Cryptocurrency Terms You Need To Know: Crypto Glossary

Cryptocurrency Terms You Need To Know: Crypto Glossary

Cryptocurrencies have been around for quite some time now. These digital currencies have taken on traditional stocks and bonds head-on. Cryptocurrencies have created an interest or stir in the market, especially in the investor community.

Read here : What is cryptocurrency

Whether you are a professional investor, amateur, or novice, there are certain crypto terms that can seem too heavy to decipher, while some may seem too simple. Presenting here a glossary of some of the most common terms and terminologies with this emerging digital decentralized currency.

Basic Cryptocurrency Terminology List

Basic Cryptocurrency Terminology List

1. Address

All crypto coins have unique addresses that help identify them. It is imperative that a digital coin has an address, or else it can’t be stored, have existence, or can be owned.

2. Altcoins

any cryptocoin that is not a Bitcoin is an Altcoin.

3. ASIC or Application-specific integrated circuits

ASICs are chipsets created for mining cryptocurrencies.

4. Bitcoin

the very first cryptocurrency introduced to the world. Developed by - Satoshi Nakamoto.

5. Block

Blockchains are made up of innumerable individual blocks. Once they reach a pre-determined size, they get added to the Blockchain and are verified.

6. Blockchain

is a public decentralized digital ledger where all the transactions of a particular cryptocurrency are stored. Every transaction consists of numerous blocks. A new block gets created when an old block gets full.

7. Consensus

A pre-requisite to adding blocks to a blockchain where a majority of people need to agree to make blocks validated.

8. Cryptomining malware

These area codes or software programs used to infect the processors of computers used for mining cryptocurrencies.

9. Cryptographic Hash

hashes make crypto transactions unhackable, secured and verifiable. The hashes are capable of taking inputs of varying lengths. The output, however, is always a fixed length of alphanumeric strings. Most crypto transactions use the SHA-256 Hash currently that offers outputs with a 256-bit string.

10. Dapps

decentralized apps that work on blockchain ledgers.

11. Distributed Ledger Technology DLT

is another term used for blockchain technology.

12. Ethereum

A decentralized computer network called EVM that works on dapps and offers cryptocurrency Ether.

13. Fiat

It is not a crypto terminology, but one should understand it to know the difference between fiat and cryptocurrency. Fiat is a currency that we normally use in the physical world. These currencies are government-regulated and not backed by a valuable commodity like gold.

14. Fork

when a blockchain splits, the point is called a fork. The Blockchain forks or splits into two or more blockchains. Forks are either soft that is backward compatible or hard that is not backward compatible.

15. Gas

the price or the fee that one needs to pay when carrying out a transaction on a blockchain is called gas price.

16. Hash Rate

this rate determines the efficiency of cryptocurrency mining rigs. The rate is measured as hashes per second.

17. Halving

it is a Bitcoin code feature where specified blocks are mined after a specified period, usually after every four years.

18. Initial Coin Offering

Sounds like Initial Public Offering or IPO? Initial Coin Offering or ICO is the way to secure funding by startups these days.

19. KYC or Know Your Customer

this is something that most people know and understand. It includes background checks to ensure that there are no potential terrorist funding and money laundering cases. For crypto coin investments like in the traditional banking system, KYC is an essential requirement.

20. Litecoin

is an altcoin, a Bitcoin fork. It is quite similar to Bitcoin and was launched in 2011. It uses a scrypt hash algorithm and not SHA-256.

21. Crypto Mining

is another frequently used cryptocurrency term. It involves solving hashes to add newer blocks to a blockchain. Miners use complex mathematical computations and highly specialized computing resources for mining. On success, miners involved in the mining process get paid in the form of cryptocoins.

22. Market Capitalization

it is the total value of the mined coins. It is calculated by finding the current number of coins with the current value.

23. Private Key

this is an alphanumeric string used to verify transactions while selling cryptocoins or withdrawing the coins.

24. PoA or Proof of Authority

in this case, few computer terminals or nodes are authorized for block creation by a miner.

25. PoW or Proof of Work

This traditional method awards miners when hashing a transaction.

26. PoS or Proof of Stake

is a process that permits miners to mine cryptocoins depending on the coins the miner owns.

27. Public Key

is required for purchasing cryptocurrencies. It is a string of alphanumeric characters.

28. Public Ledger

is a ledger where every transaction on the Blockchain can be viewed, and it can be viewed publicly.

29. Pump and Dump

it is a price manipulation form when the cryptocurrency price boosts due to pumping activities or false recommendations. Investors sell their assets at a higher price; the activity is termed dumping.

30. Satoshi Nakamoto

This is another addition to our crypto terminology list. Nakamoto is the founder of Bitcoin; however, the identity of this entity is anonymous. No one is sure if this is a person or a group of individuals.

31. Seed

The foundation of your digital wallet is known as seed. The recovery seed is mostly used to recover and access one’s wallet if things go wrong. The seed is mostly a series of 12 to 16 words.

Segwit or Segregated Witness

to fit more transactions into a single block, SEGWIT is a process separating transaction data from signature data.

33. Smart Contracts

these are contracts like legal contracts holding different parties liable for various activities but are coded in a computer language.

34. Crypto Wallet

it is a place that stores your cryptocoins. The wallet's three essential things are addresses, keys, and seeds. Crypto wallets are usually of two types -. One is hardware, and the other is software. Software wallets are downloadable and used as apps. Hardware wallets are offline coin storage devices.

35. Whale

The crucially important Bitcoin addresses are denoted with the cryptocurrency terminology called whale.

To sum it up

This extensive cryptocurrency terminology list from our end covered the most commonly heard terms used in the crypto industry.

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