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DeFi
DeFi (Decentralised Finance) is a system of financial services — lending, borrowing, trading, and earning yield — built entirely on smart contracts, with no banks or middlemen required. Anyone with a crypto wallet can access DeFi protocols 24/7, regardless of their location or credit history. Popular DeFi platforms include Uniswap (decentralised exchange), Aave (lending), and Compound (savings). ⚠️ Educational only — not financial advice.
Gas fees
Gas is the unit that measures the computational effort required to execute a transaction or smart contract on Ethereum. You pay gas fees in Gwei (one billionth of ETH) to compensate validators who process your transaction. Gas price fluctuates based on network demand — the busier the network, the higher the fees. Layer 2 networks like Optimism and Arbitrum dramatically reduce gas costs by batching transactions off-chain. ⚠️ Educational only — not financial advice.
Bitcoin mining
Bitcoin mining is the process by which new transactions are added to the blockchain. Miners use specialised computers (ASICs) to solve a complex mathematical puzzle — finding a nonce that produces a hash starting with enough leading zeros. The first miner to solve it earns the block reward (currently 3.125 BTC after the 2024 halving), plus all transaction fees in that block. ⚠️ Educational only — not financial advice.
NFTs
NFTs (Non-Fungible Tokens) are unique digital tokens on a blockchain that prove ownership of a specific asset — digital art, music, in-game items, or even real-world property. Unlike Bitcoin where every coin is identical (fungible), each NFT is one-of-a-kind. Smart contracts can automatically pay the original creator a royalty every time the NFT is resold. ⚠️ Educational only — not financial advice.
Private keys
A private key is a randomly generated 256-bit number unique to your wallet. When you sign a transaction, you use your private key to prove you authorise it, without ever revealing the key itself. Most wallets represent private keys as a 12 or 24-word seed phrase. Whoever holds your private key controls your funds — never share it, store it offline. ⚠️ Educational only — not financial advice.
Layer 2
Layer 2 (L2) networks are protocols built on top of a base blockchain to increase speed and reduce fees. Instead of recording every transaction on the main chain, L2s batch thousands of transactions and post a single compressed proof to Layer 1. Types: Optimistic Rollups (Optimism, Arbitrum) and ZK-Rollups (zkSync, StarkNet). Bitcoin's Lightning Network uses payment channels for near-instant BTC transfers. ⚠️ Educational only — not financial advice.
Smart contracts
A smart contract is self-executing code stored on a blockchain. It automatically runs when predefined conditions are met — no lawyer, bank, or intermediary needed. Smart contracts are immutable once deployed, transparent, and run on every node in the network, making them censorship-resistant. ⚠️ Educational only — not financial advice.
Crypto wallets
A crypto wallet doesn't actually store your coins — it stores the private keys that prove you own them. Hot wallets (MetaMask, Coinbase Wallet) are software connected to the internet, convenient but more vulnerable. Cold wallets (Ledger, Trezor) are hardware devices that store keys offline, far more secure for large holdings. ⚠️ Educational only — not financial advice.
Blockchain
A blockchain is a distributed ledger — a continuously growing list of records (blocks) that are cryptographically linked and replicated across thousands of computers (nodes) simultaneously. Because each block references the one before it, altering any historical block would change its hash, breaking every subsequent block. This makes blockchains effectively tamper-proof without requiring any central authority. ⚠️ Educational only — not financial advice.
Bitcoin
Bitcoin is the world's first cryptocurrency, created in 2008 by the pseudonymous Satoshi Nakamoto. It's a peer-to-peer electronic cash system with a fixed supply of 21 million coins. New BTC are issued as mining rewards, which halve approximately every 4 years. The most recent halving in April 2024 reduced the reward to 3.125 BTC per block. ⚠️ Educational only — not financial advice.
Ethereum
Ethereum is a programmable blockchain launched in 2015 by Vitalik Buterin. It extends Bitcoin's concept by adding a built-in programming language, allowing developers to deploy smart contracts and build decentralised applications (dApps). In September 2022, Ethereum completed "The Merge" — switching from Proof of Work to Proof of Stake, reducing energy consumption by ~99.95%. ⚠️ Educational only — not financial advice.
Stablecoins
Stablecoins are cryptocurrencies designed to maintain a stable value, usually pegged 1:1 to the US Dollar. Types: Fiat-backed (USDC, USDT — backed by real dollars), Crypto-backed (DAI — backed by over-collateralised crypto), and Algorithmic (use code to maintain the peg, higher risk). ⚠️ Educational only — not financial advice.
Hashing
A cryptographic hash function takes any input and produces a fixed-length output. SHA-256 (used by Bitcoin) always produces a 256-bit output. Key properties: Deterministic (same input = same hash always), One-way (cannot reverse-engineer the input), Avalanche effect (changing one character completely changes the output), and Collision-resistant. ⚠️ Educational only — not financial advice.
Consensus
Consensus mechanisms are the rules that let thousands of unrelated computers agree on a single version of truth. Proof of Work (Bitcoin) requires miners to expend energy solving puzzles. Proof of Stake (Ethereum) requires validators to lock up cryptocurrency as collateral. Delegated PoS (EOS, Tron) lets token holders vote for a small set of trusted validators. ⚠️ Educational only — not financial advice.
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