Glossary
The words of bitcoin in plain English, from address to testnet.
The words you will hear
Thirteen terms, in alphabetical order, explained in one line each.
Address
Where a payment is sent. Wallets make a new one for every payment you receive.
Block
A batch of payments added to the record, about every ten minutes.
Confirmation
Each block added after yours. More confirmations make a payment harder to undo.
Fee rate
What you offer miners per unit of space your payment takes, shown in sats per vbyte.
Halving
The cut in the new-coin reward every 210,000 blocks, roughly every four years.
Mempool
The waiting room of payments not yet in a block.
Mining
Using computers to compete for the right to add the next block.
Node
A computer running bitcoin software that checks every rule for itself.
Private key
The secret that signs payments. Whoever has it controls the coins.
Recovery words
Twelve or twenty-four words that rebuild your keys. Also called a seed phrase.
Sat
The smallest unit: one hundred-millionth of a bitcoin.
Self-custody
Holding your own keys instead of leaving coins with a company.
Testnet
A practice network whose coins have no value, used for learning and testing.
Start with lesson 1 tonight
Lesson 1 takes twenty minutes online and costs nothing. When you are ready, book a seat at the evening course.