Crypto wiki
Our Crypto Wiki covers more than 200 crypto-related terms and topics. The intuitive search function enables you to quickly find and browse the terms you want to better understand.
5
- 51% attack - A 51% attack refers to a hypothetical attack on Bitcoin by a group of miners who control more than 50% of the computing power or the hashrate.
a
- All time-high (ATH) - The shortcut ATH stands for all time-high. It implies the highest price ever reached in the history of a certain cryptocurrency.
- Altcoin - An Altcoin is term for alternative cryptocurrencies including all currencies except Bitcoin.
- Arbitrage - Arbitrage signifies the process of buying a cryptocurrency on an exchange where the price is relatively low and sell it where the price is higher.
- Ashdraked - The term ashdraked describes the situation where an individual, corporation or group has lost all of their trading stakes.
- ASIC - ASIC is a specific mining hardware that has been developed especially for Bitcoin. Asic hardware is also used to mine other cryptocurrencies.
- Audit - An audit inspects if guidelines, security standards or requirements of a corporation are met.
b
- Bag holder - A bag holder refers to an investor symbolically holding a bag of cryptos that becomes worthless over time.
- Bear Market / Bearish - A bear market describes mid- to longterm periods characterized by a negative market sentiment and rapidly falling prices.
- Bitcoin - «Bitcoin» is a digital currency allowing peer-to-peer transactions within a decentralized network.
- Bitcoin Cash - Bitcoin Cash is the result of Bitcoins hard fork and allows more transactions to be processed in a certain amount of time.
- Bitcoin Pizza - The first documented purchase with Bitcoins was for two Pizzas. This event is named Bitcoin Pizza.
- Bitgrail - Bitgrail was an Italian exchange platform. Due to the founder's missmanaging, hackers stole more than 17 million of the cryptocurrency Nano.
- Block height - The block height is the number of blocks in the chain between the block itself and the genesis block.
- Block reward - A block reward is the amount that miners earn as a reward for creating and verifying new blocks on the Blockchain.
- Blockchain - A Blockchain is a continuously extending chain of data sets (Blocks) linked to each other in a cryptographic process.
- Bull Run / Bullish - A bull run is perceptible by a fast increase in prices in a short period of time, mainly due to optimistic expectations of investors.
- Bull trap - A «Bull Trap» is a false signal indicating that a declining trend is suddenly heading upwards while in fact the price level will continue to decrease even more.
- Buy wall - A buy wall occurs when there are more buy orders than sell orders in the order book. This is a good sign for traders as this will result in a price increase.
c
- Candlestick Chart - The «Candlestick Chart» is a specific way of displaying a financial chart and its price movements. The length of the red bars show the decrease of the price while the green bars show the increase.
- Circulating supply - The «Circulating Supply» is the current supply of coins/tokens available on the market.
- Coinbase - «Coinbase» is digital currency broker. You can directly buy Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Ethereum and Litecoin with fiat currencies.
- Coins - Blockchains integrate financial incentives in order to safely stay a self-managing network, autonomous and free of centralized intermediaries.
- Cold storage - A cold storage is a method to secure your private keys offline. This significantly reduces the risk of getting hacked.
- Cold wallet - A cold wallet is a wallet with no connection to the internet. They belong to the category of cold wallets.
- Confirmation - Every transaction in a Blockchain network has to get confirmation by mining, staking or another distributed consensus concepts.
- Cryptocurrency - A cryptocurrency is basically a network which enables all peers to execute transactions with each without the need of a central authority or intermediary.
- Cryptography - Cryptography is a method of securely transmitting data in a particular form that only for whom it is intended can read and process it.
d
- Dapps - Dapps are a shortcut for decentralized applications. They have to be open source, decentralized, incentive and algorithm or protocol-based.
- Dead Cat Bounce - A Dead Cat Bounce refers to a short term market recovery before a massive crash.
- Decentralized - The term decentralized means that data is not stored on a local centralized server but rather across its network.
- Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO) - A DAO is basically a corporation where all forms of work are automatically executed through smart contracts.
- Dip - A dip is the temporary loss of value of a cryptocurrency or the market as a whole.
- Distributed consensus - «Distributed Consensus» is a general term for algorithms verifying transactions within different Blockchains. The most common algorithm is called «Proof of Work». It is used in the Bitcoin network
- Distributed ledger - A distributed ledger stores all transaction records without a central administrator or centralized data storage.
