Cryptocurrency glossary
Welcome to my second blog.
It will be about introduction to the common-words or terminology used in crypto sphere.
>Address
In cryptocurrency terms, an address is a code used to send, receive or store cryptocurrency. These addresses consist of 26-35 characters, a combination of letters and numbers. The address can also refer to the public key, a pair of keys needed to sign their digital transactions.
>Altcoin
The term altcoin refers to any digital cryptocurrency other than Bitcoin (and to some extent, Ethereum). Bitcoin is the most popular cryptocurrency, but there are also more than 1,000 others. Each one of those more than 1,000 cryptocurrencies is known as an alt coin, short for alternative coin.
>Wallet
A "wallet" in terms of cryptocurrency is a digital place to store your bitcoins.
>Fiat
This term is used a lot to set the two worlds of cryptocurrency and traditional currency apart. Traditional currencies like USD, Euro, Yen, etc are what you would call "Fiat" currency. Fiat money is physical currency that a government has declared to be legal tender, but it is not backed by a physical commodity.
>HODL
Hold On for Dear Life is an acrynoym, but it really started as kind of an accident! According to crypto legend it was a miss spelling on a post on the Bitcointalk.org forums. Basically the practice of holding on to your coins and not selling.
>Blockchain
This is the unchangeable digital ledger where every transaction lives forever. It is the underlying technology of all cryptocurrencies and is (and will continue in a huge way) to change human life as we know it.
>Block
A block is basically a batch of transactions that is processed and recorded forever on the blockchain.
>Blockchain Reward
Cryptocurrencies are not printed – they are mined. Every time a miner successfully hashes a transaction block, they receive a blockchain reward.
>Bear/Bearish -
Term used to denote that the market is going down.
>Bull/Bullish
Term used to denote that the market is heading up.
>Bagholder
When an investor is holding on to a cryptocurrency that has dropped in price, they are known to be a “bagholder” or “bag holding.”
>Private Key
This is like your top secret password to unlock your wallet. Never share this, it is 100% full access to your cryptocurrency. This private key protects your wallet.
>Public Key
The public key is mainly used to accept cryptocurrency to your wallet. So if your friend was going to send you 5 BTC, then you would give them your Public Key of your wallet to send the BTC to.
>FOMO
Fear Of Missing Out. People tend to see prices drop or rise quickly or a hot coin or ICO on the market and they don't want to miss out on the opportunity.
>FUD
Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt. This describes a general disinformation strategy to cause fear among consumers or competition. Emotions tend to drive the market more then anything, don't give in to the FUD side..
>FUDster
Someone that is spreading FUD.
>ICO
Initial Coin Offering. This is when a coin first puts their token or currency on the market for people to purchase.
>Hard cap
The maximum amount that an ICO will be raising. If an ICO reaches its hard cap, they will stop collecting any more funds.
>Soft cap
Generally refers to the minimum amount that an initial coin offering (ICO) needs to raise. If the ICO is unable to raise that amount, it may be cancelled and the collected funds returned to participants.
>Total supply
The total number of coins or tokens that are in existence, including those circulating in the public market and those that are locked or reserved.
>Whitepaper
This is the technical write up that most cryptocurrencies provide to take a deep look into their structure and plans.
>WhitelistA list of registered and approved participants that are given exclusive access to contribute to an ICO or a pre-sale.
>Token
A token is similar to and based on cryptocurrency, but it's main function isn't necessarily just transfer of value. Ethereum tokens are a great example of this and extremely popular.
>Smart contracts
An automated mechanism involving two or more parties where digital assets are put in and redistributed at a later date based on some preset formula and triggering event. The contract can run as programmed without any downtime, censorship, fraud or third party interference.
>Pump & Dump
This is a method of hyping up a coin by buying and holding and getting others to do the same, only to then "dump" it or sell it off at the highest price.
>Whale
An investor that controls a large portion or amount of a specific cryptocurrency. This gives them an advantage similar to having the most chips in Texas holdem poker, you can just lean on the market to make waves.
>ROI
Return on Investment. The percentage of how much money has been made compared to an initial investment. (i.e., 100% ROI means someone doubled their money).
>Market Cap
The total value held in a crypto-currency. It is calculated by multiplying the total supply of coins by the current price of an individual unit.
>Maximum supply
An approximation of the maximum number of coins or tokens that will ever exist for a cryptocurrency or crypto asset.
>Exchange
An online hub for trading cryptocurrencies. Not all exchanges carry each coin.Eg-Binance,Bittrex etc.
>Software wallet
Storage for crypto-currency that exists purely as software files on a computer. Software wallets can be generated for free from a variety of sources.
>Hardware wallet
A device that can securely store crypto-currency. Hardware wallets are often regarded as the most secure way to hold crypto-currency.
>Cold storage
The process of moving crypto-currency ‘offline’, as a way of safekeeping your crypto-currency from hacking. There are a variety of ways to do this, but some methods most commonly used:
—Printing out the QR code of a software wallet and storing it somewhere safe, such as a safety deposit box.
—Moving the files of a software wallet onto a USB drive and storing it somewhere safe.
—Using a hardware wallet.
>Mining
This is the process of using computer power to process transactions on a blockchain. Miners are rewarded with newly created cryptocurrency for each block they process.
>Hash Rate
This is the speed of how much computing power is being used to mine a coin on a network. The bigger the hash rate the better.
>Hard Fork
This is when the code or software that comprises a coin like Bitcoin changes in some significant way, typically for improvements. Bitcoin Cash is a hard fork from Bitcoin as an example.
>Segregated Witness (SegWit)
The process where the block size limit on a blockchain is increased by removing digital signature data and moving it to the end of a transaction to free up capacity. Transactions are essentially split (or 'segregated'), into two segments: the original data segment and the signature (or 'witness') segment.
>KYC
Know Your Customer. This is an acronym, but also a bank regulation to verify identity of their customers.
>Satoshi
Bitcoins can be bought and sold in tiny amounts! A Satoshi is the smallest sub-unit of a Bitcoin currently available (0.00000001 BTC).
>Satoshi Nakamoto
The pseudonym for the mysterious creator of Bitcoin. No one TRULY knows who created Bitcoin, and while there is some speculation out there I don't agree with the moves by some of those thought to be Satoshi so I will not name them here.
>POW
Proof of Work is a way to validate transactions. It prevents an attack on the network by making mining calculations difficult and preventing multiple fake requests. It takes a long time for miners to calculate the block equations, but then they are rewarded when solving the block.
>POS
Proof of Stake is a different way to validate transactions. The block is chosen and mined based on how much wealth it has or "stake". When it is processed there is no reward, but the "foragers" (similar to miners) take the transaction fee instead.
>Decentralized
In the case of cryptocurrencies it is a copy of the blockchain or digital ledger on every device connected to the network. An exact copy of the information is everywhere instead of in a central location like a government or companies servers.
>Distributed Ledger
The basis for decentralization, a distributed ledger is a list of transactions that is cloned on every computer and software that is connected to the network. This ledger is updated in every location, all at once, each time a transaction is made.
>Mooning
In the crypto-world,It is referring to a price going up astronomical levels.
>ATH
All-Time-High. We’ve gotten a lot of these the past couple months.
These are all the basic terms used in crypto field,Hope it helped you guys.
Happy Learning
Thankyou
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