Dictionary of cryptocurrency terms in Russian and English

The cryptocurrency market is actively developing and new terms are constantly appearing in it, and the roots of someconcepts, on the contrary, have gone so deep into history that not everyone correctly understands their meaning.

To make it easier for beginners (and not only) to navigate in the cryptocurrency space, we compiled a dictionary of all the most popular cryptocurrency terms in Russian and English.

Popular cryptocurrency terms in Russian

Altcoin(English)altcoin) — the name of all cryptocurrencies except Bitcoin. The first altcoins appeared in 2011. Their goal was to overcome all the technical limitations that Bitcoin has. There are hundreds of altcoins, with over 2,000 altcoins listed on the website Coinmarketcap. Every day more and more altcoins appear. Read more about Altcoin.

Arbitration Trading(transactions) are trading operations with the samethe same financial assets at the same time, but in different markets, in order to benefit from price differences. Read more about arbitrage trading. Read more about arbitrage trading.

Attack 51%— these are manipulations that implyusing 51% of the computing power for the network using proof-of-work (POW). During an attack, the available power is used to generate blocks in the interests of the attacker. Read more about the 51% attack.

Atomic swap( atomic swap ) — exchange of one cryptocurrencyto another without the participation of third parties. Not all cryptocurrencies support such an exchange. Atomic Swap is supported in the code: Bitcoin, Litecoin, Vertcoin, Decred. Read more about atomic swap.

ASIC(ASIC) – specialized technical equipment for cryptocurrency mining. Read more about ASIC.

Airdrop(Airdrop) — this is one of the two mosteffective methods for receiving free cryptocurrency (tokens). During AirDrop, the project developers give free coins to everyone, and in return they ask you to register on their resource. There is also an option when developers award bonuses to the holders of their tokens in the amount of 10-15% of their amount. Read more about Airdrop.

Bounty— this is an opportunity to receive an award incryptocurrency for certain advertising and informational actions without the need to invest your money in the project. This mainly applies to ICOs. Read more about bounty programs.

White paper(English)white paper is an official communication in writing, usually used in the USA, Great Britain, Ireland and other English-speaking countries. In the crypto industry, the term is assigned to official documentation containing a description of the technical solutions of ICO projects.

Blockchainis a continuous and sequential blockchain of information (digital linked list). When building a blockchain chain, copies of related blocks are simultaneously stored on many computers. Read more about blockchain.

Bitcoin blockis an element of the blockchain chain, a set of records of completed transactions in the cryptocurrency network.

Cryptocurrency exchanges— this is the place (platform) where peopleexchange some cryptocurrencies for others, or for the main fiat currencies (dollar, euro, rubles, yuan). This is the second place where they can be obtained after mining and, at the moment, the first place where they can be spent. Read more about cryptocurrency exchanges.

Bitcoin address– identifier (account number) starting with 1or 3 and containing 26-35 alphanumeric Latin characters (except 0, O, I). The address can also be presented in the form of a QR code, is anonymous and does not contain information about the owner. It can be obtained free of charge using any Bitcoin wallet.

Bitcoin ETF— is an exchange-traded fund that willuse Bitcoin as an underlying asset, that is, purchase cryptocurrency and sell your shares to investors. Investors who buy these securities will be able to make money on changes in the coin's price. Read more about Bitcoin ETFs.

Validity- a term used in economics,psychology, finance and other social disciplines. It means the degree of reliability, correctness and reliability of information, organization, enterprise. The etymology of the concept has French roots, from “valide”, which means “valid”. In the cryptocurrency sphere, it is used to measure the security level of the exchange and the reliability of the ICO.

Volatilityis a financial term that meansstatistical indicator of price variability. Etymology of the term: from the English “volatility”, which translated means “flying, volatility”. In the cryptocurrency world, it is used by traders as an indicator for managing financial risks. That is, it is a measure of trading risk and as a financial analytical tool for trading on the stock exchange.

Genesis block — (genesis block)is a cryptocurrency term that refers tothe first block in the blockchain chain. Thanks to the creation of this block, a new cryptocurrency is “born”. A genesis block is the only block in the chain that does not have a parent block and is linked unilaterally by hash to the next block. Like subsequent blocks, genesis consists of a “head” header and a “playload” transaction record. The “head” and “playload” of the block’s genesis contain the following information: The exact time the block was created. Read more about the genesis block.

