15 More Crypto Terms You’ll Need To Know To Stay Relevant

New to the crypto community? You’ve probably seen Bitcoin and other tokens make headlines in the news and you want to learn more. Perhaps you did some research on your own and you’re thinking, “is it just me or does none of this make sense?” Fret not. If you’re new to the crypto community, you might get thrown off by some crypto terms and jargon but picking them up isn’t as difficult as you think.

If you’ve been following this page, you’d know that we’ve already talked about some of the most common crypto terms but we thought we should add on to that list. Here are some of the most crypto terms you’ll see and a quick and dirty explanation of what they mean:

Faucet

A reward system that gives users a small amount of cryptocurrency after they’ve completed a small task. These tasks are simple and can be as easy as doing a survey.

Coin Burning

Sending cryptocurrency to a public address, which no one has access to. The private keys to these addresses are unobtainable and the coins sent there cannot be spent or traded.

Read more about coin burning here.

Dapp

This stands for Decentralised Applications. Dapps are serverless P2P applications and do not run on a single system. They can run on Blockchain or on traditional P2P networks like BitTorrent.

Hard Fork

Hard forks happen when there’s a change in protocol. When changes are made to the blockchain, it diverges and forms “two potential paths forward”. The path of the older version continues to run but data and protocol between the old and new versions will be different. An example of a hard fork you can look up is Bitcoin Cash, which was created because certain members of the Bitcoin community wanted to increase the block size of Bitcoin.

Soft Fork

Soft forks happen when there is a change made to the code of the blockchain. However, the old and new version still comply to the same protocol.

TA

This stands for Technical Analysis. TA is used to predict price movements and securing successful trades by examining past statistics.

Hardware wallet

This refers to a piece of technology — a memory stick or a external drive — that keeps your private keys. Storing your keys in a hardware wallet prevents them from being stolen or attacked by viruses.

Gas

This refers to the transaction fee on the Ethereum Network

Hot wallet

Hot wallets store your keys as well but they are always connected to the internet. This makes them susceptible to virus attacks.

Mining

Mining refers to the process where computational power is used to verify transactions on the blockchain. These transactions are verified through a complex mathematical equation and the fastest miner to solve the equation gets rewarded with cryptocurrency.

DLT

This stands for Distributed Ledger Technology. This means that a ledger is distributed globally and many individuals around the world can contribute to its database. Changes to the database can only be made when the majority of the contributors agree to it.

EL5

“Explain Like I’m 5” — a common term used in Reddit forums when you’d like someone to explain and simplify complex concepts.

51% Attack

This happens when more than half of the computer power in the network is run by a single group or individual, allowing them to have a powerful influence.

Read more about it here.

ICO

Acronym for Initial Coin Offering.

BTD

An acronym for Buy The Dip. A term that refers to buying coins which have decreased in price.

Once you’ve got your head around some of these common terms and acronyms, you’ll start to understand forum threads more effectively. While it might seem intimidating at first, just remember that cryptocurrency is still relatively new and it’s not too late to learn more about it now. And remember, if you still can’t wrap your head around complex ideas and discussions, just ask and “EL5”.

More from New to Crypto?

---