This post is from a low-reputation account and contains an unverified outbound link. Be cautious before clicking external links.

Common Terms You Should Know to Understand Cryptocurrency

ozexproject(16)

Published in

#ico

Words

1249

Reading

6 min

Listen

Play

shutterstock_447406066 - 복사본.jpg

Even though cryptocurrency market has rapidly expanded and grabbed public attention all over the world, it is still a bewildering and alien place.

If you are new to cryptocurrency world, you will come across a lot of technical, computing, trading and finance jargons used in crypto market, which may hinder you from understanding cryptocurrency. Therefore, we, OZEX, as your cryptocurrency market advisor, have planned special articles exploring the most common crypto terms to help our users to become the best participants in cryptocurrency market they can be.

This article is the first of our three-part series and explains general terms you need to know to understand cryptocurrency.

1. General Cryptocurrency Terms

Blockchain

A distributed database where information is shared and continually reconciled across thousands and thousands of computers worldwide instead of the data residing on a single centralized server. The blockchain is comprised of “blocks” and is constantly growing as each new record, datum, or block is added onto the chain for everyone to see. Blockchains are essentially public databases that everyone can access and read, but the data can only be updated by the data owners. This network is enabled and protected through cryptography, which is the main operator that allows for users to engage with the ledger without the need for any central figurehead.

Block Height

Block height is the number of blocks in the chain between it and the genesis block, referring to the very first block on a blockchain. A genesis block will always have a height of zero because no blocks precede it in the blockchain. It’s a metric used to create a bearing on time in the programming world as well as a few other functions such as maintaining counter-party and betting in the crypto world. Considering that a new Bitcoin block is made every 10 minutes, you can work out certain time related pieces of information if you have the total length of the chain. Therefore, the total height of the blockchain is taken to be the height of the most recent block, or the highest block, in the chain.

Altcoin

In general, any crypto-currency other than Bitcoin or Ethereum.

ICO

Initial Coin Offering, somewhat similar to an IPO in the non-crypto world. Startups issue their own token in exchange for Ethereum. This is essentially crowdfunding on the Ethereum platform.

Mining

Mining is the term used for the process of discovering and solving blocks along the blockchain. A reward is given for solving the algorithm and lengthening the chain, called a mining reward. It requires obscene amounts of computer processing power to do effectively.

Fork

A situation where a blockchain splits into two separate chains due to competing philosophies or protocol upgrade.
A fork is the permanent divergence of an alternative operating version of the current blockchain. Forks come into existence when a bug in the program, or more commonly a new set of consensus rules come into existence. These happen when a development team creates and inserts notably substantial changes into the system. The successful fork is decided by the height of their blocks.

PoW

Proof-of-work. The current consensus algorithm used by Ethereum. PoW was a concept originally designed to sieve spam emails and prevent DDOS (Distributed Denial of Service) attacks. A Proof of Work is essentially a datum that is very costly to produce in terms of time and resources, but can be very simply verified by another party. For example, the proof of work for Bitcoin is referred to as a “nonce,” or number used only once. This has been considered an energy intensive alternative to proof of stake as the computers unfortunately should be on and running, which also drives the market towards centralization of hashing power which is what the blockchain aims to defeat.

PoS

Proof-of-stake. The proposed future consensus algorithm to be used by Ethereum(ETH). Instead of mining in its current form, people who own ETH will be able to ‘lock up’ their ETH for a short time in order to ‘vote’ and generate network consensus. The plan is that these stakeholders will be rewarded with ETH by doing so. Proof of stake has been considered the greener alternative to PoW. Where PoW requires the prover to perform a certain amount of computational work, a proof of stake system requires the prover to show ownership of a certain amount of money, or stake.

Node

A node is essentially a computer that possesses a copy of the blockchain and is working to maintain it. The node supports the network through validation and relaying of transactions while receiving a copy of the full blockchain itself.

Sharding

A scaling solution for blockchains. Sharding is a method that allows nodes to have partial copies of the complete blockchain in order to increase overall network performance and consensus speeds. Typically, every node in a blockchain network houses a complete copy of the blockchain.

Cold Storage

Cold storage refers to keeping a reserve of cryptocurrency offline, as a way of safekeeping your cryptocurrency from hacking. Methods of cold storage include printing out the QR code of a software wallet and storing it in a safe place, moving the files of a software wallet onto a USB drive and storing it in a safe place, and using a hardware wallet and storing it in a safe place.

Software Wallet

Storage for crypto-currency that exists purely as software files on a computer. Software wallets can be generated for free from a variety of sources. MyEtherWallet (MEW) is one of the most popular.

Hardware Wallet

A hardware device that can securely store crypto-currency or the user's private keys. Hardware wallets are often regarded as the most secure way to hold crypto-currency.

Without extensive knowledge and experience in cryptocurrency, investing in cryptocurrency market demands a significant amount of time and effort in order to understand the nuances of businesses and market operations, and identify the right investment opportunities.

Participating in cryptocurrency market should be properly assessed by reviewing managerial structure, growth plans, etc., so it is advisable to consult with experts who are familiar with this field and are able to raise fund in the right direction.

OZEX can be your advisor in this new cryptocurrency market.

The dedicated OZEX platform has been designed by a team of experts in cryptocurrency industry. OZEX is a project that automatically airdrops 80 NEW TOKENS that are prospective and verified by the experts to OZX holders (Minimum 1,000,000) over three years. Therefore, OZEX will play a role in providing convenience, stability and profitability for cryptocurrency market as your advisor.

OZEX, as an investment coin, will be uniquely proceeding 3 rounds of ICO. We will be airdropping 3 different new tokens to every OZEX ICO participant, regardless of the amount of OZX you are holding. Simply join OZEX ICO and guarantee that you will receive verified and prospective extra new tokens.

The OZEX ICO will proceed for two months from June 20, 2018 to August 28, 2018. The first round started on June 26 has successfully ended only in 25 hours. The first-round new airdrop token was ‘LegalBlock’. Second round will start on July 16, 2018.

The OZX token will be listed on an exchange by August 2018 And will be listed on other global exchanges over the next months.