GLOSSARY

ACH - ACH payments are electronic payments made from one bank to another through the Automated Clearing House network.  ACH payments are a popular option for buying cryptocurrency for members on Uphold. 

ADDRESS - A place where cryptocurrency can be sent to and from, in the form of a string of letters and numbers. 

AIRDROP - A marketing campaign that distributes a specific cryptocurrency or token to an audience. 

ALTCOIN - As Bitcoin is the first cryptocurrency that captured the world’s imagination, all other coins were subsequently termed “altcoins,” as in “alternative coins.” 

AML - AML is an acronym for “Anti-Money Laundering.” AML regulations were originally designed around traditional centralized banking systems, and have since needed to adapt to account for Bitcoin and other cryptocurrency transactions. 

ANNUAL PERCENTAGE RATE (APR) - In Crypto, it represents the amount of interest a user would receive for their bonded asset in one year.  

ANNUAL PERCENTAGE YIELD (APY) -   is the rate of return gained over the course of a year on a specific investment including compounding interest.

ARBITRAGE - Arbitrage is a technical term from the world of finance and economics. It is a form of trading that capitalizes on the price difference between two or more markets. For example, a trader practicing arbitrage might buy a currency in one market and sell it in another market at a higher price, earning a profit from a temporary difference in prices. 

ATH - ATH is an acronym for “all-time high.” In cryptocurrency discussions, ATH refers to the highest valuation reached to date for a particular currency. 

BEAR MARKET -  The term given to a prolonged period of negative sentiment and falling prices in an asset market. Example - Bitcoin is experiencing a bear market. The opposite is Bull Market. 

BEP-20 - is a Binance Smart Chain token standard created with the intention of extending ERC-20. 

BITCOIN (BTC) -  A monetary system utilizing a novel technology called blockchain. Bitcoin also refers to the cryptocurrency unit (small 'b') supported by the Bitcoin blockchain. Bitcoin's blockchain is maintained by a distributed network with no controlling central authority.  

BLOCK - Blocks are where unalterable data from the network is stored, mainly the data for transactions. 

BLOCK EXPLORER - An application enabling a user to view details of blocks on a given blockchain. Also known as a blockchain browser. 

BLOCKCHAIN - A distributed ledger system. A sequence of blocks, or units of digital information, stored consecutively in a public database. The basis for cryptocurrencies.  Each different blockchain has its own network of nodes (computers) run by validators (people) who keep the network honest by verifying and keeping track of network user transactions. 

BROWSER EXTENSION - A browser extension is a plugin for an internet browser that adds additional features. 

BTD/BTFD (BUY THE F****** DIP) - An enthusiastic exclamation by supporters of a cryptocurrency to buy while prices are at a low point. 

BULL MARKET - A term used to refer to a market where the prevailing trend is rising prices, encouraging buying. Bullish is used to describe speculators and analysts who have an outlook that assumes raising prices are likely to occur in the near future. The opposite of bullish is bearish. 

BURN/BURNED - Cryptocurrency tokens or coins are considered “burned” when they have been purposely and permanently removed from circulation. 

CENTRALIZED EXCHANGE (CEX) - Centralized exchanges (CEXs) are a type of cryptocurrency exchange that is operated by a company that owns it in a centralized manner. 

COLD STORAGE -  A secure method for storing cryptocurrency that by default is offline (not connected to the internet) and therefore minimizes the threat of hacking. 

COLD WALLET -  A cryptocurrency wallet that by default is offline (not connected to the internet) and therefore minimizes the threat of hacking.  

CONSENSUS MECHANISM - A consensus mechanism is an underlying technology behind the main functionalities of all blockchain technology, which makes them an essential operating feature of all cryptocurrencies. 

CROSS-CHAIN - Cross-chain is a technology that enhances the interconnection between blockchain networks by allowing the exchange of information and value. 

CRYPTOCURRENCY - Cryptocurrencies are digital currencies that use cryptographic technologies to secure their operation. 

CUSTODY -  The term used to describe who controls the Private Keys for a cryptocurrency wallet., giving them control over funds. Custodial - Controlled by a 3rd party; Non-custodial - controlled by the individual. 

