Common Cryptocurrency Terms & Acronyms

Address – The cyber designation, and only information needed, to be paid in Bitcoin. Optimally each address should be used only once for a single transaction.

Altcoin – Term used to describe lesser-known cryptocurrencies (i.e. non-bitcoin cryptocurrencies).

ASIC – Acronym for Application Specific Integrated Circuit. These single-task designed silicon chips process SHA-256 hashing problems in order to validate transactions and mine new bitcoins.

ASIC miner – Hardware housing Application Specific Integrated Circuit chips and used to mine for bitcoins. Such devices may connect directly to a computer or to a network with use of an ethernet cable or wireless link

Bag Holder – A person who buys and holds coins in large quantity hoping to make good profits in the future.

Bear/ Bearish – Negative price movement

Bit – A common unit used to designate a single sub-unit of a bitcoin. 1,000,000 bits is equivalent to 1 bitcoin.

Block – A block is a permanent record of data stored in the blockchain, acting like a page or ledger. Each block contains and confirms pending transactions. Roughly every 10 minutes, on average, a new block along with the transactions it contains is added to the blockchain through mining.

Blockchain – A transparent public record of every bitcoin transaction in chronological order that is shared by every bitcoin participant. The blockchain verifies the authenticity and permanence of all Bitcoin transactions and prevents double spending.

BTC – The official abbreviated form of the word ‘bitcoin’.

Bull/Bullish – Positive price movement

BTFD – Buy The Fucking Dip (an indication to buy a coin when it has dumped so hard)

Cryptocurrency – A form of non-tangible currency that is produced by mathematical problemsolving based on cryptology.

Cryptography – A branch of mathematics used by cryptocurrencies that employs mathematical proofs in order to allow high levels of security. In the case of BTC, cryptography ensures that others are unable to spend funds from another user’s wallet or corrupt the blockchain.

DDoS – Abbreviated form of Distributed Denial of Service. A DDoS attack utilizes many computers under the control of an attacker to deplete the resources of a primary target. In the past, some Bitcoin exchanges have come under DDoS attacks.

Double spending – The act of spending the same bitcoins twice. The blockchain and bitcoin mining exist in order confirm all transactions and thus to prevent such fraud. Nevertheless users accepting zero-confirmation transactions remain vulnerable to double spending.

Dump – To Sell off a coin

Dumping – Downward price movement

Exchange – A central platform for exchanging different forms of currencies and assets. Typically, bitcoin exchanges are used to exchange cryptocurrency for traditional monetary units.

FA – Fundamental Analysis

Fiat currency – A currency with no intrinsic value but deemed to have worth because a government has declared it to be so. The word ‘Fiat’ comes from Latin, meaning ‘Let it be done’.

FinTech – Financial Technology. Computer programs and other technology used to support or enable banking and financial services.

FOMO – Fear Of Missing Out (A coin is pumping and you get the feeling it's gonna pump more, so you buy high)

Fork – a change of the Bitcoin protocol that is not backwards-compatible. A blockchain fork occurs when nodes running the new version of the protocol create a separate blockchain incompatible with the older software.

FUD – Fear Uncertainty & Doubt

Genesis block – the original block in the blockchain.

Hash – An algorithm that takes a variable amount of data and converts it into a shorter, fixed length and fixed piece of data.

Hash rate – The number of hashes a bitcoin miner can perform in a set period of time (usually a second).

HODL – Hold/Hold a position

ICO – Initial coin offering (known as an IPO in industry)

JOMO – Joy Of Missing Out

KYC – Know Your Client, or Know Your Customer. KYC guidelines mandate that financial institutions must vet potential clients to ensure that they are legitimate and can verify their ID.

Liquidity – The market’s ability to buy and/or sell an asset combined with the extent to which pricing remains relatively stable and consistent between transactions.

Long – Margin bull position

mBTC – A bitcoin metric of 1 thousandth of a bitcoin (0.001 BTC).

MCAP – Market Capitalization

Moon – Continuous upward movement of price

Node – Refers to a computer running a full-client blockchain. It serves to share blocks and transactions across the network using the client-to-client infrastructure.

OTC – Over The Counter

P2P– Peer-to-peer (P2P) refers to direct, decentralized cryptocurrency interactions between two parties or more. No bank or other financial institution is required as a third party.

Paper wallet – A hard copy containing bitcoin wallet information such as bitcoin addresses and their corresponding private keys. Paper wallets are often used to store bitcoins securely in a nonsoftware capacity. (See An Introduction to Paper Wallets)

Private key – A cryptographic signature that allows the user to access and move bitcoins from a specific wallet.

PSP – Payment Service Providers act as bitcoin agents for merchants that accept online payments.

Public key – A publicly known alphanumeric string that acts as a bitcoin address when hashed with a private key to sign a digital communication. This is the key that you can share with other people to receive bitcoins.

Pump – Upward price movement Mining – The process of generating new bitcoins through the mathematical process of solving cryptographic problems using computing hardware.

QR code – A Quick Response code is a two-dimensional block image containing a black and white pattern representing a sequence of data. The images are scannable and are often used to encode bitcoin addresses.

Reverse Indicator – Someone who is always wrong predicting price movements.

RSI – Relative Strength Index

Satoshi – the smallest sub-unit of a bitcoin currently available (0.00000001 BTC).

Satoshi Nakamoto – the pseudonym used by the original inventor(s) of the Bitcoin protocol.

Signature – A mathematical sequence produced by the hashing of private and public keys together, proving that a bitcoin transaction came from a particular address.

SEPA – Single European Payment Area. SEPA was designed
as a European Union payment integration agreement that would make it easier to transfer funds between nations in Euros.

Shitcoin – A coin with no potential value or use

Short – Margin bear position

Swing – Zig zag price movement (Upwards and downwards)

TA – Technical Analysis

Transaction block – A compilation of bitcoin transactions that are collected into a block and then hashed and added to the blockchain.

Transaction fee – A small service charge added onto some transactions. The fee is paid to the miner that hashes the block containing the transaction.

Volatility – Market volatility reflects the measurement of price movement over a period of time for a traded financial asset, including bitcoin.

Wallet – the conceptual cyber equivalent of a physical wallet on the Bitcoin network. A wallet contains the private keys associated with the bitcoin address.

Weak Hand – a coin holder prone to selling at the first sign of a deep in price.

Whale – Very Wealthy trader/Market mover.

DYOR – Do Your Own Research