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LEO$8.99+0.72%From your first block to the finer details. Explore the ideas, people, and systems behind the market—one useful explanation at a time.
Follow a transaction from a key to a shared ledger.
Begin with BlockchainExplore contracts, liquidity, borrowing and the risks between them.
Begin with Smart contractUnderstand what a price, valuation or sentiment indicator can tell you.
Begin with Market capitalizationLearn custody, permissions and how to assess what you sign.
Begin with Hardware walletConnect the original ideas to the incidents that changed the industry.
Begin with A Cypherpunk's ManifestoSeparate technical standards, issuer claims and legal frameworks.
Begin with Howey testAn Application Binary Interface describes how software encodes contract calls and decodes results, events, and errors.
A ledger design that stores a balance and nonce per address, used by Ethereum and many smart-contract chains.
Key pairs where the public key verifies what only the private key can sign or decrypt.
A time-boxed review of contract code. It reduces risk. It does not eliminate it.
A batch of transactions plus a header that links to the previous block by hash.
The number of blocks from genesis to the current tip. A simple way to talk about chain progress.
The target or observed interval between blocks on a network.
An append-only distributed ledger where blocks of transactions are cryptographically linked and validated by a network of nodes.
A public reward for reporting vulnerabilities before they are exploited.
The compiled form of a contract that the virtual machine actually runs.
A numerical identifier included in supported blockchain signatures to distinguish the network on which an authorization is intended to work.
A wallet whose keys stay offline, often on a hardware device or paper backup, used for longer-term storage.
In common Bitcoin usage, inclusion in a block gives one confirmation, and each subsequent block on the accepted chain adds another.
Math that protects confidentiality, integrity, and authenticity. Blockchains rely on hashes and signatures.
Who holds the keys. A custodian can move funds on a client's behalf and takes operational and legal responsibility.
A decentralized application whose backend logic runs in smart contracts and whose users keep their own keys.
A proof, created with a private key, that a specific message was authorized by the key holder.
A shared database replicated across many machines, of which a blockchain is one design.
Distributed ledger technology. The broader category that includes blockchains and other shared ledgers.
Binding a cryptographic message to a specific application, protocol, network, or purpose so that matching data is not confused across contexts.
Attempting to spend the same coins in two conflicting transactions. Consensus exists to make this fail.
A split in chain history or protocol rules. Can be accidental (two tips) or intentional (an upgrade).
Mathematically proving that code matches a spec, used on high-value vaults and zk circuits.
A node that verifies every block and transaction against consensus rules instead of trusting a third party.
The unit of computational work on Ethereum-style chains. Every opcode costs gas, paid in the network fee token.
The maximum gas a transaction or block may consume. A low limit can cause a transaction to fail mid-execution.
The amount paid per unit of gas, usually quoted in gwei; effective fees and inclusion depend on the network's fee rules and transaction conditions.
The first block or agreed starting record of a blockchain, anchoring its initial history and state under that network's rules.
A rule change that old software will reject. Nodes must upgrade or they follow a different chain.
A dedicated device designed to keep signing keys isolated from a general-purpose computer and to authorize transactions through a controlled interface.
A fixed-length fingerprint of data produced by a one-way cryptographic function, used to detect tampering and link blocks.
The act of running data through a hash function so the output changes if even one input bit changes.
The single hash at the top of a Merkle tree, stored in a block header as a compact commitment to every transaction.
A binary tree of hashes that lets a verifier prove a transaction is in a block without downloading the whole block.
A participant in proof of work that expends energy to find a valid block nonce and collect the reward.
An ordered word-based encoding used in wallet recovery; BIP-39 mnemonics encode entropy and a checksum before a separate step derives the wallet seed.
A network where nodes talk to each other directly instead of through a single server.
A DLT where only approved nodes validate. Common in bank and enterprise pilots, unlike public permissionless chains.
A secret number that authorizes spends. If it leaks, the address is compromised.
A scheme to show a wallet is one human, used to fight airdrop farming and bots.
The counterpart to a private key. Addresses are usually a hashed or encoded form of the public key.
A word-based wallet recovery backup, often using BIP-39; successful restoration can also require a passphrase, derivation paths, and the correct wallet format.
Control of the keys or authorization policy needed to use an on-chain account, with responsibility for protecting and recovering that authority.
A 256-bit hash function from the SHA-2 family. Bitcoin uses it for proof of work and address hashing.
Code deployed on a blockchain that executes deterministically when called.
A tighter rule set that old nodes still see as valid, so the network can upgrade without a clean split.
Creating many fake identities to outvote honest peers. Proof of work and stake make this expensive.
Making it expensive to fake many users, via stake, identity, or proof of personhood.
Definitions offer a starting point. Detailed readings include the sources behind the explanation.