The crypto glossary A–Z
The words from the charts, the wallet pop-ups and the group chat. Get the meaning, see an example and follow the source.
Blind signing
Signing a transaction or message without meaningfully seeing or understanding what it authorizes.
Blob
A specialized Ethereum data payload with a separate fee market and temporary availability rules, used by systems such as rollups.
Block
A batch of blockchain data that is accepted as one step in the network’s history.
Block explorer
An interface that indexes blockchain data for inspecting blocks, accounts and transactions.
Block header
A compact set of block fields used to identify the block and check important validity requirements.
Block height
A block’s numbered position in a chain, counted from the first block.
Block reward
The Bitcoin block subsidy plus transaction fees that a miner may claim for a valid block.
Block time
The interval between successive blocks, or a protocol's intended interval when quoted as a network statistic.
Block weight
Bitcoin’s consensus measure of block capacity, introduced by SegWit.
Blockchain
A shared ledger whose blocks are linked by cryptographic hashes.
Borrow rate
The interest rate charged on borrowed assets.
Bridge
A mechanism for moving assets, asset representations or messages between blockchain environments.
Bundler
An ERC-4337 participant that packages UserOperations into transactions sent through an EntryPoint contract.
Bytecode
Machine-oriented instructions that a virtual machine executes, often produced by compiling source code.
Calldata
The input data supplied to an Ethereum transaction or contract call.
Centralized exchange
A trading platform run by an organization that manages accounts, orders and exchange services.
Chain reorganization
A change to the accepted chain that replaces previously accepted blocks with another valid branch.
Challenge period
The window during which a submitted result or withdrawal can be disputed under a protocol's rules.
Change output
A Bitcoin transaction output that returns unused input value to the sender.
Checkpoint
A designated block used as a reference point in a consensus process.
Checksum
Extra information used to detect certain accidental changes in encoded data.
Circulating supply
An estimate of the asset units available to the market under a data provider's methodology.
Coinbase transaction
The first transaction in a Bitcoin block, through which the miner claims the permitted block reward.
Cold wallet
A wallet setup that keeps signing keys offline during ordinary storage.
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