Double wasteor double spending - an attempt to spend money twice. This occurs when someone makes a financial transaction and then makes a second transaction with the same money.

Cryptocurrency— type of digital currency, issue and accountingwhich are based on cryptographic methods, such as the Proof-of-work protection method and asymmetric encryption, and the functioning of the system is decentralized in a distributed computer network. Read more about cryptocurrency.

Cryptocurrency wallet(cryptocurrency wallet) – storage systemcryptocurrencies. There are two types of wallets: cold (offline) and hot (online) storage. The difference is that the former store digital coins offline, without access to the Internet. Read more about cryptocurrency wallets.

The keys(keys) - character string (bit string),used by a cryptographic algorithm to encrypt and decrypt messages, create and verify a digital signature, and identify. Keys can be symmetric (the same key is used for encryption and decryption) and asymmetric (public and private).

Ring signature(ring signature) is a type of digital signature that allows one anonymous user to sign a document on behalf of a group of users, that is, on behalf of a certain “ring of users.”

Cross chain— a technology that allows you to exchange one cryptocurrency for another without the use of centralized intermediaries such as cryptocurrency exchanges.

Crowdsale(CrowdSale, ICO) is an economic term that refers to the process of pre-selling a product. Read more about ICO.

Whale (WHALE)— this term came tocryptocurrency world from speculation. A whale is a trader with enormous financial capabilities who tries to influence the dynamics of a particular cryptocurrency in order to gain profit.

Cryptocurrency HYIPsis the process of making money by attracting financial resources from investors to a particular project.

Liquidity- a term that denotes opportunityrealize (sell) any financial assets (below or above the market price). The term liquidity, translated from Latin, means “liquid, current”. Today, it is customary to use three types of liquidity: low (difficult to sell at the market price), high (easy to sell) and illiquid assets (almost impossible to sell).

Mining– type of activity for creating new blocks inblockchain chain to ensure proper operation of the system. Etymology of the term: from the English “mining”, which means “extraction of minerals”. In the cryptocurrency world, mining has two main functions: 1. Supporting the operation of the blockchain platform and entering completed transactions into the chain. Each completed transaction is recorded by miners in a new block. 2. System for maintaining the emission of cryptocurrency. Read more about mining.

Masternode— this is a complete node (node) of the blockchain network withadvanced features. The main conditions for creating a masternode are the presence of a stable, uninterrupted Internet, a certain number of coins that must be frozen, and any transactions for life are excluded. The most famous coins with masternodes are DASH, PIVX, SysCoin, Strat and many other coins. In general, owning a masternode is a good stable way of passive income, and allows you to participate in the activities of the network of your chosen coin, but the cost of the investment is quite high. Read more about masternodes.

Token Migration— coin swap is a transition processcryptocurrencies from one blockchain to another. This process may be due to a hard fork or the launch of the main network. Token holders must follow the guidelines for a successful transition to avoid losing their coins.

But yes(from Englishnode - node) is any computer that connects to the Bitcoin network and uses the p2p protocol, which allows nodes to communicate with each other on the network and distribute information about transactions and blocks. The blockchain network consists of such nodes, between which information is distributed. Read more about nodes.

Order– automatic order to buy or sellcryptocurrencies. Orders are used during trading on the stock exchange to open and close a position. According to the type of execution, exchange orders are classified into: Limit exchange orders - orders to buy and sell at a specified price or higher. Market orders – orders are executed at the average market price on the exchange. “Stop orders” are used for urgent purchase and sale of crypto assets at the average market price or worse.

Cloud mining(cloud mining) - web services that sell powerfor mining cryptocurrencies. The equipment itself is located at the seller’s site and is maintained by him. The buyer pays for the ordered computing power and receives income from mining. Read more about cloud mining.

Pump and Dump(Pump & dump) is a manipulative schemegames on the stock exchange for the purpose of making quick money. The essence of the scheme is an artificial increase in the exchange rate of a currency on the market or stock exchange with its subsequent collapse, or vice versa: a collapse followed by a rise.

