Glossary

The word “altcoin” is an abbreviation of “Bitcoin alternative,” and thus describes every single cryptocurrency except for Bitcoin. Altcoins are referred to as Bitcoin alternatives because, at least to some extent, most altcoins hope to either replace or improve upon…

Bitcoin is a digital currency (also called crypto-currency) that is not backed by any country’s central bank or government. Bitcoins can be traded for goods or services with vendors who accept Bitcoins as payment. Bitcoin-to- Bitcoin transactions are made by…

A bitcoin address is a cryptographic key that “owns” bitcoins. This address is used to uniquely identify bitcoins. The person or persons who know the corresponding private key can send those bitcoins to any other address. The cryptographic keys that…

A Bitcoin wallet is a software program where Bitcoins are stored. To be technically accurate, Bitcoins are not stored anywhere; there is a private key (secret number) for every Bitcoin address that is saved in the Bitcoin wallet of the…

A blockchain—the technology underlying bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies—is a shared digital ledger, or a continually updated list of all transactions. This decentralized ledger keeps a record of each transaction that occurs across a fully distributed or peer-to- peer network, either…

CoinJoin and SharedCoin: CoinJoin is an anonymization method for bitcoin transactions proposed by Gregory Maxwell. The following idea is behind CoinJoin: “When you want to make a payment, find someone else who also wants to make a payment and make…

A cryptocurrency (or crypto currency) is a digital asset designed to work as a medium of exchange using cryptography to secure the transactions and to control the creation of additional units of the currency. Cryptocurrencies are a subset of alternative…

Mixing Service: Mixer, Tumbler, Fogger: A cryptocurrency tumbler or cryptocurrency mixing service is a service offered to mix potentially identifiable or ‘tainted’ cryptocurrency funds with others, with the intention of confusing the trail back to the fund’s original source. Tumblers…

Multi-input is a way of associating multiple addresses with a single individual or entity. This can help to group addresses into what is often called a “wallet address”. The way this works is that if many bitcoin addresses are used…

A transaction graph is a visual representation of one or more transactions and the addresses that sent and received bitcoins. A transaction graph can show how money is transferred between users and intermediate services such as hosted wallets, exchanges or…