Application Programmer Interface. A type of toolkit provided for developers for creating applications.

A famous advocate of Bitcoin who has given speeches and presentations about Bitcoin all over the world.

The exchange of one coin or token for another coin or token that takes place without the need for a third party. Atomic Swaps rely on smart contracts to ensure both parties hold up their end of the agreement.

A term used to describe coins that do not require expensive equipment for mining. If a coin is ASIC-resistant, its mining is thought to be more fair and decentralized than coins that are not ASIC-resistant.

Anti-Money Laundering. AML laws and restrictions require exchanges to obtain personal information about their customers and their activities.

All-Time Low. The lowest price a cryptocurrency has ever reached.

An event in which individuals that hold existing cryptocurrencies (like Bitcoin and Ethereum) are given tokens of a new cryptocurrency.

Artificial Intelligence. As machines advance in intelligence, they are capable of learning from their environments and completing more complex tasks.

A trader or speculator who believes cryptocurrency prices will rise.

A short drop in a cryptocurrency’s price that makes investors think the price will continue falling. Instead, the price rises significantly following the drop, fooling the “bears.”  

Pessimistic about the future of a cryptocurrency’s price.

The time it takes to mine a new block.

Websites (available for most cryptocurrencies) that allow users to search an address or transaction ID to view its details.

The first successful hard fork of Bitcoin that allows the protocol to grow and scale by removing its block size limit.

A market in which most (or all) prices are falling.

A Bitcoin wallet that gives its users an aesthetically pleasing interface while still employing the core Bitcoin protocol.

The first blockchain-based cryptocurrency, launched in 2009. Bitcoin remains the most influential and widely recognized coin. All other cryptocurrencies are known as "altcoins," simply because they are not Bitcoin.

BNB (Binance Coin) is an ERC20 token that lives on the Ethereum blockchain. The token has multiple forms of utility, essentially being the underlying gas that powers the Binance Ecosystem. Most important, it can be used to pay for trading fees on the exchange, obtaining the equivalent of a 50% discount on trades during the first year, 25% during the second year and so on.

Someone who uses Bitcoin regularly or is heavily involved in its technology.

The unofficial website of Bitcoin Core.

The largest distributor of ASIC miners, run by Jihan Wu.

A short rise in a cryptocurrency’s price that makes investors think the price will continue to rise. Instead, the price falls significantly following the rise, fooling the “bulls.”  

An individual who believes that increasing Bitcoin’s block size would improve its scalability. Roger Ver is the most notable Big Blocker.

A regretful investor who bought a crypto (or cryptos) believing they would appreciate in value. Instead, the crypto decreased in value and the investor is left "holding bags."

A company led by cypherpunk Adam Back that promotes second layer scaling solutions for Bitcoin.

A condition that affects cryptocurrencies when the data stored reaches very large sizes due to increasing numbers of users and transactions. When blockchain bloat gets severe, transaction speed suffers.

A transaction that combines multiple transactions into one for increased efficiency and decreased fees.

The amount of data that can be stored in one block of a given blockchain. For example, the Block Size limit of Bitcoin is 1MB. Larger block size allows for more transactions per block. Thus, it’s not that transactions are “faster” or “slower”. It’s that transactions may be seemingly faster because the network is handling more transactions at a time.

Bitcoin’s ticker symbol.

Optimistic about the future of a cryptocurrency’s price.

Free movement of coins between individuals.

Advocates of using strong encryption to evade government spying. Cypherpunks were heavily involved in the early development of Bitcoin.

In the cryptocurrency sphere this term refers to storing cryptocurrency in a location that is offline and thus inaccessible by anyone on the internet.

No longer in production, these were physical coins created by Mike Caldwell that have private Bitcoin keys.

Controlled by one group or within one certain area.

The volume of coins being held and spent at a given time for a given cryptocurrency.

Digital currency that uses cryptography. Bitcoin & Altcoins are all types of cryptocurrency. 

Code making, breaking and studying.

The first exchange that allowed individuals to buy and sell cryptocurrencies.

An asset, of any kind, that a lender will accept to secure a loan. If the borrower doesn't pay back the loan -- the lender keeps or sells the asset.

Verifications of consensus by miners and/or nodes. After an individual sends payment on a blockchain, confirmations are required before the recipient can accept payment. 

Transfers of value that are too small to be sent due to the proportionately high fee incurred. 

The act of selling cryptocurrency.

