Questions tagged [terminology]
Questions concerning terminology, jargon, abbreviations, acronyms and phrases that are essential to the cryptocurrency community.
149
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2answers
43 views
Is this the ledger?
Lots of articles about bitcoin say that anyone can see all the transactions that have ever taken place, and they call that "the ledger." But none of those articles give a link for where to ...
1
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1answer
82 views
BTC Treasure hunt
Alright, I’m new to Bitcoin/Crypto, and this might be a long story but worth it.
My life long friend had a $50 Visa gift card back in 2009-2011. His friends were over the house one day and mentioned ...
4
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1answer
70 views
What is the difference between Consensus and Distributed Consensus?
This is more of a clarification than as a question. Since I didn't have the rep to post a comment in this question, I'm putting this itself as a question.
Sources I've referred till now:
A ...
6
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1answer
391 views
What is the difference between “native segwit” and “bech32”?
People seem to be using "native segwit" and "bech32" interchangeably. Are they really the same thing?
2
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1answer
42 views
What is a stale blockchain tip? Is it a blockchain tip missing the latest mined block?
Stale blocks and orphaned blocks are defined here.
What is a stale blockchain tip? Is it a blockchain tip missing the latest mined block? Or is it a blockchain with a stale block (as defined in that ...
5
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1answer
50 views
How do we know which soft-forks were implemented using User-Activated Soft Fork or Miner-Activated Soft Fork?
This seems to be the most common definition
When a majority of miners upgrade to enforce new rules, it is called a miner-activated soft fork (MASF). When full nodes coordinate to
enforce new rules, ...
0
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1answer
33 views
What do “support” and “resistance” mean?
I'm still very much a newbie to all this and would like to get some help.
0
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2answers
31 views
what is referred as coin in bitcoin network?
I gathered information about bitcoin from various resources. All those resources said that when a transaction is done, the transaction get added to a block. So when Alice send 2 btc to Bob, network ...
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1answer
2k views
What does mBtc mean [duplicate]
I’m using Electrum 3.3.8 and I recently made a sale and got 0.83 mBTC.
I’ve tried to convert the mBTC to USD. it says i have $5000+ but I was selling the product for only $6
3
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1answer
236 views
What is an extended fingerprint (xfp) and how does it differ from an xpub?
Coldcard requires the xfps of all of its cosigners to be able to verify and sign multisig transactions. Providing the coldcard with just the xpubs is not enough, which I believe to mean that the xfp ...
1
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3answers
163 views
Ironically, encryption is not an important part of bitcoin (?)
The above statement is taken out of a book which I've been reading: Mastering Bitcoin 2nd Edition.
...as its communications and transaction data are not encrypted and do
not need to be encrypted ...
3
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3answers
84 views
What is “consensus”?
I’m really struggling to get my head around a particular piece of lingo in the bitcoin/blockchain space, and would really appreciate if someone was able to give a bit of clarity. I have been doing a ...
2
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1answer
324 views
what is measured in units of sat/kw?
Whilst learning about bitcoin & lightning fees I have encountered the abbreviation sat/kw a few times, most recently here:
Why can’t lightning tx’s be signed with sighash single to allow for fee ...
2
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0answers
43 views
How to detect a consensus is BFT or not? [closed]
Can we divide consensus algorithms into BFT (Byzantine Fault
Tolerant) and non-BFT ?
If so, How to detect a consensus is BFT or non-BFT ?
Is there any non-BFT consensus algorithm example ?
1
vote
1answer
201 views
“Fork choice rule” : A general term? or a specific algorithm?
Is "Fork choice rule" a general term including all the algorithms used for choosing a branch among other branches in a fork (including longest chain rule in Bitcoin etc) ?
Or is it a specific ...
2
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2answers
798 views
What is a txn? How can it be invalid?
I read this in a IRC exchange:
verifies your txns against a random node that you don't control. if for some reason that node went rogue, you might have accepted an invalid txn
What is a txn?
2
votes
1answer
36 views
What does “Green address verification” mean in the context of transaction validation?
