80 Blockchain Terminologies | Glossary of Blockchain

Blockchain is a novice concept for almost everyone inside and outside the world of technology, hence while learning more about it one realizes that there are a lot of unfamiliar terms and the best way to learn them is by understanding what each one entails. Hence, here is a list of some of the most popular blockchain terminologies with their meaning:

Blockchain Terminologies

1. Addresses

Quite similar to a URL, a blockchain address is a location to or from which transactions occur on the blockchain.

2. Agreement Ledgers

These are the distributed ledgers utilized by 2 or more parties to trade and reach an agreement.

3. Altcoin

This is an abbreviation of “Bitcoin alternative”. Currently, the bulk of altcoins are forks of Bitcoin with some minor changes to the proof of labour (POW) algorithmic

4. Attestation Ledgers

These are the distributed ledgers that give a sturdy record of agreements, commitments or statements, providing proof (or, attestation) of the mentioned agreements, commitments or statements.

5. ASIC

This is a signifier for “Application Specific Integrated Circuit”. ASICs are element chips specifically designed to do one task. Within the case of bitcoin, they’re designed to method SHA-256 hashing issues to mine new bitcoins.

6. Bitcoin

This is a documented cryptocurrency, supported by the proof-of-work blockchain.

7. Block Ciphers

This is a way of encrypting text (to convert to ciphertext) where a key and algorithmic rule is applied to convert plain text into non-decipherable format.

8. Block Height

These refer to the quantity of blocks connected along within the blockchain. For instance, Height 0, would be the initial block that is additionally known as the Genesis Block.

9. Block Rewards

These are rewards given to a mineworker who has successfully hashed a dealing block. Block rewards are a combination of coins and dealing fees.

10. Central Ledger

These refer to a ledger maintained by a central agency.

11. Chain Linking

This is the method of connecting 2 blockchains with one another, therefore permitting transactions between the chains to take place.

12. Cypher

This is an algorithmic rule used for the secret writing and/or decoding of data.

13. Confirmation

This means that a blockchain transaction has been verified by the network.Once confirmed, it can’t be reversed or double spent.

14. Consensus Process

This method involves a cluster of peers who make decisions for maintaining a distributed ledger used to achieve accord on the ledger’s contents via consensus.

15. Consortium Blockchain

This is a blockchain where the accord method is controlled by a pre-selected set of nodes.

16. Cryptanalysis

This is the study of ways for getting the means of encrypted data, while not accessing the key data that ordinarily need to try to do this.

17. Cryptocurrency

This type of digital currency supported arithmetic, where secret writing techniques are used to regulate the generation of units of currency and verify the transfer of funds.

18. Cryptography

This refers to the method of encrypting and decrypting data.

19. dApp

An abbreviation of ‘decentralised application’, these applications have to be utterly ASCII text files, it should operate autonomously, and with no entity dominating the bulk of its tokens.

20. DAO (Decentralised Autonomous Organisation)

These can be understood as an organisation run without associate degree with non-human involvement underneath the management of an incorrupt set of business rules.

21. Digital Signature

A mathematical scheme for verifying digital messages or documents satisfy two requirements – they have authenticity (from a known sender) and integrity (were not altered in transit.

22. Decryption

This is the method of turning cypher-text into plaintext.

23. Encryption

It is the method of turning a clear-text message (plaintext) into an information stream (cypher-text) that seems like a pointless and random sequence of bits.

24. Ether

It is the native token of the Ethereum blockchain that can be used to purchase dealing fees, mineworker rewards and different services on the network.

25. Ethereum

This is an open-source blockchain technology that allows developers to jot down good contracts and build and deploy localized applications.

26. Ethereum Classic

This may split from associate degree existing cryptocurrency, Ethereum when a tough fork.

27. EVM code

This is the programming language within which accounts on the Ethereum blockchain will contain code.

28. Digital Commodity

These goods may be scarce, electronically transferrable, and intangible, with a value.

29. Digital identity

This is an internet or networked identity adopted or claimed on the internet by a private, organization, or device.

30. Distributed ledgers

These are a kind of database or ledgers that are present across multiple sites, countries or establishments.

31. Double Spent

This refers to a state of affairs, within a blockchain network, wherever somebody tries to send a token group action to 2 completely different recipients at an identical time.

32. Fiat currency

This is any cash declared by a government to be valid for meeting an indebtedness, like USD or EUR.

33. Fork

This is the creation of another version of the current blockchain, by making 2 blocks at the same time on completely different elements of the network. This creates 2 parallel blockchains, wherever one amongst the 2 is the winning blockchain.

34. Gas

An activity roughly appreciates process steps (for Ethereum). Each action needs to incorporate a gas limit and a fee that it is willing to pay per gas; miners have the choice of together with the group action and assembling the fee or not. 35. Halving

36. Hardfork

This could be a modification to the blockchain protocol that creates antecedently invalid blocks/transactions valid and thus needs all users to upgrade their shoppers.

37. Hashrate

The range of hashes that may be performed by a bitcoin mine worker during a given amount of your time (usually a second).

38. Initial Coin offering (ICO)

There is an occasion during which a brand new cryptocurrency sells tokens from its overall coinbase, in exchange for direct capital. ICOs are often used by developers of a brand new cryptocurrency to lift capital.