Decentralized exchange. A platform (which isn't controlled by any single authority) that allows users to buy and sell cryptocurrencies.

A famous problem that occurs when cryptocurrency is spent more than once. Miners and transaction finality ensure that double-spend cannot occur.

Delayed Proof of Work, the consensus mechanism used by Komodo. dPoW allows one blockchain to take advantage of the security and hashing power of a second blockchain (Bitcoin, in Komodo's case). 

A metric for measuring bitcoin inactivity. Each day a Bitcoin remains unspent is another day added to its total number of Days Destroyed.

Distributed Apps. Applications without centralized control.

Directed Acyclic Graphs. Also referred to as “Tangle.” DAG is an alternative to the “chain of blocks” architecture used in many crypto projects.

Distributed Denial of Service. A means by which a malicious individual shuts down another individual's internet connection by overloading it with requests.

An over/under guessing game that uses random number generators to output results, allowing individuals to bet using cryptocurrencies.

DAA. A collection or portfolio of assorted cryptocurrencies. For example, one Digital Asset Array could contain BTC, ETH, and DASH.

The limiting or decreasing of a cryptocurrency's supply, which usually drives its price up.

A set of data used to represent an entity on a network or on the Internet.

Decentralized Autonomous Organization. An organization governed by smart contracts founded to allocate funds to cryptocurrency projects.

A tax on cryptocurrency holdings that encourages spending coins because they are constantly being destroyed.

Software that allows its users the ability to store cryptocurrency on their personal computer.

Software for storing cryptocurrency that offers decreased risk of losing funds because of its ability to generate unlimited addresses from a single starting point, or "seed."

A third party used to facilitate transactions and increase security.

Exchange Traded Fund. A group of assets that can be bought or sold as a single asset.

A cryptocurrency created by Vitalik Buterin that runs on Ether (ETH). Ethereum was the first blockchain-based technology to make smart contracts and decentralized applications possible.

The native tokens of the Ethereum platform. Required in order to send transactions or execute smart contracts.

An extremely secure messaging functionality offered by QRL.

A change in a cryptocurrency’s software that does not make it incompatible with the original version.

A term used to describe the way that cryptocurrencies remove many of the inefficiencies and hassles inherent in alternative methods of transferring payment.

A hypothetical society in which no one is forced to do anything against their wishes and all actions are voluntary.

Fear of Missing Out. Investors with FOMO buy cryptocurrency (emotionally rather than logically) for fear of missing out on profits.

Fear Uncertainty and Doubt. The emotional (rather than logical) belief that cryptocurrency prices will fall.

A percentage of block reward that is paid to the founders of a cryptocurrency rather than to its miners. Zcash is a cryptocurrency with a Founders’ Reward.

An amount of coins paid to users for participating in PoS consensus.

A fee which must be paid to execute network transactions.

Graphics Processing Unit. Hardware that can be used for mining some cryptocurrencies.

The power of a mining rig. Similar in concept to the Horse Power of a vehicle.

A programming language used to develop several cryptocurrencies (including Cardano and Nanocoin).

A consensus mechanism that employs both Proof of Stake and Proof of Work algorithms.

The maximum amount of money a cryptocurrency’s founders will accept while raising money in exchange for early coins on their platform.

First made popular in a post by a drunken Bitcoiner who advocated buying but not selling Bitcoin, it is now a meme to intentionally misspell “hold.” Hodlers see huge potential in the future of a cryptocurrency and don’t plan on selling anytime soon.

Someone who does not sell, but holds on to his coins. "HODL"  was originally a typo but it gained the status of a funny backronym: “Hold on for dear life”.

The act of protecting an asset from risk. A hedge can protect against losses or even offset against gains.

Internet Protocol Address. A series of numbers and periods used to identify computers communicating through a network.

Created each time coins are sent to an address.

When an asset (i.e. coin) cannot be easily bought or sold due to a lack of buyers or sellers in a market. If there are only a handful of buyers or sellers the price may be substantially higher (due to few sellers charging a premium) or substantially lower (due to a few buyers demanding discounts).

Initial Coin Offering. An event in which a cryptocurrency project “goes public,” selling early coins in exchange for funds.

Internal Revenue Service. A US tax collection agency that demands information from cryptocurrency exchanges for various reasons.

A feature of Komodo that offers its users private payments. Jumblr works by exchanging the cryptocurrency being used for payment and mixing it among other cryptos prior to the making an anonymous transaction.

