Soft Fork

Blockchain

A distributed, immutable digital ledger that records transactions across a network of computers without a central authority.

Distributed Ledger Technology

A digital system for recording, sharing, and synchronising data across multiple sites without a central administrator.

Consensus Mechanism

The method by which a distributed network agrees on the current state of the ledger and validates transactions.

Proof of Work

A consensus mechanism requiring computational effort to validate transactions and create new blocks, used by Bitcoin.

Proof of Stake

A consensus mechanism where validators are selected based on the amount of cryptocurrency they hold and stake.

Delegated Proof of Stake

A consensus mechanism where token holders vote for delegates who validate transactions on their behalf.

Byzantine Fault Tolerance

The ability of a distributed system to reach consensus despite some nodes acting maliciously or failing.

Merkle Tree

A hash-based data structure that efficiently verifies the integrity and consistency of large sets of data.

Hash Function

A mathematical function that converts input data of any size into a fixed-size output, used extensively in blockchain security.

Cryptographic Hash

A one-way function producing a fixed-length output that is computationally infeasible to reverse or find collisions for.

Public Key Cryptography

An encryption system using mathematically linked key pairs — a public key for encryption and a private key for decryption.

Digital Signature

A cryptographic mechanism that verifies the authenticity and integrity of digital messages or documents.

A collection of funds locked in a smart contract that provides liquidity for decentralised trading and lending.

A computer connected to a blockchain network that maintains a copy of the ledger and participates in consensus.

The runtime environment for executing smart contracts on the Ethereum blockchain network.

Self-executing programs stored on a blockchain that automatically enforce the terms of an agreement when conditions are met.

An application that runs on a decentralised peer-to-peer network rather than a single centralised server.

A blockchain network open to anyone to participate as a node, validator, or user without requiring approval.

A blockchain node that only downloads block headers and relies on full nodes for complete transaction verification.

The process of using computational power to validate transactions and add new blocks to a proof-of-work blockchain.