1hr, 24hr, 1d, 7d, 30d, all time (ALL)
These values define the time frame, often used with charting tools, price analysis application and other tools used by traders ...
HR means hour, so 1 hour, 24 hours etc ...
D means day, so 1 day, 30 days etc ...
All time means "since the launch", so ever since the coin/token has been launched.
2 Factor Verification (2FA)
Also called 2-Step Verification or 2FA.
In order to enhance the security, various websites and applications have started to use a second layer of verification, on top of the standard username/password combination.
With crypto exchanges, it has become a standard by now and everyone should be using this.
There are several methods of 2FA, it can be be an extra code (PIN), email or SMS verification (code send to either of them) ...
But the most popular are apps like Google Authentication or Authy. These generate a new unique code every 30 seconds and are considered highly secure. In order for them to work, you have to sync them with each exchange first.
51% Attack
This relates to POW cryptocurrencies, such as bitcoin or ethereum ... by controlling more than 50% of the hashing power, anyone can get full control over the blockchain of a particular coin. This could lead to taking over the mining operations, stopping or changing transactions or engage in double spending. The more miners are supporting a coin, the less likely this is to happen. Coins with smaller "support" are the most vulnerable.
Address
This is secure identifier that serves the purpose of sending crypto currency to and from. You could compare it to a regular bank account number, just in the crypto space.
Airdrop
The process of rewarding the holders of certain coin (or related coin) with more units of a given coin. This is often used as a marketing activity, to support the popularity of a coin or motivate the people to download an app or simply buy the coin in question.
Algorithm (ALGO)
Algorithm actually defines the step by step process of solving a problem, it's a set of rules that a computer follows in order to reach the desired result.
Every computer program or application has it's own algorithm, that was defined by the coders who created it.
People often use the shorter term ALGO.
Altcoin
ALT stands for alternative ... so pretty much everything other than the original Bitcoin, could be considered an altcoin.
AML Laws
Anti Money Laundering laws aim to make financing of criminal organizations more complicated by requiring various steps to be taken by anyone involved with financial transactions ... including crypto currencies.
This is the reason for the complicated verification process, when signing up for a crypto exchange and also the reason for many banks to refuse accepting crypto related transactions.
See also KYC (Know Your Customer).
API
Application Programming Interface (API) makes it possible for software applications to communicate with each other. It is a set of protocols and routines with set rules that applications need to follow in order to reach the desired effect.
API's allow coders to write applications that can control other applications or get data from them ... for example trading bots, price tickers, charting applications etc ...
Arbitrage
Taking advantage of the price difference for the same coin on different exchanges. For example, Korean exchanges often have higher prices than the rest of the world. In theory, you could buy a coin for a lower price on some exchange, transfer it to another one, where the price is higher and profit. In reality, the process is more complicated and price often moves to fast for arbitrage to be possible.
Ashdraked
To be/get Ashdraked means to lose all your fund by shorting Bitcoin. This term is being used since 2014/2015 when a trader who was using the nickname Lord Ashdrake, lost all his funds by shorting Bitcoin at the price of $300 per unit.
As many times before, Lord Ashdrake has places short orders, expecting Bitcoin to drop again, like many times in the past. This time however, it kept on rising up to almost $600 in a period of 2 months, which effectively wiped all of Ashdrakes funds and kicked him off the markets.
ASIC Miner
Asic is an abbreviation for "Application Specific Integrated Circuit" ... this means integrated circuits (chips) designed to handle just one, or very limited amount of mathematical operations, which makes them extremely effective compared to general computer hardware. In the crypto space, this refers to handling the "mining" process of POW based crypto currency ... for example Bitcoin, Litecoin etc ...
Astroturfing
It's a form of marketing, with the goal of creating false buzz that is supposed to draw attention to certain event, product ... for example some crypto currency.
Astroturfing marketing often utilizes made-up characters, fake accounts and community members, who try to create a false feeling of community support.
ATH
All-Time-High ... so the highest price level that a particular coin has reached during it's entire period of existence. For most coins, this has been the beginning of the year 2018.
ATL
All Time Low ... the lowest price that a given coin has reached (been traded for) during it's entire period of existence.
Atomic Swap
Cross-blockchain exchanging of various coins/tokens without using an exchange or intermediary. Atomic Swap is a technology that allows owners of various coins to exchange these, without having to rely on any third party, making it a trust-less operation, backed by HTLCs (Hash Time Locked Contracts).
The traditional way of exchanging coins would be to take your current coins to an exchange, sell them for bitcoins (for example) and then use those bitcoins to buy the desired coin. With Atomic Swap, you can do it in a peer-to-peer way.
Atomic swap is a new technology and as such, it's still not perfect and requires certain conditions for it to work ... both of the coins to be swapped have to run on a blockchain with the same hash function and they both must have the lightning network implemented.
Bag
A large/significant amount of certain coin that a person/entity is holding. There is no exact amount set to define how much is needed to form a bag ... depends on ones particular views.
Bagholder
Someone who is holding a large amount of certain coin. Often used to describe a person who refuses to sell his coins, despite of the price being in a decline.
Bear
A person/trader, who expects the market prices to decrease ... supporting the bearish trends.
Bear Trap
This is an attempt to fool the Bears, so traders who believe prices are about to drop. Bear trap is started by selling a large amount of certain coin/token, causing it's price to drop as others start to dump their coins too in panic.
Once the price has been "manipulated" enough, the bear trap initiators start to rebuy the coins again, but at a lower price. This causes the price to start growing again.
Bearish Trend
This refers to a market situation that is characteristic with ongoing price decrease. Technical analysis is often used to determine such trends.
BFA Attack
Brute Force Attack is one of the most frequently used methods to compromise ones accounts, private data ... basically anything that is protected with a code or password. The way it works, is to automatically generate large amount of possible combinations and test them in order to gain access.
Simple passwords based on one character type only, like repetitive numbers, simple case short words etc ... are the easiest to crack with this method. That's why basically every password protected "place" now requires it's users to pick a password with both upper and lower case letters, including at least one number and a special character.
Bitcoin (BTC)
Bitcoin is the "original" and first cryptocurrency. BTC basically started it all. Bitcoin was founded by Satoshi Nakamoto in 2009 and it is still dominaion the crypto industry. Bitcoin is a POW currency and massive mining power is required to "create" new coins. The amount of Bitcoins is limited to 21.000.000 pieces.
Bitcoin ATM
Works like a regular ATM machine, but with Bitcoin support ... You can buy Bitcoins with real (FIAT) money in an ATC like this. These machines are still pretty scarce, but they are spreading slowly and help the mass adoption of crypto currency in general.