CEO of Bitmain, the largest distributor of cryptocurrency mining machines.

An algorithm used to adjust mining difficulty so that all miners are given a fair chance at earning block rewards.

Purchasing a coin with the expectation to sell it at a higher price sometime in the future for a profit. Basically profiting from the rising price of an asset.

A cryptocurrency meme, short for Lamborghinis. When investors' coins' prices go to the Moon, they can buy Lambos.

Borrowed money used to trade assets.

The measure of how quickly an asset can be exchanged for usable currency.

The ability of machines and computers to integrate data and learn from it without being programmed to do so.

A mathematical problem that is solved by participants of a blockchain to verify transactions in exchange for block rewards.

An agreement that allows individuals to sell their computing power for the purposes of verifying transactions on a blockchain.

The process by which users on a PoS blockchain verify transactions and receive new coins for their participation.

The total value of a cryptocurrency. Calculated by multiplying a coin’s price by its total supply.

A node (device running the full software of a cryptocurrency) that fulfills more purposes than regular nodes - such as increasing privacy, providing instant transactions, and participating in governance.

A method of intentionally obscuring the source of illegally-obtained funds.

The version of a protocol that uses real money. A cryptocurrency is generally considered to be “live” after the first Mainnet block (the genesis block) is mined.

A feature that requires several keys to authorize a single transaction, especially for dividing responsibility among separate parties.

A sub-unit of Bitcoin: 1000 mBTC equal 1 BTC.

A series of words that can be used to recover an account or wallet.

A popular online wallet that supports Ether and most ERC20 tokens.

The practice of borrowing money to buy and sell assets.

A pre-planned trade set to execute if a cryptocurrency reaches a certain price.

The process of allowing two different cryptocurrencies using the same consensus algorithm to be mined simultaneously. 

A very small payment made possible with digital currencies.

Digital agreements between users on NEO's platform that are carried out automatically when their terms are met.

The quality by which cryptocurrencies become more useful as more people use them.

Near-Field Communication. Enables devices located close to each other to transmit data without the need for internet connection.

An arbitrary number that is used only once in cryptography to make replay attacks impossible.

A block that is no longer a part of the original blockchain because it was not verified by the majority of miners.

The initiator of communication on a cryptocurrency network.

Transfer of value that takes place outside of a blockchain for reduced fees and quicker transaction time.

Cardano's Proof-of-stake algorithm. It is used to randomly pick the next node to produce a block in. Ouroboros divides physical time into epochs, and then slots. Slot leaders have the sole right to produce one block and are chosen from the group of stakeholders.

Similar to a password but often longer. Where a password is generally a single word -- a passphrase can be a combination of words.

The consensus algorithm introduced by Bitcoin. PoW requires miners to compete against each other to add new block and earn rewards.

An address that individuals share with others to receive cryptocurrency.  

A situation that occurs when an asset's market value is far higher than it's actual worth, making a sharp drop in price imminent.

A physical piece of paper containing a private key, a public key, and often corresponding QR codes.

Occurs when a cryptocurrency’s price shoots up and then quickly crashes. Pump and dumps are often coordinated manipulations of the market by groups of individuals for profit.

Peer-to-Peer. Refers to networks in which individuals connect to each other rather than a central authority.

Decentralized networks in which individuals interact with each other directly.

Proof of Stake and Trust. A consensus mechanism used by Waltonchain that relies on token holders (nodes) to verify transactions while retaining information about nodes' past performance to give higher rewards to the most reliable nodes.

A scalability solution for Ethereum that allows more transactions per second by introducing additional blockchains to the main Ethereum blockchain. 

A cryptocurrency that uses both PoW and PoS in its consensus mechanism to offer increased security.

A permissioned system is a private and closed system. Not anyone can join the network freely.

PoP for short. A consensus mechanism used by DigixDAO to track the movements of physical assets, identify their ownership, and ensure their security.

PoS. A method of minting new coins and securing a platform by allowing users to stake their coins and receive more coins as a reward. Introduced as an energy efficient alternative to PoW (Proof of Work).

A public or private offering of tokens to interested investors, generally offering a cheaper price than the coin’s ICO price. Pre-sales are commonly seen as marketing gimmicks.

A cryptocurrency's main blockchain which connects its sidechains or subchains.

Freedom from surveillance.

A code containing information that can be read by a device with a camera.

QRTs. Customizable tokens that can be created using Quantum Resistant Ledger. QRTs are resistant to attacks from quantum computing.

