Probably THE ULTIMATEST crypto dictionary on X you need. 👇 Reposted with permission from original author @SuhailKakar 🫡

1/ basics - blockchain: it's just a database that nobody owns. imagine a google spreadsheet that tracks who has what, except instead of google controlling it, thousands of computers maintain identical copies. and once something's written in it, it can't be changed. that's it. that's the revolutionary technology everyone's losing their minds over. - cryptocurrency: internet money that lives on a blockchain. bitcoin was the first, but now there are thousands, most of which are complete garbage. bitcoin: the original cryptocurrency, created in 2009 by someone (or a group) using the name satoshi nakamoto. limited to 21 million coins ever. started this whole mess we're in. - ethereum: the second major crypto, but more importantly, it lets people build apps on its blockchain. like if bitcoin is digital gold, ethereum is digital legos. most of the stuff in crypto is built on ethereum. - wallet: doesn't actually store your coins (those live on the blockchain). it's just an app that holds your private keys. think of it as your crypto login info. private key: the actual password to your crypto. if someone gets this, your money is gone. if you lose it, your money is gone. no customer service to call. yes, this is terrifying and yes, people lose millions this way all the time. - public key/address: your crypto username that people can send stuff to. looks like a random string of characters. safe to share. - mining: computers solving some math problems to validate transactions and add them to the blockchain. wastes enough electricity to power small countries. bitcoin still does this. - gas fees: the cost to do anything on a blockchain. sometimes reasonable, sometimes $200 to send $50. completely unpredictable. one of crypto's biggest problems. - smart contract: code that automatically executes when certain conditions are met. like a digital vending machine that can hold, send, or receive money based on rules. cool in theory, catastrophically buggy in practice. - cold storage: keeping your crypto offline, away from internet connection. like putting your money in a safe instead of your wallet. paranoid but smart. - hot wallet: a wallet connected to the internet. convenient but less secure. the crypto equivalent of walking around with your life savings in cash. - hardware wallet: a physical device that stores your private keys offline. looks like a usb stick. the least sexy $100 purchase you'll ever make, but probably the most important. - seed phrase: a series of words (usually 12 or 24) that can recover your private keys if you lose access to your wallet. write this down physically, never digitally. yes, people have tattooed these on their bodies. no, that's not a good idea. - fiat: regular government money like dollars or euros. crypto people say this with the same tone most people reserve for "cockroach." - satoshi $sats : the smallest unit of bitcoin, equal to 0.00000001 btc. named after bitcoin's creator. bitcoin maximalists measure everything in sats because they think dollars won't exist in 10 years (they're correct). - gwei: the smallest unit of ethereum, used to measure gas prices. pronounced "gway" though nobody will correct you because nobody talks about crypto in real life.

2/ consensus mechanisms (how blockchains agree on stuff) - proof of work (pow): miners compete to solve pointless math problems, winner gets to add the next block and receive rewards. uses enough electricity to power argentina. bitcoin's approach. - proof of stake (pos): validators put up their own crypto as collateral to verify transactions. if they try to cheat, they lose their stake. like having skin in the game. uses 99.9% less energy than pow, which is why ethereum switched to it. - delegated proof of stake (dpos): like proof of stake, but token holders vote for a small group of validators. basically a crypto oligarchy. faster but less decentralized. - proof of authority (poa): a small group of pre-approved validators confirm transactions. doesn't even pretend to be decentralized. mostly used for private blockchains that corporations love. - proof of history (poh): creates a historical record that proves events occurred in a specific order. solana's secret sauce for being fast. also solana's achilles heel for constantly breaking down.

3/ scaling solutions (making blockchains faster and cheaper) - layer 1: the main blockchain itself (like ethereum or bitcoin). usually slow and expensive when lots of people use it. - layer 2: systems built on top of layer 1 to make it faster and cheaper. like adding express lanes to a congested highway. - rollups: bundle many transactions together and submit them to the main chain as one transaction. like carpooling for blockchain transactions. the current darling of ethereum scaling. - optimistic rollups: assume all transactions are valid unless proven otherwise within a challenge period. faster but has withdrawal delays. arbitrum and optimism are the big ones here. - zk-rollups: use complex math proofs to verify transactions are valid without revealing the actual data. faster finality than optimistic rollups. zksync and starknet are examples. crypto engineers get weirdly excited about these. - sidechains: separate blockchains that run parallel to the main chain. polygon is the most successful one. cheaper than ethereum but with weaker security guarantees. you get what you pay for. - state channels: private channels between users to conduct many transactions off-chain, only settling the final result on the main chain. like running a tab at a bar instead of paying for each drink. great in theory, barely used in practice. - sharding: splits the blockchain into smaller pieces (shards) that can process transactions in parallel. ethereum's long-term scaling plan that's been "coming soon" for about 5 years now.