I am only new to Bitcoin and I would like to know what a "Green address verification" is. I have an Electrum wallet ver 3.3.6 and I think the term is being used in the context of faster transactions ...
2
votes
1answer
162 views
Why do we need to chain the blocks (creating blockchain) in a permissioned blockchain?
The main question is:
What does "chaining block" mean in a permissioned blockchain? OR in any blockchain network in which creating a new block does NOT need consuming resources/energy ? (even in the ...
3
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2answers
377 views
What is the unit of time_lock_delta in LND?
LND has a configuration setting called time_lock_delta with the description "The required timelock delta for HTLCs forwarded over the channel.". I assume this to refer to some measure of time, but ...
2
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3answers
78 views
What does channel num_updates mean?
Some LND wallets provide a channel's "Number of Updates". Here's an example from Zap Desktop:
The LND gRPC API Channel Reference cites a property called num_updates. The description of this field is ...
0
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1answer
63 views
Required conditions to be selected as intermediary node (Payment Service Provider) in Lightning Network?
I bring up some important questions about terminology of the Lightning Network and how to select the intermediary node as the Payment Service Provider in a routing channel:
The following video (Link ...
2
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1answer
88 views
“stable-coins”: A formal definition?
In crypto-currency news, we might heard about term of "stable-coins".
Can we define a stable-coin as follows:
A crypto-currency that is pegged to a fiat / formal currency to minimize the ...
1
vote
1answer
37 views
Is there any “permissionless” blockchain “without a native coin”?
We may certainly say that a "permissioned" blockchain cannot have a native coin (or cryptocurreny) since in permissioned blockchain we need a permission to be eligible to participate for transactions ...
1
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1answer
108 views
If Bitcoin addresses are a single-use token, how several transactions belong to a single address? (Edited)
While in Bitcoin wiki (Link to the page) is explicitly mentioned:
"A Bitcoin address is a single-use token."
We therefore expect that every address would be belonged to only a single transaction ...
1
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1answer
181 views
How to fund a bidirectional channel in Lightning Network by two participants? (Edited)
I brought up a similar question here: (Link to question) for a payment channel (in general case and without specifying which payment channel implementation.) Since this funding channels depends on the ...
0
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1answer
71 views
meaning of “full node” in Lightning Network?
According to this answer: (Link to answer),
"A 'full node' refers to a fully validating node on the
Bitcoin network, meaning the node validates each block and transaction that happens on the ...
4
votes
1answer
182 views
Lightning Network: asymmetry in the information tracked by each participant?
In following paper, written by Christian Decker et al., there is a paragraph that is not clear to me.
eltoo: A Simple Layer2 Protocol for Bitcoin
"The central idea of Lightning is to invalidate ...
1
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1answer
65 views
Implementing an “ad-hoc-like network of payment channels” on top of Bitcoin network?
If we define an ad-hoc network as follows:
"An ad hoc network is a network that is composed of individual devices
communicating with each other directly." [1]
ad-hoc networks do not rely on ...
1
vote
1answer
100 views
What is a “half” in Bitcoin?
I saw in an article something about a Bitcoin algorithm half in 2020. What exactly is this? I have tried looking this up but I couldn't find anything that told me what it was only a website counting ...
1
vote
1answer
91 views
In what way does Spectre have “weak” liveness?
In his article The Spectre Protocol, Aviv Zohar, one of Spectre's authors, mentions that Spectre has weak liveness.
Why does he mention that Spectre has "weak" liveness, and how would "strong liveness"...
2
votes
2answers
736 views
Exact definition of “Liveness” and “Safety” properties in a consensus?
Two main properties of a consensus are "Liveness" and "Safety".
What are the exact and precised definition of "Liveness" and "Safety" properties in a consensus ?
Are the following definitions ...
9
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1answer
623 views
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1answer
40 views
What does Starkware Industries mean?
What does Starkware Industries mean? Is it related to Zcash company?
Its name apparently comes from Zero Knowledge Stark (zk-STARKs).
