From A to Z, this dictionary of blockchain terms is said to be incompletely recognized by 80% of people | Popular Science

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Blockchain is a combination of a series of advanced technologies, so most people have trouble with confusing terms when they get started.

Learning blockchain is the same as learning English. Often, the lack of understanding of one or two basic terms will directly affect your overall understanding of it. When learning English, the teacher will teach you to start with words first, and in the learning block When chaining, you need to start with basic terminology.

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Foreign blockchain media BlockGeeks has compiled a blockchain terminology quick checklist arranged from A to Z** for beginners to help beginners to overtake in the blockchain learning curve.

Not much to say, get in the car!

A refreshing, simple and comprehensive block chain terminology checklist.

51% Attack: 51% hashrate attack

Address: Address

The address can be understood as our account in encrypted currency, and we can use this address to initiate or receive transactions on the network. The address is usually a combination of letters and numbers.

ASIC: (Application Specific Integrated Circuits, circuit), here is the main generation of ASIC miners

Bitcoin mining has experienced the earliest CPU mining, later graphics card mining, and now mainstream ASIC mining machine mining. The "dedicated" in the ASIC means that it has a higher mining efficiency than a graphics card, and it also saves on power consumption. Therefore, the current ASIC mining machine dominates the mining industry.

Bitcoin: Bitcoin

Bitcoin is the first open source decentralized cryptocurrency to run on a global peer-to-peer network. The biggest advantage of Bitcoin is that its transactions do not require middlemen and centralized managers.

Block: block

A block can be understood as a data packet for storing transactions on the blockchain network. The cryptographic protocol ensures that the data in the block exists forever and cannot be tampered with.

Blockchain: Blockchain

The blockchain is a shared ledger, and transactions in the ledger are permanently recorded in blocks. These blocks are connected end to end in chronological order from the genesis block to form a blockchain, so the blockchain saves the history of all transactions from the genesis block to the latest block.

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Block Explorer: Block Explorer

For users, it is not easy to retrieve data directly in the blockchain, so a block explorer came into being. The block explorer is a tool used to view all transaction records on the blockchain. Usually, the block explorer will also provide information such as the current hash power of the entire network and the number of transactions.

Block Height: block height

The number of blocks in the blockchain is called the block height.

Block Reward: Block Reward

Since there is no centralized management organization in the blockchain, it is a big problem for everyone to show honest behavior. Satoshi Nakamoto cleverly designed an incentive mechanism to encourage everyone to show honest behavior, thus ensuring the district The normal operation of the blockchain.

Block rewards are the core incentive mechanism. As the name suggests, block rewards are rewards in cryptocurrency for miners who successfully crack the hash puzzle and dig out blocks. On the one hand, the block reward mechanism continuously pushes new cryptocurrencies to the market at a slower speed, and on the other hand, it can be described as killing two birds with one stone by rewarding miners to perform transaction verification.

Central Ledger: Centralized Ledger

A ledger maintained by a centralized management agency.

Confirmation: Transaction Confirmation

Cryptocurrency transactions are not real-time. The successful addition of cryptocurrency transactions to the blockchain is called transaction confirmation.

Consensus: Consensus

The biggest improvement of the blockchain is to make the centralized management organization into history. The biggest problem that this brings is that there is no leader in the group, and the participants of the blockchain network may diverge on the validity of the transaction.

When all participants in the blockchain network reach a consensus on the validity of the transaction, the local blockchain state of all participants is the same, which means that a consensus is formed in the blockchain, and mining is a verification transaction And the process of forming a consensus.

Cryptocurrency: Cryptocurrency

Cryptocurrency is also known as pass or token, which represents a certain encrypted asset.

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Cryptographic Hash Function: Cryptographic Hash Function

The cryptographic hash function receives transactions of different sizes and contents as input, and generates a fixed-size and unique hash value. The most typical hash function is SHA-256, the Secure Hash Algorithm used by Bitcoin.

Hash value has been widely used in blockchain. Mining is the process by which miners continuously change the random number in the block and calculate the hash value. When the hash value is less than a certain threshold, the miner finds a valid block , Which means that the block is dug out. Blocks are also connected end to end by hash values ​​to form a blockchain, and the data in the blockchain is also protected from tampering thanks to the hash value.

