Crypto & DeFi

51% Attack A majority-control attack in which a single entity commanding over half the network's consensus power can double-spend and censor transactions.

Account Abstraction on Layer 2 Layer 2 rollups can implement account abstraction natively, allowing smart contract wallets and custom transaction logic without mainchain limitations.

Account-Based vs UTXO Blockchain Models How Ethereum's account model and Bitcoin's UTXO model differ in design, privacy, and smart-contract support.

Airdrop Tax Treatment How the IRS treats unsolicited token distributions as ordinary income at fair market value at the time of receipt.

Algorand A pure proof-of-stake blockchain achieving immediate transaction finality without forks through cryptographic lotteries.

Algorithmic Stablecoin vs Collateralized Stablecoin Two designs compete to hold a stablecoin's peg: algorithmic stablecoins use supply mechanics; collateralized ones hold reserve assets. Each carries distinct risks.

Algorithmic Stablecoins Non-collateralized stablecoins that maintain peg through algorithm-based supply adjustments rather than collateral reserves.

Aptos A Move-based Layer 1 using Block-STM to execute transactions in parallel within a single shard, maximising throughput without sharding complexity.

Aptos Block-STM Parallel Execution How Aptos's software transactional memory scheduler executes transactions in parallel and rolls back only conflicting transactions.

Arbitrage in DeFi Exploiting price discrepancies across decentralized finance protocols and exchanges to capture risk-free or near-risk-free returns.

Arbitrum Arbitrum is an Ethereum layer-2 rollup that bundles transactions and submits them to Ethereum in batches. It uses optimistic rollup technology and is EVM-compatible, inheriting Ethereum's security while offering lower fees.

Arbitrum vs Optimism: Key Differences Comparison of the two leading Ethereum optimistic rollups: their fraud-proof designs, fee structures, governance tokens, and ecosystem sizes.

ASIC Mining An ASIC miner is specialised hardware designed specifically for cryptocurrency mining. ASIC stands for application-specific integrated circuit and refers to chips optimised to solve proof-of-work puzzles efficiently.

Atomic Swap A peer-to-peer exchange of cryptocurrencies across different blockchains without intermediaries, using cryptographic commitment locks to ensure trustless settlement.

Automated Market Maker An automated market maker (AMM) is a smart contract that enables peer-to-peer trading by maintaining token pools. Prices are determined algorithmically based on the ratio of tokens in the pool, rather than through an order book.

Avalanche Avalanche is a blockchain platform offering fast transaction finality through its DAG-based consensus mechanism. It uses proof-of-stake and supports subnets, allowing custom blockchains sharing its security model.

Avalanche Consensus Protocol: How It Works Avalanche consensus uses repeated random sampling of validators to reach probabilistic finality without a fixed committee, allowing high throughput and low latency.

Avalanche Subnet Explained Avalanche subnets are sovereign validator sets that run custom blockchains with their own rules while inheriting security from the main Avalanche network infrastructure.

Base Coinbase's Ethereum Layer 2, built on the OP Stack, scales transaction throughput while remaining under a single sequencer and eventual Ethereum settlement.

Based Rollup: How Ethereum L1 Sequencing Works How based rollups delegate transaction sequencing to Ethereum L1 validators, and the trade-offs between liveness, MEV exposure, and decentralization.

Basket Token in Crypto Index-like basket tokens that hold multiple underlying crypto assets in fixed or dynamic proportions, how they are minted and redeemed, and how they differ from index tokens.

Bitcoin Bitcoin is the first and largest cryptocurrency by market capitalisation, created in 2009. It runs on a decentralised peer-to-peer network secured by proof-of-work mining, with a fixed supply capped at 21 million coins.

Bitcoin Block Size Limit Explained Bitcoin's 1 MB block size limit caps throughput at ~7 transactions per second, creating fees during congestion. The limit exists to preserve decentralization and prevent node bloat.

Bitcoin Cash Bitcoin Cash is a cryptocurrency created in 2017 as a hard fork of Bitcoin, with larger block sizes designed to enable more transactions per block and lower transaction fees.

Bitcoin Halving The Bitcoin halving is a scheduled event occurring every four years (210,000 blocks) where the block reward for miners is reduced by half. This reduces Bitcoin's inflation rate and will eventually cap the supply at 21 million coins.

Bitcoin Taproot Upgrade Explained The Bitcoin Taproot soft fork introduced Schnorr signatures and script upgrades, improving privacy, efficiency, and complex spending conditions on the network.

Bitcoin UTXO Model Explained The Bitcoin UTXO model tracks balances as unspent transaction outputs, not account balances, affecting transaction construction, privacy, and fee calculation.

Bitcoin vs Bitcoin Cash: Key Differences Understand the difference between Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash: block size, fees, forking history, and divergent use cases.

Blob Transactions on Ethereum How EIP-4844 blob-carrying transactions reduce rollup costs by offering cheaper data availability than calldata.