Transaction confirmation(English), «confirmation») is necessary to prevent repeated spending of the same funds. Typically, when receiving cryptocurrency, the new owner cannot immediately dispose of it. Once a transaction is completed, it is sent to the blockchain network for execution and must be included in a block to become legitimate. Read more about Bitcoin transactions.

Pools– uniting miners into groups for miningcryptocurrencies. Participation in the pool significantly increases the chances of winning for all participants. Each miner, according to its power, is tasked with finding a nonce value (one-time code) at a certain interval. After completing this task, the miner receives the following. The contribution of each participant to closing the block is valued in share (or shara - from the English “share” - share, part). Share (share) is part of the work of finding a solution to the hash function for signing a block, which is issued by the pool to the miner. Read more about mining pools.

Premining(Pre-mining) - mining of crypto coins by the creatorcryptocurrency before its appearance is officially announced. Allows you to issue cryptocurrency before it enters the market. Often used in scam cryptocurrencies, but not all pre-mine coins are scams.

Private (private) key(private key) - a code string that is used to access a wallet or Bitcoin address. Required for transactions. How to store a private key?

Public (public) key(public key) - paired to the correspondingprivate key is a code string to which public access is available. Used along with a secret private key to send transactions. The public key corresponds to the Bitcoin address.

Soft fork– minor code changes without violationsmain protocol. It is used by cryptocurrency developers themselves or by top mining pools that need to make minor changes to the operation of the network. There is no need to update the nodes' software; the network is rolled back several blocks and the necessary changes are made to the code. Read more about the soft fork.

Satoshi Nakamoto(Satoshi Nakamoto) - a person known asfounder of Bitcoin and creator of the original Bitcoin client. In his profile on the P2P Foundation, he said that he was originally from Japan. Almost nothing more is known about his personality. Satoshi Nakamoto developed the project since 2007, and in 2010 stopped his participation in the development of Bitcoin.

Scam(from English scam) - fraud.The Russified term is firmly attached to investment Internet projects that initially do not think about fulfilling their obligations to investors. The concept of scam is mainly used among HYIP investors. When a HYIP stops making payments to investors, it is called a scam or said to have failed.

Complexity(English, difficulty) is a unit of measurement that shows how difficult it is to find a hash that will be lower than the target proposed by the system. Read more about mining difficulty.

Smart contract(English)smart contract, also self-executing contract, blockchain contract, or digital contract) is an electronic algorithm designed to automate the process of executing contracts in the blockchain. The main idea of ​​smart contracts is to eliminate discrepancies in the interpretation of the terms of the contract by the parties to it. Read more about smart contracts.

Stackingis an alternative method of mining,implying the storage of virtual coins on a wallet connected to the Network. In other words, this is the mining of coins that operate on the PoS consensus mechanism. Read more about staking.

Token— accounting unit that is usedto represent the digital balance in an asset. Tokens are kept in a database based on blockchain technology, and access to them is carried out through special applications using electronic signature schemes. The use of tokens is limited to the scope of the project, but they are multifunctional: they can be used as currency within the project, as an indicator of share ownership, or for the right to vote on changes to the project. This is their main difference from cryptocurrencies. Electronic currencies have one function - exchange for goods and services. Tokens can be exchanged on different platforms regardless of their origin. Read more about tokens.

Transaction- this is a signed section of data,which is transmitted over the blockchain network and collected into blocks. It usually contains references to previous transactions and associates a certain number of bitcoins with one or more public keys (Bitcoin addresses). It is not encrypted because nothing in the Bitcoin system is encrypted. Read more about transactions.

Trading– an economic term that means processindependent trading, independent market analysis and conclusion of trade transactions. Etymology of the concept: from the English “Trader” - “trader”. “Trader” is used more often. Read more about cryptocurrency trading.

Tu ze moon(TO THE MOON) — to the moon.The phrase refers to the 2017 cryptocurrency rush. Then you could often find statements like: The price of this coin will one day go to the moon! (“One day the value of this coin will skyrocket to the moon!”).

