A glossary of crypto & AI terms
The words you keep seeing, defined simply.
A quick reference to the terms that come up most often in our coverage.
Crypto
Blockchain — a shared, tamper-resistant digital ledger. Bitcoin — the first cryptocurrency. Ethereum — a blockchain that can run programs (smart contracts). Stablecoin — a crypto token designed to hold a steady value, often pegged to the dollar. Wallet — software or hardware that stores your crypto keys. Exchange — a marketplace to buy and sell crypto. DeFi — 'decentralised finance', financial services built on blockchains. Mining — using computers to validate transactions and create new coins.
AI
Machine learning — software that learns patterns from data. Large language model (LLM) — an AI trained on text to generate and understand language. Training — the process of teaching a model from data. Hallucination — when an AI states something false as if it were true. GPU — a specialised chip used to train and run AI. Prompt — the instruction you give an AI. Open source — models whose code or weights are released publicly.