Bitcoin Cash (BCH)
This is the most known FORK of the original Bitcoin. The reason for the fork to happen was an attempt at solving the scaling problem of the BItcoin and to speed up the transactions. The block size of BCH is 8MB compared to just 1MB of BTC.
This fork divided the Bitcoin community as it wasn't supported by all members of the community. There is still a lot of arguing going on between BTC and BCH supporters.
BitLicense
Bitlicense is a term used instead of the official longer "Business license of virtual currency activities". This license is issued by NYSDFS (New York State Department of Financial Services).
This license was designed and introduced by Benjamin Lawsky and its regulations are limited to activities involving the state of New York or a NY resident.
Block
Every transaction within a blockchain is stored in so called blocks... large amounts of blocks are actually forming the blockchain. With POW currencies, once a block is filled, the miners get rewarded with certain amount of the particular coin. This is what the mining process is about actually.
Block Height
Block height specifies the amount of blocks that form the blockchain of a particular coin ... as more and more blocks get filled, the block height increases.
Block Reward
In order to motivate miners to process transactions that are stored in the blocks of the blockchain, they get rewarded with certain units of the particular coin, for every block that gets completed.
The block reward is awarded to the miner who confirmed the final hash of the block, the others get nothing. That's why miners often get together in so called mining pools and distribute the rewards among them in an equal way, based on the hashing power the contribute with.
Blockchain
“The Blockchain is an incorruptible digital ledger of economic transactions that can be programmed to record not just financial transactions but virtually everything of value.”
Don & Alex Tapscott, authors Blockchain Revolution (2016)
To put it in an even more simple way, blockchain is like a distributed database, with copies of itself being hosted on a large amount of computers (millions of them) … and this database is continuously reconciled. As you can imagine, it's virtually impossible to make a change simultaneously to all of the copies at the same time, that's why it's pretty much impossible to hack a blockchain … at least with current technology.
For the sake of easy understanding, let's say that every Crypto Currency “runs” on it's own Block Chain OR uses the Block Chain of some other Crypto Currency, that is designed for such purposes.
Bollinger Band
A margin around the price of a crypto that helps indicate when a coin is overbought or oversold. More information available at: http://www.investopedia.com/terms/b/bollingerbands.asp
BTFD
Buy The Fucking Dip ... one of the strategies used by crypto traders is to buy coins shortly after they lose significantly, expecting a correction to happen afterwards.
Some do this to decrease the average purchase price of their coins, it's called the DCA strategy.
Bubble, Crypto Bubble
When the price of some asset rises way about it's value, we can talk about seeing a bubble in the making. There are many reasons for such bubbles to appear ... it can be a mass hysteria (FOMO), exciting new technology that makes investors act irresponsibly, cheap capital available from central banks, cheap loans ...
We've seen all kind of Bubbles in our history already ... the Tulip bubble that happened in the Netherlands in the 17th century is probably the most often used example, see more details here : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tulip_mania
We also had several real estate bubbles in several countries, caused by irresponsible banking behavior, there was the DOT COM bubble ... and some people believe Crypto is a bubble too. Time will tell, but we do not share that opinion.
Bug Bounty
Tech companies often offer so called Bug Bounty to ethical hackers, in order to motivate them to find vulnerabilities and imperfection in the code of the apps they are developing.
Crypto companies are no different, they motivate coding pros with bounties to help them secure their exchanges, blockchains or wallets better.
A great example would be the $250.000 bounty offered by John Mc.Afee to anyone who can hack the Bitfi wallet that he is developing. More info here : https://bitfi.com/bounty
Bull
A person/trader, who expects the market prices to increase ... supporting the bullish trend.
Bull Trap
This is an attempt to fool the Bulls, so traders who believe prices are about to drop. Bear trap is started by buying a large amount of certain coin/token, causing it's price to spike as others start to buy the coins too, in order to not miss the opportunity.
Once the price has been "manipulated" enough, the bull trap initiators start to sells the coins again, but at a higher price than they bought them at. This causes the price to start fall again.
Bullish Trend
This refers to a market situation that is characteristic with ongoing price increase. Technical analysis is often used to determine such trends.
Buy Wall
When large amounts of "buy" orders are placed at the same price level, buy wall get's created. These walls can indicate a strong interest to enter the market at certain price level, but they are also often used to manipulate the market and present a fake impression of the market situation ... these are called fake walls.
Candlesticks
Candlesticks is probably the most popular charting technique used by traders all around the world. Each particular candle gives us 4 info values ... opening price, closing price, the high and the low for a specific time frame that we can define.
In case that the closing price is higher than opening price, the candle would be green or black, if it's the other way around, the candle would be red.
Centralized
In terms of Crypto currencies and Blochain technology, "centralized" refers to a structure when there is a central point or authority that controls the whole network/project.
A good example would be a Centralized Exchange, so an exchange that has an owner who controls the whole exchange. This owner has control over the funds deposited and whatever change they do to the exchange, will affect everyone involved.
Centralized setup is a Trust System as the users have to trust the managing authority, since they have full control.
Circulating supply
Circulating supply defines the amount of coins/tokens that are circulating in the market, so available for sale at the exchanges or owned by the general public. This value must be lower than Max Supply.
Closing Price
This is the price that a cryptocurrency last traded for, during a defined period of time ... a day, an hour, 15 minutes etc ...
Cloud Mining
Running mining devices is a rather complicated task, which turns many people away from engaging with it. Cloud mining companies spotted this business opportunity and started to rent the mining power they possessed.
Now there are many dedicated mining operations setup in countries/locations with favorable electricity pricing and cooling options, that rent hashing power to anyone who shows interest.
So a cloud miner is actually mining cryptocurrency by using rented hashing power. This is usually less cost effective than owning your own mining hardware, but it's also much easier to manage.
Coin
The word Coin is often used to describe any independent cryptocurrency or token. Some say it's a shorthand for Altcoin.
Coin Burning
The process of permanently "removing" a given amount of coins from rotation, by making them unspendable or unusable. This process is used to limit available supply of particular coin, for example to increase the value of the remaining ones. Coin burning is often used by new ICOs and it's usually listed in their whitepapers too.
Cold storage
Because of security reasons, it's recommended to store cryptocurrency coins OFFLINE, so a hacker cannot steal them from you. Cold storage is basically an offline way of storing coins.
These can be hardware wallets, such as Trezor or Nano Ledger ... or computers that serve just this purpose and are kept offline ... paper wallets etc ...
