Crypto Glossary

Browse 30 crypto terms defined in plain English, from the cultural dictionary of computing.

30 Crypto Terms

Bitcoin Maximalist
A person who believes Bitcoin is the only cryptocurrency with long-term value and that all altcoins, tokens, and blockchain projects are unnecessary...
Blockchain Bro
A pejorative term for someone who zealously promotes blockchain and cryptocurrency as the solution to virtually every problem, regardless of whether a...
Blockchain Startup
A startup whose product, infrastructure, or fundraising story is built substantially around blockchain technology, tokens, or decentralized systems. The label...
consensus mechanism
The algorithm by which a decentralized network agrees on the current state of the blockchain without a central authority. Common mechanisms include proof of...
Crypto Bro
A stereotype of an aggressively evangelizing cryptocurrency enthusiast, often associated with hype, speculative optimism, status signaling, and repetitive...
Cryptocurrency Culture
The social world surrounding cryptocurrencies, including memes, ideological narratives, trading communities, tribal loyalties, token launches, and status...
Crypto Startup
A startup built around cryptocurrency, blockchain infrastructure, token-based products, or adjacent financial primitives. The label spans serious...
crypto wallet
Software or hardware that stores the cryptographic private keys needed to sign transactions on a blockchain. Despite the name, wallets don't actually hold...
Crypto Winter
A downturn period in the cryptocurrency sector marked by falling prices, reduced optimism, failed companies, and lower funding intensity. In broader tech...
DAO
Decentralized autonomous organization — an entity governed by smart contracts and token-holder votes rather than a traditional management structure. Members...
DeFi
Decentralized finance — an ecosystem of financial applications built on blockchains that replicate traditional banking services (lending, borrowing, trading,...
ERC-20
The dominant token standard on Ethereum, defining a common interface (transfer, approve, balanceOf, etc.) that allows any compliant token to be traded, stored,...
gas fee
The fee paid to validators for processing a transaction or executing a smart contract on a blockchain like Ethereum. Gas prices fluctuate based on network...
hard fork (blockchain)
A backward-incompatible change to a blockchain's protocol that permanently splits the network into two separate chains. Nodes that don't upgrade follow the old...
Initial Coin Offering
A fundraising method where a project sells newly issued tokens to the public or early participants, often before the product is fully mature. ICOs were a...
liquidity pool
A smart contract holding paired token reserves that enables decentralized trading without order books. Liquidity providers deposit equal values of two tokens...
MEV
Maximal extractable value (originally 'miner extractable value') — the profit a block producer can capture by arbitrarily reordering, inserting, or censoring...
mining (crypto)
The process of using computational power to validate transactions and add new blocks to a proof-of-work blockchain. Miners compete to solve a cryptographic...
oracle (blockchain)
A service that feeds external real-world data (prices, weather, sports scores, API responses) into a blockchain, since smart contracts cannot natively access...
proof of stake
Proof of Stake (PoS) is a consensus mechanism used by blockchain networks to validate transactions and create new blocks, where validators are chosen based on...
proof of work
A consensus mechanism where participants must expend computational effort to propose new blocks, making it economically impractical to attack the network. The...
Proof of Work Slang
Informal language around proof-of-work systems, often mixing technical detail with cultural shorthand, memes, and ideological baggage. In engineering slang,...
Pump and Dump
A manipulative scheme where promoters hype an asset to inflate its price, then sell into the surge before the price collapses. The phrase is common in...
rollup
A layer-2 scaling solution that executes transactions off-chain but posts compressed transaction data (or validity proofs) back to the main chain. Optimistic...
Rugpull
A situation where creators, leaders, or operators suddenly withdraw support, value, or promised behavior, leaving others exposed. It is strongly associated...
sidechain
An independent blockchain that runs parallel to a main chain (layer 1), connected by a two-way bridge that allows assets to move between them. Sidechains can...
soft fork (blockchain)
A backward-compatible change to a blockchain's protocol where old nodes can still validate new blocks, even if they don't understand the new rules. Unlike a...
staking
The act of locking up cryptocurrency tokens to participate in network validation (in proof-of-stake systems) or to earn yield in DeFi protocols. Staked tokens...
Wallet
A software or hardware tool that stores cryptographic private keys and manages digital assets (cryptocurrency, NFTs, digital identity). Does not actually...
zero-knowledge proof
A cryptographic method that allows one party (the prover) to convince another party (the verifier) that a statement is true without revealing any information...

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