Fork(from English“fork” - which translates as “branch”) is the deliberate use of one code base of a software project to start another. That is, changing the blockchain code to split it into two. Each new branch of the chain can be developed independently of the main project. This also applies to functions: in a new direction, you can realize opportunities that were not there in the main one. Bitcoin serves as the base for forks. All other cryptocurrencies are called forks of BTC. The main distinguishing features of forks from each other: Encryption algorithm, Speed ​​and complexity of emission, Algorithm of hash functions, hashing (SHA-256, scrypt, Scrypt-Adaptive-Nfactor (Scrypt-N), Keccak). Read more about forks.

Phishing(English)phishing, from fishing - fishing, fishing) is a type of Internet fraud, the purpose of which is to gain access to confidential user data - logins and passwords. Read more about phishing.

Futures contractfor Bitcoin is an obligation to sell orbuy a certain amount of bitcoins at a certain price before the contract expires. The concept of futures, or, in a broader sense, — derivative, that is, a derivative financial instrument. Derivative — it is a financial contract between the parties to a transaction that is based on the future value of the underlying asset. Read more about Bitcoin futures.

Hard fork– radical changes to the source code,incompatible with the old protocol and software used. The new chain breaks away from the old one and no longer interacts with it. Transactions performed in the previous chain are not recognized as the new chain. To carry out a hard fork, the approval of network participants is required. However, if some miners oppose it, a split will occur. Based on one source code, two separate chains will appear. They can exist in parallel, but most often the chain that is chosen by the majority of users survives. The second one immediately dies off or goes through a long period of stagnation.

Halvingor halving - halving the rewardminers for the found block. From 2012 to 2016, the miner’s reward is 25 bitcoins; after halving, this amount will be 12.5 bitcoins. The final supply of 21 million Bitcoins is expected to be generated by 2140. Read more about halving.

Hash(hash, hashing) – a cryptographic term,which means changing input data of different sizes into input data of a clearly defined size, using a special mathematical algorithm. The term is used by miners to calculate the number below the “target” mark, as well as during cryptographic encoding. For example, if you need to encode the names of transaction participants in the blockchain, they are processed by a special program, and the original alphanumeric code is called a hash. In mining, a hash is the number that must be mined in order to contribute a block to the chain and receive a reward.

Chaincode— (chaincode) in Hyperledger Fabric is nothing more than a smart contract. Chaincode can be written in Go, Java and, soon, JavaScript.

Shilling(from Englishshilling, shill - “decoy duck”, barker) — activities on the Internet aimed at disseminating information about certain cryptocurrencies in order to arouse the interest of users and, as a result, increase their value.

Shitcoin(SHITCOIN) is a cryptocurrency with no intrinsic value or practical use.

Popular cryptocurrency terms in English

Airdrop- free crypto coins that are distributed as advertising to convey information about the token to potential investors and cryptocurrency enthusiasts.

ASIC(Application-Specific Integrated Circuit) - a special-purpose integrated circuit or ASIC - a processor for working with hashes, used in cryptocurrency mining.

ATH(All Time High) - the highest value for all time. Maximum cryptocurrency rate.

BipBitcoin Improvement Proposal - A document that describes the technical design, new features, new processes or software environment that changes the Bitcoin protocol.

Bitcoin investment trust(Bitcoin Investment Fund) - Privatea fund that invests exclusively in Bitcoin and uses the custody of Bitcoin on behalf of its investors. Provides financial services for people who want to invest in Bitcoin without having to purchase and securely store the cryptocurrency themselves.

Bitcoins per Block or Block Reward

BPIBitcoin Price Index, developed by Coindesk, represents the average price of Bitcoin on the world's largest exchanges.

Coinprizm— an application (wallet) and a network of the same name for digital confirmation of ownership of arbitrary objects and working with Colored coins.

Cryptonote— a protocol that provides obfuscation (obfuscation) of transactions in order to increase the degree of anonymity.

DAor Dapp (Decentralized Application) - a decentralized application - an open source program that works autonomously and stores its data in the blockchain.

DAO(Decentralized Autonomous Organization) - a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO).

Diffiffy(difficulty) - a parameter characterizing the difficulty of mining, i.e. complexity of solving a cryptographic problem.

Dgw(Dark Gravity Wave) is an algorithm for adjusting mining difficulty.

DLT(Distributed Ledger Technology) - Technologydistributed ledger (Bitcoin blockchain) - A combination of components including peer-to-peer (P2P) networks, distributed data storage and cryptography.