Cold Wallet
A Crypto wallet that is not internet based or connected to the internet ... could be a hardware wallet like Trezor or Nano Legder, paper wallet or a computer dedicated to this purpose (without internet access).
Confirmation
Every "crypto" transaction is stored in the blockchain, but before that can happen, the mining devices or nodes have to verify it and confirm it's validity. So once the confirmation has been successful, the transaction get's stored.
Consensus
For a block, or any transaction recorded in the blockchain, to be considered valid, all participants of the network must agree on it's validity ... that's how the consenus is reached and that's what makes the blockchain secure against manipulation.
Correction
Usually, when the price of a crypto currency moves significantly in one direction (up or down), it's followed by a move in the opposite direction. This move should be around 10% of the previous move, for it to be called a correction. In most cases, we talk about corrections after sudden growth. Technically, it's possible in both directions though.
Crypto-jacking
A technique used by hackers or shady site operators, that uses the computing power of third parties to mine cryptocurrency, without obtaining their consent.
Usually, this happens on computers infected with mallware or similar exploits. But some websites also do this to visitors of their sites ... which results in sudden loss of performance, when visiting such sites.
Cryptocurrency
Let's use the wikipedia definition here, since I like it :
"A cryptocurrency (or crypto currency) is digital asset designed to work as a medium of exchange that uses strong cryptography to secure financial transactions, control the creation of additional units, and verify the transfer of assets.[1][2][3] Cryptocurrency is a kind of digital currency, virtual currency or alternative currency. Cryptocurrencies use decentralized control as opposed to centralized electronic money and central banking systems. The decentralized control of each cryptocurrency works through distributed ledger technology, typically a blockchain, that serves as a public financial transaction database."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cryptocurrency
The first cryptocurrency ever started was the Bitcoin and it still remains the biggest of them all. BTC was invented by Satoshi Nakamoto, a mystery man that pretty much nobody knows anything about.
DAO
Decentralized Autonomous Organization. An investor-directed venture capital fund built on the Ethereum network that was hacked in June 2016. The hack stole about a third of the DAO’s funds and led to Ethereum being hard-forked the following month. The DAO is often cited as one of Ethereum’s biggest stumbles thus far.
Dapp
Decentralized Application. This refers to an application that uses an Ethereum smart contract as it’s back-end code.
DDoS Attack
Distributed Denial of Service is a form of cyber-attack that aims to make a server, website, service ... unavailable, by overloading the system with requests. This way, all of the servers resources are used by the attacker and regular users cannot get their requests processed.
Successful DDoS attacks cause downtime of the attacked service of website.
Dead Cat Bounce
When crypto markets crash and prices are falling like crazy, at some point the fall stops and prices start to rise again. This can be either a reversal in the trend, so going from bearish to bullish ... or it's only a temporary recovery, that will be followed by another crash... which would define a dead-cat-bounce pattern.
Decentralized
One of the most important things about crypto, if not the most important, is the decentralization aspect. In the traditional financial world, everything is controlled by a central entity, there is a central database, central system etc ...
Crypto is different since it's using the blockchain, that is distributed over hundreds or thousands of locations, all carrying a copy of the same database (for example). There is no central place, where you could make changes to the blockchain, no new entry is possible without a consensus reached by the parties involved.
To put it in a simple way, decentralized means being distributed across multiple locations that work together in order to reach certain goal.
Decentralized Application (DApp)
It's an application (software) that runs on the blockchain instead of one machine/computer. Think about multiple copies/instances working in synergy, instead of just one in one central place.
Decentralized apps should be more secure, more resistant to hacks or downtimes etc ...
Decentralized Exchange
These exchanges serve the purpose of connecting users that intend to exchange their crypto assets. There is no central entity involved, that would handle the transaction, it's all handled on a peer-to-peer basis.
Difficulty
Related to cryptocurrencies that use the POW protocol, thus are mine-able. Miners get a specified reward for completing a block ... let's say 10 coins. No matter how many miners are currently using their hashing power to mine the same currency, the reward is still the same and it still takes the same time to fill a block. So in terms of hashing power, the more miners are involved, the more power is needed to complete a block.
So, the higher the current difficulty of a crypto currency is, the more hashing power it takes to fill a block and the lower reward per unit of power is awarded to miners.
Distributed Ledger
These are ledgers that are stored on a network of nodes... think about a database that is not stored on just one central computer, but rather across a wide network of decentralized servers (nodes).
DIstributed ledger may or may not involve a crypto currency and it can be private or permissioned.
Dolphin
A person or entity, that owns a large amount of cryptocurrency, but still not enough to be considered a whale. There are no "set" levels to in terms of how much coins need to be owned to be considered a dolphin ... think about a mediocre/moderate amount.
Dominance
This usually relates to Bitcoin and how big % of the marketcap it currently holds. The bigger % it is, the higher the dominance of Bitcoin is. In the future, some other currency might take over and become the dominant one.
Some people are not happy when the dominance is too high, claiming that it hurts the other currencies and make bitcoin stronger than needed.
Double Spending
Double spending means to spend/move some coins more than once. This is not normally allowed, but can happen in case of a 51% attack for example.
Dump
This means to sell a large amount (or all) coins of a single or multiple currencies. Usually during a big price drop, some major negative news about a particular coin or the market in general, sudden regulation against crypto currencies etc ...
DYOR
Do Your Own Research ... or in other words, do not believe everything you see online or hear from others. The Crypto space is full of false info, FUD news, coin shilling activities etc ... Keep in mind that you're responsible for your own actions and act responsibly.
EEA
Enterprise Ethereum Alliance. A coalition of startups and corporations trying to figure out the best way to use this dang thing.
ELI5
Commonly used in online discussion groups and on social media, ELI5 means "Explain Like I'm 5" ... which is usually asking for a VERY simple explanation of some problem, technology etc ... so simple, that even a 5 years old child would understand.
Emission
The process of releasing new coins into rotation ... the emission can be realized via mining, token release after ICO closing, airdrops etc ...
Emission Curve
Emission Curve or Emission Schedule defines the way of how new coins will be released and how it's gonna happen. Coins can be mined, released at once or in smaller parts.
The emission curve can help us assess the value of the coin/token and predict it's volatility. For example, mined coins with stable supply that's decreasing over time as the mining difficulty goes up, should be on the more stable side. While coins/tokens dumped onto the market in large chunks, will experience more frequent ups and downs.
ERC
Ethereum Request for Comment... This acronym is commonly used instead of ERC20, when dealing with tokens that operate on the blockchain of Ethereum.
