Bitcoin Terms Beginning with A
Abenomics is a set of economic policies implemented by the Bank of Japan with the goal of pulling the Japanese economy out of deflation.
The beneficiary for an account is the person named to benefit from the account after the account holders death. Beneficiaries can be named for checking accounts, individual retirement accounts (IRAs), mutual funds, annuities, trusts, wills, and life insurance policies.
An adaptor signature is an additional signature which is combined with an initial signature to reveal a secret piece of data. Adaptor signatures enable two parties to reveal information to one another simulatenously and trustlessly.
An address is used to receive bitcoin and is represented as a string of letters and numbers. When you send bitcoin to an address, only the owner of the private key(s) corresponding with the address can spend that bitcoin.
The agency model of trading involves a brokerage customer trading with another investor or brokerage. The broker must find a counterparty willing to buy or sell the security for the same price as their customer.
Algorithmic trading is financial trading that is executed by software as opposed to humans. Trading algorithms have superior speed and computational power compared to humans.
An all-time high is the highest historical asset price reached by a commodity, security, or index during trading hours.
Allocation is the distribution of resources, including currency, towards individuals, companies, or assets for a designated period of time and with a specific purpose.
Alpha is used to measure an investment strategy’s ability to beat the market index and produce excess returns and profits. A positive alpha is the result of active investing and trading, although investors can have a negative alpha.
An annuity is a fixed cash payment that is received several times over fixed time intervals. The most common use of annuities is to supplement income during retirement.
Anonymity is the quality of a person whose identity is unknown. An anonymous person uses a pseudonym to operate in public while keeping their identity concealed.
Anti-Money Laundering (AML) is a category of laws and regulations that are intended to prevent money laundering, terrorist financing, tax evasion, and other illicit activities.
An Application-Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) is a special electronic chip built for exactly one purpose. Bitcoin ASIC miners, the hardware devices that contain these chips, are designed solely to hash blocks in order to find a valid Proof-of-Work.
Arbitrage is the process of taking both sides of a trade simultaneously in order to realize an immediate and riskless profit. This is done by selling an asset in one market where the price is higher and buying it in another market where the price is lower.
An ask is an offer to sell an asset at a particular price. Asks and bids are matched in order to execute a trade.
Assets Under Management (AUM) is the market value of all financial assets owned or designated for venture capital by a financial institution.
Assume Valid is a method for speeding up initial block download (IBD) by allowing a node to skip verification of each transaction and signature in older blocks.
AssumeUTXO is a proposed, optional setting that would allow users to make use of their Bitcoin node before initial block download (IBD) is complete.
Atomic Multipath Payments (AMP) is an implementation of the concept of Multipath Payments (MPP) on the Lightning Network. AMP breaks a large Lightning Payment into several smaller ones.
An Automated Clearing House (ACH) is a computerized net settlement payment system used by banks and other financial institutions to enable domestic credit transfers and direct withdrawals.
The average cost basis of an investment is the weighted average price paid over several investment tranches. The average cost basis can be calculated by dividing the total ownership position by the total amount invested.