Today we’ve decided to touch base on a topic that some of you might find quite redundant. That’s right; today we wanted to talk about crypto terminology!

“Well, if I am now reading this article, then wouldn’t I be aware, of certain crypto jargon by now?” — You might be thinking to yourself, and as always — you would be correct in thinking such. Still, you might find something new for you, and as usual, we will try to keep everything short and to the point, as well as try to avoid the most obvious definitions, like ICO or Bitcoin.

Crypto itself, as a relatively new thing, has a strong connection with another relatively new thing — memes. Of course, this is just an opinion, but never before has a financial industry has been more dependant on social media and the memes that it produces. And you know that we don’t even need to provide an example to prove that point when out of all things, Dogecoin is currently in top 30 on Coinmarketcap.

For the sake of making the article a bit more amusing, we decided to sprinkle our glossary with some memes and soak in some, quote-unquote, dankness!

Buy/Sell Wall

Buy or sell walls usually mean a large limit order. Such orders can help to create a particular impression in the market, preventing a cryptocurrency from falling below or going above a certain price level.

51% Attack

51% attack happens if more than half of the mining hash rate on a crypto network belongs to a coordinated group of miners or a single person. Such a case would mean that this person or group has obtained full control of the net. This would allow attackers to prevent new transactions from gaining confirmations, stop, halt or even reverse transactions and enable the double-spending of coins which could ultimately damage the cryptocurrency that is the target of such an attack.

The most famous example of the 51% attack would be the Bitcoin Gold situation that happened in May of 2018, when a group of miners was able to gain control over the majority of Bitcoin Gold’s mining hash rate, allowing them to double-spend for the duration of several days and resulting in approximately 18 million USD worth of Bitcoin Gold being stolen.

51% attack was also depicted in the last episode of the fifth season of HBO’s “Silicon Valley” show.

Airdrop

Airdrop usually means a crypto campaign whose goal is to distribute cryptocurrency or token to a specific audience.

Dead Cat Bounce

There is a saying: “even a dead cat will bounce if it is dropped from high enough.” Thus, the term “dead cat bounce” usually means a temporary recovery in prices after a considerable decrease.

FOMO

FOMO is an abbreviation that stands for the “fear of missing out”. This term is used outside of crypto, and it usually means the anxious feeling, that something exciting or fun is happening elsewhere, while you are not a part of it. In crypto, FOMO is used to describe a sudden influx of new investors, when the price of specific coin surges. All of the new investors are afraid to miss out on the potential profit.

FUD

An acronym that stands for fear, uncertainty and doubt. It was initially coined by Gene Amdahl when he left his position at IBM computers to create his own company. FUD usually means spreading negative, false or misleading information about something. In crypto, it’s usually done with malicious intent to undermine the crypto project.

JOMO

JOMO is the complete opposite of FOMO, and it stands for the “joy of missing out”.

Mainnet

It is an independent working blockchain using its own proprietary network.

API

API stands for Application Programming Interface. In a broad sense of the term, it means a set of definitions, protocols, and tools that are necessary for building software.

Mining

Mining is a process when a computer does mathematical calculations for the blockchain network to confirm transactions and increase security. Participants of the blockchain network who use their computers in order to provide computing powers to the blockchain are called miners.

Genesis block

Genesis block is the first block that is created in the blockchain, also known as “block 0”.

HODL

A type of investment where you hold on and don’t sell an asset for a long period of time, regardless of market volatility. HODL is a misspelt version of the verb “to hold”, which was popularised due to the typo made in by some user in one of the bitcoin community forums.

Proof of Work (PoW)

It is an algorithm that allows trustless and distributed consensus. It rewards the first person that solves a computational problem.

Proof of Stake (PoS)

Proof of stake is a different way to validate transactions based and achieved by a distributed consensus. In contrast to proof of work, where the block is created by the first person to solve a problem, with proof of stake the creator of a new block is chosen in a deterministic way, depending on its wealth, also defined as stake.

Distributed consensus

One of the main principles that secure the decentralization aspect of cryptocurrencies. In order to correctly understand the term, you need to view blockchain as a community. It only exists as a network because all of the thousands of participants agree to follow the same set of rules.

The set of rules are independent and mathematically verifiable. Each node can “do the math” and confirm for itself that the data they receive is following the correct set of rules.

PnD

An abbreviation that stands for “pump and dump”. It describes fraudulent activity where a coordinated group of people artificially inflates the price of an asset in order to sell the asset at a higher price.

ATH

ATH stands for “All Time High”. This acronym is pretty self-explanatory, and it describes the highest price the asset has ever achieved. ATL stands for “All Time Low”.

“The good days.”

BT(F)D

Is an acronym that stands for “Buy the (Effin) Dip”. Usually, it is an enthusiastic exclamation; a call for other fellow investors to buy the asset, while its price is seemingly still low.

DYOR

A simple abbreviation that means “Do Your Own Research”. It’s used to suggest to an investor, that it’s always better to do your own research, rather than listening to other users on the Internet.

FIAT

Fiat funds are monies issued by a government. An example would be USD, EUR, CNY and others.

REKT

A misspelt version of the word “wrecked”. It is commonly used when a trader loses a significant amount of their invested funds as a result of a market event or actions taken by the said investor.

Margin Trading

Simply put, margin trading describes the trading process when using borrowed money. A trader borrows a certain amount of funds from the exchange and then can trade using leverage.

Shilling

This term has existed for quite a while but has found a second life in crypto jargon. A shill is a person who is engaged in covert advertising. Shills don’t disclose their close connections with the product in which they are promoting.

Weak Hands

The first group of sellers during a market panic.

Hard fork

A Hard fork is a radical change to a cryptocurrency protocol, meaning a permanent separation from the previous version of its blockchain. Hard fork usually involves the creation of a new cryptocurrency. It creates a crossroads where one coin follows the updated new path and the old coin continues along its existing one.

Soft fork

Softfork is very much similar to the hard fork, with one important distinction: while hard fork creates two paths and two cryptocurrencies; with a soft fork, only one blockchain will remain valid.

Arbitrage

A trading technique that utilises the price difference between exchanges or linked assets. Usually, it means buying an asset on one exchange in order to sell it on the other exchange with more favourable prices.

Moonboys

Someone who has recently invested in a coin and expects immediate gains from it.

“A moonboy starter pack.”

Moon

Optimistic price projection often used in crypto-coin communities.

Lambo

A shortened version of a car brand “Lamborghini”. It usually resembles the dream thing that an investor would buy with the funds he’s earnt through crypto trading or investing.

Liquidity

The liquidity of a cryptocurrency is defined by how easily it can be bought and sold without impacting the overall market price.

Dildo

Yes, dildo. Crypto is a weird place! This term is usually used to describe a big candlestick, meaning a sharp and sudden increase (green dildo) or decrease (red dildo) in price.

Ponzi Scheme

A Ponzi scheme (also known as a pyramid scheme) is a fraudulent investment. It is named after Richard Ponzi, a notorious con artist. The scheme itself lures investors in by promising significant profits on their investment. The profits, however, are not generated by some clever investing, but rather from the funds of more recent investors.

Node

A node is some sort of device (PC) that contains a full copy of a ledger, that belongs to a participant of a blockchain network, who maintains all of the transaction records.

Vapourware

A project that was never actually manufactured or implemented. Usually, it is being heavily advertised, however it remains to be on a stage of a concept.