-Only Wallet
A wallet that monitors balances and transactions but cannot spend because it lacks the required private keys.
Weak Subjectivity
A proof-of-stake property where new or long-offline nodes need a recent trusted checkpoint to sync safely.
Web3
A broad term for internet apps that use blockchains, wallets, smart contracts, and tokens for ownership or coordination.
Wei
The smallest denomination of Ether, with 1 ETH equal to 10^18 wei for exact integer accounting.
Whale
A person, fund, company, exchange, or wallet that controls enough of an asset to meaningfully affect market liquidity.
Whitepaper
A project document explaining the problem, proposed solution, design, economics, and goals at a high level.
Witness
In SegWit transactions, the witness is the separate field that carries signatures and other unlocking data.
Wrapped Token
A tokenized representation of an asset on another chain, typically intended to be backed and redeemable 1:1.
Yellow Paper
A formal technical specification that defines a protocol's state transition rules, data structures, and execution behavior.
Yield
The return earned on crypto assets over time, commonly expressed as APR, APY, rewards, fees, or interest.
Yield Farming
Actively moving crypto capital across protocols to earn incentives, fees, interest, or other on-chain rewards.
Yul
A low-level intermediate language in the Ethereum toolchain used for EVM-oriented optimization and code generation.
Zero Confirmation
A transaction that has been broadcast but not yet included in a block, so it has zero confirmations.
Zero-Knowledge Proof (ZKP)
A cryptographic proof that convinces a verifier a statement is true without revealing the private information behind it.
zk-Rollup
A Layer 2 system that batches transactions off-chain and posts validity proofs on-chain for efficient verification.
zk-SNARK
A succinct non-interactive zero-knowledge proof system with small proofs and fast verification.
Terms are regularly updated as the cryptocurrency ecosystem evolves.
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