Cryptocurrency Essential Vocabulary

• This project is an inadvertantly lauched project, which I started while writing my Blockchain Core Concept article series.
• While writing those articles to explain Blockchain and Cryptocurrency I had this feeling that a glossary would be very useful, where I define glossary as a list of new terms contained within the article.
• It reminded me that when I was in school, each chapter in a text book would have a glossary at the end of the chapter. As a student I usually truned to th end of the chapter, copied the glossary words down on paper, read them silently, then outloud, then read the quiz at the end of the chapter and then I turned back to the beginning of the chapter, and read the chapter. This to me brought me better understanding of concepts which were written in new terms.
• Now while we already have LeoGLossary, a huge repository of terms, which is @taskmaster4450 version of investopedia, I am not attempting to recreate that huge data repository.
• My aim here is to identify and define the essential vocabulary, or top twenty words you need to understand, while reading articles explainng blockchain and cryptocurrency.
• So with that goal in mind, please enjoy these brief and hpefully concise definitions or explainations of what I think are key vocabulary terms for understanding cryptocurrency and the blockchain. These are not meant to be exhaustive explainations, but are meant to give you a working knowlege of important words.
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Glossary

1. Block
   A block is a data structure that is part of a larger computer filing system called blockchain. The individual blocks contain a recording of all transactions that were done in a certain period of time. Depending upon the speed of the network, the blocks will garner transactions until the block time is up or there is no room for additional data.
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2. Blockchain
   A Blockchain joins groups of financial transactions together in what are called blocks. These blocks result in a growing list of transactions that are linked together via cryptography.
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3. Blocktime
   The time it takes for a miner (in Proof-of-Work) or validator (Block Producer in Proof-of-Stake) to verify the transactions of one block and add the new block to the blockchain.
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4. Block Producer
   An individual or group who has hardware chosen to produce the next block of a blockchain.
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5. Consensus
   Definition: The algorithm by which transactions are verified on a blockchain. This can be Proof-of-Work (PoW), Proof-of-Authority (PoA), or Proof-of-Stake (PoS).
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6. What is consensus
   With each new block created, it is linked to the previous one thus creating a "chain". After the blocks are fully validated and joined, they cannot be chained without the consensus of the block producers agreeing to it.
   [source}(https://leofinance.io/posts/@leoglossary/blockchain)
   Consensus is where all participants in the blockchain agree on the transactions that are being added. Since blockchain is the maintaining of a ledger, all block producers have to be in alignment.
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   There are various forms of consensus that blockchains utilize. The major ones are: Proof-of-Work, Proof-of-Stake and Delegated Proof-of-Stake.
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7. Proof of Stake
   A blockchain consensus mechanism which requires the staking (locking up) of coins to earn a chance of adding new blocks. As in a block producer, wo earns rewards for performing this function. Proof-of-Stake is gaining in popularity since it uses a lot less energy as compared to the Proof-of-Work (PoW) protocol.
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8. Proof of Work
   Proof-of-Work (PoW) is a blockchain consensus mechanism that is used to validate blocks of information that are attached to each other. This data structure creates ledgers of transactions utilizing distributed ledger technology. Here algorithm is used to solve a computationally challenging puzzle in order to create new blocks within the network. This blocks contains a list of the of the transactions that took place during a certain period of time.
   Those who are able to solve the puzzle are able to add the block, receiving a block reward in the process. This is the incentivization that block producers have to run the hardware and maintain the network. Under PoW, these producers are called miners. Cryptocurrency mining has come under attack due to the energy usage required to power these systems.
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9. Wallet
   A cryptocurrency wallet on a blockchain, is a blockchain specific location, which has an address, called a wallet PUBLIC ADDRESS, which is controlled by a password called a PRIVATE KEY.
   Another way to define a wallet is A blockchain wallet is a cryptocurrency wallet that allows users to manage different kinds of cryptocurrencies.
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   A third important concept is that a Crypto wallet addresses function similarly to an email address. They're safely shared with anybody looking to send you cryptocurrency, and likewise identify your wallet as the sending address when you make a crypto payment.
10. Cryptocurrency Bridge
    A cryptocurrency bridge is a way to move the value of your cryptocurrency from one blockchain to another, to invest in income producing opportunities their like ourchasing assets.
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    *This is necessary because cryptocurrency tokens are blockchain specific, so for example, you can't move your Bitcoin tokens to the Ethereum blockchain to buy assets or invest to make income. But you can move the value of your Bitcoin to the Ethereum blockchain via a bridge.
11. Native tokens
    *Native tokens are tokens minted on that blockchain, and they can be the official token used to reward block producers for producing blocks, as in Bitcoin tokens are to reward Bitcoin Block producers on the Bitcoin blockchain, or Ether is a reward for Blockchain producers on the Ethereum blockchain. But other native Bitcoin blockchain tokens exist called Bitcoin ordinals which are native Bitcoin tokens, but are not the reward token bitcoin or BTC. An example is a Bitcoin Ordinal. On the Ethereum blockchain, Ether is the reward token, also called ETH, but their are other native tokens, minted or created on the Ethereum blockchain such as The Crypto Punks NFTs or the stablecoin Dai or the stable coin USDC. These are minted or created on the Ethereum blockchain, so they are native tokens, but they are not the reward token ETH.
    It gets a little tricky to understand what crypto investors are saying sometimes because they are not always precise or exact in their usage of terms. For example Crypto Punks or Dau may be referred to as ETH tokens, when they are not ETH, which is the abbreviation for Ether, the reward token for Ethereum. But they are in fact native tokens of the Ethereum blockchain, which is sometimes call ETH blockchain for short, and thus tokens minted on the ETH blockchain are sometimes called ETH tokens. As you can see from that confusing statement, when we use imprecise terminology, we produce confusing statements.
12. Nonfungible Tokens or NFTs
    *These are native blockchain tokens, which are not the reward tokens, but are minted on that blockchain, so they are considered native tokens. An important distinction between the reward tokens which are exactly alike, and can be exchanged for each other as having the same value, is that the NFT tokens are similar, but also unique. So they can be used for unique assets like art or music, and you can more readily trace them and program functions into them, including receiving a portion of successive sales prices or even freezing them or restricting there movement in wallets.
13. Blockchain Technology:
    At the heart of cryptocurrencies lies blockchain technology. A blockchain is a distributed ledger that records all transactions across a network of computers, ensuring transparency, security, and immutability. Each transaction is stored in a “block,” and these blocks are linked together chronologically, forming a chain, a blockchain.
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To Be Continued..TBC

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