Cryptocurrency and Blockchain Dictionary

Terms commonly used in the world of blockchain and cryptocurrency

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Ethereum

Launched in 2015, Ethereum is the world's programmable blockchain. Like other blockchains, Ethereum has a native cryptocurrency called Ether (ETH). ETH is digital money. People all over the world use ETH to make payments, as a store of value, or as collateral. But unlike other blockchains, Ethereum can do much more.

Other Important Terms

51% Attack

A ‘51% attack’ refers to a possible attack on a blockchain by a group of ‘miners’, who hold more than 50% of the hashrate. In such a situation the ‘miners’ have the possibility to deliberately not confirm transactions or to issue transactions twice (double-spend).

Block Reward

The block reward is the payment that is offered to the node that is securing the blockchain. In the case of Bitcoin, which is has a Proof-of-Work consensus algorithm, these would be the miners. The payment is in the form of the native cryptocurrency of that blockchain. The amount is a predetermined reward per block, but often that is supplemented with the fees that are paid for the transactions that block contains. For Bitcoin the current block rewards are cut in half every four years. This is called the ‘halvening’.

Block explorer

A block explorer is an online service to track blockchain transactions. It usually is a website where you can see all the new blocks that are being created. You can also search for transactions and wallet addresses. The best-known block explorers are blockchain.info for Bitcoin and etherscan.io for Ethereum.

Altcoin

An altcoin is any cryptocurrency or token created after the Bitcoin was developed.

Double Spending

With digital currency, there is a risk that the holder could make a copy of the digital token and send it to a merchant or another party while retaining the original.

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