DECENTRALIZED - Decentralization refers to the property of a system in which nodes or actors work in concert in a distributed fashion to achieve a common goal. 

DECENTRALIZED APPLICATIONS (DAPPS) - A type of application that runs on a decentralized network, avoiding a single point of failure. 

DECENTRALIZED EXCHANGE (DEX) - A peer-to-peer exchange allowing users to trade cryptocurrency without the need for an intermediary. 

DECENTRALIZED FINANCE (DEFI) - A movement encouraging alternatives to traditional, centralized forms of financial services. 

DEGEN -  A badge of honor to describe someone who approaches opportunities to earn yield with DEFI. 

DIAMOND HANDS -  Describes someone with the strongest resolve to not sell their crypto even in the face of negative sentiment or declining prices, because of a belief in its fundamental value. 

DISTRIBUTED LEDGERS - Distributed ledgers are ledgers in which data is stored across a network of decentralized nodes.  

DYOR -  Abbreviation for Do You Own Research, widely used in the crypto community to encourage newcomers to make decisions based on their research and understanding, rather than blindly following opinions of others. 

ERC-20 - Tokens designed and used solely on the Ethereum platform. 

ETHEREUM - Ethereum is a distributed public blockchain network similar to Bitcoin. However, there are important differences between the two. Ethereum uses smart contracts and gives developers resources to raise funds. Ethereum also has a faster transaction speed than the Bitcoin network. 

EXCHANGE - An exchange is marketplace that matches buyers’ and sellers’ orders on currency, securities, commodities, and financial instruments. 

FIAT CURRENCY - Fiat currency refers to currency without any intrinsic value other than by legal decree. Fiat currencies are usually regulated and controlled by a government or central bank. 

FOMO - An acronym that stands for "Fear of Missing Out."  Cryptocurrencies that are quickly rising in value often draw interest from investors due to the fear of missing out (FOMO) on a chance to get in when prices are still low. 

FORK - A fork occurs when a cryptocurrency’s existing code is changed. A hard fork splits a blockchain into two divergent chains, which why two distinct cryptocurrencies arise, such as BTC and BTG. A soft fork is only results in one coin. 

FUD - An acronym that stands for “Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt.”  

GOVERNANCE TOKEN - A governance token is a token that can be used to vote on decisions that influence an ecosystem. 

HARDWARE WALLET - A hardware wallet is a wallet for cryptocurrencies that usually resemble a USB stick. 

HASHRATE - The hashrate is the measuring unit for the processing speed of a given cryptocurrency network. The higher the hashrate, the faster the cryptocurrency network will complete transactions and other operations. 

HODL (HOLD ON FOR DEAR LIFE - A type of passive investment strategy where you hold an investment for a long period of time, regardless of any changes in the price or markets.  

HOSTED WALLET - A wallet managed by a third-party service. 

HOT WALLET - A cryptocurrency wallet that is connected to the internet for hot storage of crypto assets, as opposed to an offline, cold wallet with cold storage. 

IMPERMANENT LOSS - Impermanent loss is when a liquidity provider has a temporary loss of funds because of volatility in a trading pair. 

INITIAL COIN OFFERING (ICO) - Short for Initial Coin Offering, an ICO is a type of crowdfunding, or crowdsale, using cryptocurrencies as a means of raising capital for early-stage companies. 

INITIAL DEX OFFERING (IDO) - An initial dex offering (IDX) is an alternative to an initial coin offering (ICO). 

KNOW YOUR CUSTOMER (KYC) - are checks that crypto exchanges and trading platforms must complete to verify the identity of their customers. 

LAYER 1 - The foundational platform for crypto assets. For example, Ethereum and Bitcoin are both Layer 1 protocols. DApps and Layer 2 scaling solutions are built on top of Layer 1 platforms, similar to how webpages and web applications are built on top of the Internet’s core architecture. 

LIMIT ORDER - A limit order is a term from finance used to describe an order to buy or sell an asset at a specific price or better. For example, a client or firm may give an individual trader a limit order, which authorizes the trader to execute a purchase or sale as long as certain price conditions are met. 