DPoS(Delegated proof-of-stake) - achievement algorithmconsensus in a decentralized environment, an alternative to PoW and PoS consensuses. It was developed in 2014 as part of the Graphene project and was first used in the Bitshares project, later in the Steemit project.

EEA(Enterprise Ethereum Alliance) - non-profitan alliance of financial and technology companies and funds, the purpose of which is to promote and support technologies and standards based on Ethereum, as well as harmonize the EntEth 1.0 reference architecture.
EEA members include a number of large banks, including JP Morgan, Santander, UBS and BNY Mellon, as well as IT companies Microsoft, Intel and others.

ECDSA(Elliptic Curve Digital Signature Algorithm) is an algorithm used to confirm transactions in the Bitcoin protocol.

Equihash— hashing algorithm used inProof-of-Work of some cryptocurrencies (ZCash, Bitcoin Gold, etc.). It is a rather complex hashing function and requires a lot of RAM to execute. Optimized for mining using graphic cards, so-called. GPU mining.

ETF(Exchange Traded Fund) - exchange-traded investment fund. A fund whose units (shares) are traded on an exchange. Read more…

EVM(Ethereum Virtual Machine) - Ethereum virtual machine.

FomoFear of missing out is a syndrome of lost profits, an obsessive fear of missing out on benefits from rising prices of cryptocurrencies.

Hashrate(hashrate or computing power) - the computing performance of computer equipment for mining cryptocurrencies. Measured in hashes per second.

Hodl(Hold On for Dear Life - Hold as iflife depends on it) is an Internet meme from the world of bitcoins and cryptocurrencies, which is a deliberate spelling distortion of the word “hold” (store, keep, save) or its typo.
The word came into use on December 8, 2013, whenBitcoinTalk.org forum user GameKyuubi published a post entitled I AM HODLING. In this post, he admits that he is under the influence of alcohol and explains the reason for BTC's behavior in the bear market.
Howey test - criteria used to determine an investment contract and securities. Includes four signs:
— Investing money.
— General enterprise.
— Expectation of profit.
— Efforts of the promoter or third parties.
In other words, according to the Howey test, an investment contract is an investment of money with the expectation of profit from a common enterprise depending solely on the efforts of the promoter or a third party.

ICO(Initial Coin Offering - initialcoin offering) - an abbreviation similar to IPO (Initial Public Offering - the first public sale of shares of a company) - is a way to raise initial capital using cryptocurrency.

ISO(Initial Scam Offering - initial offersscams) is a play on words, an allusion to ICOs, with a hint that most (if not all) of them are dummies. The phrase was coined by entrepreneur and Ethereum developer Julien Bouteloup to warn people about a scam in the cryptocurrency market.

Instant send— service for instant transactions.

Lightning network(LN) - technological solution forscaling Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies (Lightcoin etc.). Offered by Blockstream. It is an add-on to the Bitcoin protocol that allows transactions to be carried out without first recording them in the blockchain. Functions as bidirectional payment channels. Read more…

MAST(Merkelized Abstract Syntax Trees -merkelized abstract syntax trees) is a Bitcoin extension technology that allows you to increase the flexibility of smart contracts, improve scalability, and increase privacy. Combines the potential of P2SH with the capabilities of Merkle trees. Currently under development. Read more…

Nocoiner(nocoiner) - a person who does not have bitcoins.Knockouts (usually socialists, lawyers or MBA economists) are people who missed out on an opportunity to buy Bitcoin at a low price because they thought it was a scam and now regret missing out on the opportunity. The nocoiner hides his regret by constantly declaring that Bitcoin will collapse, that it is a scam, a pyramid or a bubble. The worst knock-in traders are academics and financiers (“gold bugs”). They believe that the world owes them everything they want because they are part of the elite.

Nonce(“nons”) - a numeric parameter sought duringmining (PoW algorithm) and written into the block header. Actually, the purpose of mining, as a competitive process for the right to add a block of transactions to the blockchain, is to select a Nonce such that the desired block hash (Block Hash) is less than a certain Target number, which is equivalent to obtaining a block hash starting with a certain number of zero bits.

P2P(Peer to Peer) is a peer-to-peer computer network in which all participants (nodes) have equal rights and can interact with each other, being a client and a server at the same time.

