Cryptocurrency Glossary

A cryptographic construct that lets someone commit to a value while keeping it hidden, with the ability to reveal it la…

A function that maps arbitrary data to a fixed-size digest. Good hash functions are preimage-resistant, second-preimage…

A cryptographic scheme that allows someone to prove ownership of a private key by signing a message. Others verify the …

Hashing data twice with SHA-256. Bitcoin uses double SHA-256 in multiple places, including block header hashing.

Elliptic Curve Digital Signature Algorithm, a common signature scheme. Bitcoin uses ECDSA with the secp256k1 curve to a…

A fast, widely used signature scheme based on the Edwards curve Curve25519. Solana commonly uses Ed25519 signatures for…

Public-key cryptography based on the algebra of elliptic curves over finite fields. Bitcoin uses ECDSA over secp256k1; …

A hash function related to SHA-3, commonly used in Ethereum for hashing and address derivation. Ethereum historically u…

A data structure combining a Patricia trie with Merkle hashing to enable verifiable key-value storage. Ethereum uses Me…

A set of sibling hashes that allows verifying that a leaf is included in a Merkle tree, given the Merkle root. SPV clie…

A tree of hashes that summarizes many items into one root hash. It enables efficient inclusion proofs: a node can prove…

A radix tree variant used to efficiently store and verify key-value mappings. Ethereum uses Patricia tries (and variant…

A technique proposed in some systems to prove that a node stores a replica of data. Proofs of replication/storage are u…

The publicly shareable component of an asymmetric key pair. It is used to verify signatures or derive addresses, depend…

A widely used cryptographic hash function that outputs 256-bit digests. Bitcoin uses SHA-256 in its Proof of Work and i…

A memory-hard key derivation and hashing function designed to make brute-force attacks more expensive. Dogecoin and Lit…