Block Proposal Slot Auction Mechanics Block proposal slot auctions let builders bid for the right to fill a proposed block, and proposers earn the highest bid. This mechanism concentrates MEV and separates block building from validation.

Blockchain Finality The guarantee that a confirmed transaction cannot be reversed, distinguished by consensus mechanism—probabilistic in proof-of-work, absolute in proof-of-stake.

Blockchain Finality Explained Understanding probabilistic vs deterministic finality and why different blockchains require varying numbers of block confirmations.

Blockchain Fundamentals A blockchain is a distributed ledger that records transactions in blocks of cryptographically linked data. Each block references the previous block, creating an immutable chain of records secured by decentralised consensus.

BNB Chain Binance's EVM-compatible blockchain achieving high throughput through a delegated proof-of-stake model with a small validator set.

BNB Chain BEP-20 Token Standard BEP-20 is the token standard for BNB Smart Chain; it mirrors ERC-20 and defines how fungible tokens are created and transferred.

Bonding Curve A mathematical function that continuously prices token issuance and redemption based on total supply, replacing order-book matching with automated pricing.

Borrowing Against Crypto vs Selling: DeFi Tax Implications How collateralized DeFi loans avoid taxable disposal, contrasting tax treatment and risk profile of borrowing against crypto versus selling.

Bridge Protocol: How Cross-Chain Bridges Work A bridge protocol locks assets on one blockchain and mints equivalent representations on another, enabling cross-chain transfers with managed trust and security trade-offs.

Bridge Protocols Cross-chain liquidity mechanisms that move assets between blockchains, enabling seamless interoperability.

Byzantine Fault Tolerance A distributed-systems property that allows a network to reach agreement even when a fraction of participants act maliciously or fail unpredictably.

Calldata Compression Encoding techniques that reduce the size of rollup transaction batches posted to layer-1 chains, lowering per-transaction data-availability costs.

Cardano Cardano is a blockchain platform founded by Charles Hoskinson with a focus on academic research and formal verification. It uses proof-of-stake consensus and supports smart contracts through its Plutus language.

Cardano Hydra Layer 2 Scaling How Cardano's Hydra protocol enables high-speed off-chain state channels, allowing transactions to settle locally before checkpointing results back to the main chain.

Cardano Ouroboros Proof of Stake Cardano's Ouroboros is a peer-reviewed proof-of-stake protocol that uses stake-weighted slot leader elections and epochal boundaries to secure the network.

Casper FFG: Ethereum's Finality Gadget Explained How Casper FFG's checkpoint voting model layers deterministic finality onto longest-chain fork rules.

CDP Stablecoin Stablecoin minted from collateralized debt positions, backed by crypto collateral and stabilized through stability fees and liquidation.

Celo A blockchain that enables financial inclusion through phone-number-based addresses and mobile-first payments with stablecoin reserves.

Centralised Exchange A centralised exchange (CEX) is a cryptocurrency trading platform operated by a company that holds user funds in custody. Users deposit fiat or cryptocurrency, and the exchange executes trades between them.

Checkpoint Sync vs Full Sync in Blockchain Checkpoint sync trusts a recent block state to sync faster; full sync replays the chain from genesis. Both approaches involve trade-offs in speed, trust, and security.

Choosing a Business Entity for Crypto Trading Tax Purposes Best business entity for crypto trading taxes: comparing sole proprietorship, LLC, S-corp, and their effect on self-employment tax and deductions.

Circulating Supply vs Total Supply vs Max Supply in Crypto The difference between circulating, total, and max supply in crypto; how each affects market cap calculations and price discovery.

Client Asset Segregation in Crypto Custody How crypto custodians segregate customer assets from house funds. Why it matters in insolvency and what protections it provides.

Cliff Vesting vs Linear Vesting for Crypto Tokens Understand cliff vesting and linear vesting schedules for crypto tokens, how they differ for team and investor allocations, and what they imply for sell pressure.

Cold Storage Air-gapped key management that keeps cryptocurrency private keys offline and unreachable by remote attackers.

Collateral Ratio The ratio of collateral value to debt in an overcollateralized DeFi lending protocol, determining whether a borrower is in good standing or facing liquidation.

Committee-Based Attestation in Blockchain Consensus How protocols like Ethereum randomly assign validators to sub-committees to attest blocks without requiring every validator to vote on every block.

Common Crypto Tax Audit Triggers Identify IRS audit triggers for cryptocurrency tax returns—reporting gaps, wash sales, high volatility claims, and transaction patterns that invite scrutiny.

Compressed Calldata vs Blobs: Cost Comparison Compare compressed calldata vs blobs cost for Layer 2 rollups: break-even throughput, fee mechanics, and when each scaling solution saves money.

Concentrated Liquidity How Uniswap v3 lets liquidity providers concentrate capital within custom price ranges to maximize fee revenue.

Consensus Layer Security Economic incentives and protocol design that make 51% attacks prohibitively expensive; how blockchain security rests on the cost of attacking being higher than the gain.