- Dividends - «Dividends» are periodically paid amounts of money for to reward people holding a certain coin over a certain period of time. In cryptocurrency, dividends are often paid on a weekly basis, in form of the cryptocurrency itself.
- DYOR - DYOR is an investing principle which says to not rely on information or recommendations of others.
e
- ELI5 - ELI5 is a shortcut for explained like I'm 5. It is a synonym for a very basic and easy explanation of a certain subject.
- Enterprise Ethereum Alliance (EEA) - The «Enterprise Ethereum Alliance» connects Fortune 500 Companies with startups, academics, technology vendors and Ethereum subject matter experts.
- ERC-20 - The ERC-20 token category includes all tokens built on top of the Ethereum Blockchain.
- Ether (ETH) - Ether (ETH) is the cryptocurrency used for transactions within the Ethereum network.
- Ethereum - «Ethereum» is a fintech company which offers the execution of decentralized programs and smart contracts.
- Ethereum Classic (ETC) - «Ethereum Classic (ETC)» is cryptocurrency as a result of the Hard Fork of the Ethereum protocol.
- Exchange - An exchange is a place where you can buy/sell different kinds of cryptocurrencies and eventually convert them directly into fiat money or vice-versa.
f
- Faucet - «Faucets» are reward-systems paying you in small amounts of cryptocurrencies for completing little tasks.
- Fiat money - Why is our current monetary system based on fiat money? What is its purpose and which advantages does it offer in comparison to commodity money?
- Fintech - Fintech inlcudes all disruptive inventions concerning Financial services. Many Blockchain projects belong to the Fintech sector.
- FOMO - FOMO describes a condition where people only buy into projects because they expect the prices to be higher in the future and they fear of missing the train.
- Frontier, Homestead, Metropolis, Serenity - The terms Frontier, Homestead, Metropolis, Serenity are the four stages the Ethereum network will go through.
- FUD - «FUD» the short form of «fear, uncertainity and doubt». It describes a current state where these three factors contribute to a general downward trend of the market.
- FUDster - A «FUDster» is a person that is constantly spreading misinformation to cause fear, uncertainty and doubt.
- Fundamental Analysis (FA) - Fundamental Analysis or FA is measuring a cryptocurrencies' intrinsic value which includes examining related economics and other financial factors.
g
- Gas - «Gas» is the internal pricing for running a transaction or smart contract on the Ethereum Blockchain.
- Gas limit - The «Gas Limit» is the maximum amount of Gas you want to pay for a transaction on the Ethereum Blockchain.
- Gas price - The «Gas Price» is defined by the amount of Ether you pay for each unit of Gas.
- Genesis block - The «Genesis Block» is the first block generated in a Blockchain where all other blocks are referring to.
- Going long - «Going long / long» basically means that you actually own a position in crypto.
- Going short / shorting - «Going short / short» means that you are selling your position without actually owning it. This is possible due to Bitcoin loans which enable speculators to guess if the future price will go up or down. When speculators expect the prices to go lower they «go short». They hypothesize to buy-in again at a lower price.
- Gwei - «Gwei» is a demenation of Ether. 1 Gwei = 10-9 Ether or alternatively 1 Ether = 1'000'000'000 Gwei.
h
- Hal Finney - «Hal Finney» was a cypherpunk activist and the first Bitcoin user after Satoshi Nakamoto
- Halving - If Bitcoin is «Halving» the rewards for mining are getting reduced by 50%. Bitcoin is deflationary, only 21 million Bitcoins will ever be mined, therefore the rewards to verify transactions are decreasing over time.
- Hard cap - A «Hard Cap» is defined as the maximum amount a coins/tokens the crowdsale will receive.
- Hard fork - A «Hard Fork» is a radical change in the Blockchain protocol that makes previously invalid blocks valid (or vice-versa). A Hard Fork requires all nodes and users to upgrade to the latest version of the protocol software.
- Hardware wallet - A «Hardware Wallet» basically replaces your Private Keys to access you stored coins on the Blockchain. Hardware Wallets are the «Gold Standard» to securely store your cryptocurrencies because the Private Key is never going to be exposed to the public.
- Hash - A «Hash» is the method miners have to solve algorithmic problems in order to add blocks/transactions to the Blockchain.
