The Crypto Encyclopedia
Below we have put together all the crypto slang you need to know!
If their are any we have missed please write them in the comments and we will be sure to add them.
Altcoin
Altcoin simply refers to coins that are an alternative to bitcoin.
Api
API stands for application programming interface and is a set of functions and procedures that allow the creation of applications which access the features or data of an operating system, application, or other service.
Asic
Asic stands for Application Specific Integrated Circuit
A asic miner is a miner that is dedicated to mining one specific algorithm.
Asset
Asset is an item owned by an individual that holds value an can be converted to cash.
All Time High
All time high of a coin can be valued in two different ways both satoshi and fiat. The all time high of a coin occurs when it has reached its highest historical price. For example if Power Ledger was sitting at 0.00007000 sats and that was the highest it had ever been, that would be its all time high.
All Time Low (ATL)
All time low of a coin can be valued in two different ways both satoshi and fiat. The all time low of a coin occurs when it has reached its lowest historical price. For example if Power Ledger was sitting at 0.00000010 sats and that was the lowest it had ever been that would be it all time low.
Backed
Backed means that there is something of value that is redeemable and can be redeemed for whatever it is backed by. For example any crypto that is gold backed means that it is redeemable for gold, so because you can swap it for gold it is gold backed.
Bag Holder
Bag holder is referred to someone that has purchased a coin at a high and has missed an opportunity to sell. Leaving them with either selling at a loss or holding those coins until they reach the same sat value they were purchased.
Bear/Bearish
Bear/Bearish is a word that is used to describe when a market is or has been in a downwards trend.
Bitcoin
Bitcoin is the first digital currency to be created using blockchain technology. It was created in 2009 by either a person or group that went by the alias of Satoshi Nokamoto. Being that it is the first and main cryptocurrency all other cryptocurrencys are paired to Bitcoin.
Block
Blocks are where consecutive data is stored permanently for each network.
Blockchain
Blockchain is a decentralized, distributed, digital public ledger. Transactions made between the blockchain are recorded and can be viewed publicly. These transactions are stored on the blockchain from least recent to most recent and can not be altered.
Block Reward
Block reward is the reward you are given for hashing or solving the equation to that block. The reward for mining will vary due to which cryptocurrency you are mining.
Bull/Bullish
Bull/Bullish is a word that is used to describe when a market is or has been in a upwards trend.
Buy Wall
A buy wall is a wall seen in the depth chart of exchanges. These are made up of either buy orders or sell orders.
Here is an example of a buy wall on neo using the binance exchange depth chart.
The buy wall in green shows there there is high demand for the coin at a certain price. The rest of the wall behind it shows that there is also high demand for it coin at lower prices.
Circulating Supply
Circulating Supply is the best approximation of the number of coins that are circulating in the market and in the general public's hands.
Coin / Coins
Coins are the abbreviation of alt coins or bitcoins. The majority of coins are a fork of bitcoin, created by using bitcoins original source code.
Cold Storage
Cold storage, to keep it very simple, is an offline method of saving cryptocurrency. It includes printing or having a hardware device for your public and private keys on a piece of paper which you then store and save in a secure place.
Competition
Competition in the cryptocurrency space means an existing coin or token that has a similar project competing to the same audience.
Confirmation
Confirmation is when a transaction has been processed by the network and is now unlikely to be reversed. Each confirmation helps to prevent the transaction from being reversed.
Crypto
Crypto is an abbreviation of cryptocurrency.
Cryptocurrency
Cryptocurrency is a digital currency in which encryption techniques are used to regulate the generation of the units of currency and verify the transfer of funds, operating independently of a bank.
Cryptocurrency Wallet
Cryptocurrency wallet is a digital wallet used to store, send and receive your digital currency. Most coins will have an official wallet to hold your coins on and others will recommend a third party wallet to hold your coins securely.
Crypto Community
Hodl simply means to hold your position. The word hodl was born on 18.01.2013 when a person going by the name of "GameKyuubi" mispelled on a blog that he was hodling. Ever since that day the word hodl has been used widely in the crypto community.
Currency - Definition
Currency is a system of money in general use in a particular country, the fact or quality of being generally accepted or in use.
Dag - Definition
DAG (directed acyclic graph) – is a directed graph with no directed cycles. In DAG-based cryptocurrencies each new transaction confirms one or more previous transactions. As a result, transactions perform a structure which represents a directed graph with no directed cycles.
Dapp - Definition
A DApp is a decentralized app.
Decentralized
Decentralized is decentralize in past tense and means a transfer (authority) from central to local.
E.g Bitcoin is decentralized currency because it moves currency away from the federal reserve which is central banking.
