Top 5 Crypto Buzzwords You Might Not Know
Terms like ‘blockchain’ and ‘Bitcoin’ will certainly be very familiar to the average crypto trader, or even someone with casual interest, to everyone but the uninitiated in cryptography. But being an industry that does not rest for a minute, in crypto there are a multitude of buzzwords that have emerged which may not be so familiar. So, today the top 5 crypto buzzwords you probably don’t know.
HODl
This is actually quite a well-known crypto buzzword, but it means holding onto your cryptocurrency instead of selling it to those new to the game. It originates from the early days of cryptocurrency in 2013, when an apparently intoxicated person posted on a Bitcoin dedicated forum “I AM HODLING” (yes, it’s a spelling error!) This drunken mishap has since gone down in crypto folklore, with the term HODL being a backronym (hold on for dear life), being used especially in times of market turmoil to refer to individuals who are keeping the coins.
Bitcoin Maximalist
This buzzword, as the name might suggest, means someone who is 100% dedicated to the cause of Bitcoin and is not interested in any other cryptocurrency. A Bitcoin maximalist sees the future of crypto as Bitcoin alone, and discredits any altcoin from being something of significant importance or part of that future. While not many will dispute that Bitcoin is the king of cryptocurrencies and undoubtedly has the greatest chance to realize mass acceptance, it remains to be seen whether it’s the one that crosses the threshold, or whether others join or not.
- Forking
To the surprise of absolutely no-one this word has little to do with the widely used cutlery piece in relation to crypto. Forking happens when a need emerges to make a shift to the blockchain of a cryptocurrency. For a number of reasons this might be necessary and there are soft forks and hard forks. The big difference is that you will see a soft fork as a ‘software upgrade,’ with the current consensus rules backwards compatible with the rules on the previous blockchain version.
REKT
It’s a slang of ‘wrecked’ first used by gamers, and has now been adopted by crypto traders. This buzzword describes a serious financial loss; the result of poor decisions or adverse market moves. A trader might say their position is ‘rekt’ if they hold a long position and the market price crashes, for example. One might say the same for a coin, or indeed the market itself.
DYOR
Last but not least, the most important buzzword of them all is perhaps: DYOR, that is, do your own research! Ultimately only you will determine when to invest in cryptocurrencies, whether to go long or short, or how to exploit your place. If not, you could get REKT!
