Bitcoin Terms and Crypto Slang Glossary

I asked AI for all of these definitions and AI doesn't really understand , it gave me vague and inaccurate info. AI did not really describe the essence and mechanics of how things work, so your human teacher is here to the rescue!

  • Cryptocurrency
    Digital money or rather actual currency on the blockchain, that is created and managed through computer code and the global network that the blockchain is. .There were other protocols on the blocking that have nothing to do with currency. It's a quick expanding ecosystem.

  • Bitcoin
    The first and most well-known cryptocurrency; like digital gold. There will only ever be 21 million.Bitcoin available . Bitcoin is the first decentralized global currency. .It's centralized it has no CEO no office and no marketing team. It is a computer code put into motion that is upheld by mini Nodes or Miners that can be anywhere in the worldThat can be anywhere in the world. Bitcoin the most stable.In the largest computer network in the world. The Bitcoin network has gone down twice in its history. The last time was in March 2013 for about 6-7 hours due to a blockchain fork from a software version incompatibility; it has had effectively 100% uptime since then.

  • Wallet
    A digital place or device where you can store your crypto. Throughly 50 alphanumeric characters you get is your wallet address. Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana etc all have different kinds of wallet addresses. You don't put everything in one address. If you're just buying it on Coinbase they maintain your address and you don't need to know anything about it. If you do use the code to move crypto or are using a decentralized exchange (DEX) make sure the first few numbers and the last few numbers are the same beforesending! Always triple check that before sending. In sending crypto you can lose your money forever. If you're sending a large amount sometimes you test.The transaction first with a small amount.

  • Blockchain
    Blockchain is the core and essence of crypto. We call crypto technology web3. Traditional web is where you have servers and all of the information goes through a server. .That's what makes it vulnerable to hacking and manipulation. The Blockchain is a global network of nodes run by minors. It's a brilliant way of validating transactions many times so that we are sure what leaves one place will not get to where it arrives unless it's perfectly intact. I will explain this in a video or a longer tutorial. It's a network of computers that work together to make a transaction happen. This is why it's so superior to web2. You can't hack the Blockchain. Hacks happen but it's not because someone hacked the Blockchain.

  • Mining
    A crypto miner is an individual or operation that uses specialized computer hardware to solve complex mathematical puzzles, validating transactions and adding new blocks to a blockchain like Bitcoin. They earn newly minted cryptocurrency as a reward plus transaction fees, contributing to the network's security and decentralization in the process. Mining requires significant electricity and computing power, making it a competitive and often industrialized activity dominated by large farms in regions with cheap energy. Many people are using Hydro. And creating new energy sources in order to mine Bitcoin. In El Salvador they're using a volcano.
    No single person or government controls it; it’s shared by many computers.

  • Exchange
    A place where you can trade one cryptocurrency for another or for regular money. There are two kinds of exchanges in crypto, a centralized exchange (CEX)and a decentralized exchange(DEX). Centralized exchanges are huge companies like Coinbase they're regulated and they connect right to your bank.

  • Altcoin
    Any cryptocurrency other than Bitcoin. Technically meme-coins are altcoins. It's anything that's not Bitcoin.

  • Token
    A token in crypto is a digital asset created and managed by a smart contract on an existing blockchain. It is not the blockchain itself. For example, Ethereum is the blockchain. ETH is the native coin of Ethereum. A token built on Ethereum, like USDC, UNI, or an NFT, uses Ethereum’s blockchain but is created by a smart contract. A crypto token is a digital asset issued on top of an existing blockchain, usually through a smart contract, and it can represent money, ownership, access, rewards, voting power, or a collectible item.

    For example: Ethereum is the blockchain.ETH is the native coin of Ethereum.

    A token built on Ethereum, like USDC, UNI, or an NFT, uses Ethereum’s blockchain but is created by a smart contract.

    So the clean definition is:Coin = native money of a blockchain. Token = asset built on a blockchain.

  • Public Key
    Like a username; it’s your address for receiving cryptocurrencies.

  • Private Key
    Like a password; it’s what you need to access and control your cryptocurrencies.

  • Fiat Currency
    Regular money issued by governments, like dollars or euros.

  • ICO (Initial Coin Offering)
    A way for new cryptocurrencies to raise initial funding, like a digital fundraiser.

  • HODL
    Holding onto your cryptocurrencies instead of selling them, despite market fluctuations.

  • Smart Contracts – Computer programs on the blockchain that run automatically when certain conditions are met. Smart contracts are the revolutionary invention of Vitalik Buterin's Ethereum. Bitcoin is mostly used as a store value, but with smart contracts there is no end to the use cases that can be created.

  • NFTs – Non-Fungible Tokens. Unique digital items stored on a blockchain, often used for digital art, collectibles, or membership access. It means you can put one specific object or file on the Blockchain, and it stays on the Blockchain forever, and only one person can own that particular one. That's what nonfungible means. https://hawacat.com/ Hawa Cat was first an NFT. You can still find some Hawa Cat NFT's here on Opensea.io when you get into crypto a little bit, it's very good to buy an NFT the process that you have to go to in order to do that we'll teach you a lot. And then you'll see why it's fun and why people do it.