Desktop Wallet - Definition
Desktop wallet is a wallet that has been downloaded from a secure source to your desktop. These wallets can be used both offline and online. They are also considered more secure than online wallets and mobile wallets but this is only complimented by your commitment to your desktop security.
Dip - Definition
Dip is when a graph or market has fallen from a previous high.
Established Business - Definition
Established business is a business that already has experience in the line of work it is intended to display.
Exchange - Definition
Exchange, or bourse also known as a trading exchange or trading venue, is an organized market where (especially) tradable securities, commodities, foreign exchange, futures, and options contracts are sold and bought.
First Movers Advantage - Definition
First movers advantage is a marketing strategy which is the advantage gained by the initial ("first-moving") significant occupant of a market segment. It may be also referred to as technological leadership.
Fomo - Definition
Fomo (Fear of missing out) is the feeling you get when you are watching a coin make great gains. This can result in you purchasing a coin at to high. Crypto trading has become highly driven by emotions and this is why we have fomo.
Fud - Definition
Fud (Fear Uncertainty Doubt) can be spread in a lot of different ways. This can happen by people spreading news that is incorrect or has not yet been confirmed. An example of this would be when Jp Morgan spread fud in 2017 saying that bitcoin is a fraud and will eventually blow up. He later bought into bitcoin at a cheaper rate.
Functioning Product
Functioning product means the product already works as intended.
Functioning Service
Functioning service means the product already works as intended.
Hardware Wallet - Definition
Hardware wallets are the safest way to store your cryptocurrency. They work with software wallets and create an extra layer of protection so that your cryptocurrencies can not be compromised.
Hard Fork
Hard fork occurs when there is a radical change to the original blockchain or the development team decide to go two separate ways. An example of this is when Bitcoin cash forked off of Bitcoin because they wanted to create faster transaction times.
Hash Rate
Hash rate is the speed of which the computing power is completing the operation. The higher the hash rate the more likely you are to mine the next block and receive the reward.
Hodl
Hodl simply means to hold your position. The word hodl was born on 18.01.2013 when a person going by the name of "GameKyuubi" mispelled on a blog that he was hodling. Ever since that day the word hodl has been used widely in the crypto community.
Intermediary
Intermediary is someone or some service who acts as a link between people in order to try and bring about an agreement; a mediator.
Inrinsic Value
Intrinsic value is the actual value of a company or an asset based on an underlying perception of its true value including all aspects of the business, in terms of both tangible and intangible factors.
Know Your Customer (KYC)
Kyc is used to gather your information for an upcomiing ico. This is also used so that the company can identify their customers.
Lambo
Lambo is an abbreviation for Lamborghini, the expensive sport model care collection and is generally used to brag about wealth.
Ledger
Ledger is a book or other collection of financial accounts.
Long Position
A long position is a position a trader takes when they believe its value will rise in the future.
Market Capitilization
Market Capitalization is one way to rank the relative size of a cryptocurrency. It's calculated by multiplying the Price by the Circulating Supply.
Market Cap = Price X Circulating Supply.
Source
Max Supply - Definition
Max Supply of a coin is the maximum amount of coinsthat can be created. This is usually stated in the whitepaper unless they offer unlimited supply.
Mining
Mining is the process by which transactions are verified and added to the public ledger, known as the blockchain, and also the means through which new coins or tokens are released.
Mobile Wallet
Mobile wallets are exactly how the sound. They are wallets on your mobile device where you have access to your crypto. These wallets are very practical for day to day use but also have high security risks.
Moon - Definition
Moon is for a coin to go extremely bullish. This term is usually used when a coin has started or is having a good run.
Ledger Nano S
Ledger Nano S is a Bitcoin, Ethereum and Altcoins hardware wallet, based on robust safety features for storing cryptographic assets and securing digital payments. It connects to any computer (USB) and embeds a secure OLED display to double-check and confirm each transaction with a single tap on its side buttons.
Node
A node is either a redistribution point or a communication endpoint. The definition of a node depends on the network and protocol layer referred to.
None Zero Trading Volume - Definition (What is)
Non-zero trading volume means that there is a 0< (greater than 0) trading volume.
Online Wallets
Online wallets are cryptocurrency wallets that can be accessed via a web browser. These wallets hold your cryptocurrency on an individual platform. These wallets are very attractive to hackers as they can be accessed via the internet. Do not hold the majority of your crypto on these wallets.
Overvalued
Overvalued is when a coin is holding a higher value than the tech that it has to offer. This is then usually followed by a dip to bring the coin back to its organic value.
