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Get StartedDefinitions of common blockchain and cryptocurrency-related terms used on CryptoSlate.
Refers a directed towards controlling share of the collective mining pool.
An economic term that refers to an actor’s direct advantage in efficiency due to having superior production capability.
An investing strategy is used by fund managers who aim to outperform the index or market to generate profits.
A form of distribution that awards holders of particular existing cryptocurrencies
An unambiguous set of instructions used to solve a specified class of problems.
An order to buy or sell a stock that will execute only in its entirety.
Dividing the total token supply into segments and determining if they can be earned, reserved, or purchased.
When used to indicate software status, it refers to the very first version or the basic software of a project.
A general term used to describe any cryptocurrency alternative that is not Bitcoin.
Short for “Alternative Coin”, refers to all coins except Bitcoin.
Short for “Anti Money Laundering.” A set of regulations determined by a nation to combat money laundering.
Private investors who provide financial support to new startups in return for equity rights.
Short for “Application Programming Interface.” It is a piece of code that enables interaction between software to enable various tasks like obtaining real market data or execute trades
Accelerated Processing Unit.
Taking advantage of variable prices across multiple exchanges in order to sell assets at a profit, despite little to no market movement.
An ascending triangle is generally considered to be a continuation pattern, meaning that the pattern is significant if it occurs within an uptrend or downtrend.
Application Specific integrated circuits.
The lowest price sellers determine as willing to accept.
The All Time High price of a cryptocurrency.
A medium to perform direct, peer to peer cross chain exchanges from one blockchain to another, without an intermediate trusted third party or escrow service.
The entry points for unauthorized access into a system.
Someone who has bought at a recent high and is left holding onto their asset, waiting to sell at the next point it breaks even.
Short for “Binance Blockchain Charity Foundation.” BCF is the world’s first decentralized charity platform.
A descriptive term borrowed from stock markets to describe a negative market outlook.
Short for “Binance Ecosystem Fund.” It is an initiative founded by Binance to establish collaborations within the blockchain and cryptocurrency ecosystem.
Short for “Binance Chain Evolution Proposal 2.” It defines a set of technical rules and specifications to create a new token on the Binance Chain.
It is a token standard to use when transferring crypto assets from other chains to the Binance Smart Chain.
The technical standard to create non-fungible tokens (NFTs) on the Binance Smart Chain.
A Binance Evolution Proposal that introduces a real-time burning mechanism to Binance Smart Chain.
When used to indicate software status, it refers to an early test version of a program.
The highest price a buyer is willing to pay for an asset.
It is the difference between the highest bid price and the lowest ask price of an asset.
This term is used to refer to the most unexpected event that has the maximum possibility to occur in the market.
Blocks are linearly arranged data structures that permanently record the transaction data on a blockchain.
Similar to the File Explorer of a computer’s operating system.
The section exists in each block that contains the information hashed when the block is mined.
The number of blocks in the chain between the current block being minted and the genesis block.
A mechanism that awards miners with newly minted bitcoin, acting as an incentive for users to add hashing power to the network.
The average time it takes for the network to find a solution to the block hash.
A system of recording information in chronological order on a decentralized distributed ledger.
A technical analysis indicator measuring SMA20 and an upper and lower line.
Usage of the word “build” in the same fashion as “HODL”, refers to keeping your heads down and focusing on building a project.
Refers to having a positive trend in the prices of a market.
A descriptive term borrowed from stock markets to describe a positive market outlook.
A process where Cryptocurrencies remove stored tokens from the circulating supply.
Refers to a single huge buy order, or a composition of multiple large buy orders created at the same price.
A consensus mechanism that offers secure validation across a distributed set of data, stemming from information propagation theory labelled as the Byzantine Generals problem.
A block that a miner is trying to mine when it’s not yet verified or added to the blockchain.
A representation of the price activity of an asset during a specific timeframe that displays four main price levels: open and close, and the highest and lowest.
Refers to losing hope in the asset and selling them at a loss to leave as quickly as possible.
A characteristic of a cryptocurrency network that prevents any entity to control transactions on it.
Short for “Commodity Futures Trading Commission,” a US-based agency responsible for regulating the derivatives markets.
An algorithm is used to encrypt and decrypt messages.
Refers to the total number of coins or tokens that are publicly available in the market and can be traded.
A cryptocurrency or digital cash that is operating on an independent blockchain and used as an exchange of value.
A storage method that keeps the wallet off of the internet when it is not being actively used.
Refers to the crypto asset that the borrower provides as a guarantee that the borrower will pay back.
A separate space in a data center of stock exchanges that is shared with other entities such as high-frequency traders.
Refers to the time between the moment a transaction is submitted to the network and the moment it got recorded into a confirmed block.
