If you're new to cryptocurrency or investment, you've probably heard few new terms that have been throw around which made you go "What the hell does that mean?". If you have then this post will be for you, so you too can pretend to be a cryptocurrency/ investment Guru.
This is just a Glossary of Terms that are/ have been used in the 'Crypto-space' and will help explain what they mean.
If you have any terms to add to the list, or would like to see any amendments, please feel free to leave a reply. I will update with a new version accordingly.
Disclaimer: This post is incomplete and will always be expanded.
TECHNOLOGY
1. Cryptocurrency:
a) Used to describe digital currency which have a monetary value. "BitCoin is a Cryptocurrency"
b) Can also be used to as a generic term when talking about Digital Currency projects. "There has been a lot of developement within cryptocurrency"
2. Whitepaper
a) A document that details a project; its intention, development metodologies, solutions and technical information.
3. Miner:
a) An entity that is able to help the decentalised network by solving mathmatical equtations/ problems.
4. Mining
a) The act of solving mathmatical equations/ problems and being rewarded/ incentivised for such actions.
5. Decentralised
a) Cryptocurrency is decentralised since monetary value is held by an individual but is executed by technology known as "blockchain technology" and not as centralised entity such as a Bank (eg, HSBC, Barclays, etc)
b) verb (used with object), decentralized, decentralizing.
c) to distribute the administrative powers or functions of (a central authority) over a less concentrated area:to decentralize the national government.
6. Centralised
a) When actions or assets are executed or held within a central locations, or an entity that performs actions over several locations but under one name
7. Proof-of-work
a) A proof-of-work (POW) system (or protocol, or function) is an economic measure to deter denial of service attacks and other service abuses such as spam on a network by requiring some work from the service requester, usually meaning processing time by a computer. (Ref: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proof-of-work_system )
8. Proof-of- Stake
a) Proof-of-stake (PoS) is a type of algorithm by which a cryptocurrency blockchain network aims to achieve distributed consensus. Unlike proof-of-work (PoW) based cryptocurrencies (such as bitcoin), where the algorithm rewards participants who solve complicated cryptographical puzzles in order to validate transactions and create new blocks (i.e. mining), in PoS-based cryptocurrencies the creator of the next block is chosen in a deterministic (pseudo-random) way, and the chance that an account is chosen depends on its wealth (i.e. the stake). In PoS cryptocurrencies the blocks are usually said to be forged (in the blacksmith sense of this word), or minted, rather than mined. Also, usually all the coins are created in the beginning and the total number of coins never changes afterwards (although there are some other versions of PoS where new coins can be created). Therefore, in the basic version of PoS there are no block rewards (e.g. as in bitcoin); so, the forgers take only the transaction fees. (Ref: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proof-of-stake)
9. Delegated Proof-of-Stake (DPOS)
a) DPOS leverages the power of stakeholder approval voting to resolve consensus issues in a fair and democratic way. All network parameters, from fee schedules to block intervals and transaction sizes, can be tuned via elected delegates. Deterministic selection of block producers allows transactions to be confirmed in an average of just 1 second (ref: https://bitshares.org/technology/delegated-proof-of-stake-consensus/)
10. Decentralised application (DAPP)
a) A program that is built on top of a decentralised technology such as Blockchain technology
11. Decentralised Autonomous Organisation (DAO)
a) A decentralized autonomous organization (DAO), sometimes labeled a decentralized autonomous corporation (DAC), is an organization that is run through rules encoded as computer programs called smart contracts.[1]:229 A DAO's financial transaction record and program rules are maintained on a blockchain. (Ref: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decentralized_autonomous_organization)
12. Smart contract
a) Smart contracts are computer protocols intended to facilitate, verify, or enforce the negotiation or performance of a contract. Smart contracts were first proposed by Nick Szabo in 1994.
Proponents of smart contracts claim that many kinds of contractual clauses may be made partially or fully self-executing, self-enforcing, or both. The aim with smart contracts is to provide security that is superior to traditional contract law and to reduce other transaction costs associated with contracting. (Ref: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smart_contract)
INVESTMENT
1. Bullish
a) Description when the value of an asset is on a increasing trend or to describe an action of a entity which has a bias to increase value
b. "Bitcoin has been Bullish recently" (Increasing in value), I'm very bullish on bitcoin
2. Bull Market
a) When value of more than one asset is on a increasing trend
3. Bearish
a) Decription when the value of an asset is on a decreasing trend
b) "Bitcoin has been bearish recently" (Decreasing in value)
4. Bear Market
a) When value of more than one asset is on a Decreasing trend
5. Initial Coin Offering (ICO)
a) An Inital Coin Offering allows an entity to raise capital to fund a project/ campaign with some sort of incentive, e.g. Discounted cost of another currency, extra returns after the a set date or goal has been reached, other benefit, etc
6. Exchange
a) An entity that allows you to either change from one Crytocurrency to a different currency. Dollar to Bitcoin, exchanging Bitcoing to Ethereum, vice versa, etc.
7. Wallet
a) An applications used to store cryptocurrency units
b) Example, "I bought 10 Bitcoin on an exchanged today, and transferred it to my wallet"
8. Hot Wallet
a) An application that is used to hold digital currency but is always connected to the wallet. Known and a hot wallet in the Crypto-space during to fears that it maybe 'cracked' at any time due to it constant connectivity to the internet. e.g. Mobile Wallets, Desktop Wallets, etc
9. Cold Wallet/ Cold Storage
a) A device or hardware that is used to store digital currency offline. Described as the most secure method of storing digital assets since it is only connected to the internet for a short period of time to transfer funds from an exchange or hot wallet to the cold wallet and then disconnected until further use. e.g. Nano ledger S, Trezor, Paper Wallet,