DApp: Decentralized Application

A decentralized application is an open source application that can run autonomously. The decentralized application stores data in the blockchain and operates in the form of encrypted currency transactions.

DAO: Decentralized Autonomous Organization

A decentralized autonomous organization is an organization that operates without any human intervention. The management and control of the organization follow a series of long-established and unchangeable rules.

Distributed Ledger: Decentralized Ledger

As the name implies, decentralized ledgers are ledgers whose data is stored in a network of decentralized nodes. Decentralized ledgers can also be subdivided into public decentralized ledgers, permitted decentralized ledgers, and private decentralized ledgers. It should be noted that cryptocurrency is not a necessity in every decentralized ledger.

Distributed Network: Decentralized Network

A decentralized network is a network in which network computing power and data are distributed on decentralized nodes. Its biggest feature is that it does not require a centralized data center.

Difficulty: Difficulty of mining

As we all know, the validity of a block depends on whether the hash value of the block is less than a given threshold. This threshold determines how difficult it is for miners to dig out a valid block, usually referred to as mining difficulty.

Digital Signature: Digital Signature

A digital signature is a digital code generated by public key encryption. Similar to signatures in the real world, when transmitting electronic documents, attaching a digital signature to the document can verify the identity of the sender and whether the content of the document has been tampered with.

Double Spending: Double Spending

Since there is no centralized management agency in the blockchain, it cannot automatically update the balance while paying like in the real world. Therefore, in principle, the blockchain can be used from the initiation of the transaction to the transaction. When the balance between joining the blockchain is not updated, a new transaction is initiated. At this time, the transaction that is finally added to the blockchain is a valid transaction, and the other transaction will fail.

However, even if the transaction is added to the blockchain, we cannot be 100% sure that the transaction is really successful, because there may be a fork chain. The current consensus is that the Bitcoin exchange generates 6 new follow-ups after the block. Block, the transaction is considered successful. This type of operation where a sum of money is spent multiple times is called double payment.

Double payment is a difficult problem that all electronic payment systems must solve. From here you can see Satoshi Nakamoto's genius design.

Ethereum: Ethereum

Ethereum is known as the second-generation blockchain. The biggest difference between it and Bitcoin is the introduction of smart contracts, so that running applications on the blockchain has become a reality. Ethereum was founded to solve problems related to censorship, fraud and third-party intervention.

EVM: Ethereum Virtual Machine Ethereum Virtual Machine

The Ethereum Virtual Machine is a Turing-complete virtual machine that allows users to execute arbitrary Ethereum virtual machine bytecodes on it. Each Ethereum node runs on the Ethereum virtual machine, thus ensuring the consistency of the blockchain.

Fork: Fork

The fork will generate a blockchain that is different from the main blockchain, and the two blockchains after the fork will operate independently. Some forks will cause the tearing of the blockchain community. For example, Bitcoin Cash is forked from Bitcoin, while some forks will not. For example, Ethereum forks every time it upgrades.

Genesis Block: Genesis Block

The genesis block refers to the first or the first few blocks in the blockchain. In the Bitcoin genesis block, Satoshi Nakamoto quoted the front page of The Times of the day: January 3, 2009, The Chancellor of the Exchequer is on the verge of a second round of bailout to the banking industry.

Hard Fork: Hard Fork

Hard forks are often the product of changes in consensus rules. Changes in consensus rules usually cause incompatibility between the blocks generated by the old and new nodes. That is, the blocks generated by the old nodes are not recognized by the new nodes, and the blocks generated by the new nodes are not recognized by the old nodes. The node recognizes that at this time, the new node running the new consensus rule and the old node running the old consensus rule will have a lot of divergence. Therefore, this type of fork requires all nodes and users to upgrade to the latest version of the consensus protocol.

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Hash:

The output of the hash function is called the hash value. The hash value is widely used in the blockchain. The hash value can be used to prevent the data in the block from being tampered with, and it can also be used to form a blockchain.

Hash Rate:

Hash rate is the hash calculation performed by the mining machine per second, and is mainly used to measure the mining performance of the mining machine.

