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When the word Bitcoin is mentioned it is sometimes accompanied with words like Blockchain, Hash Rate, Block, Wallet, Double spending and so on. Most times they just leave the average person confused, I have to admit it was hard for me in the beginning.

So here are a few terms you should add to your bitcoin vocabulary:

Address

Your Bitcoin Wallet address is similar to your email address, you need to provide this in order to receive Bitcoin.

Block

This is a record in the Block chain that contains and confirms transactions waiting to be processed. Every ten minutes a new block is added to the Blockchain through mining.

Block Chain

This is a public record of transaction arranged in chronological order. The Block chain usually contains transactions that have been confirmed.

Confirmation

A transaction that has been confirmed has been processed by a network and is not likely to get reversed.

Double spending

This occurs when a user tries to send bitcoins to two different users at the same time. The Bitcoin protocol has put measures in place to ensure that this does not happen.

Hash Rate

The hash rate is the amount of processing power of the Bitcoin network, its unit is the giga hash per second, Tera Hash per second. The more the hash rate the more the calculations that can be carried out per second.

Mining

Bitcoin mining involves using computer hardware to confirm transactions on the Bitcoin network and increase security. As a reward for mining Bitcoin Miners receive transaction fees for the transaction they confirm and they also receive newly created bitcoins.

Peer to peer

Peer to peer systems interact directly while excluding the middle man. Bitcoin supports peer to peer transfer that allows users to transfer Bitcoin to each other directly without going through a bank

Private Keys

Private keys are encrypted forms of data

Thanks for reading

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