Often referred to as Bitcoin Jesus, he was the first major Bitcoin and cryptocurrency investor.

An individual that contributes their tokens to Kyber Network's Dynamic Reserve Pool to improve the platform's liquidity.

A platform that connects banks, payment providers, and digital asset exchanges to provide frictionless transactions.

A block that has been worked on by a miner but is not included in the blockchain because another miner successfully completes another block first.

The process by which a full database is split into smaller databases called shards. Sharding helps with the scalability of cryptocurrencies.

A computer that is far more powerful than an ordianry computer due to its superior performance.

An altcoin that is marketed as technology with potential, but is really just sold to make money with no promise of a future use case.

The Securities and Exchange Commision. A regulatory US agency responsible for the investigation and shut down of several cryptocurrency-related projects.

An indication of support for a feature, often sent out by miners to inform the general public of their opinion.

A feature of the ARK cryptocurrency which allows separate blockchains to connect with each other and communicate.

All processes involved in delivering products and services from their providers to their customers.

Simplified Payment Verification. Allows wallets to function by letting them connect to local nodes that have full copies of the blockchain rather than requiring download of the full blockchain (like Bitcoin Core).

A feature of PIVX that allows users to complete transactions instantly without needing to wait for confirmations.

A popular exchange service created by Eric Voorhees that allows individuals to trade most altcoins anonymously for a small fee.

A derogatory term used to describe altcoins that are based on faulty technology or have little promise for the future.

Secure Hash Algorithm 256. An algorithm used by some Proof of Work consensus mechanisms (most notably, Bitcoin's).

Agreements between two parties that self-execute when their terms are met and automatically cancel when their terms are not met.

A measure of how easily a cryptocurrency will be able to handle more users and increased transactions.

Any cryptocurrency pegged to a stable asset for the purpose of reducing price volatility.

The act of locking up one's coins or tokens to help verify transactions for cryptocurrencies with Proof of Stake consensus mechanisms. Stakers earn staking rewards for providing this service.

A financial instrument (stock, bond, etc) that has monetary value and can be bought, sold, and traded.

Smart Contract. An agreement between two parties that carries itself out once its terms are met.

The anonymous person or group that created Bitcoin.

Commonly known as 2FA. A measure of security used for protecting accounts. 2FA requires users to have not only a username and a password to login, but an extra piece of information, as well.

A consensus method that allows users to transact anonymously and requires relatively little electricity. An alternative to PoW (Proof of Work) and PoS (Proof of Stake). 

A measure that describes how many coins of a given cryptocurrency can exist (after all mining is completed, if applicable).

An individual who buys and sells cryptocurrency.

Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol. A set of protocols that allow multiple computers to communicate.

An identical version of a protocol that uses fake money to discover bugs without the consequences such bugs would have on a Mainnet protocol.

Transactions per second. A measure which describes how fast a cryptocurrency can handle its users' transactions.

The practice of creating digital assets that represent real-world physical assets.

A computing system that can perform a whole set of computational functions is considered “Turing Complete.”

A measure of how frequently and how heavily a cryptocurrency is bought and/or sold during a given time period. 

The acronym for stable coins issued by Tether Limited: U.S. Dollar Tether.

User-Issued Assets, Tokens that can be created on the BitShares network.

A unit of currency consumed in a process. For example, an arcade token that gets used when a game is played or a coin like BNB Binance token, which is used to pay exchange fees.

An individual that invests in an emerging project with the hopes of earning a large return on their investment when the project succeeds.

A measure used to describe the rate at which currency is exchanged from transaction to transaction.

Addresses that hold cryptocurrency. Instead of random alphanumeric strings, however, users with vanity addresses can choose specific words and phrases for their addresses, similar to vanity license plates,

Software or devices that contain public and private keys for storing cryptocurrencies

A very wealthy individual capable of making large trades.

A technical document that outlines a project’s features, technology, and vision.

The native currency of Monero.

eXtensive Business Reporting Language. A language for defining and exchanging financial data that makes extracting useful data from a large body of data easier.

Even millions of dollars worth of security won't protect an individual if someone threatens to hit them with a $5 wrench unless they give up their passwords. The best defense is keeping quiet about your cryptocurrency holdings.

A hypothetical attack in which a malicious individual gains control of more than half of a cryptocurrency’s hashing power and is then able to re-write old blocks, allowing double-spend.

A formula that uses data to make predictions about how financially secure businesses are.