Hybrid PoS/PoW: Proof/Certificate

Hybrid Proof of Stake/Proof of Work allows the blockchain network to simultaneously use two consensus algorithms: Proof of Stake and Proof of Work. This method needs to achieve a balance between the miners in the proof of work and the verifiers (holders) in the proof of rights and interests, and it is ultimately constructed by the internal users (holders) of the blockchain and the external users (miners). A community-based governance system.

Mining: Mining

Mining refers to the act of verifying blockchain transactions, and mining often brings cryptocurrency rewards to miners.

Multi-Signature: Multi-Signature

As the name suggests, multi-signature requires multiple keys to sign cryptocurrency transactions. The multi-signature mechanism makes it possible for multiple parties to jointly manage encrypted assets, and it also brings additional security to encrypted assets.

Node: Node

A backup of the "ledger" operated by participants in the blockchain network.

Oracles: Blockchain Oracles

The inability to interact with the real world has always been a major problem affecting the implementation of blockchain applications. The emergence of blockchain oracles has solved this problem to some extent. Blockchain oracles provide data for smart contracts to set up It is a bridge between the real world and the blockchain.

Peer to Peer: Peer to Peer

Peer-to-peer, also known as P2P, refers to the decentralized interaction between two or more parties in a highly interconnected network. Participants in a peer-to-peer network can interact directly without relying on third-party intermediaries to provide services.

Public Address: Public Address

The public address is the hash value of the public key. The public address is the same as the e-mail address, users can tell others at will, but the private key is different.

Private Key: Private Key

The private key is a bit like the password we often say. To be precise, the private key is a string of characters that allows you to access the encrypted currency in a specific wallet software. The private key cannot be told to others at will.

Proof of Stake: Proof of Stake

Proof of equity is a consensus algorithm. Its idea is that the more users who own or hold cryptocurrency, the more rewards they will get. In the proof-of-stake blockchain, the more cryptocurrency you invest in mining, the more profit you will get.

Proof of Work: Proof of Work

Proof of work is also a consensus algorithm. Proof of work emphasizes "distribution according to work" and usually consumes resources such as electricity. The idea is that the more hashing power a user provides, the more work he does, and the more rewards he gets.

Scrypt

Scrypt is a memory-dependent proof-of-work algorithm, which is adopted by Litecoin. Compared with SHA-256, the secure hash algorithm used by Bitcoin, the Scrypt algorithm is faster because it does not require excessive processing time.

SHA-256: Secure Hash Algorithm Secure Hash Algorithm

SHA-256 is an encryption algorithm used by mainstream cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin. From the perspective of resource consumption, SHA-256 is not a good algorithm, because it consumes a lot of hashing power and processing time, so that miners can only make money if they join the mining pool.

Smart Contracts: Smart Contracts

Smart contracts encode real-world business rules onto the blockchain, and are enforced by the participants of the blockchain network.

Soft Fork: Soft Fork

Soft forks are also the product of changes in consensus rules. The difference between a soft fork and a hard fork is that the blocks generated by the old node are not recognized by the new node, and the blocks generated by the new node can still be recognized by the old node. Therefore, in essence, the soft fork is Backward compatible.

This type of fork requires most node upgrades to perform, while a hard fork requires all nodes to be upgraded to the new version.

Solidity

Solidity is a programming language used to develop smart contracts on Ethereum.

Testnet: Test Network

There will inevitably be loopholes in the program, and decentralized applications on the blockchain are no exception. In order to prevent huge loopholes after the application mainnet goes online, developers will first deploy the application on the test network for full testing.

Transaction Block: Transaction Block

A block that gathers a large amount of transaction information. The miner calculates the hash value of the block for mining. After the mining is successful, the block will be added to the blockchain.

Transaction Fee: transaction fee

Almost all cryptocurrency transactions require a small transaction fee. This part of the transaction fee will be used as the labor income of the miner and will be distributed to the miner who digs the block together with the block reward given by the system.

Turing Complete: Turing Complete

Turing completeness refers to the ability of a machine to perform calculations that can be performed by any other programmable computer. A classic example of Turing completeness is the Ethereum Virtual Machine.

Wallet: Wallet

A wallet is a file that contains the private key of an account. In order to better serve users, wallets usually include a software client, users can use the wallet client to view or initiate transactions on the blockchain it supports.