Reference
Glossary
Every term you will meet on this site and most you will meet elsewhere, defined in one sentence a beginner can read and then explained properly. Where a term is routinely misunderstood, the entry says how.
Consensus & Security22Cryptography8Custody & Access15Data & Measurement27DeFi17Foundations20Institutional Access13Market Structure28Regulation & Policy19Risk & Failure Modes23Scaling & Infrastructure18Stablecoins13Tokens & Supply37
15 terms shown
| Term | Category | In one sentence |
|---|---|---|
| Address Poisoning | Custody & Access | A scam that plants a look-alike address in your transaction history so you copy it by mistake when you next pay. |
| Cold Storage | Custody & Access | Keeping the keys to digital assets on a device or medium that is never connected to the internet. |
| Cold Wallet | Custody & Access | A wallet whose private keys are kept on a device or medium that never connects to the internet. |
| Commingling of Client Funds | Custody & Access | Mixing customer assets with a firm's own money, or with other customers' assets, so that ownership can no longer be cleanly separated. |
| Custody | Custody & Access | The arrangement for safekeeping the private keys that control digital assets, and therefore for deciding who can move them. |
| Custody Risk | Custody & Access | The risk of losing access to digital assets because of how they are stored, whether by you or by a custodian. |
| Hot Wallet | Custody & Access | A wallet whose private keys sit on a device connected to the internet, so transactions can be signed quickly. |
| Key Loss | Custody & Access | Permanently losing the secret needed to move your assets, which no company, network, or court can restore. |
| MPC Wallet | Custody & Access | A wallet in which a private key is split into shares held by different parties and never exists whole in any one place. |
| Multisignature Wallet | Custody & Access | A wallet that requires several separate keys to approve a transaction, such as two of three or three of five. |
| Phishing | Custody & Access | Tricking someone into revealing a secret or approving a transaction by impersonating a trusted person, app, or website. |
| Proof of Reserves | Custody & Access | A published check that a custodian holds assets matching what customers are owed, usually combining cryptography with on-chain balances. |
| Qualified Custodian | Custody & Access | A regulated firm, such as a bank or broker-dealer, that certain professional managers are required to use for holding client assets. |
| Rehypothecation | Custody & Access | When a firm holding your assets as collateral reuses them for its own borrowing or lends them onward to someone else. |
| Self-Custody | Custody & Access | Keeping your own private keys, so that no company can move, freeze, or lose your digital assets on your behalf. |