Cryptocurrency and Blockchain Dictionary
A complete list of crypto definitions
Cryptocurrency and blockchain glossary
Commonly used terms in the world of blockchain and cryptocurrency
Terms commonly used in the world of blockchain and cryptocurrency
Quick Links
Tools
Blockchain
Blockchain is most simply defined as a decentralized, distributed ledger technology that records the provenance of a digital asset.
Other Important Terms
51% Attack
A ‘51% attack’ refers to a possible attack on a blockchain by a group of ‘miners’, who hold more than 50% of the hashrate. In such a situation the ‘miners’ have the possibility to deliberately not confirm transactions or to issue transactions twice (double-spend).Smart Contract
A smart contract is a computer program or a transaction protocol respectively, which is intended to automatically execute, control or document respectively legally relevant events and actions according to the terms of a contract, of an agreement or of a negotiation.Decentralized Autonomous Organizations
DAO is an abbreviation of ‘Decentralised Autonomous Organization’. This is basically an organisation that runs automatically on itself without any human interventions. The work is automatically excecuted through Smart contracts.Block Reward
The block reward is the payment that is offered to the node that is securing the blockchain. In the case of Bitcoin, which is has a Proof-of-Work consensus algorithm, these would be the miners. The payment is in the form of the native cryptocurrency of that blockchain. The amount is a predetermined reward per block, but often that is supplemented with the fees that are paid for the transactions that block contains. For Bitcoin the current block rewards are cut in half every four years. This is called the ‘halvening’.Bitcoin
Bitcoin is a digital or virtual cryptocurrency created in 2009 that uses peer-to-peer technology to facilitate instant payments.Cryptocurrency News
