Must-Know Bitcoin Terms

Bitcoin has its own vocabulary, which can catch the unsuspecting off-guard and leave them red-cheeked for not knowing. Here I will define some Bitcoin words that you’ll run into, to prepare your next Bitcoin conversation.

How a Bitcoin term caught me by surprise

On a sunny summer day, I was sitting in my home office having a Discord video chat with two members of my team. Then suddenly the conversation turned over to the phrase Bitcoin maximalist, and lo-and-behold, I didn’t know what it meant. I guess that the puzzled look on my face must have given me away. My first thought was that it was a hardcore bitcoiner, and to an extent I was right, but there was more to it. I have to admit I’m not someone with a technical background. I’m a copywriter who began working a bitcoin job as a freelancer, through sheer chance because of a friend’s recommendation. Before that, I knew nothing about Bitcoin. But I have an interest in languages and I’ve been catching on to bitcoin jargon slowly but surely. Therefore, I would like to share with you a few essential terms you will run into during your bitcoin journey.

Bitcoin Maximalist/Bitcoin Minimalist - the maximalist sees Bitcoin as the one and only cryptocurrency, while the minimalist gives a chance to other currencies as well.
Miner - through mining is how we get new bitcoins. And no, miners don’t go underground, but use specific computer equipment that mines the bitcoin for a reward.
Shitcoin - a crypto coin that has little to no value. Sometimes we use this term as a pejorative describing any coin that is not bitcoin. This is a term you will often hear used by die-hard bitcoiners. I even ran into a place that had this term in its name.
Wallet - the app which holds, sends and receives your bitcoin. For example, I use the app Muun as my wallet.
Altcoin - this refers to crypto coins that are not bitcoin. There’s Bitcoin and then there’s all the rest that we call altcoin. You can think of it as a more polite way to refer to non-bitcoin crypto coins.
HODL - “hold on for dear life” is a term used in Bitcoin jargon referring to users who won’t sell their bitcoin, whether it’s high or low on the exchange rate. I think this one began as a typo when someone tried to type "hold", but is now popular Bitcoin lingo.
Decentralized - not controlled by a third party agency. Bitcoin is decentralized since no government or third party agency controls it.
Cold storage/Hot Storage - cold storage refers to private key storage not on a device connected to the internet and therefore inaccessible to hackers, while hot storage is a private key stored on your laptop or your phone or any other device with an internet connection.
KYC - this acronym stands for know your customer. KYC is a challenge to privacy in Bitcoin, since it requires that the bitcoin user reveal personal information to a third party. Privacy maximalists try to circumvent this regulation any way they can.
Fiat - currencies not backed by any tangible commodity and which are printed and controlled by governments. These are the predominant currencies of today, like the US Dollar and EURO. In some ways, this is the polar opposite of Bitcoin.

These definitions should help fellow writers, non-technical people, or anyone new to Bitcoin. And remember that even when a phrase sounds self-explanatory, there is always more to it than meets the eye. Terms like wallet, miner, or maximalist mean something different in the bitcoin world. Therefore, you should always look up a definition more thoroughly to avoid being stumped, like I was.