Glossary
The Bitcoin dictionary, honest edition.
464 terms.
Bitcoin in plain language. Every term that matters - from the addresses you send coins to, to the BIPs that govern how the protocol evolves - explained without the marketing and without the hype.
This is the dictionary I wish someone had handed me my first week. Each entry leads with a one-sentence definition. Then it goes deeper: what it is mechanically, what it is for, what the tradeoffs are, and where it sits next to other concepts. Every on-chain number you read here was checked against a real Bitcoin node. Every source links out so you can verify it yourself.
Use the search below to jump to a term you have heard but never quite understood. Browse the featured cards if you do not yet know what you do not know. Jump to a letter if you came here for one specific definition.
Featured
BIP (Bitcoin Improvement Proposal)
A design document suggesting changes or additions to Bitcoin's protocol and ecosystem standards.
SegWit (Segregated Witness, BIP 141)
The main BIP for Segregated Witness, which separates witness data, fixes malleability, and effectively boosts block capacity.
UTXO (Unspent Transaction Output)
A spendable piece of BTC recorded on-chain. Each transaction input consumes one or more UTXOs.
A 27 terms
- Absolute Fee
- Absolute Locktime
- Accelerator
- Adapter Signature
- Address
- Address Clustering
- Address Derivation Path
- Address Indexing
- Address Reuse
- Air-gapped
- Airdrop (BTC Fork)
- Alt Season
- Altcoin
- AML (Anti-Money Laundering)
- Anti-Sybil Mechanism
- ANYPREVOUT
- ASIC (Application-Specific Integrated Circuit)
- ASIC Resistance
- ASICBoost
- Asmap
- Asymptote
- Atomic Multi-Path Payment (AMP)
- Atomic Swap
- Atomic Swap Refill
- Audiobook Model (Lightning)
- Authorized Participant
- Autopilot (Lightning)
B 91 terms
- B32 Address
- Balanced Channel (Lightning)
- Batch Transaction
- Bear Market
- BECH32m
- BIP (Bitcoin Improvement Proposal)
- BIP 9 (VersionBits)
- BIP 22 (getblocktemplate)
- BIP 30
- BIP 31 (pong message)
- BIP 32 (HD Wallets)
- BIP 34
- BIP 35 (mempool message)
- BIP 36 (merkle block request)
- BIP 37
- BIP 39 (Mnemonic Seed)
- BIP 40 (Alerts Avoid Replay)
- BIP 42
- BIP 44
- BIP 47 (Payment Codes)
- BIP 50
- BIP 61
- BIP 65 (OP_CHECKLOCKTIMEVERIFY) — Plain-English Explainer
- BIP 66
- BIP 68 (Relative Locktime)
- BIP 69
- BIP 70 (Payment Protocol)
- BIP 75 (Payment Protocol Enhancements)
- BIP 85
- BIP 91
- BIP 101 (Increase Block Size)
- BIP 102 (2MB Block Size)
- BIP 113
- BIP 119 (CTV)
- BIP 125 (Replace-by-Fee)
- BIP 143 (SegWit Transaction Signature Verification)
- BIP 144 (SegWit Relay)
- BIP 148 (UASF)
- BIP 152 (Compact Blocks)
- BIP 155 (Addr v2)
- BIP 158
- BIP 159
- BIP 170 (TxOut Proof)
- BIP 173 (Bech32)
- BIP 176 (Bits Denomination)
- BIP 300 (Drivechains)
- BIP 301
- BIP 339 (WTXID Relay)
- BIP 341 (Taproot)
- BIP 342 (Tapscript)
- BIP 360 (Pay-to-Merkle-Root)
- BIP 361 (Post Quantum Migration)
- Bitcoin ATM
- Bitcoin Bond
- Bitcoin Bridge
- Bitcoin Cash
- Bitcoin Client
- Bitcoin Core
- Bitcoin Core RPC
- Bitcoin Days Destroyed
- Bitcoin Dev Kit (BDK)
- Bitcoin Dominance
- Bitcoin Faucet
- Bitcoin Governance
- Bitcoin Inheritance Planning
- Bitcoin Knots
- Bitcoin Pizza Day
- Bitcoin Satellite
- Bitcoin Script
- Bitcoin SV (BSV)
- Bitcoin Vault
- BitLicense
- Block
- Block Explorer
- Block Header
- Block Height
- Block Propagation
- Block Reward
- Block Size
- Block Size War
- Block Subsidy
- Block Time
- Blockchain
- BlockFi
- Bloom Filter
- BOLT
- BOLT 11
- Bridge Node (Lightning)
- Bull Market
- Burn Address
- Byzantine Fault Tolerance
C 36 terms
- CBDC (Central Bank Digital Currency)
- Celsius, Genesis, and 3AC (the 2022 Contagion)
- Centralized Exchange (CEX)
- Chain Analysis
- Chain Flag Day
- Chain Split
- Chain Visualization
- Chaincode
- CheckLockTimeVerify (CLTV)
- CheckSequenceVerify (CSV)
- CheckTemplateVerify (CTV)
- Churn (Lightning)
- Clawback Mechanism
- Clearing Price
- CME CF Bitcoin Reference Rate
- Coin Age
- Coin Control
- Coin Freeze
- Coinbase (Transaction)
- CoinJoin
- Colored Coins
- Competitive Block Propagation
- Competitive Mining
- Consensus Parameter
- Consolidation Transaction
- Constant Time