  • DeFi – Decentralized Finance. Financial services like trading, lending, borrowing, and earning yield without using traditional banks.

  • Tokenomics – The economic design of a coin, including supply, distribution, incentives, and how the token is supposed to gain or keep value. In kindergarten terms: it's all the ways that a cryptocurrency functions and are different ways of working than stocks or other money. It's how the technology of any given Blockchain or protocol works. In economics, you can find out what percentage of people are the highest holders of a coin. The level of decentralization., the fees, how the coin works and often there's a roadmap over time with different things will happen in this coin. For example, in bitcoin it's programmed in the tokenomics In Bitcoin, about every four years the “halving” cuts the reward miners receive for creating a new block in half, so mining does not become 50% harder — miners just earn 50% less new Bitcoin for the same work. That is the reason the price goes up so much overtime. You can find. mining in the dictionary page at some point.

  • FUD – Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt. Negative news, rumors, or narratives that scare people into selling.

  • Bear Market – A long period when prices are down and people are pessimistic.

  • Altcoin Season – A period during the bull market, when all of the small coins are making more money than the bitcoin. We had a historic alt coin season, but the next bitcoin cycle we did not have it, but we did have a meme coin season.

  • Hidden-Gem Coins – Small, less-known coins that people hope will rise dramatically.

  • Meme Coins – Coins created around internet memes, jokes, culture, or community energy. They can go up dramatically, but they are usually very risky.

  • Providing Liquidity in DeFI -Providing assets to a decentralized finance platform so other people can trade or borrow. You can earn fees for providing liquidity.. –Each block chain has to have liquidity in order to function. That means there has to be a reserve of the coins so that people can trade and borrow and lend. That's liquid liquidity. I created a few memecoins, but they had zero liquidity so they are worthless.

  • Layer-2 – Technology built on top of another blockchain. It uses the original Blockchain as the engine, but changes it into a completely different use. This is like if you had an airplane engine, but then you used it for a rocket engine. The rocket would be layer 2.

  • Altcoins – Cryptocurrencies other than Bitcoin.

  • Pump – When the price of a coin goes up a lot, sometimes naturally and sometimes because of hype.

  • Pumping Your Own Bags – Promoting a coin you already own so other people buy it and the price goes up.

  • OG – Someone who has been in a space for a long time. In crypto, it usually means an early participant.

  • Meme Coin Trading – Buying and selling meme coins, often very quickly, trying to catch huge price moves.

  • Blockchain – A public digital ledger that records transactions without needing one central authority.

  • Rug Pull / Rug – When creators or insiders sell a project or drain the money, causing the price to collapse. Or I could shut down for another reason. But it's not very nice.

  • Liquidity – How easy it is to buy or sell an asset without causing a big price change. It means that how many coins does the exchange have available

  • Decentralized Exchanges – Exchanges where people trade through blockchain technology instead of using a centralized company. A centralized is one where you connect your bank account. Decentralize you're gonna be trading with Ethereum or stable coins usually.

  • Fiat Currency – Government-issued money from a centralbank like dollars, euros, or yen.

  • Stablecoins – Cryptocurrencies designed to be pegged to the value of the dollar.

  • Exit Liquidity – the concept like when a project is built up gets tons of people to buy into it and then they rug pull. That means they exit and take a big proportion of the money, causing the value to plummet.. the plebs are left holding the bags. It's something like if your friend convinces you to go on a vacation and drive them there or pay for the tickets. Then when you get on vacation and have some stupid excuse so they can leave you all alone and go out and have fun at your expense. You paid for a fun trip and now you're just out of money.

  • Bags – The coins you are holding. Any coin like my Solana is called my Solana bags, bitcoin, bags, Pepe bags

  • RSI – Relative Strength Index. A trading indicator people use to judge whether something may be overbought or oversold. It's just a line to let you know if money go up or money go down. It's a line used in trading and investing..

  • Rekt – Crypto slang for getting wrecked financially and losing a lot of money.

  • Fear and Greed Index – https://coinmarketcap.com/charts/fear-and-greed-index/ A market sentiment indicator that tries to measure whether investors are very afraid or very greedy.

  • AI Bots – Automated programs that can trade or analyze markets much faster than humans. We can buy and sell and take profits.

  • Four-Year Cycle – The 4 year cycle connected to Bitcoin halving events.

  • Paper Hands – Someone who sells too easily when prices drop.

  • Diamond Hands – Someone who holds through big drops and does not panic sell.

  • Freedom Money – it's bitcoin and crypto, and it means that you don't have to rely on a bank to take care of your money. Many places in the world and many people have had banks take their money.. the Fiat system is a high control system. They can create a whole bunch more money and then your money's worth less and you're screwed.(inflation)

  • Plebs- the commoners! regular person in the community — not a whale, not an expert, just a normal person stacking sats or learning Bitcoin. In Bitcoin circles it can be affectionate or humble.

  • ETFs – Exchange-Traded Funds. Investment products that let people buy exposure to an asset through traditional financial markets. So you can buy crypto with an EFT and you're not actually buying the crypto you're buying a stock that holds the crypto(suposedly). It's how big banks do crypto at this point.

  • Shilling- a term for when we are promoting our own coins or NFT's or anything chilling just means selling. It seems derogatory but it's not.