Paper Wallet
Paper wallet is the original way to store your cryptocurrency securely. Your private keys are not stored anywhere but on the piece of paper you have it printed it on. These are also well known as cold wallet.
Peer to Peer (P2P)
Peer to peer is a decentralized communication model where each party has the same capabilities and either party can initiate communication.
Platform - Defintion
A platform is a cryptocurrency coin that has its own blockchain and underlying technology to allow tokens, smart contracts and DAPPs to be built on top of it. A perfect example of this the Ethereum network.
Proof Of Stake
Proof of stake in concept states that a person can mine or validate a block transactions according to how many coins they hold.
Private Keys
A private key is a A private key in the context of Bitcoin is a secret number that allows bitcoins to be spent. Every Bitcoin wallet contains one or more private keys, which are saved in the wallet file. The private keys are mathematically related to all Bitcoin addresses generated for the wallet.
Because the private key is the "ticket" that allows someone to spend bitcoins, it is important that these are kept secure. Private keys can be kept on computer files, but in some cases are also short enough that they can be printed on paper.
Pump and Dump
Pump and dump is when a group get together and buy huge volumes of a low volume coin. By doing this it then pushes the price up as the uninformed buy into it thinking that the coin is the next best thing. The group then dump all there coin at a certain price so that they can take profit leaving the uninformed holding bags of coins worth nothing.
Revolutionary
Revolutionary means involving or causing a complete or dramatic change.
Revolutionize
Revolutionize means change (something) radically or fundamentally.
Satoshi
Commonly referred to as SATS, Satoshi’s are the way that we price a cryptocurrency when we are not referring to its price in fiat. The name is derived from the creator of Bitcoin, Satoshi Nakamoto. A satoshi is the smallest fraction of a bitcoin that can be sent, which is a hundredth of a millionth of a bitcoin (0.00000001). This smallest fraction would be called one satoshi.
Sell Wall
Sell wall is a wall seen in the depth chart of exchanges. These are made up of either buy orders or sell orders.
Here is an example of a sell wall on nano using the binance exchange depth chart.
The sell wall on the right in purple shows that at a certain price (Where the wall is vertical) there are alot of sell orders.
Shill
To shill is when someone has purchased a coin and then advertises that said coin to the general public. They do this hoping that the public will then invest in the coin and move the price of the coin upwards.
Short Position
Short position is a position a trader takes when they believe the value will fall in the future.
Smart Contract
Smart contract, also known as a crypto contract, is a computer program that directly controls the transfer of digital currencies or assets between parties under certain conditions.
Soft Fork
Soft fork is when there is change to the software proticol. It means that the old software blocks are made invalid and the new software blocks are made valid. This fork only requires majority of the miners to upgrade and enforce the new rules.
Start Up
Start up is a company that is intended to grow in size very quickly and has a large target audience. This is the reason most startups are tech related because they can easily reach a larger market, more so than a traditional business.
Supply
Supply is a stock or amount of something supplied or available for use.
Tangable
Tangible is perceptible by touch, a physical item.
Telegram
Telegram is a non-profit cloud-based instant messaging service. Telegram client apps are available for Android, iOS, Windows Phone, Windows NT, macOS and Linux.
Tokens
Tokens are a representation of a particular asset or utility, A token does not have its own blockchain and is built on another platform. Tokens can represent basically any assets that are fungible and trade able, from commodities to loyalty points to even other cryptocurrencies.
Total Supply
Total supply is the total amount of coins in existence right now (minus any coins that have been verifiably burned).
Trading Volume
Trading volume In capital markets, is the amount (total number) of a security (or a given set of securities, or an entire market) that were traded during a given period of time. ... Therefore, the unit of measurement for average volume is shares per unit of time, typically per trading day.
Trezor
Trezor is a popular hardware wallet.
Under Valued
Under valued means the market has underestimated the financial value of the coin/token/fund.
Utility
Utility means useful, especially through being able to perform several functions.
Value
Utility means useful, especially through being able to perform several functions.
Volume
Volume is the total amount of money invested in said coin.
Wallet
A wallet is a place where you coins or tokens are held. Their are multiple types of wallets that can be used to hold your coins or tokens. The main 5 wallets are online wallets, mobile wallets, desktop wallets, hardware wallets and also paper wallets.
Weak Hands
Weak hands is referred to a person who sells at a loss because they are scared by a dip in the market causing them to make investment decisions based off emotion.
Whale
Whale is an individual or a group who owns a large portion of the coins that are in circulating supply.
Whitepaper
A whitepaper is a guide or report that explains to investors how a product or technology is going to work.
51% Attack
51% attack is when an individual or group take control of more than half the computing power to one network. This allows them leverage on Halting and manipulating the network.
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