12 words seed

A recovery seed made of 12 words, used in cryptocurrency wallets to recover access to funds in case of loss or damage. Its encryption is 128 bits.

24 words seed

A recovery seed made of 24 words, used in cryptocurrency wallets to recover access to funds in case of loss or damage. Its encryption is 256 bits.

Altcoin

An altcoin refers to any digital cryptocurrency similar to Bitcoin. The term is said to stand for "alternative to Bitcoin" and is used to describe any cryptocurrency that is not a Bitcoin.

BIP39

A mnemonic seed generation standard used in many cryptocurrency wallets, which allows users to easily read, write, backup and restore their private keys.

Bitcoin

A decentralized digital currency that operates on a peer-to-peer network without a central authority.

Bitcoin Mining

Bitcoin mining refers to the process by which new Bitcoins are created and given to computers helping to maintain the network. The computers involved in Bitcoin mining are in a sort of computational race to process new transactions coming onto the network.

Blockchain

Blockchain is a digital ledger in which transactions are recorded chronologically and publicly. It's the underlying technology for most cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin.

Central Bank

A central bank serves as a nation's primary monetary authority, controlling the production and distribution of money and credit. Its unique feature is the legal monopoly status that allows it to issue banknotes and cash, effectively regulating the economy's financial stability.

Cold storage

The practice of storing cryptocurrency in an offline or disconnected device to reduce the risk of hacking.

Crypto Exchange

A platform where customers can trade cryptocurrencies or digital currencies for other assets, such as conventional fiat money or other digital currencies.

Cryptocurrency

A digital or virtual currency that uses cryptography for security and operates independently of a central bank.

Cryptography

A method of protecting information by transforming it into an unreadable format. It is used to ensure secure transactions and data confidentiality in cryptocurrencies.

Custodial

Refers to a type of cryptocurrency wallet where a third-party holds and manages the user's assets and private keys.

Debt Ceiling

The debt ceiling is a limit that Congress imposes on how much debt the federal government can carry at any given time. When the ceiling is reached, the U.S. Treasury Department cannot issue any more Treasury bills, bonds, or notes. It can only pay bills as it receives tax revenue.

Decentralisation

A system in which power or authority is spread among multiple individuals or entities, rather than being held by a central authority.

Decentralized Finance (DeFi)

Decentralized Finance, or DeFi, refers to financial services using smart contracts on blockchains, eliminating the need for intermediaries like banks. It is an alternative financial infrastructure built on top of blockchain technologies.

Deflation

Deflation is the decline in prices for goods and services that happens when the inflation rate falls below 0%. Deflation can be caused by a decrease in the supply of money, a decrease in demand for

ICO (Initial Coin Offering)

Initial Coin Offering (ICO) is the cryptocurrency's world public crowd sale. Whenever a project wants to launch a new coin or dApp, they can conduct an ICO to attract investors into their ecosystem.

Immutable

Refers to something that cannot be changed or altered. In the context of blockchain, once data has been written to a blockchain, it is virtually impossible to change.

Layer 2

Secondary frameworks or protocols built on an existing blockchain network to improve its scalability and efficiency, especially for microtransactions or more complex operations.

Lightning Network

A 'Layer 2' payment protocol that operates on top of a blockchain. The main advantage of the Lightning Network is its ability to offer significantly faster and cheaper transactions.

Market Order

A type of order to purchase or sell a security at the best available price in the current market. It is widely considered the fastest and most reliable way to enter or exit a trade and provides the most likely method of getting in or out of a trade quickly.

Non-Fungible Tokens (NFT)

Non-fungible tokens are a special type of cryptographic token which represents something unique. Unlike cryptocurrencies, which require all tokens to be identical, each NFT has unique information or attributes that make them different.

Off-chain

Transactions that occur off-chain are those that are not recorded on the blockchain and are a method of settling trades in a faster and more cost-effective manner.

On-chain

Transactions that occur on-chain are recorded on the blockchain, where all network participants verify their accuracy.

Peer-to-Peer (P2P)

A type of network where all computers share responsibility, as opposed to a centralized network where a single entity is responsible for all functions. In a P2P network, all participants ("peers") have equal capabilities and responsibilities.

Permissioned Ledger

A ledger where actors must have permission to access the ledger. Permissioned ledgers may have one or many owners. When a new record is added, the ledger’s integrity is checked by a limited consensus process. This is carried out by trusted actors — government departments or banks, for example — which makes maintaining a shared record much simpler that the consensus process used by unpermissioned ledgers.

Proof of Stake (PoS)

Proof of Stake (PoS) concept states that a person can mine or validate block transactions according to how many coins he or she holds. This means that the more Bitcoin or altcoin owned by a miner, the more mining power he or she has.

Proof of Work (PoW)

A requirement to define an expensive computer calculation, also called mining, that needs to be performed in order to create a new group of trustless transactions (the so-called block) on a distributed ledger called blockchain.

Public Blockchain

A blockchain network that is open to anyone who wishes to join. Participants can send transactions, validate transactions, and participate in the consensus process.

Scalability

The ability of a system, network, or process, to handle a growing amount of work in a capable manner or its potential to be enlarged in order to accommodate that growth.

Security Token

A cryptographic token that pays dividends, shares profits, pays interest or invests in other tokens or assets to generate profits for the token holders. They are subject to federal laws that govern securities.

Smart Contract

A self-executing contract with the terms of the agreement directly written into code. These contracts are stored on the blockchain and automatically execute when the conditions in the agreement are met.

Stablecoin

A type of cryptocurrency that is designed to maintain a stable value, rather than experiencing significant price changes. This is typically achieved by pegging the stablecoin to a reserve of assets, like a currency (e.g., USD, EUR) or commodity (e.g., gold).

Staking

The act of locking cryptocurrencies to receive rewards. In many Proof of Stake (PoS) blockchains, staking is the process by which validators are chosen to create a new block.

Token

A digital unit of value that is used on a blockchain to represent an asset. Tokens can have various functions, from representing ownership in a company (security token), to accessing a service (utility token), to representing a real world asset (asset token).

Wallet

A digital tool that allows users to sign and make transactions on the blockchains. There are software wallets, like apps or web apps, and there are hardware wallets. Physical devices made to sign transactions without ever sharing the private keys with the computer and network.

Whitepaper

A report that informs readers concisely about a complex issue and presents the issuing body's philosophy on the matter. It is meant to help readers understand an issue, solve a problem, or make a decision. In the context of cryptocurrencies, a whitepaper is a document that describes the technical design, the problems it intends to solve and/or the use cases of a certain cryptocurrency or technology.

Yield Farming

Also referred to as liquidity mining, yield farming is a way to generate rewards with cryptocurrency holdings. In simple terms, it means locking up cryptocurrencies and getting rewards.

Zero-Knowledge Proof

In cryptography, a zero-knowledge proof or zero-knowledge protocol is a method by which one party (the prover) can prove to another party (the verifier) that they know a value x, without conveying any information apart from the fact that they know the value x.