ERC-20
This is a "token standard" for Ethereum ... you could also say it's a protocol that defines rules for communication/interactions between tokens and the transfers of these tokens.
All tokens/coins launched on the Ethereum blockchain are ERC-20 tokens, which makes it possible to store all of them on wallets dedicated to ETH tokens ... for example My Ether Wallet.
Escrow
Escrow is a specific type of contract, where a third party entity receives documents, funds etc ... from one transaction party and only releases them, when the other transaction party meets the specified requirements.
Escrow services are often used in case of selling digital assets. For example when selling a domain name, the buyer would deposit the agreed sum to an escrow service company, which would release them to the seller, once the ownership transfer has been confirmed.
Escrow contracts can also be executed by using smart contracts on a blockchain, for example in case of Atomic Swap transactions.
Ether (ETH)
This is the native cryptocurrency of the Ethereum blockchain, also used to pay the transaction fees in. Transaction fees are measured based on the gas limit/gas price, but still paid in ETH.
ETH is also the most used currency to buy into ICOs, since majority of new ICOs utilize the Ethereum Blockchain.
Ethereum
Ethereum is an open source blockchain based decentralized platform that developers can use to create all kinds of different applications on. The platform was created in 2013 by, one of the most known personas in Crypto/Blockchain, Vitalik Buretin.
Ethereum utilizes smart contracts, that allow developers to use the platform in a way similar to working with a traditional coding language.
Ethereum is now the most widely used platform to develop new projects on, very large part of all ICOs have been using the Ethereum blockchain actually.
Exchange
These are websites/services where you can exchange various crypto currencies ... buy buying or selling them. There are two major types : centralized and decentralized exchanges.
Centralized exchanges are managed by some party/company and they serve as the intermediary, some of them also offer the option to buy crypto currency for regular FIAT money. Decentralized Exchanges work on a peer-to-peer basis, connecting buyer with the seller directly.
Every exchange supports certain range of crypto currencies, some allow to trade many coins (like Binance), while some only focus on the major ones (like Coinbase).
Exchange Traded Fund (ETF)
ETF is a security that is tracking a "basket" of assets, which can be stocks, regular currency and also cryptocurrencies. ETF can be traded as a single stock, but it's value is set based on the total value of all assets in the "basket".
Faucet
Faucet is a system for distributing rewards on some website or application, usually task-based ... so awarding rewards to people, when they complete some task. This technique is used mostly when trying to attract people to a newly launched coin or token.
FIAT
This is the "regular" money we are all used to, so money issued by governmental bodies in basically any country in the world. For example the US Dollar, Euro, British Pound etc ...
Some crypto exchanges give you the option to exchange FIAT money for Crytpo currency and vice versa.
Finney, Szabo
More somewhat common denominations of ether. The full denomination chart: https://ethereum.stackexchange.com/questions/253/the-ether-denominations-are-called-finney-szabo-and-wei-what-who-are-these-na
Fish
A fish is someone who holds a small amount of crypto currency. These individuals have no real impact on the pricing of any particular coin and the real whales often "prey" on them with the price manipulation.
Flipping
Flipping describes the activity of usually short term investments with the goal of reaching quick profits. For example, buying newly issued tokens in an ICO, then quickly selling (dumping) them, once they get listed on a public exchange.
In order to be successful at flipping, you need to act quick and get access to the right information as TIMING is everything in this strategy.
Flipping is a popular strategy in basically any business area ... real estate, buying established companies, buying web properties ... it's all about buying at the right time for the right price, then re-selling later on for a higher price.
FOMO
Fear Of Missing Out. When things are going well and the markets are flying to the moon, those who are not in the game yet start to feel like they missed the train and jump on the bandwagon, while it's not to late.
FOMO news can send the prices of particular coins to the moon, literally. The problem is, investors who enter the markets based on the FOMO signals, are usually too late already and about to lose money.
In markets that are prone to manipulation, false FOMO news is sometimes spread in order to raise the interest for a particular coin.
Frontier, Homestead, Metropolis, Serenity
The four planned stages of the Ethereum development roadmap. We are currently in the Homestead phase. The Metropolis update is likely to be available sometime in the next year.
FUD
Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt. Contrary to FOMO, which pulls the interest of investors, FUD refers to panic selling in case of bad news, large price drops etc ...
Just like in case of FOMO, false FUD news are being spread too, but this time to manipulate prices to go down. Basically any unverified negative news that people spread over the net and other channels, is considered FUD news.
Youg markets such as Crypto, are extremely responsive to FUD news, legit or not, fresh or old ... FUD usually takes the prices down at least a bit.
FUDster
A person/entity that is spreading FUD news. In some cases the news are real and valid, but typical FUDsters do not care about the relevancy or reliability of the news they spread, as long as it can cause panic, they happily share it and enjoy the panic they create.
Full Node
It's almost the same as a regular Node, but it can connect to more peers. Full nodes can connect to over 124 other nodes, while standard nodes only manage 8 peers maximum.
Fundamental Analysis
A method used by traders or investors to apprentice a project/token/coin and predict it's future value. There are several indicators and signals used in fundamental analysis, for example the technology, quality of the team, expected growth, overall market situation, regulations, financial condition etc ...
Gas
Gas is a way of measuring the needed processing power required to process a transaction in the Ethereum blockchain. Simple transactions require less gas to process, than deploying smart contracts, for example.
Gas Limit
Gas limit means the maximum amount of gas that you are willing to spend on a transaction in the Ethereum blockchain. In case the final cost is lower than the limit set, unused gas will be returned to you.
Gas price
Gas price defines the price you are willing to pay for a transaction in the Ethereum blockchain, higher gas limit transactions get prioritized by the miners ... simply because it means more money for them.
Going long
A margin trade that profits if the price increases.
Going short
A margin trade that profits if the price decreases.
Gwei
Another denomination of ether. Gas prices are most often measured in Gwei. 1 Ether = 1000000000 Gwei. (109)
Hard cap
When an ICO is planned, the owners/managers set a final cap for how much they are looking to collect from investors. Once the Hard cap is reached, they will stop collecting funds and the ICO is over.
Hard Cap is the MAXIMUM amount, the ICO can end sooner of course, in case of lower interest for example.
Hard Fork
The change in protocol of a crypto currency that results in the split of the blockchain, effectively creating a new blockchain so also a new currency.
The original currency still follows the old protocol, so no updates are needed by its users. However, the supporters of the new protocol have to update all nodes and also make changes to their mining devices etc ...