39. Interoperability

The ability of two or more systems to communicate and exchange data.

40. IPFS (Interplanetary File System)

A peer-to-peer hypermedia protocol for storing and sharing data in a distributed file system to uniquely identify each file in a global namespace connecting all computing devices.

41. Know Your Customer (KYC)

The legal process of a business identifying and verifying the identity of its clients. KYC requirements vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction.

42. Liquidity

The ease of converting an asset (or, in this case, cryptocurrency) to cash (fiat).

43. Mainnet

The production version of a blockchain.

44. Merkle Tree/Hash Tree

In cryptography, a Merkle or hash tree is a tree in which every leaf node is labelled with the hash of a data block, and every non-leaf node is labelled with the cryptographic hash of the labels of its child nodes.

45. Mining

In a public blockchain, the process of verifying a transaction and writing it to the blockchain for which the successful miner is rewarded in the cryptocurrency of the blockchain.

46. Node

A computer that holds a copy of the blockchain ledger.

47. Non-Fungible

The property is an item of not being exchangeable with other like items.

48. Off-chain

Data stored external to the blockchain.

49. On-chain

Data stored within the blockchain.

50. Open Source

Software products that include permission to use, enhance, reuse or modify the source code, design documents, or content of the product.

51. Oracle

An application that connects blockchain applications to legacy applications.

52. Peer-to-Peer (P2P)

A direct connection between two participants in a system – can be computer to computer or person to person.

53. Provenance

The entire history of a product during its lifecycle including its chain of custody and all documentation of value added services and activities which were used to produce that product or service.

54. Public/Private Key

A public key is a unique string of characters derived from a private key which is used to encrypt a message or data. The private key is used to decrypt the message or data.

55. Satoshi Nakamoto

The name used by the person or entity who developed bitcoin, authored the bitcoin white paper, and created and deployed bitcoin’s original reference implementation. As part of the implementation, Nakamoto also devised the first blockchain database.

56. Seed Phrase

A random sequence of words which can be used to restore a lost wallet.

57. Sharding

A type of database partitioning that separates very large databases into smaller, faster, more easily managed parts called data shards.

58. Sidechain

A discrete blockchain that is linked to a main blockchain via two-way pegs which enable assets to be interchanged between the main blockchain and the sidechain.

59. Smart Contract

Self-executing computer code deployed on a blockchain to perform a function, often, but not always, the exchange of value between a buyer and a seller.

60. Solidity

A JavaScript-like object-oriented programming language for Ethereum for implementing smart contracts on the Ethereum blockchain.

61. Stablecoin

A cryptocurrency which is underwritten by an asset or assets (e.g., fiat currency, commodities, etc.) designed to minimise the volatility of the price of the coin/token.

62. State Channel

A process by which blockchain transactions are executed off-chain, collected and then written to the main chain as a single transaction in order to improve performance and reduce cost.

63. Testnet

A staging blockchain environment for testing application before being put into production (or onto the mainnet)

64. Token

Cryptographic tokens represent programmable assets or access rights, managed by a smart contract and an underlying distributed ledger.

65. Token Generation Event

The creation and first sale of a blockchain coin or token.

66. Token Type – ERC-20

A type of fungible Ethereum token (i.esmart contract) standard which is defined by a series of functions that must be supported, including functions to retrieve the total supply, transfer from one wallet to another, and approve a transaction.

67. Token Type – ERC-721

A type of non-fungible Ethereum token (i.e., smart contract) standard which is defined by a series of functions that must be supported, including functions to retrieve the total supply, transfer from one wallet to another, and approve a transaction.

68. Token/Coin Exchange

An application to buy, sell and trade cryptocurrencies.

69. Tokenless Ledger

A ledger that doesn’t require a native currency to operate.

70. Tokenomics

The study, design and implementation of monetary management and distribution based on blockchain technology.

71. Transactions Per Second (TPS)

A measurement of the speed of a blockchain. The low TPS of most blockchains is a significant barrier to using blockchain for business, especially financial, applications.

72. Transparency

A primary property of public blockchains whereby any participant in a system or transaction can view the transactions on the blockchain.

73. Trust

Confidence in the integrity of an entity (e.g., person, organisation, etc.).

74. Trustless

Blockchain is called a trustless system because the two entities performing a transaction do not need to trust one another. The properties of blockchain – digital signatures, cryptography, etc. – provide the trust.

75. Vyper

A Python-like programming language for the Ethereum blockchain built for security, language and compiler simplicity, and auditability.

76. Wallet

A digital file that holds coins and tokens held by the owner. The wallet also has a blockchain address to which transactions can be sent.

77. Wallet (Cold)

A wallet disconnected from the internet.

78. Wallet (Hot)

A wallet connected to the Internet.

79. Wallet (Multisignature)

A wallet that requires multiple digital signatures to execute a transaction.

80. Zeppelin/Open Zeppelin

A community of like-minded Smart Contract developers.

Conclusion

In this highly informative article we reviewed some of the most commonly used blockchain terminologies. We understood what they mean in the easiest language to get a better idea of the blockchain concepts.