Glossary

Blockchain Glossary

The core secret that controls assets. Anyone who obtains a private key may be able to transfer the assets away.

Usually consists of 12 or 24 words and is used to restore a wallet and derive private keys.

A unit of computational resources consumed when executing transactions and contract calls on EVM chains.

Bitcoin's unspent transaction output model, in which a balance consists of multiple spendable outputs.

In Ethereum, an account's transaction sequence number, used to prevent transaction replay.

Transactions from the same account must be included on-chain in nonce order.

Authorizes a contract to spend tokens. Excessive allowances increase the risk of exploitation by malicious contracts.

Commonly used in DEXs and DeFi.

A pool of transactions awaiting inclusion in a block. During network congestion, transactions with lower fees may wait longer.

A cross-chain bridge transfers assets or information from one chain to another. Its security depends on the bridge's design.

A wrapped asset; for example, WBTC represents Bitcoin circulating on other chains.