- Hash function - A «Hash Function» converts an certain input to a compromised unique digital output.
- Hash rate - The hash rate measures how powerful a Bitcoin miners' mining hardware actually is.
- HD Wallet - «HD wallets» are special sort of cryptocurrency wallet which enables you make transactions with different public keys. This increases security because account movements are not trackable anymore. We recommend the use of HD Wallets if you are planning to transact large amounts of coins/tokens.
- HODL - «HODL» is a misspelling of the word «hold». It means you should keep your position for the longterm.
- Hot wallet - A «Hot Wallet» is wallet connected with the internet. It is considered to be less secure than a Cold Wallet, not connected to the internet.
i
- Initial Coin Offering (ICO) - «ICO» stands for «Initial Coin Offering». It is a new way of crowdfunding start-ups in the cryptocurrency industry. The projects release a limited amount of the circulating supply on sale, before reaching any exchanges. Early investors profit from a discount while the start-up itself generates revenue before hitting exchanges.
- Internet of Things (IoT) - The shortcut «IoT» is referring to the terms «Internet of Things». «IoT» is the idea of connecting all different kinds of electronic devices on one platform to enable the automatical exchange of information and value.
- IOTA (MIOTA) - «IOTA (MIOTA)» is an open-source digitalized payment platform IOTA is specialized for fast and feeless payments/communication between machines.
- IOTA Hack - During the «IOTA Hack» a scammy website generating seeds for IOTA wallets stole all funds stored on them.
j
- JOMO - JOMO is a situation where someone is glad to have missed out an investment opportunity because a major price correction have followed.
k
- KYC - «KYC» stands for «Know Your Customer». In a KYC procedure you have to provide full identity in order to receive a trading permission. Lots of governments and authorities are establishing KYC as a security standard for exchanges and ICO procedures.
l
- Lambo - «Lambo» stands for Lamborghini, a fast Italian car that a major part of the crypto community wants to own one day.
- Ledger Nano S - A «Ledger Nano S» is a popular Hardware Wallet.
- Lightning Network - The lightning network is a scaling solution for Bitcoin and other Bitcoin-based Blockchains.
- Limit order / limit sell - With a limit order or also called a limit buy/sell. You can specify on which price level you want to enter or exit a trade.
- Litecoin (LTC) - «Litecoin (LTC)» is an «Altcoin» based on the concept of Bitcoin. It offers faster transaction speeds and improved memory efficiency.
m
- Margin trading - «Margin Trading» is possible due to the lending market. Certain exchanges are allowing their customers to lend cryptocurrencies. This offers lenders on one hand to generate interests from their funds. And borrowers on the other hand to invest larger amounts. The major disadvantage is the lack of security. All funds have to be kept in hot wallets directly on the exchange itself.
- Market buy - A market buy or market order is more likely to be executed because you don't set any restrictions in terms of the price.
- Market capitalization (market cap) - The market capitalization (market cap) of a cryptocurrency is calculated: (Circulating Supply) × (price per coin)
- Market sell - A market sell or market order is more likely to be executed because you don't set any restrictions in terms of the the selling price.
- Masternodes - «Masternodes» are essential servers in a decentralized network and often determined as the backbone of the Blockchain. To get a Masternode you have to either own a large amount of coins or meet other specific criteria which varies from project to project. As a Masternode holder you have to perform certain services to the Blockchain like veryfying transactions. In reverse you are getting high rewards or weekly dividends, often paid out in form of the cryptocurrency itself.
- Maximum supply - The «Maximum Supply» is the total supply of coins in excistence.
- Medium - «Medium» is an online publishing platform. It's mainly popular for blogs and news.
- MetaMask - Learn how to create a MetaMask wallet, connect it with a Ledger Nano s or a Trezor and add customized tokens.
- Mining - «Mining» is the verification of transactions, in which current Bitcoin transactions, known as blocks, are added to the record of past transactions, known as the Blockchain.
- Mining Farms - Mining farms emerged through the need of miners in Proof of Work (PoW) Blockchains like Bitcoin.
- Mining Rig - A «Mining Rig» is one of many specially designed computers for mining with high efficiency and computing power.
- Mobile Wallet - A «Mobile Wallet» is a wallet accessible with any mobile device.
