What is a Cryptocurrency Address?

A cryptocurrency address is like an email address, but instead of being fused or emails, it is to send and receive cryptocurrency. Usually, cryptocurrency addresses are derived from a public/private key pair and are between 16 and 24 characters long consisting of a random collection of numbers and letters. Cryptocurrency addresses are also often embedded into QR codes to make sending cryptocurrency easier. Because cryptocurrency addresses are for receiving cryptocurrency, it is ok to post them anywhere and people can then send you cryptocurrency.

An example of a Bitcoin address is: 3MfesBVoKWMkfYp56Ji8WVSWrLhY6ua5aq

An example of an Ethereum address is: 0xFE75716f9aFB0ABa1a02A834BFDd7019c52E8F24

For definitions of all of the most confusing blockchain and cryptocurrency terms, make sure to check out our complete Blockchain and Cryptocurrency Dictionary.



An airdrop is a free cryptocurrency giveaway. To receive an airdrop a person has to have a wallet setup and then meet the requirements of whoever is giving the cryptocurrency away, sometimes the requirement is to sign up for an email list, follow on social media, or simply have a wallet. Cryptocurrency projects do airdrops to generate interest in their projects or to make their network more decentralized by having more participants.







ASIC Miner


ASIC stands for application specific integrated chip. Usually “ASIC” is paired with the word miner. ASIC miners are powerful computers manufactured for one specific purpose, mining cryptocurrency. Not only are ASICs designed specifically for for mining cryptocurrency, but they are also designed to only be used to mine one specific cryptocurrency (or a few that use the same algorithm). For example, Bitcoin ASIC miners cannot be used to mine Ethereum or Litecoin. Likewise, Ethereum and Litecoin ASICs cannot be used to mine Bitcoin.

Asymmetric Encryption


Encryption is the science that enables digital items to be protected by a password. Standard encryption works well when only one person needs access to whatever is password protected. When multiple people need access to encrypted information, because sharing passwords is unsafe, a different type of encryption is needed. This type of encryption is called asymmetric encryption.

Asymmetric encryption works like a mailbox locked with a key. Anyone can deposit mail into the mailbox, but to get mail out, a key is required. Digitally, the mailbox is referred to as a “public key” and the key required to unlock it is the “private key”. These two keys are mathematically linked so that any information sent to a public key can always be unlocked with its unique private key.

Asymmetric encryption is one of the properties which makes cryptocurrencies the world’s most secure way to transact. It is what allows any user to have a shareable public key and address to which anyone can send funds and also a private key making the user the only one able to spend these funds.

To demonstrate how this works, let’s imagine that I live in California and my mother, father, and sister all live in North Carolina. Father’s day is coming up and I want to buy my dad some pottery made by his favorite local artist. This artist has no online shop and I can’t go to his store myself so I’ll have to have my mom or sister go in and buy it using my credit card number. I’m not easily accessible by phone, so they can’t just call me while they are in the shop to get my credit card number. The logical thing to do is the email them my credit card number so one of them can do it at their leisure. The problem with this is that emails get hacked all the time, what if my credit card number ends up in the wrong hands?

Instead of sending the credit card via an unencrypted message, I use my mom and sisters public keys to create an encrypted message containing my credit card information. Once they receive this message they can easily decrypt this message by unlocking it with their private key. This ensures that even if one of our emails were to be hacked, nobody would have my credit card information without also having access to one of our private keys!

If you are still confused or curious about this asymmetric encryption, here is a good YouTube video on the topic:



ATH is a commonly used acronym when referencing the price of a cryptoasset that stands for “all time high”. For example, currently (in July 2019) the price of one bitcoin is valued at around $10,000 but the ATH was set in December of 2017 when one bitcoin was valued at $20,000.

Atomic Swap


An atomic swap is a direct swap from one cryptocurrency to another without using an exchange. The idea is to make payments from one blockchain to another seamless and easy. Currently, atomic swaps are possible on bitcoin, litecoin, decred, and a few other blockchains however they are not widely used.



A “bear” in any market is someone who expects the price to go down. This term comes from the way a bear attacks, by striking down on its prey. When a market is bearish, The prices are consistently going down. The opposite of a bear is a “bull”, the opposite of bearish is bullish.



Bitcoin (with a capital B) is free open source computer software used for creating and maintaining the Bitcoin blockchain. The Bitcoin blockchain stores the world’s first and most popular cryptoasset known as bitcoin with a lowercase b. When a person downloads the Bitcoin software on their computer or smartphone, they can then send and receive “bitcoins” (with a lowercase b), which are the currency or units of exchange for the network created by computers running the Bitcoin software.
When a person owns bitcoin, they do not own a physical coin, nor do they own some sort of digital coin that they download to their computer, they own an exclusive association to specific entry on a single, distributed, worldwide ledger known as the Bitcoin blockchain. They can prove their exclusive association to this ledger entry, or “transaction” using cryptography. This ability to prove association to transactions on this ledger allows for a person to exclusively “own” bitcoin on the shared bitcoin blockchain. Everyone in the world can view and verify this ownership.