Glossary of Cryptocurrency Terms

April 23, 2021

Crypto World

Ana Rojas

It’s time to understand crypto from A to Z: Cryptocurrency Terms.

What Is Cryptocurrency?

Digital money issued by a decentralised ledger, a blockchain. There are different types of cryptocurrencies, some of them are pseudo-anonymous, some are truly anonymous.

What Is Bitcoin?

The first cryptocurrency, Bitcoin was launched in 2008. It is a pseudo-anonymous cryptocurrency because every transaction on its blockchain contains information about the addresses of the sender and the recipient. Find out more about who accepts Bitcoin now.

What Is Altcoin?

Altcoins are alternative cryptocurrencies launched after Bitcoin.

What Is Blockchain?

The blockchain is a cornerstone technology for all cryptocurrencies. It is a digital registry consisting of blocks of virtual memory. Every block contains information about transactions in it and contains a hash which is a way to get and confirm a full record of all preceding transactions in all preceding blocks in the blockchain.

A blockchain runs on a machine with a CPU and allows users to connect to it by creating addresses on it. Also, people can run a full node of a blockchain, which will contain a full copy of the blockchain, to confirm transactions and mine or mint cryptocurrency. 

Token vs. Coin

Coins are miner or minted on the blockchain itself and they are units of a cryptocurrency. Tokens are issued from a smart contract. Smart contracts run on certain blockchains that have virtual machines to run them. 

Tokens usually have some other value on top of being able to transfer value. There are utility tokens that give access to some certain premium functions on some digital platforms. There are security tokens which act as a digital equivalent of an equity, providing its holder with dividend payouts. 

What Is Crypto Mining?

Mining is the process of finding the nonce (number only used once), which being summed up with the hash of the previous block in the blockchain, will allow the hashing function of the present block to produce a hash that will be equal to or less than the target hash of the present block. Mining is done by mining machines which try to randomly select the nonce that will satisfy the mining difficulty of the block.

What Is Bitcoin Halving?

The division of the block reward in the Bitcoin blockchain by the factor of two. In the Bitcoin blockchain, halving is programmed to occur every four years.

What Are Forks?

A fork is the introduction of a new chain to the existing blockchain with some change in the protocol. Depending on how radical the change is, the fork can be soft or hard.

In soft forks, the new chain is compatible with the older version of the protocol, and the nodes of the older chain can still process transactions in the new chain, but their blocks will be rejected if they contradict the terms of the protocol of the new chain. 

In hard forks, the protocol of the new chain is not compatible with the older chain, and the nodes of the older chain cannot process transactions on the new chain. 

What Is a Crypto Wallet?

Cryptocurrency wallets are wallets you can store cryptocurrency in. They can be hot (online) and cold (offline). The best cold wallets are manufactured by Ledger and Trezor.

What Are Crypto Exchanges? And What Is a Fiat-to-Crypto Exchange?

Cryptocurrency exchanges allow their users to trade cryptocurrencies. Some exchanges offer lots of them, some fewer. On some exchanges, there are more cryptocurrency-to-fiat trading pairs. Some exchanges only offer stablecoins instead of fiat currencies. Cryptocurrency exchanges have an order book for every trading pair that defines the liquidity available in the pair. This liquidity determines how much cryptocurrency can be bought or sold at a certain price level in every trading pair.

Exchangers allow their users to exchange crypto at floating and fixed rates. Now you can exchange over 350 cryptocurrencies and buy crypto with fiat money on StealthEX.

What Is a Smart Contract?

Smart contracts are programmable contracts deployed on a blockchain and executed by the virtual machine of the respective blockchain. In essence, they are digital versions of paper contracts and allow different parties to remotely enter an agreement. Smart contracts automatically execute their terms and perform the respective operations when certain conditions are met. Smart contracts can be used for multiple purposes, which has made them very popular in many industrial areas.

What Is Fiat Money?

Fiat money is money centrally issued by the central financial authority of a country. U.S. dollars are fiat money; they are issued by the U.S. Federal Reserve.

What Is a Stablecoin?

A stablecoin is a cryptocurrency whose value is pegged to that of a fiat currency or other real-world assets.

Who Is Satoshi Nakamoto and what Is Satoshi?

Satoshi Nakamoto is the creator of Bitcoin and the author of the White Paper “Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System”.

One satoshi is a 1 hundred-millionth share of one BTC, which is the smallest unit of Bitcoin. It was named after its creator.

To The Moon

It is a slang term denoting extremely bullish cryptocurrency markets and multifold price spikes when the price grows multifold in a short period of time. The popular recent example of “To the Moon” is the Dogecoin pump, which also became known as Dogecoin to the Moon.

And always remember, if you need to exchange your coins StealthEX is here for you. We provide a selection of more than 350 coins and constantly updating the cryptocurrency list so that our customers will find a suitable option for exchange with a low fee. By the way, we also offer the opportunity to buy crypto at fixed rates.

How to Buy Crypto at StealthEX

You can study a detailed article with an exchange guide, watch a tutorial video on our YouTube channel, or just go to StealthEX and follow these easy steps:

1. Choose the pair and the amount for your exchange. For example, BTC to ETH.
2. Press the “Start exchange” button.
3. Provide the recipient address to which the coins will be transferred.
4. Move your cryptocurrency for the exchange.
5. Receive your ETH coins!

And don’t forget that now you can purchase many coins on StealthEX for fiat currencies! You can read more about this in our article – How to Buy Bitcoin with a Credit Card?.

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The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author. Every investment and trading move involves risk. You should conduct your own research when making a decision.