The world of cryptocurrencies is full of technical terms that are not commonplace. In our glossary you will find understandable explanations for the most important key terms. Crypto abbreviations are explained step by step – to give you a solid understanding of the innovative financial sector. Immerse yourself in the fascinating world of cryptocurrencies with Bitclear now!
A string of letters and numbers that bitcoins can be send to and from. It appoints a specific wallet location within a blockchain.
The highest point (in price, in market capitalization) that a cryptocurrency has been in history.
The lowest point (in price, in market capitalization) that a cryptocurrency has been in history.
A type of framework made of legal and regulatory procedures to minimize and curb the flow of funds that come from illegal or dubious activities.
The practice of quickly buying and selling the same asset on different markets to take advantage of the price difference.
The value buyers offer for an asset, such as a commodity, security, or cryptocurrency etc.
The price difference between the lowest asking price and highest bid price on the order book for an asset.
The first global, decentralized currency, created by the pseudonymous developer(s) Satoshi Nakamoto. The first cryptocurrency, initially described as a ‘Peer-to-Peer e-cash’.
A sub-unit of one bitcoin. There are 1,000,000 bits in one bitcoin.
A collection of bitcoin transactions that have occurred during a period of time (typically about 10 minutes).
A decentralized, digitized ledger that records transaction information about a cryptocurrency in a chronological order.
A positive trend in prices. Term related not only to cryptocurrency area but also commonly known in the traditional markets.
CBDSs are digital currencies issued by a central bank whose status as legal tender depends on government regulation or law.
When the planning and decision-making mechanisms are concentrated in a specific point within a system.
The reversal of a bank payment or money transfer after it was authorized.
A cryptocurrency or digital cash that is independent of any other platform, which is used as an exchange of value.
Coin mixer allows users to mix up transactions between different cryptocurrency addresses, so they become untraceable.
The storage of bitcoin private keys in any fashion that is disconnected from the internet. Typical cold storage includes USB drives, offline computers, or paper wallets.
A bitcoin wallet that is not connected to the internet.
A bitcoin transaction is considered unconfirmed until it has been included in a block on the blockchain, at which point it has one confirmation. Each additional block is another confirmation.
An additional person/or entity that has partial control over the wallet.
A digital currency that is secured by cryptography to work as a medium of exchange within a peer-to-peer (P2P) system.
Having no central authority nor controlling party.
An alternative to traditional, centralized forms of financial services.
Refers to the digital representation of something that has value.
A currency that exists only in digital form, contrary to the traditional currencies.
Designed so that there is no central server or entity that others must connect to. Instead, network participants connect directly to each other.
Ledgers in which data is stored across a network of decentralized nodes.
Something that one can split into different sections or portions.
When a given amount of coins are spent more than once.
A way of encoding a message so that only the intended recipient(s) can decode it. Bitcoin uses encryption to protect wallets from unauthorized access.
A marketplace for cryptocurrencies where users can buy and sell coins.
The assurance or guarantee that completed (cryptocurrency) transactions cannot be altered, reversed or canceled.
Foreign Exchange Markets. A global market for the trading of fiat currencies.
A computer that fully implements the entirety of rules of an underlying blockchain network and completely validates transactions and blocks on a blockchain.
The property of an asset whose individual units are indistinguishable from each other. Value and functionality wise.
When the block reward of a crypto asset drops to one-half of what it was before.
1) A unique identifier of a bitcoin transaction.
2) A mathematical function that bitcoin miners perform on blocks to make the network secure.
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.
A bitcoin wallet on a device connected to the internet. A wallet installed on a desktop computer or smartphone is usually a hot wallet.
A fundraising method in which new projects will sell their cryptocurrency to investors.
A standard procedure in the finance industry which allows companies to identify their customers and comply with KYC AML laws.
A physical or electronic log book containing a list of transactions and balances typically involving financial accounts.
A second layer operating on top of a blockchain, enabling increased transaction speed among participating nodes.
A “maker” is somebody that places an order and it does not trade immediately, so his/her order stays in the order book and wait for someone else to fill/match with it later.
The total trading value of a given coin – calculated by the product of the supply of the coin by the current price.
A mempool is the node’s set of all of the unconfirmed transactions that it has seen (but have not yet been added to a block).
A computer or group of computers that add new transactions to blocks and verify blocks created by other miners. Miners collect transaction fees and are rewarded with new bitcoins for their services.
The verification of transactions on a blockchain network, in which transactions are added as entries into the ledger.
A participant of the bitcoin network. Nodes share copies of the blockchain and relay new transactions to other nodes.
A type of cryptographic token that represents a unique digital or real-world asset and is not interchangeable.
Software’s code that is made publicly available and free to distribute. Bitcoin is an open source project.
An electronic record/inventory of outstanding buy and sell orders for a specific asset on an exchange or marketplace.
A type of cold storage wallet where private keys are printed on a piece of paper (or other physical medium.)
The decentralized interactions between parties in a distributed network, partitioning tasks or workloads between peers.
A string of letters and numbers that can be used to spend bitcoins related to a specific bitcoin address.
A consensus mechanism that reward block validators according to the amount of coins they have at stake.
Data that requires a significant amount of computation to generate but requires a minimal amount of computation to be verified as being correct.
The official rules that dictate how participants on a network must communicate.
A string of letters and numbers that is derived from a private key. A public key allows one to receive bitcoins.
A digital representation of a bitcoin public or private key that is easy to scan by digital cameras.
The smallest unit of a bitcoin, as defined by the bitcoin protocol. It equals one-hundred-millionth of a bitcoin or 0.00000001 BTC.
A security token is a digital form of traditional securities.
A cryptographic hash function that generates a 256-bit signature for a text, used in bitcoin proof-of-work (PoW).
A portion of a bitcoin transaction that proves that the owner of the private key has approved the transaction.
Automated contracts that trigger certain action when predetermined conditions are met. It works like ‘If…then’.
Cryptocurrency that is designed to maintain a stable value, linked to an asset like the USD which doesn’t change much in value.
Participation in a proof-of-stake (PoS) system to put tokens in to serve as a validator to the blockchain and receive rewards.
The ‘taker’ is someone who decides to place an order that is instantly matched with an existing order on the order book.
Tokens (these are not coins) are digital units issued on a blockchain. They can hold value or be redeemed for assets.
A blockchain’s entry that describes a transfer of bitcoins from one address to another.
The so-called “miner’s” fee, it is an amount of bitcoin included in each transaction that is collected by miners.
This is to encourage miners to add the transaction to a block. A standard bitcoin fee amount is 0.0001 BTC.
A participant on a proof-of-stake (PoS) blockchain, involved in validating blocks for rewards. Virtual Asset Service Provider (VASP) A very broad term that covers a wide range of natural and legal persons acting as VASP financial intermediaries. These can be crypto exchanges, wallet providers, financial service providers in connection with the issue, offer and sale of virtual assets and other possible business models.
How quickly and how much the price of an asset changes. Calculated in terms of standard deviations in the annual return of an asset over a period of time.
A collection of bitcoin private keys used to spend bitcoins.