- Monero (XMR) - «Monero (XMR)» belongs to the category of privacy coins. It's a decentralized peer-to-peer network offering anonymous transactions characterized as private digital cash. private digital cash.
- Mooning - «Mooning» means that a price of certain coin/token is increasing rapidly in value.
- Movie Average Convergence / Divergence (MACD) - MACD means Moving Average Convergence/Divergence and is a popular indicator used in Technical Analysis.
- MT. GOX - Mount Gox was one of the worlds leading trading platforms for Bitcoin and got hacked on 28th of February 2014.
- Multisignature (Multisig) - Multisignature or Multisig refers to a transaction requiring more than one private key for execution.
- MyEtherWallet - Learn how to create a MyEtherWallet, connect it with a Ledger Nano S or Trezor and adding customized tokens.
n
- Nick Szabo - «Nick Szabo» is a computer scientist, legal scholar and cryptographer doing reserach in the world of digital currencies and contracts. Many people believe that Nick Szabo is the mysterious Satoshi Nakamoto in person.
- Nothing at Stake (NoS) - Nothing at Stake is an issue emerging from the distributed consensus concept Proof of Stake (PoS).
o
- Open source - In an open source protocol, all information about the code are transparently published and accessible for everyone completely for free.
- Order book - An order book is an overview of all current buy and sell order of a specific cryptocurrency.
- Over The Counter (OTC) - «OTC» stands for «Over The Counter» and refers to transactions not taking place on ordinary exchanges. Big investors often negotiate special deals directly with the respective company to agree terms & conditions.
p
- Peer-to-Peer (P2P) - P2P stands for peer-to-peer. In decentralized networks all participants exchange coins/tokens/values with each other without the need of intermediaries.
- Ponzi scheme - A «Ponzi scheme» is a fraudulent business model. Payouts of initial investors get financed with investments of later investors. This system only works to the point where a major part of investors want their payouts at the same time.
- Pre-Sale - A pre-sale is a sale phase during an ICO which allows people to get their coins/ or tokens a an additional discount.
- Privacy coins - Privacy coins are a category of cryptocurrencies which offers anonymous peer-to-peer transactions in a decentralized network.
- Private Blockchain - Private Blockchains are permissioned decentralized networks, only accessible through a license or with meeting certain credentials.
- Private key - The private key is a code enabling you to access coins or tokens on the Blockchain. It is therefore like a certificate of ownership.
- Proof of Stake (PoS) - «Staking» is another expression for «Proof of Stake».
- Proof of Work - Proof of Work or simply PoW is consensus concept allowing people to mine/verify transactions according to how much effort (computing power) they are putting in to solve an algorithmic issue, adding a new block to the Blockchain.
- Public Blockchain - A public blockchain is generally defined by an open-source, permissionless network, based on distributed consensus.
- Public key - The «Public Key / Adress» is your personal adress allowing you to send and receive cryptocurrencies.
- Pump & Dump - Pump & Dumps (P&D) are groups trying to manipulate low capitalized cryptocurrencies.
r
- Rackjobbing - Rackjobbing is a service that mainly involves putting away and labeling merchandise.
- Raiden Network - The Raiden Network is an off-chain scaling solution which is enabling fast, low-fee and scalable payments.
- Recovery Phrase / Seed Keyword - The «Recovery Phrase / Seed Keyword» is both equivalent and allows you to access/recover all your funds attached to the respective adress.
- Reddit - Reddit is a social media platform widely popular in cryptocurrencies and for Blockchain enthusiast.
- REKT - The shortcut «REKT» is a slang word and means utterly destroyed.
- Relative Strength Index (RSI) - The shortcut RSI stands for the «Relative Strength Index». This index is estimating if an asset is overbought or oversold.
- Return On Investment (ROI) - The Return of Investment is a common indicator used in trading and other financial sectors. It determines the ratio of your return on initial investment.
s
- Satoshi - A Satoshi is a way to value Altcoins in comparison to Bitcoin. 10-9Satoshis = 1 Bitcoin.
- Satoshi Nakamoto - «Satoshi Nakamoto» is the inventor of Bitcoin and Blockchain technology. His real identity is still unknown to this date.
- Scam - A scam is a fraudulent scheme performed by a dishonest individual, group or company in an attempt to get money or something else of interest.
- Segregated Witness (SegWit) - SegWit is a scaling solution for Bitcoin enabling to transfer faster and at lower cost.