The most known Hard Forks are Bitcoing/Bitcoin Cash and Ethereum/Ethereum Classic.
Hard forks usually happen when a drastic update is needed or in case the community isn't able to agree on the future of the project.
Hardware wallet
Using a hardware wallet is one of the most secure ways of storing crypto currencies. The typical example could be one of the 2 most popular hardware wallets ... Trezor and Nano Ledger. Both are just a bit larger than your typical USB storage device and each of them supports a rather wide range of coin types.
The key from a security standpoint is that fact, that hardware wallets are not connected to the internet, except from when you are using them to transfer coins. This makes them resistant to hacker attacks.
HODL
HODL refers to HOLDING coins at all times and refusing to sell them, even when prices are going down ... a strategy used by those who don't know how to trade or simply don't want to do it.
The term HODL was born when a member of the bitcointalk forum made a post while drunk, making this epic TYPO error ... and the rest is history. Check the original thread to see how it all started : https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=375643.0
HODLer
Some who is HODL'ing coins ... not selling no matter what happens, hoping for the prices to rise again. See HODL for more information.
Hodlgang
All the people who HODL are forming the HoldGang, so a mass of people who refuse to sell their coins ... in most cases, HODLers are holding Bitcoins or the most promising altcoins such as Ethereum, Litecoin etc ...
The driving force behind joining the Holdgang is the fact that bitcoin has a limited supply, so if enough people refuse to sell it, the supply available for sale will go down, which should drive it's price up.
Proud members of the Hodlgang let the world know about it by using the hashtag #hodlgang in their social media posts.
Hot Storage
Hot storage is the opposite of the Cold storage ... in case of hot storage, we are talking about online/internet storage, such as exchange based wallets, online wallets, official wallets of various projects etc ... These are more vulnerable to hacker attacks, since they are always "connected to the internet".
HTLC Contracts
Hash Time Locked Contracts are used in the Atomic Swap technology for example, making it possible to exchange one coin/token type for another. HTLC ensures that both parties finish the required operation within a specified period of time.
For example: two people agree to exchange 1BTC for 20ETH via Atomic Swap ... the HTLC contract verifies that one party has sent the 1BTC and the other one has sent the 20ETH, within a specified period of time. Both parties have to provide a cryptographic proof of payment. In case of one party not doing this, the swap will be canceled and fund will be returned to the person who already sent his coins.
ICO
Initial Coin Offering is the Crypto version of an IPO (initial public offering) ... in the world of Wall Street, companies emit securities (stocks) and sell them to investors who show interest, that's how the companies get funding.
With an ICO, the principle is the same ... company announces a project that utilizes a new token/coin and offers to sell this new token to investors, to secure funding for the development of their project.
Most of the ICOs are executed on the Ethereum platform, so the ETH currency is used as a form of payment for the newly issued tokens. The rising popularity of ICOs also caused the huge popularity of Ethereum.
ICO Pool
ICO pools bring together investors who plan to invest into ICO's, but do not have enough funds to get approved for a pre-sale on their own. Since most of the promising ICOs sell out already in the pre-sale, these smaller investors have to join forces in order to be able to participate.
ICO Pools can be either Trustless or Non-Trustless :
Trustless pools utilize smart contracts to limit direct control over the collected funds by any party. Investors can check the smart contract address prior to depositing funds, verifying that it's setup properly as it shows the recipient ICO address too ... since it's open source. The distribution of the purchased tokens is then handled automatically via the smart contracts too.
Non-Trustless Pools do not rely on smart contracts, there are pool managers who do that. Investors send funds to the managers address and rely on their honesty and integrity, to provide the service they agreed to. There is usually a fee charged by the managers, to compensate for their efforts.
IMMO
IMMO can stand for In My Modest Opinion, which is self explanatory.
Or it can refer to the crypto currency project that is believed to be worked on by the Rotschild family. The information available about the project are rather mixed and often smell like conspiracy.
JOMO
Joy Of Missing Out ... so opposite of FOMO is a popular term used by crypto opponents and people who hold no coins. When markets go down, negative regulations are introduced and crypto scams are exposed ... JOMO posts/comments take the social media by storm :)
KYC
Know Your Customer (Client) ... the process of verifying the identity of clients and/or business partners, in order to reduce risks tied to illegal money transactions or other criminal intentions.
In the Crypto space, KYC is used in connection with bank regulations and anti-money laundering laws that intend to control the flow of funds from and to illegal organizations.
Due to this, several levels of verification are required for new clients of pretty much all centralized crypto exchanges.
Lambo
Lambo or a Lamborghini (Italian sports car) is what people often buy, when they become rich... it basically became the synonym for luxury. The excitement from easy and extremely quick gains from cryptocurrency trading or HODLing made many people want to buy one of these cars.
It basically became a slang word for quick growth in crypto prices or getting rich from it... so when someone says LAMBO, it means a quick growth, sudden spike in prices, becoming wealthy from crypto trading or getting excited about the rising prices again.
Want to know when the next bull run will begin? Ask this in crypto communities : "When LAMBO?" :)
Ledger
A set/store of records that can only be added to, you cannot change what has already been stored in the ledger. Decentralized ledgers are actually the core technology of the crypto currency blockchains.
Ledger Nano S / Trezor
These are the 2 most popular hardware crypto wallets on the market right now. Both selling for around $100, unless you chose a special model.
For more information, check their websites :
https://trezor.io/
https://www.ledger.com/
There are several more harware wallets on the market, but these two sold the most units.
Lightning Network
In case of high interest and large trading volume, it can take a very long time to get a Bitcoin transferred from one wallet to another, due to low block size of the Bitcoin blockchain. So in order to make transactions on the Bitcoin blockchain faster, the Lightning Network has been developed.
Lightning network works as a second layer, on top of the blockchain and it can handle transactions without the need to make them all public in the blockchain, thus saving a lot of resources. This is extremely handy especially in case of micro/small transactions, where the cost of the transaction could exceed the value transferred. Such transactions are still secure, thanks to the utilization of smart contracts.
For more information, visit the official Lightning Network site : https://lightning.network/
Limit order / Limit buy / Limit sell
These are orders placed by crypto traders in order to buy or sell crypto currency, when the price reaches certain levels. For example to buy when price falls below some support level, or to sell when it crosses certain growth level.
When a lot of limit orders accumulate at certain price levels, they form buy or sell walls.
Long (going long)
Traders who expect the market prices to go up, start by buying coins at the current prices, expecting to sell them at a higher price later on, thus making profit on it.
