Top 10 Cryptocurrency Abbreviations & Keywords You Must Know
To all but the uninitiated, terms like “blockchain” and “Bitcoin” are sure to be very familiar to the average cryptocurrency trader or even the casually interested. But as an industry that never stops for a minute, cryptography has a lot of buzzwords that you might not be very familiar with. Here are the top 10 cryptocurrency acronyms and keywords you should know.
HODL extension
This is actually a pretty well-known crypto buzzword, but for those new to the game, it means holding your cryptocurrency rather than selling it. It dates back to the early days of cryptocurrencies in 2013, when a seemingly drunk person posted “I AM HODLING” (yes, that’s a typo!) on a Bitcoin forum. This drunken mishap has since faded into cryptocurrency lore, with the term HODL becoming a nickname (hold on to your life), especially used during times of market volatility to refer to individuals who hold on to their cryptocurrency while others around them they do. .
FOMO (and FUD)
These words are abbreviations and are also commonly used in society at large. FOMO stands for “Fear of Missing Out” and is used in cryptocurrency terms to describe the fear traders may feel about missing out on good profits for other traders. This can be magnified in the cryptocurrency world due to the sometimes highly documented wild price swings that can occur. Here it is related to FUD, which means fear, uncertainty and doubt. Wild swings in Crypto prices, as seen recently, could cause FOMO and FUD. Stocks due to FOMO and FUD can be caused by buying or not owning a new coin and vice versa. However, it should be noted that these fears are often irrational and can be triggered, for example, by unfounded rumors on social media.
Maximalist Bitcoin
As the name suggests, this buzzword refers to someone who is 100% committed to the Bitcoin cause and has no interest in any other cryptocurrency. A Bitcoin maximalist sees the future of the cryptocurrency solely as Bitcoin and does not credit altcoins as being significant or part of that future. While not many argue that Bitcoin is the king of cryptocurrencies and certainly has the best chance of becoming mainstream, it remains to be seen whether it will cross the line or be joined by others.
Satoshi
Some of the more observant among you may realize that this is the given name of the alleged pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto, the alleged creator of Bitcoin and author of the Bitcoin White Paper. But as a word itself, it means the smallest amount of Bitcoin you can control. That in itself is an insanely small amount – 0.00000001 BTC. Although it seems so small as to be insignificant, the Satoshi unit has uses. Satoshi is used as a face value on the Bitcoin blockchain before being converted to display. They can also be used when referring to small amounts of Bitcoin (but not 0.00000001 BTC small!) For example, you want to send 0.0001 BTC to a friend. Instead of saying 0.0001 BTC, you can also say 10,000 Satoshi, or sat.
DeFi (and Dapps)
These are relatively new additions to the cryptographic dictionary. DeFi stands for Decentralized Finance and Dapp stands for Decentralized Applications. DeFi aims to enable deeper integration between blockchain and financial services. Bitcoin was invented with the aim of removing the middleman, i.e. the bank, from digital financial transactions. But with DeFi, it is now possible to make other banking services such as insurance, loans or savings accounts available without intermediaries using smart contract blockchains such as Ethereum. While still in its infancy, it is a rapidly growing movement with more and more Dapps being created and DeFi solutions including arable farming will help you get a piece of that. However, funding is by no means the limit of Dapps as they have a wide range of activities from social media to tech to art and much more.
Expand
It will surprise no one that this cryptographic term has nothing to do with a commonly used cutlery. The fork occurs when a change needs to be made to the cryptocurrency blockchain. This can be necessary for a variety of reasons and there are soft forks and hard forks. The main difference is that a soft fork can be thought of as a “software update” and the new consensus rules are backwards compatible with the rules of the older version of the blockchain.
A hard fork, on the other hand, creates permanent divisions in the blockchain and completely new consensus rules that invalidate the rules of previous versions of the blockchain. Soft forks are often used by developers as a way to make changes without causing significant disruption (since only 51% of blockchain nodes and users require an update). Hard forks are used when the changes may be significant (since all nodes and users on the blockchain need to be updated), such as the split between Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash, when Bitcoin Cash separated from the main Bitcoin blockchain in August 2017 and created its own cryptocurrency.
STRAIGHT
First used by gamers, it’s slang for “junk” and now cryptocurrency traders have adopted it. This buzzword describes a financial loss of serious proportions due to poor judgment or unfortunate market movements. A trader might say that his position is “extending” if, for example, he has a long position and the market price collapses. The same can be said of the currency or the market itself.
DYOR
Last but not least is perhaps the most important buzzword of all: DYOR, which means do your research! In the end, only you decide which cryptocurrencies to invest in, when to go long or short, and whether to leverage your position. Any seasoned trader will tell you, though it may be difficult, that FOMO is not a healthy mindset to adopt and that the best practice is to stick to what trading analysis and charts tell you, rather than what a random person might tell you. on Twitter. You might get REKT if you don’t!