- Sell walls - Big investors, groups or corporations sell walls as a tool to accumulate more coins without increasing its short-term price.
- Sharding - Sharding is a new way of validating and storing data on the Blockchain and enhances scalability.
- Shilling - When someone is shilling a project he is promoting it in a subjective manner and only sees good.
- Shitcoin - A shitcoin is a term to describe a cryptocurrency with an awful reputation because it has not meet industry standards or remained below expectations.
- Simple Moving Average (SMA) - SMA or Simple Moving Average is an indicator used in Technical Analysis to assess possible investments.
- Smart contract - A Smart contract is a digitally immutable contract executing contract conditions approved by all parties involved.
- Soft Cap - The Soft Cap is the minimal fundraising goal during an ICO at which a crowdsale will be considered as a success.
- Soft Fork - A Soft Fork is slight change in the protocol of a Blockchain. In contrast to the Hard Fork it is backward compatible with older versions.
- Software wallet - A Software Wallet is a downloadable software enabling the safe storage of cryptocurrencies..
- Solidity - Solidity is a contract-oriented programming language to write or implement smart contracts into various kinds of Blockchains.
- Stablecoin - Stablecoins are mostly asset-backed coins/tokens of a cryptocurrency with an extremely low volatility.
- Steemit - Steemit is a cryptocurrency project uniting a social media platform with a cryptocurrency.
- Swing - A swing describes a zig zag movement of the price. Cryptocurrencies are generally considered to be very volatile assets.
t
- Tanking - What means tanking in crypto space? Learn more about "tanking" in our crypto wiki.
- Technical Analysis (TA) - What means Technical Analysis? Learn how Technical Analysis emerged as the most popular form of trend analysis
- Tether - Tether is a stable cryptocurrency claiming that each token is backed by 1 US Dollar.
- The Flippening - "The Flippening" refers to the foretold event that one day another cryptocurrency will dethrone Bitcoin.
- This is gentleman - What means the term "this is gentleman"? It is basically a way to express enjoyable events in the crypto space.
- To the moon - What means "to the moon" in the crypto-jargon? "To the moon" is a slang word invented during the epic bull runs of Bitcoin.
- Token metrics - To evaluate token metrics is generally an analytical and data driven approach to identify ICO investment opportunities.
- Tokens - We are the differences between coins and tokens? As coins are primarily used as an exchanged of value, tokens often offer more functionalities.
- Total supply - What is the total supply in cryptocurrencies? It is basically the total amount of coins or tokens in existence within a cryptocurrency.
- Trading Volume - Trading volume is an indicator used in Technical Analysis showing how many coins/tokens were traded within a specific timeframe.
- Transaction fees - Learn about different forms of transaction fees and why they exist within decentralized Blockchains.
- Transaction ID - What is a Transaction ID? Learn how to identify Transactions ID's and where to find them.
- Trezor - This section explain the advantages of a Trezor hardware wallet, how you set it up and how to connect it to your MyEtherWallet.
- Two Token Models - Two-token models are defined by using two tokens with their Blockchain network.
v
- Vapourware - «Vapourware» is a synonym for the term «Shitcoin». It is a project that has not ever been released or manufactured.
- Vitalik Buterin - How did Vitalik Buterin manage to be one of the most famous programers of the cryptocurrency world?
w
- Wallets - Get an idea what crypto wallets are. Learn how to securely store cryptocurrencies and see the difference between public and private key.
- Washtrading - Wrong incentives can lead to illegal washtrading, which effects many other traders in a negative way.
- Webagentur - Eine Webagentur betreut Kunden in den Bereichen Webdesign, Hosting und SEO und sorgt so rundum für eine guten Internetauftritt. Eine Beispiel für eine Webagentur ist die Beyondweb GmbH, eine Webagentur in Basel.
- Wei - What means Wei and how is it defined? A Wei is the smallest denomination of an Ether.
- Whale - A whale is an individual, corporation or group holding a large position of a specific coin or token of a cryptocurrency.
- Whitelist - We explain what a Whitelist is and how they are relevant for different ICO procedures.
- Whitepaper - What is a Whitepaper, how should be written and what are the key differences in comparison to a Yellowpaper?
y
- Yellowpaper - What is a Yellowpaper? Learn what a Yellowpaper is and how to distinguish between a Yellopaper and a Whitepaper.