So going long means to place a bet on the prices to go up.
MACD
Moving Average Convergence Divergence. A trend indicator that shows the relationship between two moving averages of prices. More info: http://www.investopedia.com/terms/m/macd.asp
Margin trading
Margin trading actually means trading by using a loan from the market maker or trading platform you are using. This loan will provide you with a leverage and allow you to control MUCH bigger amount of coins than you could with your own resources.
Usually, there is some interest charged for the loan, or you get a bit worse pricing or higher fees per trade ... the lending party has to make money somehow, right? :)
The possible gains are way higher, but so are possible loses, so do not engage in margin trading unless you really know what you are doing.
There is a lot of controversy surrounding large margin trading platform, like Bitmex, they are being accused of market manipulation and blocking trading activity at times, without any clear reason.
Market order / market buy / market sell
Another popular order used by crypto traders ... market order means a direct order to buy/sell crypto currency at the best possible market price, so the current Market price.
In case of large orders and fast moving markets, the prices you get/pay per individual coins might be significantly different from the initial price that you submitted the order at.
Marketcap
The total value held in a crypto-currency. It is calculated by multiplying the total supply of coins by the current price of an individual unit.
There is also a Total Marketcap, which is the total $ value of all coins combined.
Master Node
Master node is basically the same as Full Node, but a master node also rewards those who run it, by distributing "dividends" to them. In order to be able to run a master node, you need to own a given amount of the particular coin and deposit it to the master node wallet as a collateral.
Running master nodes is an alternative to mining, that's why POS currencies rely on it a lot.
MEW
MyEtherWallet. A free site that can generate ethereum software wallets for you.
Miner
Miner is a person or entity that engages in the process of crypto currency mining. Miners use specially designed computers or mining devices, to help the operation of a blockchain by confirming, verifying and storing the transactions in the blockchain. In order to motivate the miners to do this, mining rewards are given to those who engage in the process.
Mining
This is the process of storing transactions in the blocks of the blockchain, while verifying their validity. When a block is filled, certain amount of new coins is created and awarded to the miner who finalized the block.
The time it takes to complete a block and the amount of coins awarded to the miner is fixed, no matter how many miners are involved in the process, just the difficulty of the process goes up ... so the more miners, the higher computing power is actually used to complete a block. As a result, it costs more and more $$$ in order to complete a block, hence increasing the "production" cost of a single coin.
Currencies that depend on this mining process are called POW (Proof Of Work) Coins. Bitcoin was the first currency to utilize this approach.
In order to mine effectively, you need to use specifically designed mining devices. The most popular are Mining Rigs build by using high end graphics cards or specific mining devices called ASIC Miners.
Mining Pool
The mining reward for a completed block is awarded to that particular miner who found/confirmed the last hash. All the others who helped to fill the block in question, would get NOTHING.
In order to reach a more fair rewards distribution system, mining pools were formed. A mining pool brings multiple miners together (can be 100s or even more of them) and whoever from the pool finds the last share and get's the block reward, it get's shared among all the members of the pool, based on how much they contributed to the mining process.
The higher hashing power you dedicate to the pool, the higher % of the reward you would receive. The pools also take certain % to compensate for the costs involved with running the pool and it also serves as a source of income for those who run the pools.
Mining rig
Mining rigs are computers built specifically for the purpose of mining POW crypto currencies. These computers have all the standard parts like a common desktop computer : CPU, memory, motherboard ... but they contain multiple high end GPUs (graphic cards) and they also need a special case, as 6 or more GPUs wont fit in a standard computer case.
Open cases are used in most cases, to assure proper cooling as the GPUs produce a lot of heat when in operation. In order to reach the desired performance, lot's of modding is required (custom bios, specific power and memory settings).
A mining rig consumes a lot of electricity, so they need to be operated in locations with custom/favorable electricity rates, in order to reach profitability.
Mooning
Mooning or going to the moon means a rapid growth of price for some coin or the whole crypto market. Often used together with and image or icon of a rocket, indicating the "flight to the moon" effect.
Mt. Gox
Mtgox was one of the first online exchanges, where you could exchange fiat currencies for bitcoin and also the other way around. It was founded by Jed McCaleb in 2006, the name was based on a website where users could trade game cards as stocks named Magic: The Gathering Online Exchange. Mt.Gox was sold to Mark Karpeles in the year 2011. Three years later, in 2014, Mt.Gox was closed after a hack that resulted in 850 000 Bitcoins being stolen/lost.
The process of compensating the users for their loses is still ongoing, as not all Bitcoins on the exchange were lost ... due to the BTC value going up a lot since, there is now more funds (fiat) available than the total loss at the time of the hack.
No-Coiner
A person who holds on crypto coins or tokens. These are usually opponents of the whole crypto idea or people who simply didn't enter the markets from whatever reason.
Node
Node is a copy of the ledger, storing all the transactions done from the beginning of the currency in question. Nodes are operated by participants in the blockchain in order to support it and make it possible to function.
Nodes communicate with other nodes via a peer-to-peer protocol in order to sync with the most up to date ledger version.
OCO Orders
One cancels the other, so two trading orders placed at the same time, while the first one that get's filled, automatically cancels the other one.
Offline Storage
When storing cryptocurrency in a wallet that is not connected to the internet, it's called offline storage.
See also Cold Storage.
OIWYCL
Only Invest What You Can Lose ... standard advice given to any new crypto trader/investor. Trading crypto currencies is a risky business and should be handled with caution.
There are known cases of people who sold all their belongings and bought crypto currency with the money. Other took big bank loans to finance their crypto investment ... some were lucky and have hit the Bull run, while others lost significant parts of their investment.
Do not do this, unless you're a gambler by nature :)
Online Storage
When storing cryptocurrency in a wallet that is connected to the internet, it's an online storage.
See also Hot Wallet.
Opening price
This is the price that a cryptocurrency starts trading at, during a defined period of time ... a day, an hour, 15 minutes etc ...
Orphan Block
A block on the blockchain that would normally be considered valid, but it didn't become part of the blockchain ... usually because 2 miners completed the block almost at the same time and only one of them can be accepted into the main chain, so one has to be rejected.
Orphan blocks can also be created when hackers, with high enough hashing power, attempt to reverse transactions from the past.
OTC
Shorthand for Over The Counter, which means crypto transactions that are made outside of an exchange, for example a direct transfer from one wallet to another one (peer-to-peer) ... usually as a result of a private trade.
It's also used in countries where exchanges are banned by law, or in case of large transfers that could have negative effect on the market price, in case of going through an exchange.