P2SH(Pay to Script Hash) is a multi-signature technology that reduces the load on the Bitcoin infrastructure in terms of data storage.
PoI (Proof-of-Importance) - alternative PoWan algorithm for achieving consensus when writing a block to the blockchain, in which the determination of the user who will record the next block takes into account the contribution of each participant in the process to the development and promotion of cryptocurrency.

PoS(Proof-of-Stake) - confirmation of ownership share,— an alternative PoW algorithm for achieving consensus when writing a block to the blockchain, in which the probability of writing a new block to the blockchain and receiving the corresponding reward is proportional to the user’s share of ownership in the system:
An individual currency holder with a share P of the total number of coins in circulation creates a new block with probability P.

PoW(Proof-of-Work) - proof of completedwork, is an algorithm by which the Bitcoin mining network comes to consensus, determining which of the mining nodes will write the generated block to the blockchain.
The essence of PoW comes down to two main points:
The need to perform a certain rather complex and time-consuming computational task.
Possibility to quickly and easily check the result.

PPS(Pay per Share) - payment method (reward) for mining in the pool. Payment for each sheir (sharu) found.

PPLNS(Pay Per Last N Shares) - method of payment (reward) for mining in the pool. Payment for the last N shares (ball).

PROP(Proportional) - method of payment (reward) for mining in the pool. The reward is calculated in proportion to the share of shares (shares) sent by the miner when the block is found by the pool.

RBF(Replace-By-Fee) - replacement in Bitcoinexisting transaction with a new transaction with an increase in commission. This feature provides the ability to increase the fee to speed up the process of confirming an existing transaction on the blockchain. RBF is described in BIP-0125. With Replace-By-Fee, users can replace their own transaction with a newer transaction with the increased fee already included.

Scrypt- cryptographic algorithmhashing developed for the Litecoin (LTC) currency. Compared to the SHA-256 function, the calculations are faster and require less processing power.

Seed(seed, source) - a code phrase (sequence of words) with which the user gains access to the private key from a wallet or Bitcoin address.

SegwitSegregated Witness is a soft fork proposed by the Bitcoin Core development team, the purpose of which is to optimize the block size. Read more…

SHA-256is a cryptographic hashing function that underlies the proof-of-work protocol of Bitcoin, as well as some other cryptocurrencies.

Share(share or ball) - part of the task of finding a crypto solution, which is issued by the mining pool to client miners.

Shitcoin- shitcoin - crypto coins offered by scammers.

Solidityis a programming language on the Ethereum platform for developing smart contracts.

SPV(Simplified Payment Verification) - simplifiedpayment verification is a feature of the Bitcoin protocol that allows nodes to verify a transaction without downloading the full blockchain. Instead, to verify a transaction, it is enough to download the Heads of the blocks that contain the hashes.

State channels(Status Channels) is a technology that allowsexchange information (transactions) between nodes in the network without first recording in the blockchain. The idea behind state channels is to move many intermediate processes off-chain while maintaining the inherent trustworthiness of the blockchain.

Target or Difficulty Target- target complexity - the maximum number that should not exceed the block hash sought during mining (Block Hash). Actually determines the number of zero bits at the beginning of the desired hash.

Testnet— test chain of transaction blocks. Used by developers to avoid spending money on the main chain.

Tge(Token Generating Event) is generally a synonym for ICO, or more precisely, one of the stages of ICO, namely the release and distribution of tokens (Token sale).

Utxo(unspent transaction output) - unspent transaction output - indivisible pieces of bitcoins, tied to a specific owner, recorded in the blockchain, and recognized as currency throughout the network.
There is no concept of accounts or balances in Bitcoin; there is only
unspent transaction outputs (UTXO).

Wire transfer(Cash or bank transfer) - transfer of money from one person to another electronically. Typically used to send and receive traditional currency at cryptocurrency exchanges.

X11— a system of hashing algorithms using a chain of 11 hash functions. Used to prove work done when mining DASH cryptocurrency.

Zero Knowledge Proof— Zero-knowledge proof, —an interactive cryptographic protocol that allows one of the interacting parties (“The verifier”) to verify the reliability of a statement (usually mathematical), without having any other information from the other party (“The prover”).

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