I appreciate it if someone could define Starkware Industries in ...
1
vote
1answer
851 views
Can we estimate how many node has the Bitcoin network? [duplicate]
Is it possible to estimate the amount of nodes (hosts) are connected to the Bitcoin network in a given time?
Note: Here node means host.
0
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1answer
229 views
Differences/similarities of “Bitcoin script” and “Ethereum smart contract”?
Can we compare Bitcoin script and Ethereum smart contract ?
And if yes,
What are differences/similarities of Bitcoin script and Ethereum smart contract in sense of functionality, architecture and ...
0
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4answers
84 views
Is blockchain always “public”?
Is the following definition of blockchain by its wikipwdia page correct?
Where it is mentioned:
A blockchain is a decentralized, distributed and public digital ledger
...
Cannot we have a ...
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vote
1answer
52 views
What is the correct use of the term “validating”?
First, in the Bitcoin context what does validating mean?
Second, is it incorrect to say something like
" the average time it takes to validate a block by the network is 10 minutes."
The way, I ...
8
votes
2answers
2k views
What the difference between old segwit (3) and new segwit address (bc)?
i'm not that kind of person who understands cryptography and math, can you tell me simply the main purpose of new segwit address? are transactions fee the same for new segwit (bc1)?
instead of "Old ...
0
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1answer
41 views
Proper grammar regarding Bulletproofs
For non-native speakers talking about Bulletproofs with correct grammar is tricky.
I tried to use the white paper as a reference, but it is not consistent. Even in the abstract it mixes plural and ...
2
votes
1answer
149 views
What is QuoteAssetVolume and BaseAssetVolume?
This is a JSON result for a candle returned by an exchange API for ETHBTC:
{ openTime: 1517340600000,
open: '0.10635000',
high: '0.10742000',
low: '0.10635000',
close: '0.10687200',
volume: ...
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7answers
4k views
Are BTC and Bitcoin Core the same?
I recently saw an offer to "Buy Bitcoin Core with your credit card".
Is this "Bitcoin Core" the same thing as BTC?
46
votes
1answer
14k views
What are Channel Factories and how do they work?
One of the open research questions for Lightning Network is that it will take a massive amount of on-chain transactions to create enough payment channels for all the Lightning Network users. Lately, I'...
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1answer
847 views
What is the difference between Segwit and non-segwit?
What's the difference? What is the definition of these two terms?
-1
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2answers
75 views
Why isn't bitcoin itself its own ledger?
Sorry if I'm asking a very daft question here, bitcoin newbie.
When I first heard of bitcoin, I thought bitcoin itself kept a record of who had spent it and when. I didn't know the blockchain was a ...
4
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2answers
3k views
What is the difference between on-chain scaling and off-chain scaling?
What is on-chain scaling and off-chain scaling?
What is the core difference between on-chain scaling and off-chain scaling?
0
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1answer
110 views
Definition of `Idx`
idx is an integer in source code of bitcoin related softwares.
https://github.com/decred/atomicswap/blob/70f795e/cmd/btcatomicswap/main.go#L391
https://github.com/btcsuite/btcd/blob/...
0
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1answer
56 views
Does bitcoin deflate or does it appreciate?
How are these two terms related?
Bit Coin is obviously appreciating in value, but does that alone mean that the economy is deflationary? Or, is deflation and inflation a result of external pressures ...
2
votes
1answer
203 views
what are chaff coins in cryptocurrency?
I read in several paper about "chaff coins" but I could not find a clear definition for this phenomenon. Does it refer to a specific coin? Is there any "formal" definition for that ?
Reference: ...
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1answer
2k views
Race Attack vs. Double-Spending Attack: are they same?
Race Attack vs. Double-Spending Attack: are they same?
I know definition of both attack both some times it is called as "race attack" and most of the time called as "double-spending". I guess (maybe) ...
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4answers
20k views
What is the difference between a miner and a full node?
I have trouble finding the difference between a full node and a miner. It looks like these two names are used interchangeably which I think is not entirely correct. Miners do process blocks and full ...