Overbought Market
We talk about an overbought market, when more and more investors buy coins/tokens over time, bringing it's price up, but there is no clear/fundamental reason for that ... when this happens, a selling period usually follows.
Oversold Market
We talk about an oversold market, when more and more investors sell their coins/tokens over time, bringing it's price down, but there is no clear/fundamental reason for that ... when this happens, a buying period usually follows.
PoS
Proof Of Stake is another consensus mechanism that cryptocurrencies can rely on. The system is based on voting, and requires ownership of the related coins.
To put it in a simple way ... stackers (coin owners) get to create blocks and store transactions in them, in exchange for more coins. The bigger stack you own, the higher chance that you will be chosen to create the new block.
Strackers would operate so called Nodes or Master Nodes, so computers handling the actual transactions and storing full copies or parts of the blockchains. In order to be "allowed" to run a node, you need to deposit certain amount of said coin ... or in other words, stack it.
PoW
Proof Of Work. Before any transaction is recorded in the blockchain, consensus needs to be reached by the involved parties ... this can be done in a few ways, one of them is called POW.
Currencies that rely on the POW consensus need miners who dedicate their computing power to solve complicated mathematical operations. Every block of the blockchain requires certain amount of shares to be found/solved, before it get's completed. Once it's completed, miner who found the last share get's a reward ... this keeps miners interested.
So, the mining devices have to do something in order to complete the blocks ... they have to WORK for it ... that's why this consensus mechanism is called Proof of WORK.
Pre-sale
In case of an ICO, there are several stages that the project goes through, in terms of collecting funds from investors.
To make sure that the funding will be a success and to attract large investors, ICO's offer the option to engage in a so called pre-sale. This is usually only open to investors willing to invest more than certain amount and there are bonuses prepared for such investors. The most used bonus is an extra amount of tokens on top of the agreed amount, which is basically a discount from the original token price.
Large part of well executed and promising ICO's reach their Hard Cap during the pre-sale phase already.
Pump And Dump
To pump means to manipulate the price of a coin to grow in an unnatural way ... achieved by mass purchases, FOMO news or schilling. Once the price is high enough, those responsible for the Pump will start to massively sell off (Dump) the coins and cause the price to fall quickly.
Manipulative traders often join forces in so called Pump&Dump groups, where they coordinate these activities to use the leverage of combined resources.
Raiden Network
An upcoming protocol change to Ethereum that will enable high-speed transfers across the network. It is similar in some aspects to Bitcoin’s planned Lightning Network. The name, I assume, comes from the Mortal Kombat character named Raiden that can shoot lightning. More reading available at: https://themerkle.com/what-is-the-raiden-network/
Rekt
Derived from the word "wrecked" so hit hard by the markets, in a negative way.
Also used in combinations with other trading terms, for example :
Shorts getting rekt ... when the prices start to rise, those who "have placed their bets" on the markets going down are kicked off the market with a loss, causing the prices to rise even more.
ROI
ROI means Return On Investment, so the % you made on top of the initial investment. Let's say you bought BTC at $1000 per coin and sold them later on at $1500 per coin. Your ROI would be 50%.
Satoshi (SATS)
Satoshi is the smallest unit of a bitcoin, so like 1 cent of a US dollar. One satoshi has the value of 0.00000001 BTC.
Satoshi Nakamoto
It's the person or group of people who created the Bitcoin. There is a lot of mystery around this name, the identity of the real Nakamoto has never been confirmed, though there are a few people who claim to be him.
Scam
Scam is a fraud, plain and simple. In the crypto world, it's usually related to ICO's that are setup without any real plan to develop a project ... they just raise some funds and then vanish.
Probably the most known crypto scam to date was Bitconnect ... supported by many youtubers and influencers in the crypto space, bearing the signs of a typical ponzi referral system.
The biggest ICO sam to date is probably the Pincoin and iFan fiasco, organized by the same company out of Vietnam ... leaving about 32 000 investors with a combined loss of $660 mln.
Sell Wall
When large amounts of "sell" orders are placed at the same price level, a sell wall get's created. These walls can indicate a strong interest to exit the market at certain price level, but they are also often used to manipulate the market and present a fake impression of the market situation ... these are called fake walls.
Sharding
A scaling solution for blockchains. Typically, every node in a blockchain network houses a complete copy of the blockchain. Sharding is a method that allows nodes to have partial copies of the complete blockchain in order to increase overall network performance and consensus speeds.
Shilling / pumping
When someone promotes certain coin/ICO with a lot of enthusiasm, inflating the real value of the project and generally trying to get more exposure for it at all costs ... it's called shilling.
In other words, when someone goes to hard with the promotion of a project, it's shilling :)
Shitcoin
Any coin/token without any real value or possible usage. Some people consider all coins to be shitcoins, except for the original Bitcoin.
Short (going short)
When trading cryptos, just like with commodities, futures etc ... you don't have to start by buying an asset, you can also start buy selling it. In order to make profit, you just need to buy at a lower price later on. When the markets turn around and start to grow, you would lose money.
So going short means placing a bet on the prices to go down.
Smart contract
Code that is deployed onto the Ethereum blockchain, often directly interacting with how money flows. Not my quote, but: “A normal transaction allows you to send money from A to B. Smart contracts allow you to send money from A to B, on the condition that C happens.”
Soft cap
Every ICO is started with the goal of raising funds for the development of a particular project. In order for the ICO to be considered a success by the organizers, it has to reach AT LEAST certain amount of sold coins. This limit is called the Soft Cap.
With some ICO's, if the soft cap isn't reached, the ICO is called off.
Soft Fork
Change to the software protocol of a blockchain that doesn't split the current currency into two, like a Hard Fork would. Soft Forks are used to make an update of a coin, to add new functionality etc ...
Software wallet
Storage for crypto-currency that exists purely as software files on a computer. Software wallets can be generated for free from a variety of sources. MyEtherWallet (MEW) is one of the popular. (more on MEW below)
Solidity
One of the most popular languages that smart contracts can be written in. Has some similarities to Javascript.
Stable coin
A crypto-currency with extremely low volatility that can be used to trade against the overall market.
TA
Trend Analysis or Technical Analysis. Refers to the process of examining current charts in order to predict which way the market will move next.
Technical Analysis (TA)
A method used mostly by traders, to predict the future value of a coin/token. TA is based mostly on charts/graphs, that traders study and analyze in order to locate patterns that keep on repeating themselves ... these repeating patterns are usually followed by certain price movements that the traders try to make money from.
