Glossary

The words, in plain language.

Short definitions for the jargon in the reports. They describe the term, not a verdict on any one story. Nothing here phones home.

5GW: Conflict fought through stories, infrastructure, money, and non-military pressure, not only through armies on a battlefield.; Also written fifth-generation warfare
Address reuse: Receiving more than once at the same address. It ties those payments together for anyone watching the chain.
Air gap: A device kept off every network. Data moves by SD card, QR code, or similar, not by Wi-Fi.; Also written air-gapped, air gapped
BIP-39: The common standard for turning a wallet's backup into a list of words (the seed phrase) and back again.; Also written BIP39
CBDC: A digital liability of a central bank, built to be supervised. It is not bitcoin: the issuer can set the rules and see the use.; Also written central bank digital currency
Chain analysis: Following bitcoin transactions across addresses to guess who paid whom. It is inference, not a name written on the coin.; Also written chain-analysis
Change address: The address that receives the leftover bitcoin when you spend part of a coin. Wallets create these automatically.; Also written change addresses
CoinJoin: A transaction several people build together so an outside observer cannot easily tell which input paid which output.; Also written
Cold wallet: Keys kept off the internet. The opposite is a hot wallet, which stays connected and is easier to reach.; Also written cold wallets, cold storage
CSP: A rule the browser enforces about what a page may load. It is how this site refuses third-party scripts, fonts, and trackers.; Also written Content-Security-Policy, content security policy
Deepfake: Audio or video of a person synthesized so it looks and sounds like them saying something they did not say.; Also written deepfakes
Dust attack: A tiny unwanted payment sent to many addresses, used to tempt a wallet into combining that dust with the rest of your coins and linking them.; Also written dusting
Full node: Software that checks every bitcoin block against the rules yourself, instead of trusting someone else's answer.; Also written full nodes
Halving: The scheduled cut in new bitcoin issued per block, about every four years, until the new supply rounds to zero.; Also written halvings
Hardware wallet: A small device that holds keys and signs transactions offline from your everyday computer, so a hacked laptop cannot spend on its own.; Also written hardware wallets, signing device
Hash rate: How much guessing power miners are spending to find the next block. More of it raises the cost of rewriting recent history.; Also written hashrate
Hot wallet: A wallet whose keys sit on a phone or computer that goes online. Convenient, and exposed to whatever that device catches.; Also written hot wallets
KYC: The identity check an exchange or broker runs before it will serve you: name, documents, and usually a link to your bank.; Also written know your customer
Lightning: A network of bitcoin payment channels for smaller, faster payments that settle back onto the main chain later.; Also written Lightning Network
Mempool: The waiting room of valid transactions a node has seen but that are not in a block yet.
MEV: Value a block builder can take by choosing the order of transactions, beyond the ordinary fee.; Also written maximal extractable value
Multisig: A bitcoin wallet that spends only when more than one key signs. An m-of-n setup needs m signatures out of n keys.; Also written multi-signature, multi-sig
OFAC: The U.S. Treasury office that publishes sanctions lists. Companies and miners sometimes refuse transactions tied to those lists.
OpSec: The habit of denying an adversary the small facts — identity, location, holdings, routines — they would need to hurt you.; Also written operational security
OSINT: Intelligence gathered from information that is already public: filings, photos, shipping data, social posts, and the chain itself.; Also written open-source intelligence
Passphrase: An extra secret you add to a seed phrase. Without it, the words open a different, empty wallet. Lose it and the coins are gone.
Pig butchering: A long con: the scammer builds a fake relationship, then steers the target into a fraudulent investment and takes the deposits.
Private key: The secret number that can spend a coin. The seed phrase is a backup of these secrets. The public key cannot spend.; Also written private keys
Proof of work: The cost miners pay, in electricity and hardware, to propose a block. Changing history means paying that cost again.; Also written proof-of-work
PSBT: A standard file for a bitcoin transaction that is not finished yet, so different keys and devices can sign it one at a time.; Also written partially signed bitcoin transaction
Ransomware: Malware that locks files or systems and demands payment, often in bitcoin, for the key that unlocks them.
RBF: A way to republish your own unconfirmed transaction with a higher fee so miners pick the new one.; Also written replace-by-fee
Schnorr: A signature method bitcoin uses with Taproot. Several signers can produce one signature, which is harder to tell apart from a single signer.
Seed phrase: The word list that can recreate a wallet. Anyone who has it can take the bitcoin. It is not a password you can reset.; Also written seed words, mnemonic
Self-custody: You hold the keys. No exchange or custodian can freeze the coins, and no one can reverse a mistake you make with them.; Also written self custody
SIM swap: An attacker convinces your mobile carrier to move your phone number onto their SIM, then intercepts the text messages used as a second factor.; Also written SIM-swap
Stablecoin: A token meant to hold a steady price, usually one U.S. dollar. The peg depends on the issuer's reserves and on redemption actually working.; Also written stablecoins
Taproot: A bitcoin upgrade that makes complex spending conditions look like an ordinary payment until those conditions are actually used.
UTXO: A piece of bitcoin sitting at an address, waiting to be spent. Your balance is the sum of these pieces, not a number in an account.; Also written unspent transaction output
Wallet drainer: A malicious page or approval that, once you sign, lets an attacker move what the wallet can spend.; Also written drainer
Wrench attack: Theft by physical force or threat — someone demanding your keys in person — rather than by hacking the software.; Also written wrench attacks
xpub: A public key that can generate a wallet's receiving addresses. It cannot spend. It can reveal the full history of those addresses.; Also written extended public key
Zero-day: A software flaw the maker does not have a fix for yet. Attackers who know it can use it before a patch exists.; Also written zero day