Digital Signature

A digital signature is a mathematical scheme for verifying the authenticity of digital messages or documents. A valid digital signature, where the prerequisites are satisfied, gives a recipient very strong reason to believe that the message was created by a known sender (authentication), and that the message was not altered in transit (integrity). Digital signatures are a standard element of most cryptographic protocol suites, and are commonly used for software distribution, financial transactions, contract management software, and in other cases where it is important to detect forgery or tampering.

Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) Attack

In computing, a denial-of-service attack (DoS attack) is a cyber-attack in which the perpetrator seeks to make a machine or network resource unavailable to its intended users by temporarily or indefinitely disrupting services of a host connected to the Internet. Denial of service is typically accomplished by flooding the targeted machine or resource with superfluous requests in an attempt to overload systems and prevent some or all legitimate requests from being fulfilled.

Double Spend

Double-spending problem is the successful use of the same funds twice. Double-spending of Bitcoin is not possible as Bitcoin is protected against a double-spending problem thanks to each transaction which is added to the blockchain being verified, and the majority of funds contained in this transaction cannot have been previously spent.

ECDSA

Elliptic Curve Digital Signature Algorithm or ECDSA is a cryptographic algorithm used by Bitcoin to ensure that funds can only be spent by their rightful owners.

Encryption

In cryptography, encryption is the process of encoding information. This process converts the original representation of the information, known as plaintext, into an alternative form known as ciphertext. Ideally, only authorized parties can decipher a ciphertext back to plaintext and access the original information. Encryption does not itself prevent interference but denies the intelligible content to a would-be interceptor.

Encryption Algorithm

In cryptography, encryption is the process of encoding information. This process converts the original representation of the information, known as plaintext, into an alternative form known as ciphertext. Ideally, only authorized parties can decipher a ciphertext back to plaintext and access the original information. Encryption does not itself prevent interference but denies the intelligible content to a would-be interceptor.

Hash Power

The hash rate is the primary measure of a Bitcoin miner's performance. In 2014, a miner's performance was generally measured in Ghash/s, or billions of hashes per second.

Mining

Bitcoin mining is the process of making computer hardware do mathematical calculations for the Bitcoin network to confirm transactions and increase security. As a reward for their services, Bitcoin miners can collect transaction fees for the transactions they confirm, along with newly created bitcoins. Mining is a specialized and competitive market where the rewards are divided up according to how much calculation is done. Not all Bitcoin users do Bitcoin mining, and it is not an easy way to make money.

Mt. Gox

Mt. Gox, called "Mount Gox" or simply "Gox", was the most widely used bitcoin currency exchange market from shortly after its inception in 2010 to its insolvency late 2013. The market was closed February 25, 2014 and has since filed for bankruptcy protection in Japan and the United States, after losing 640 thousand bitcoins. A registrant on Mt. Gox had at least two sub-accounts: one for bitcoins (BTC), and one for fiat currency. Bitcoins were bought using funds from the trader's fiat account, and the proceeds from the sale of bitcoins were deposited into the same account. Trading always involved bitcoins as trading between different national currencies was not offered. Trades on Mt. Gox's executed from balances on deposit with the exchange which in turn made trading on the market instantaneous, compared to most other Bitcoin markets of 2010 where a subsequent settlement occurred manually between the trading partners. The disadvantage of this was that a third party had to be trusted with keeping the money safe.