Technical analysis works the best in mature markets that are data driven and are prone to manipulation, panic and impulse behavior ... that's why some traders claim TA is not usable in the crypto space.
The Flippening
A potential future event wherein Ethereum’s market cap surpasses Bitcoin’s market cap, making Ethereum the most ‘valuable’ crypto-currency. This site shows the progress of the Flippening in real-time: http://www.flippening.watch/
This is gentlemen
“This is it, gentlemen”. Used to point out positive things that are currently happening. http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=This%20is%20gentlemen
Timestamp
Every transaction has a timestamp that defines when it occurred, it should contain date and very accurate time of day (fractions of a second).
TLT
Think Long Term ... instead of focusing on short term gains, TLT investors are looking at the bigger picture, planning their investment for a longer period of time, which should be multiple months or years.
Token Emission Scgedule
This is just another name/term used for Emission Curve.
Tokenize
The process of tokenizing something, means to transfer real-world assets into digital assets, by setting it's value in tokens.
You could partially compare this to the stock markets, where the stocks themselves pose as a form of ownership and their value/price is determined by the markets.
Tokens are also transferable, trade-able and sell-able, they can server as a form of payment, they allow for partial ownership of the same asset etc ...
Tokens
Refers to the ‘currency’ of projects built on the ethereum network that have raised money via issuing their own tokens. Examples:
GNT – Golem
REP – Augur
BAT – Basic Attention Token
ICN – Iconomi
Total supply
This is the total amount of a coins/tokens that are in existence at this moment. This doesn't include the coins that have been burned or are no usable.
Trade Volume
The amount of crypto coins traded withing a period of usually 24 hours. We can talk about several levels of trade volumes ... per coin, per exchange, total trade volume for the whole market ... Trade volume is usually calculated in BTC or one of the main FIAT currencies, USD or EUR.
Trading Bot
Automated software application that is capable of trading (buy/sell) crypto currencies on public exchanges, based on a predefined set of rules.
Trading bots rely on technical analysis and other trading factors, that are different from one bot to the next ... most bots offer the options to alter settings, chose strategies, set targets etc ...
Bots use API's to communicate with exchanges that they trade on, which makes them a popular target for hackers. Poorly coded bots can pose a serious security threat so use them at your own risk.
It's a fact that BOTs can trade very effectively in certain market conditions, especially during bullish periods, but the situation changes when the markets start to fall.
Transaction Fee
A fee is charged for every transaction made within the blockchain. These fees are calculated in different ways, their height can also be VERY different from one currency to the next. Some coins are very cheap or even free to transfer, while in case of others, the fees can be quite high during the prime time or during period of higher than usual activity.
With some coins, you can agree to a higher fee in order to get priority handling of your transactions. Fees are used to support the community and/or awarded to the miners or node operators.
Trust System
A setup that is managed by a central entity that has full control over it, these are called Centralized. Users need to trust the managing entity that it will execute the operations as intended.
An example of a Trust system is a Centralized Exchange for example.
Trustless System
Contrary to a Trust System, the Trustless setups do not have a central party/authority that the users need to rely on. Trustless applications are also called decentralized as there is no central authority or single point of control.
An example of a trustless setup could be a decentralized exchange ... such exchanges make it possible for users to trade their coins/tokens in a peer-2-peer way, without relying on the exchange to hold their coins and transfer them from one user to the next.
Unconfirmed
Unconfirmed transaction is a crypto transaction that has not yet been stored in the blockchain.
Validator
With POS (Proof Of Stake) protocol blockchains, transactions/blocks are validated by the stakers (coin holders) called the Validatros ... these validators run nodes on internet servers, which do process the actual transactions and validate blocks.
Vanity Address
These are custom cryptocurrency addresses used for crypto transactions and storing. Much like the Vanity Plates for cars, the users can customize the address to some extent.
Venture Capital
One of the funding options for starting companies/projects, private investors usually chose smaller operations with high growth potential.
Vitalik Buterin
One of the primary co-founders of Ethereum (and certainly the most well-known). A brief biography is available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vitalik_Buterin
Volatility
In simple words, volatility means the changes in the price levels of a crypto currency, within a specified time frame ... for example a day or a week.
The higher the volatility, the less secure the currency is considered by some investors as it makes the currency less stable. In other words, traditional investors don't want to buy a bitcoin for $6500 today, just to see it's price to dip below $6000 on the next day.
On the other hand, high volatility also means high possible short term gains, so it attracts the more adventurous investors.
One way or another, many crypto fans agree that the high volatility of crypto currencies in general, make their mass adoption harder.
Volume
Volume simply means amount and it can be used in several contexts ... trading volume, volume of a contract (size), traffic volume (in terms of advertising) etc ...
Wallet
It's a place/device/program where you can store your crypto currencies. There are several versions of the crypto wallets:
Hardware wallets ... Ledger Nano S, Trezor, Bitfi
Software wallets ... these can be offline or online
Paper wallets
Based on whether the wallet is connected to the internet or not, we specify a Cold Wallet (offline) and Hoft Wallet (online).
Weak Hands
Investors or traders with "Weak Hands" are those that always panic the first and sell their coins even after a small decline in their prices. If there are to many weak hands holding certain coin, even minor price drops can start large dips.
Wei
The smallest denomination of ether. 1 Ether = 1000000000000000000 Wei (1018)
Whale
A person or entity, that owns a VERY large amount of cryptocurrency or several currencies. Whales own such large amounts of coins, that they are able to manipulate the markets by placing extremely big buy or sell orders.
When Lambo
Frequently used in crypto chat groups and communities, the person who asks "When Lambo" is basically asking about when the prices of a particular coin or the whole market will start growing.
When Moon
Another community "phrase" used to ask about the expected growth in the crypto markets and when it's gonna happen ... pretty much the same meaning as "When Lambo".
Whitelist
One of the initial steps taken by any ICO organizer, is to do a market research in order to see what the potential interest would look like. One of the methods often used, is to restrict ICO participation only to "whitelisted" individuals.
In order to get on the whitelist, you need to show interest by filling out a short form or going through some kind of verification. The more regulations will hit the Crypto world, the more in-depth the verification for white-listing will be.
Whitepaper
Whitepaper is the basic document for every ICO project.
It's like a standard business plan you would need to prepare for any brick&mortar business, that you need fundign for.
A white paper should contain all the important information about the project, the vision of the authors, the problems it solves ... in other words, the Whitepaper should sell the project and make investors interested.
A poorly prepared whitepaper is a great sign of a scam ICO that you should stay away from.
