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 currencies, or specifically of digital currencies.  

Stores the information necessary to transact bitcoins. While wallets are often described as a place to hold or store bitcoins, due to the nature of the system, bitcoins are inseparable from the blockchain transaction ledger. A better way to describe a wallet is something that "stores the digital credentials for your bitcoin holdings" and allows you to access (and spend) them. Bitcoin uses public-key cryptography, in which two cryptographic keys, one public and one private, are generated. At its most basic, a wallet is a collection of these keys.  

An identifier of 26-35 alphanumeric characters, beginning with the number 1 or 3, (actually depends on what type of currency and type of wallet, other address begins with different character) that represents a possible destination for a bitcoin (or altcoin) payment. Addresses can be generated at no cost by any user of Bitcoin.  

Refers to a wallet that is online and connected in some way to the Internet. It is a term that refers to bitcoins that are not being kept in cold storage. Bitcoin-related services and exchanges that are able to pay out withdrawals instantly can be said to be paying them from a "hot wallet". The term can also be used loosely to refer to keeping bitcoins in an exchange where they can be withdrawn on demand. Its real-world analogy is keeping cash on person: easy access, but greatest risk of unrecoverable theft in the event of an attack.  

In the context of Bitcoin refers to keeping a reserve of Bitcoins offline. For example, a Bitcoin exchange typically offers an instant withdrawal feature, and might be a steward over hundreds of thousands of Bitcoins. To minimize the possibility that an intruder could steal the entire reserve in a security breach, the operator of the website follows a best practice by keeping the majority of the reserve in cold storage, or in other words, not present on the web server or any other computer. The only amount kept on the server is the amount needed to cover anticipated withdrawals.  

A cryptocurrency and a payment system invented by an unidentified programmer, or group of programmers, under the name of Satoshi Nakamoto. Bitcoin was introduced on 31 October 2008 to a cryptography mailing list, and released as open-source software in 2009. There have been various claims and speculation concerning the identity of Nakamoto, none of which are confirmed. The system is peer-to-peer and transactions take place between users directly, without an intermediary. These transactions are verified by network nodes and recorded in a public distributed ledger called the blockchain, which uses bitcoin as its unit of account. Since the system works without a central repository or single administrator, the U.S. Treasury categorizes bitcoin as a decentralized virtual currency. Bitcoin is often called the first cryptocurrency, although prior systems existed and it is more correctly described as the first decentralized digital currency. Bitcoin is the largest of its kind in terms of total market value.  

The smallest fraction of a Bitcoin that can currently be sent: 0.00000001 BTC, that is, a hundredth of a millionth BTC. In the future, however, the protocol may be updated to allow further subdivisions, should they be needed.  

An open-source, public, blockchain-based distributed computing platform featuring smart contract (scripting) functionality. It provides a decentralized virtual machine, the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM). This virtual machine can execute Turing-complete scripts using an international network of public nodes and a token called ether, often referred to as gas (short for "gasoline"). Gas is necessary to prevent spam on the network and allocate resources proportionally to the importance of a request.  

A peer-to-peer cryptocurrency and open source software project released under the MIT/X11 license. Inspired by and technically nearly identical to bitcoin (BTC), Litecoin creation and transfer is based on an open source protocol and is not managed by any central authority.  

A cryptocurrency featuring a likeness of the Shiba Inu dog from the "Doge" Internet meme as its logo. Introduced as a "joke currency" on 8 December 2013, Dogecoin quickly developed its own online community and reached a capitalization of US$60 million in January 2014; as of March 2016, it had a capitalization of US$22.2 million.  

A reward system, in the form of a website or app, that dispenses rewards in the form of a satoshi, which is a hundredth of a millionth BTC, for visitors to claim in exchange for completing a captcha or task as described by the website. There are also faucets that dispense alternative cryptocurrencies.  

The multisig vault is created by intelligently distributing three keys, two of which are required to unlock your funds. Coinbase securely stores one key, you store a backup user key, and both Coinbase and you store an encrypted third key, which can only be unlocked with a password you know. Because Coinbase never learns your password and never learns your user key, Coinbase never gains access to your funds.  

Two or more private keys are required to spend from the address. It is usually made by sharing public keys. One of the parties then makes a multi-signature address where he only owns ONE of the required private keys to spend from that address. Two (or more) public keys are used to generate a multi signature address. This address will, by convention, start with a "3" indicating that it is a multisignature wallet.  

Also known as "Alternate Coins", any cryptocurencies except Bitcoin. Those are Ethereum, Litecoin, Dogecoin and so on...

A Bitcoin wallet designed from the ground up to give users the best of both worlds — it focuses first on maximizing security, and then provides a well thought-out interface to make using this security as simple as possible. Many users regard it as the only way for those with a significant investment in Bitcoin to use and protect their funds. Beyond security and usability, Armory simply implements more features than any other Bitcoin client available. It includes Armory’s signature interface for offline wallets (also known as, “cold storage”), multi-signature transactions, simulfunding (escrow), one-time printable backups, multiple wallets interface, GPU-resistant wallet encryption, key importing, key sweeping, message signing, and more.