LIQUID MARKET - A liquid market features a large number of buyers and sellers. It is a platform where all the trades are executed with ease and at a low cost. 

LIQUIDITY POOL - are crypto assets that are setup to facilitate the trading of trading pairs on decentralized exchanges. 

LIQUIDITY PROVIDER TOKENS (LP TOKENS) - are tokens issued to liquidity providers on a decentralized exchange (DEX) that run on an automated market maker (AMM) protocol. 

MAINNET - An independent blockchain running its own network with its own technology and protocol. 

MARGIN TRADING - A practice where a trader uses borrowed funds from a broker to trade a cryptocurrency. 

MARKET CAPITALIZATION -   the market capitalization of a cryptocurrency refers to the total value measured in US dollars of all the coins in a given cryptocurrency. For example, the market capitalization of Bitcoin refers to the current total value of all bitcoins in existence. 

MAX SUPPLY - The maximum amount of coins that will ever exist in the lifetime of the cryptocurrency.

MEMECOIN - are the crypto tokens created as a joke or meme and claim to offer huge gains to holders. 

METAMASK - An online digital wallet that allows users to manage, transfer and receive Ethereum, operating as an extension to a regular browser. 

METAVERSE - A digital universe that contains all the aspects of the real world, such as real-time interactions and economies. It offers a unique experience to end-users. 

MINERS - Contributors to a blockchain taking part in the process of mining. They can be professional miners or organizations with large-scale operations, or hobbyists who set up mining rigs at home or in the office.

MINING - A process where blocks are added to a blockchain, verifying transactions. It is also the process through which new Bitcoin or some altcoins are created. 

MINTING - is the process of generating new coins using the proof-of-stake mechanism and adding them to the circulation to be traded. 

MOBILE WALLET - A mobile wallet is a crypto wallet installed on a mobile device. 

MOON - A situation where there is a continuous upward movement in the price of a cryptocurrency. Often used in communities to question when a cryptocurrency will experience such a phenomenon.

NETWORK FEE - A network fee is a fixed amount of cryptocurrency a user must pay to transfer an amount via the blockchain. Network fees go to the miners who verify the transactions. Anytime you buy or sell a cryptocurrency, you must pay a network fee. Higher network fees generally mean faster transaction speeds as they are given priority over transactions with lower fees. 

NODE - The most basic unit of blockchain infrastructure that stores data. 

NON-CUSTODIAL - Usually referring to the storage of keys, in relation to wallets or exchanges, a non-custodial setup is one in which private keys are held by the user directly. 

NON-FUNGIBLE TOKEN (NFT) - Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) are cryptocurrencies that do not possess the property of fungibility.

OHM FORK - OlympusDAO or Ohm Forks represent the upgrades to OlympusDAO’s codebase that has given birth to a variety of forked products. 

P2P - P2P stands for “peer-to-peer” and refers to networks that have no central control. Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies operate as peer-to-peer electronic transaction systems. 

PARACHAIN - are application-specific data structures that run in parallel to each other within Polkadot. 

PRIVATE KEY - A private key is a cryptographic code made up of 51 alphanumeric characters. A private key allows its owner to access his/her cryptocurrency assets and gives its owner unique protection from theft and unauthorized access to funds. A private key is one half of a key pair. The other half is the public key (or address). Funds can be deposited with knowledge of the public key, but withdrawn only with access to the private key. 

PUBLIC KEY - The public key is the known identity of a cryptocurrency reserve or wallet. It serves as an address known to the public, and allows for the deposit of funds into the wallet. A public key is also one half of a key pair. The other half is the private key, known only to its owner. You may better understand the key pair using this analogy: the public key is like a mailbox, and the private key is like the key that opens the mailbox. 

PROOF-OF-STAKE (POS) - A blockchain consensus mechanism in addition to Proof-of-Work that maintains the integrity of blockchain. 

PROOF-OF-WORK (POW) - A blockchain consensus mechanism involving solving of computationally intensive puzzles to validate transactions and create new blocks.

PUBLIC ADDRESS (OR WALLET) - Sometimes known as a wallet address, the address to which people send each other crypto. It usually looks like a long string of randomly generated numbers. It’s okay for someone to know your public address. Also, sharing it won’t endanger your funds. 