Ensures that all users taking part in the minting process maintain the same version the chain, whilst preventing any single party from using their power to derail or negatively direct the chain.
Short for “Consumer Price Index,” which is a collection of assets whose price is tracked to gain market insight.
Central computing unit.
The process where a blockchain offers investors newly minted tokens or coins, often at a discounted rate, in exchange for capital.
Crypto is a form of medium of exchange that exists digitally or virtually and is secured by cryptography.
A science of using mathematical theories and computation to encrypt and decrypt information..
Refers to the holding of assets on behalf of a client.
Short for “Decentralized Autonomous Cooperative,” an organization that is controlled by its shareholders rather than a central authority.
Directed Acyclical Graph.
Decentralised Autonomous Organization.
Stands for Decentralised Application.
Distributed Denial of Service.
A death cross appears on a chart when an asset’s short-term moving average crosses below the long-term moving average indicating the potential for a major selloff.
Reverting the encrypted data back to its readable version.
Short for decentralized finance.
Takes the fundamentals of proof of stake and adds a democratic element whereby the community elect Witness’ to secure the network and vote power is determined by the size of their staked assets.
Removal of a coin or token from a cryptocurrency exchange.
An attack by creating either a smart contract, decentralized market or other software with knowledge of certain flaws to trick users who are interacting with a permissionless environment.
Decentralized Exchange.
A unique digital identifier that allows for a user to distinctly recognise and validate a file or transaction, usually through the use of a cryptographic hash similar to a public key.
A digital record of transactions that is maintained by a group of clients where changes and additions are verified across all parties to ensure no tampering has taken place.
Explain it Like I’m 5.
Similar to a DNS within internet infrastructure, it allows user to obtain a “custom domain” .eth address, instead of using regular hexadecimal hash.
A protocol that outlines the specific functions and events that allow blockchains to interact with other via the Ethereum Blockchain.
A service that provides transaction security by acting as an impartial trusted third party, holding onto an asset until the terms of a contract have been fulfilled.
An open source blockchain that acts as a distributed computing platform and operating system, allowing decentralized applications and smart contracts be executed.
Ethereum Virtual Machine.
A site or application that will reward it’s users with a cryptocurrency for completing specified tasks and assignments.
Currency that has no direct material backing, usually in reference to debt based markets such as USD.
A scenario in where Ethereum overtakes Bitcoin as the dominant cryptocurrency.
Fear of Missing Out.
Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt that affects markets, usually in a negative fashion.
Someone who uses an elevated media platform or social network to perpetuate Fear Uncertainty and Doubt through the investing community in order to effect prices.
An agreement that can be traded on exchanges that stipulates a buy or sell price of an asset at a specific price and time.
A measurement given to functions on the Ethereum blockchain to denote how computationally expensive they will be, this is offered to the miners who complete the process as a reward.
The maximum a user is willing to reward a miner in order to have their transaction processed, higher prices ensure faster transaction times.
The first block of a blockchain, almost always hardcoded into the software clients — the only block in the chain that has no reference to a previous block.
An abbreviation for good morning, which in crypto is a friendly and quick way of wishing your followers or community a joyous day.
A golden cross occurs when a short-term moving average crosses above a long-term moving average signaling a potential bullish breakout.
Graphics Processing Unit.
The denomination in which gas prices are paid for on the Ethereum blockchain.
Refers to the process where the payout for reward mechanism for blockchain miners is halved when particular conditions are met.
A software of protocol change that renders previous versions incompatible.
A wallet built upon a secure hardware platform that implement processes and platform specific software to provide greater security for their users.
The process of transforming data using a mathematical function into a value or key that is reprehensive of the original data set.
Hierarchical Deterministic Wallet.
A meme in the crypto community that is a purposeful misspelling of the word “hold.” Another interpretation for HODL is an acronym meaning, “hold on for dear life.”
A passively managed fund, where investors are buying into a portfolio that a particular segment of the market, called an index Examples include the S&P 500 & Vanguard 500.
Similar to Crowdsale, provides blockchain with a one-time event allowing investors to buy tokens at a discounted rate and provide the chain with start-up capital, similar to an IPO in the stock market.
Internet of Things.
A family of cryptographic hashing functions which utilize sponge construction in order to provide wider random permutation, leading to greater flexibility in its use cases.
Know Your Customer.
A meme referring to the luxury vehicle investors will buy with their new found crypto wealth.
A blockchain scalability model that greatly expands throughput, speed, cost effectiveness and compatibility.
Referring to processes or transactions that occur on the most currently released version of a particular blockchain.
A measurement of the market valuation for outstanding tokens.
A hashing function developed in 1992 due to known vulnerabilities predominately used for checksums and data validity.
