44 terms · plain language
The Bitcoin glossary with live numbers
Definitions are cheap; this glossary’s difference is that where a term has a number, the entry links to it live — «satoshi» shows what a dollar buys right now, «halving» shows the countdown.
- “Not your keys, not your coins”The maxim: bitcoin on an exchange is a claim on bitcoin, not bitcoin.
- 21 million capBitcoin’s hard supply limit — there will never be more than 21 million BTC.
- AddressThe destination string you share to receive bitcoin — derived from your keys.
- Bitcoin (BTC)The first and largest decentralized digital money; BTC is its ticker and unit.
- BlockA batch of transactions added to the chain roughly every ten minutes.
- Block subsidyThe new bitcoin created in each block and paid to the miner who found it.
- CBDCCentral Bank Digital Currency — state digital money, Bitcoin’s mirror image.
- Cold storageKeys kept fully offline — the vault tier of bitcoin security.
- ConfirmationEach block mined on top of your transaction — settlement depth, counted.
- DCA (Dollar-Cost Averaging)Buying a fixed amount on a schedule — the anti-timing strategy.
- DebasementThe erosion of a currency’s value through expanding its supply.
- Difficulty adjustmentThe every-2,016-blocks recalibration that keeps blocks ~10 minutes apart.
- Fiat currencyGovernment-issued money backed by decree rather than a scarce asset.
- Genesis blockBlock 0, mined by Satoshi on 3 January 2009 — with a newspaper headline inside.
- HalvingThe every-210,000-blocks event that cuts new bitcoin issuance in half.
- Hardware walletA dedicated device that signs transactions while keys never touch the internet.
- HashrateThe total computing power securing Bitcoin, measured in hashes per second.
- HODLThe misspelling that became Bitcoin’s word for long-term conviction holding.
- HyperbitcoinizationThe hypothetical endgame where bitcoin becomes the world’s dominant money.
- KYC“Know Your Customer” — the identity checks exchanges are required to run.
- Lightning NetworkBitcoin’s payment layer: instant, near-free transactions settled off-chain.
- Market capitalizationPrice × circulating supply — the headline size metric, with caveats.
- MempoolThe waiting room of unconfirmed transactions competing for block space.
- MiningThe energy-backed competition that orders transactions and issues new bitcoin.
- Mining poolMiners combining hashrate to smooth out the lottery of finding blocks.
- MultisigRequiring multiple keys to spend — no single point of failure or theft.
- Node (full node)A computer running Bitcoin software that independently verifies every rule.
- Orange pillThe moment Bitcoin clicks — culture’s term for conviction by understanding.
- Privacy (on-chain)Bitcoin is pseudonymous, not anonymous — every transaction is public forever.
- Private keyThe secret number that controls bitcoin — whoever holds it, owns the coins.
- Proof of workThe mechanism tying Bitcoin’s security to real-world energy expenditure.
- Satoshi (sat)The smallest unit of bitcoin: 1/100,000,000 BTC — the unit SatsAtlas measures in.
- Sats standardPricing goods in satoshis instead of fiat — the measuring-stick flip.
- Seed phraseThe 12–24 words that back up every key in your wallet.
- SegWitThe 2017 upgrade that fixed malleability and made transactions smaller.
- Self-custodyHolding your own keys, so no company stands between you and your bitcoin.
- Stacking satsAccumulating bitcoin in small amounts, counted in satoshis.
- TaprootThe 2021 upgrade improving privacy and efficiency of complex transactions.
- The Bitcoin whitepaperSatoshi’s nine pages from 2008 that specified peer-to-peer electronic cash.
- TimechainSatoshi’s original name for the blockchain — a chain of provable time.
- TransactionA signed instruction spending UTXOs to new owners, recorded forever on-chain.
- Transaction feesWhat you bid for block space — the auction that prices Bitcoin settlement.
- UTXOUnspent Transaction Output — the actual form bitcoin takes on the blockchain.
- VolatilityHow much the price swings — Bitcoin’s cost of being freely traded and young.
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