The A to Z of Crypto Lingo (Part 1)

It’s true that you don’t have to know all  the crypto jargon to get started with trading cryptocurrencies. But it can certainly help! In this series, we’ll break down some common terms and phrases you may hear when learning about cryptocurrency. If you’re just starting out, these are some phrases that’ll help you get your feet wet and make sure you’re not lost in a sea of jargon!

Airdrop

Airdrop is a form of blockchain distribution that allows users to receive cryptocurrency tokens without having to purchase them. Instead, they can be given away for free in exchange for other forms of social media engagement, such as posting about the token on Twitter or joining a Telegram group. Airdrops are commonly used as an advertising strategy by companies looking to promote their new crypto-related product.

Altcoin

Altcoins are a part of the cryptocurrency ecosystem, and they can be traded just like bitcoin or ether. The term “altcoin” is short for alternative coin. It refers to any cryptocurrency other than Bitcoin. 

Bitcoin ($BTC)

Bitcoin is a decentralized digital currency that allows users to send payments directly to each other without going through a financial institution. The creation of bitcoin was designed to process payments more efficiently than traditional financial systems.

Buy the Dip

“Buy the dip” is a strategy used by investors to increase their chances of making money. It involves buying a cryptocurrency when its price dips so that if the price goes back up you can earn a profit. The dip could be caused by bad news about the currency, or just general market conditions that cause prices to fall across all cryptocurrencies.

Blockchain

Blockchain is a distributed ledger, also known as a decentralized or peer-to-peer network. This means that the records of transactions are stored on many different computers around the world instead of just one, making it difficult to hack into and change them. Blockchain is often used in cryptocurrency exchanges such as Bitcoin where each transaction must be verified by miners before it can be added to the blockchain (or chain) of past transactions.

Coin

A coin is a unit of cryptocurrency. It refers to any digital token being sold in an initial coin offering (ICO). Coins are often referred to as “coins” because they function as currencies, or store value, for their respective networks.

Cold wallet

A cold wallet is a cryptocurrency wallet that’s not connected to the internet. As such, it’s considered more secure than hot wallets (a.k.a. “hot storage”), which are connected to the internet and therefore are more susceptible to hacking attempts.

A hardware cold wallet is a physical device designed to store your cryptocurrency offline. The most common type looks like a USB stick or external hard drive. 

dApp

A dApp is a decentralized application. Decentralized applications are applications that run on a decentralized peer-to-peer network, meaning there is no central authority controlling the application. Often, these types of apps run on top of other protocols like Ethereum or EOS.

DeFi

DeFi, or “Decentralized Finance”, is a new concept in the crypto space that allows you to manage your financial assets on the blockchain. It also lets you exchange them for other tokens or fiat currency. You can think of DeFi as an ecosystem of decentralized applications (or DApps) that allow users to make exchanges and transactions.

DAO (Decentralized Autonomous Organization)

A DAO is an entity that operates without any form of human managerial control. A DAO typically runs on computer code and is implemented as smart contracts, which are basically self-executing agreements that run on the blockchain. The most famous DAO was The DAO, which was hacked in 2016. 

Doxxed

Doxxed is the process of identifying information about someone online, such as their real name, home address, financial, and other personal information.

The identity of the developer behind project has been revealed.

Exchange Tokens

Exchange tokens are a form of cryptocurrency that is used for trading on the exchange. They can also be used to pay for trading fees, listing fees, and even research and development.

Fork

A fork is a change in the protocol of a blockchain. It occurs when there is a disagreement about the direction of development, or when a group wants to add new features to the blockchain. When this happens, two new blockchains are created. A fork can occur when one group wants to make changes to the existing protocol, while another group wants to stick with the original protocol.

FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out) 

In the crypto world, FOMO is often used to describe how people get caught up in the hype of a new coin and buy it without researching it first. The term was coined by traders who saw the value of their investments drop after they bought more of a coin without understanding its potential.

FUD (Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt)

FUD is when people are afraid that something bad might happen. For example, someone might say “Don’t buy bitcoin now because it will crash!” But this could easily be fake news or even just someone trying to make money by hyping up the price of something (and then selling as soon as people start buying).

Halvening or Halving

Halving is a reduction in the rate at which new cryptocurrency units are created. The term was first used in 2010 with the Bitcoin halvening, when the block reward was reduced by half every 210,000 blocks mined.

HODL (Hold On For Dear Life) or Hold

This is probably a crypto investor’s favourite saying, which means to hold onto your crypto coins for investment purposes rather than spending them. It is also often used during market downturns when people choose to ‘HODL’ rather than sell.

Fun fact – the term HODL first appeared in 2013 on the BitcoinTalk forum, apparently as a misspelling of ‘hold’ written during a drunken rant. Now it’s used worldwide!

Exchange

An exchange is a platform for buying and selling cryptocurrencies. There are many exchanges, but the most popular ones are Coinbase, Gemini, and Kraken. When you buy Bitcoin on an exchange like Poloniex or Bittrex, you don’t actually own that Bitcoin; instead, your account on the exchange stores it for you until you want to withdraw it into your personal wallet (such as Exodus).

Ether / Ethereum($ETH)

Ether is a native token of the Ethereum blockchain. It’s a cryptocurrency, but unlike Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, Ether was created to be used as a means of payment on the Ethereum network. Ether can be exchanged for other cryptocurrencies or fiat currencies through cryptocurrency exchanges. 

Ethereum is a platform for creating decentralized applications. The cryptocurrency is used to pay for computation time and network fees. Ethereum is an open-source project, which means that everyone can see what code it runs on top of and contribute to its development.

Encryption

Encryption is the process of encoding information in such a way that only authorized parties can read it. Cryptography is the science of transforming information into an unreadable form by anyone except those possessing special knowledge, usually referred to as a key.

Fiat currency

Fiat currency is a currency without intrinsic value. It is backed by a government or central bank, and it is used as legal tender. The term fiat comes from the Latin word “let it be done.”

So, that’s it for our first part of the A to Z of Crypto jargon. We hope you enjoyed reading it and learned something new about the industry too! 

More to follow in Part 2 and Part 3. . .Hopium on!