A brute force attack on a crypto network. Conducted by directing more computational power than half (51%) of what the network currently uses, with the intention of manipulating the consensus mechanism (typically for gains made through double spending).

A type of distributed ledger technology that stores data in a chronological series of 'blocks' that are linked together and act as the spine or backbone of the digital ecosystem. A chronological series of 'blocks' that are linked together and act as the spine or backbone of the digital ecosystem.

A Decentralised Exchange is a peer-to-peer marketplace of crypto trading. DEX utilize a particular blockchain to facilitate transfers and are considered a part of decentralized finance (DeFi) tools.

A measure of the computational resources required to solve the hash of the next block. A high difficulty means that more computational power will be needed to mine the same number of blocks, making the network more secure against attacks. The difficulty measure is calculated in the Total Hash Rate (TH/s) chart.

The malicious act of spending the same currency twice by subverting the networks hashrate and mining off-ledger. The entity that has to bear the price of such activities tend to be the cryptocurrency exchanges.

Technical standard for fungible tokens protocol on the Ethereum blockchain. Deciphered into: Ethereum request for Comments — 20 as in the request digital fingerprint (the numbers simply represent a unique identifier from its concurrent protocol brethren). Also known as a 'utility token', its actual functionality on the ethereum network is 'access/interactivity' to DAPPS.

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A network split of a blockchain, which makes the previous network’s blocks and transactions invalid. Usually happens when there is a necessary software code update that requires abandoning the previous copy of the code (hard & soft).

A complete change to a cryptocurrency’s protocol. Usually a change in some very fundamental aspect of the code (such as the privacy protocol or consensus mechanism), which usually renders the previous blockchain nodes and transactions invalid. (See fork.)

Acronym for 'know your customer'. A set of rules laid out by the government for companies to obtain a certain amount of information from their users/participants with the objective to prevent and detect financial crime and money laundering.

A decentralised network, that can be layered on top of any blockchain-based cryptocurrency, using blockchain smart contracts, with the purpose of enabling instant payments across various participants.

The process in which nodes compete with each other to verify and publish transactions. For bitcoin, mining would include compiling all previous block metrics with current ones and trying to solve a complex, computationally-demanding puzzle.

The process of creating new token on the blockchain through staking existing tokens on the network as collate, in accordance with the Proof of Stake (PoS) mechanisms.

A method of enhancing privacy and anonymity. Done by pooling transactions together and shuffling them around with the help of certain ciphering algorithms.

A (pseudo) random number, generated in order to satisfy the parameters required by the mining and hashing algorithms. The nonce is the number that blockchain miners are solving for – once solved they receive the block reward.

One of the two keys involved with all public cryptographic interactions. The private key is the key which proves ownership of an address or is used to sign transactions on the blockchain.

The key that is used in order to represent the counterpart of ownership of an address. This is the key that is shared with the public in order to receive funds at a blockchain address as well as backtrack the correlating addresses history.

Algorithms that facilitate and enforce obligations without any outside intervention. Stored on the blockchain itself, a smart contract is an unalterable agreement that has specific logic operations akin to a real-world contract. Once signed, it can never be altered.