PUBLIC KEY - A numerical code, also known as a wallet address, that serves as a means to identify transactions and send or receive crypto through open channels that are less secure. 

ROADMAP - A roadmap is a high-level visual summary that helps map out the vision as well as the direction of a specific product. 

RUG PULL - A type of scam where developers abandon a project and take their investors' money. 

SATOSHI (SATS) - The smallest unit of bitcoin with a value of 0.00000001 BTC. 

SATOSHI NAKAMOTO - The individual or group of individuals that created Bitcoin. 

SECOND LAYER SOLUTIONS - A set of solutions built on top of a public blockchain to extend its scalability and efficiency, especially for micro-transactions or actions. 

SEED PHRASE - The seed phrase (also known as seed recovery phrase, backup seed phrase or mnemonic phrase) refers to a generated list of 12 to 24 words, in a specific order, used by crypto wallet users to regain access and control of their funds on-chain. 

SEPA - SEPA is an acronym for “Single Euro Payments Area.” SEPA wire transfers allow for easy transactions between banks and bank accounts that are located in Europe. Not all cryptocurrency platforms and exchanges support SEPA transfers. 

SHITCOIN - A coin with no obvious potential value or usage. 

SMART CONTRACT - A smart contract is a computer protocol intended to facilitate, verify or enforce a contract on the blockchain without third parties. 

STABLECOIN - are cryptocurrencies with a fixed value that’s pegged to a leading fiat currency like the U.S. dollar, a basket or fiat currencies or exchange-traded commodity such as precious metals. 

STAKING - Participation in a proof-of-stake (PoS) system to put your tokens in to serve as a validator to the blockchain and receive rewards. 

TOKEN - Token is a word often used interchangeably with cryptocurrencies, or single units of a particular cryptocurrency, but tend to represent a digital asset, utility, or equity that runs on top of another blockchain. Tokens are especially associated with ICOs (initial coin offerings). 

TOKENOMICS - is the science of token economy which consists of a set of rules that governs a cryptocurrency's launch and supply. 

TOTAL VALUE LOCKED (TVL) -  A useful measure of the amount of cryptocurrency currently staked with a Defi protocol. 

TRADING PAIR - A trading pair entails a trade between two different kinds of currency. For example, a Bitcoin-Dash trading pair would mean buying bitcoin with dash or selling dash for bitcoin. 

TRADING VOLUME - Trading volume refers to the total value of assets and/or securities that are traded in a given period. For example, daily trading volume in a cryptocurrency exchange refers to the total amount of cryptocurrencies that were traded on that exchange over the course of a single day.
 

TWO-FACTOR AUTHENTICATION (2FA) - is method of access that requires two different forms of authentication. 

UTILITY TOKEN - Tokens that are designed specifically to be able to help people use something. 

VALIDATOR - A participant on a proof-of-stake (PoS) blockchain, involved in validating blocks for rewards. 

VOLATILITY - Volatility in finance is the level of variation in asset prices measured over time. Measured in % change in price over a given period, high volatility means unstable asset prices that experience wild, hard-to-predict swings in valuation over the short term. Low volatility suggests relatively stable asset prices that do not bounce around unpredictably. Generally speaking, cryptocurrency markets have been characterized by high volatility in the recent past.
 

WALLET - A place where cryptocurrency users can store, send and receive digital assets. 

WEB 3.0 - is the new generation of internet services that utilize advanced machine-based learning and artificial intelligence to connect web-based applications together and form a more personalized web. 

WHALE - A term used to describe investors who have uncommonly large amounts of crypto, especially those with enough funds to manipulate the market. 

WHITELIST - A list of interested participants in an initial coin offering, who registered their intent to take part or purchase in a sale. 

WRAPPED BITCOIN (wBTC) -  A tokenized version of bitcoin that follows the ERC20 standard and is therefore interoperable with Ethereum services like Defi and dApps. One wrapped BTC is equivalent to one native BTC. wBTC can only be created from native BTC and supply is managed through a proof of reserve system managed by a dedicated DAO. 

YIELD FARMING - involves earning interest by investing crypto in decentralized finance markets.