Also known as a Hash Tree, is a data structure where every child node contains a hashing label of the node that exists above it in the tree.
A virtual world where, one day, we will all interact, create, work, and live our lives.
My Ether Wallet.
A process where algorithms use mathematical function to guess the hash of a block.
The process where market value of an asset skyrockets, exceeding investor’s expectations, often used as a meme.
An observational rule of thumb credited to Gordon Moore in 1965 stating that the density of integrated circuits will double every approximately two years.
A technical analysis tool used to forecast future prices by indicating the relationship between two moving averages to provide a metric for price momentum.
A Japanese cryptocurrency exchange that in 2013 accounted for over 70% of all bitcoin transactions, hacked in 2014 and filing for bankruptcy, its influence is still being felt today.
A digital signature scheme which allows multiple user to sign a contract or wallet.
An abbreviation for non-fungible token.
An abbreviation for not going to make it.
A point of conversion in the network that acts as a redistribution or end point.
A random arbitrary number used to timestamp or otherwise ensure the order of a transaction in order to prevent against a replay attack.
A transaction or process that occurs outside the main blockchain.
Originating from the software industry, it is a program whose source code is made freely available to anybody, allowing them to study, change and distribute the software to anyone for any purpose.
A third party data feed used by smart contracts to trigger events.
Stands for Peer to Peer.
An offline wallet that is simply the private key and address printed on paper, usually alongside a QR code, one of the safest ways of storing cryptocurrencies.
A token event sale that operates before an ICO campaign, often with lower targets.
An accumulation of buy or sell orders at a specific price.
Operates in tandem with a Public key as part of common asymmetric cryptography standards, this key should never be shared.
A centralised validation method that gives the right to validate to only to eligible parties that have been approved by an authority.
Also known as proof of space.
A power efficient transaction validation system in where users must ‘stake’ their coins in order to mint new blocks, minting of fraudulent transactions will cause staked coins to be lost.
A transaction validation system that requires the use of a computationally intensive process within the network that acts as a deterrent to prevent denial of Service or like-wise spam attacks.
The process of buying a large amount of tokens at once, usually as a co-ordinated group, in order to artificially inflate or ‘pump’ the price causing a market reaction as outsiders attempt to ride the upward trend, then selling or ‘dumping’ at the highest point.
Quick response code.
An ERC-20 compatible token designed to leverage secure payment channels in order to create an off-chain scaling solution for the Ethereum Blockchain.
A digital signature topology developed in 2001 leveraged in security focused cryptocurrencies, as a mechanism to anonymise transactions.
Relative Strength Index A common trading metric that provides a visual indicator of general market trends.
The smallest quantifiable amount of Bitcoin, one-billionth of a single Bitcoin or 0.000000001 BTC.
The pseudonymous name used by the original inventor of the Bitcoin cryptocurrency.
A power efficient hashing algorithm that is more RAM intensive than SHA-256, it saw its debut in the cryptocurrency market as the algorithm of choice for the Litecoin blockchain.
Used as a point of origin for certain wallets, it uses a mnemonic phrase to generate a wallet ID which can then be used to regenerate the wallet in the case it gets erased or misplaced.
Stands for Secure Hashing Algorithm: a standard of hashing algorithm developed by the National Institute of Standards and Technology, the latest iteration being labeled SHA-3.
A scalability solution for the Ethereum blockchain that validates the blockchain in a parallelised manner.
A separate blockchain, attached to a parent blockchain that allows assets to be interchangeable, in turn increasing the scope, throughput and availability of their parent chains.
One of the five finalists of the NIST hash function competition, based on the Threefish tweakable block cypher.
A digital protocol used to facilitate and enforce the negotiation of a contract without use of a third party.
A change to the software or protocol that allows for backwards compatible with previous versions.
A software based wallet that is able to be hosted as a desktop, mobile or web application, many providing cross-platform integration with all three.
A programming language based around EMCA Script and by extension JavaScript, created specifically for writing Smart contracts.
IOTA’s DAG based alternative to the blockchain data structure, aimed predominantly at the IoT sector.
An alternative blockchain running separate to the main chain used for developers to prototype software and updates to ensure stability before launch.
The Onion Router.
A system that can be used to solve any possible computational problem.
An abbreviation for total value locked.
Unspent transaction output.
When a heavily advertised or promised product never materialises.
Abbreviation for “we’re all going to make it,” i.e.
A software program that stores public and private keys, allowing the user to interact and perform transactions on blockchain.
Similar to an email address, a wallet address acts as a destination for crypto to be sent to or received.
A cryptocurrency investor with enough resources to move the market price significantly with large buy or sell orders.
A spam filtering mechanism where only users registered to the list will be granted communications or access.