Sphinx is a privacy-focused payment protocol using Lightning Network, enabling secure and anonymous transactions by concealing payment routes through onion routing.
Splicing is a Bitcoin protocol improvement that allows users to modify existing channel balances without interrupting ongoing payment channels, enhancing efficiency and flexibility.
A staging environment is a pre-production replica used to test Bitcoin software—nodes, wallets, services—under realistic conditions before mainnet deployment, ensuring stability, compatibility, and security.
A stale block is a block in a blockchain that was successfully mined but is not included in the longest chain, usually because another block was added to the chain first.
A state channel is a private communication path allowing off-chain transactions between parties, reducing blockchain interaction and costs until final settlement.
A webpage showing real-time operational health, uptime, and incident reports for a Bitcoin service or infrastructure (nodes, wallets, exchanges, mining pools), helping users track outages and performance.
A Submarine Swap is a private, off-chain transaction exchanging cryptocurrencies between different blockchain networks without revealing the swap details publicly.
A standardized SWIFT message (MT103) for single-customer international wire transfers, containing proof-of-payment details (sender, receiver, amount, references). Often requested by crypto exchanges or OTC desks to verify fiat deposits or withdrawals linked to Bitcoin trades.
A Sybil attack is when one person creates many fake identities to gain control or influence over a network, compromising its integrity.
A digital asset mimicking the value of USD, backed by cryptocurrencies or blockchain-based mechanisms, often used in decentralized finance to facilitate stable transactions.
A Bitcoin upgrade enhancing privacy and scalability by optimizing transaction data storage, allowing more complex smart contracts and improving overall network efficiency.
Taro is a Bitcoin protocol enabling the creation and transfer of assets and tokens on the Bitcoin blockchain without altering the Bitcoin network.
Tax reporting: documenting and filing required information on crypto transactions—trades, sales, income, mining, staking, airdrops, payments—for tax authorities, including gains/losses, cost basis, holding periods, and taxable events, using forms like 8949/Schedule D, per local regulations.
A test network allowing developers to test and experiment with blockchain applications without using real cryptocurrency or affecting the main network.
A Threshold Signature Scheme (TSS) allows multiple parties to jointly create a valid signature without revealing individual private keys or using a single point of failure.
A financial agreement that requires a specific time to pass before funds can be accessed or transactions processed, enhancing security and flexibility.
A chronological record of bitcoin transactions stored in blocks, forming a sequential chain that supports the decentralized verification system known as the blockchain.
A digital asset or unit of value issued on a blockchain, representing assets, rights, or access, often used in cryptocurrency and fintech applications.
The Onion Router is a network that anonymizes internet traffic by routing it through multiple servers, enhancing privacy for Bitcoin transactions and fintech activities.
Tracing is the analytical process of following bitcoin transaction flows on the public blockchain to infer the movement and ownership of funds across addresses or clusters, often for compliance, investigations, or risk scoring, despite obfuscation techniques like mixers or CoinJoin.
In Bitcoin's Lightning Network, smaller nodes use intermediary larger nodes to route payments, reducing their need for full network knowledge and simplifying transactions.
Transaction Monitoring: continuous analysis of Bitcoin transactions to detect suspicious activity, ensure compliance with AML/KYC rules, assess risk, flag anomalies, and support investigations by tracking addresses, flows, patterns, and sanctions exposure across the blockchain in real time.
The Travel Rule is an AML/CFT requirement that crypto VASPs must collect, verify, and transmit sender and recipient identifying information with qualifying transfers, similar to wire rules, to enable compliance and law enforcement, typically above set thresholds across jurisdictions.
Treasury management in bitcoin is the strategic oversight of an organization’s BTC and fiat holdings, covering liquidity, custody, payments, hedging, compliance, and accounting to manage volatility, optimize cash flow, and support operations and capital allocation.
Uniform Resource Identifier is a string that identifies a resource on the internet, often used to specify Bitcoin addresses for transactions.
Unspent Transaction Output: A record of cryptocurrency received in a transaction that can be used as input in a future transaction.
Verification is the process of confirming the identity or information of users or transactions to ensure authenticity and prevent fraud in financial systems.
A virtual account is a non-blockchain, exchange- or processor-assigned identifier or subaccount used to route and reconcile Bitcoin deposits, track balances, and manage users’ funds without creating a unique on-chain wallet per user.
VPN encrypts internet connections to secure online privacy, mask user location, and enable safe access to restricted services or websites.
Virtual Size (Vsize) refers to the amount of virtual memory a process is allocated, which may include both the code and data segments in the system's address space.
A Vostro account is a local-currency account that a domestic bank holds for a foreign bank, used in correspondent banking to receive and settle funds—often supporting fiat rails for bitcoin exchanges, brokers, or OTC desks.
In Bitcoin's Lightning Network, a watchtower is a service that monitors users' channels for fraudulent transactions to help protect against fund theft.
The third generation of the internet focused on decentralization, blockchain technology, and user-owned data, enabling peer-to-peer interactions and smart contracts.
Webhooks are HTTP callbacks that notify your application in real time when specified Bitcoin events occur—such as new transactions, confirmed blocks, or address activity—by sending event data to a URL you provide.
A wire transfer is a bank-to-bank electronic funds transfer, commonly used to deposit or withdraw fiat currency from crypto exchanges, enabling the purchase or sale of bitcoin.
Withholding tax is a pre-deduction a payer must take from a crypto-related payment—such as exchange payouts, wages, staking or mining rewards—remitting it to tax authorities on the recipient’s behalf, reducing the recipient’s immediate take and counting toward their final tax liability.
Extended public key allows users to generate multiple Bitcoin addresses from a single wallet, enhancing privacy and convenience without exposing private keys.
YAML Ain't Markup Language is a human-readable data format used for configuration files and data serialization in software applications.
A Bitcoin transaction that is broadcast to the network but not yet confirmed by miners, making it faster but riskier.