- Core Lightning (c-lightning)
- Corrupted Chain State
- Counterparty Risk
- Covenants
- CPU Mining
- Creation / Redemption (Cash vs In-Kind)
- CRQC (Cryptographically-Relevant Quantum Computer)
- Curtailment
- Custodial Lightning Wallet
- Custodial Wallet
D 20 terms
- DCA (Dollar-Cost Averaging)
- Decentralization
- Decentralized Exchange (DEX)
- Dedicated IP (for Nodes)
- Delayed Justice Transaction
- Delayed Payment Channel
- Demand Response
- Deployment Threshold (Soft Fork)
- Deterministic Wallet
- Difficulty
- Difficulty Retargeting
- Discard Threshold
- Disinflation
- Double Spend
- Double Spend Relay
- Double-Blind Marketplace
- Dust
- Dust Attack
- Dust Limit
- Dust Sweeping
E 12 terms
F 20 terms
G 11 terms
H 22 terms
- Hal Finney's Running Bitcoin
- Halving (Halvening)
- Hardware Security Module (HSM)
- Hardware Seed Vault
- Hardware Wallet
- Hash
- Hash Puzzle
- Hash Rate
- Hash-Rate Derivative
- Hashlet
- HD Wallet (Hierarchical Deterministic Wallet)
- HDM (Multi-Signature HD Wallet)
- Headless Node
- Hidden Miner Tax
- Hidden Service Node
- Hierarchical Deterministic Wallet
- Hierarchical Multisig
- HODL
- HODL Waves
- HTLC (Hashed Time-Locked Contract)
- HTLC Invoice
- HTLC Preimage Manager
I 10 terms
J 3 terms
K 8 terms
L 30 terms
- Layer 1
- Lightning Anchor Commitment
- Lightning Channel
- Lightning Channel Capacity
- Lightning Channel Splicing
- Lightning Gossip Pruning
- Lightning Invoice
- Lightning Network
- Lightning Network Daemon (lnd)
- Lightning Network Penalty
- Lightning Node
- Lightning Node Alias
- Lightning Payment
- Lightning Probe
- Lightning Refund Invoice
- Lightning Routing
- Lightning Sphinx
- Liquid Federation
- Liquid Network
- Liquidity
- Liquidity Ads
- Locked Memory
- Locked-In Period (Soft Fork)
- Locktime
- Lockup Period (Lightning)
- Longest Chain Rule
- Loop In/Out
- Low R Signatures
- Low-S Signatures — The Rule That Killed ECDSA Malleability
- Lurking Wife Mode
M 40 terms
- M-of-n
- Mainnet
- Market Capitalization
- Market Depth
- Mempool
- Merchant Adoption
- Merged Mining
- Merkle Block
- Merkle Inclusion Proof
- Merkle Proof
- Merkle Root
- Merkle Tree / Merkle Root
- Merkleized Abstract Syntax Tree (MAST)
- Methane Mitigation Mining
- Micropayment
- Miner
- Miner Capitulation
- Miner Extractable Value (MEV)
- Miner Orphan Rate
- Miner Signaling
- Mining
- Mining Algorithm
- Mining Centralization
- Mining Colocation
- Mining Front-End
- Mining Pool
- Mining Rig
- Mining Software
- Mining Subsidy
- Minsky Moment
- Mixing Service
- ML-DSA / Dilithium (FIPS 204)
- Mnemonic Entropy Bits
- Mnemonic Password
- Mono-Signature
- Mt. Gox
- MTP (Median Time Past) — How Bitcoin Tracks Network Time
- Multisig
- MuSig
- MuSig2
N 15 terms
O 11 terms
P 37 terms
- P2PK (Pay to Public Key)
- P2PKH (Pay to Public Key Hash)
- P2SH (Pay to Script Hash)
- P2SH-P2WSH (Nested SegWit Script)
- P2WPKH (Pay to Witness Public Key Hash)
- P2WSH (Pay to Witness Script Hash)
- Paper Hands
- Paper Wallet
- Partial Signature
- Pay-to-IP
- PayJoin
- Payment Channel
- Payment Codes (BIP 47)
- Payment Point
- Peer Bookmark
- Peer Discovery
- Peer Management
- Peg-Guard
- Peg-in
- Peg-out
- Penalty Transaction
- Poisson Process
- Pool Hopping
- Pooled Mining
- Post-Quantum Bitcoin
- Premium / Discount (to NAV)
- Price Discovery
- Price Floor (BTC)
- Price Slippage
- Private Key
- Proof of Keys
- Proof of Reserves
- Proof-of-Work (PoW)
- Proprietary Mining Firmware
- Pruning Mode
- PSBT (Partially Signed Bitcoin Transaction)
- Public Key
Q 2 terms
R 13 terms
S 35 terms
- Safe Mode (Bitcoin Core)
- Satoshi (Unit)
- Satoshi Nakamoto
- Schnorr Signature
- Script
- Scriptless Scripts
- Second Layer
- Security
- Seed Entropy Mixer
- Seed Phrase
- Seed Tool
- SegWit (Segregated Witness, BIP 141)
- SegWit2x
- Self-Custody
- Shamir's Secret Sharing
- Shielded CoinJoin
- Shor's Algorithm
- Sidechain
- SIGHASH
- SIGHASH_ANYONECANPAY
- SIGHASH_SINGLE
- Signature Aggregation
- Signature Clipping
- Signet
- Silent Payments
- SLH-DSA / SPHINCS+ (FIPS 205)
- Soft Fork
- Spot Bitcoin ETF
- SPV (Simplified Payment Verification)
- Stale Block
- State Channel
- Static Channel Backup (SCB)
- Stealth Address
- Stranded Energy
- Submarine Swap