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Cryptocurrency Glossary| Term | Definition | | Altcoin | Term applied to any cryptocurrency other than Bitcoin. Bitcoin was the first viable cryptocurrency, all others are considered alternative. | | Blockchain | A blockchain is a database of transactions which is distributed across many platforms. It consists of blocks that contain transaction information. The blocks are doubly linked, thus forming a "chain" of blocks. | | Deflationary | A deflationary digital currency has an upper limit on the amount of coins produced. For example, the maximum for Bitcoin is 21,000,000 and the maximum for Litecoin is 84,000,000. | | Faucet | A website that pays out tiny amounts of cryptocurrency. See our section on free coins. | | Hash (value) | A value representing (and shorter than) an alpha-numeric string. Determined using a hashing function. | | Hashing Function | An algorithm that takes strings as input and generates a shorter fixed length value to represent each string. | | Inflationary | An inflationary digital currency does not have an upper limit on the number of coins produced; thus the supply will keep growing. Dogecoin, for example, currently has no upper limit. | | Microwallet | A website where very small digital payments are stored. When the balance is large enough, it can be transferred to a real digital wallet. Typically used to accumulate claims from faucets; these faucet sites deposit larger sums into the microwallet site, and the microwallet site disperses tiny amounts to faucet users when claims are made. | | Mining | Method used to generate new coins for a cryptocurrency. See our section on mining. | | Mining Rig | Enhanced computer with special ASICs, memory, GPUs, etc. used to mine coins. | | Satoshi | Originally used to represent 1x10-8 Bitcoin (0.00000001 BTC). Now used for other cryptocurrencies as well, such as LTC, DASH, and DOGE, to represent that amount of fractional currency. Our Coin Values section explains this in more detail. |
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