Bitcoin Terms Beginning with I
Bitcoin’s blockchain is *append-only*, meaning that once a block is embedded in the chain, it is practically infeasible to remove or alter it. This makes Bitcoin’s history immutable.
Inbound liquidity refers to funds inside a node’s payment channels which can be used to receive payments. Inbound–or “remote”–liquidity refers to those funds inside a channel that are owned by other network participants, such as channel counterparties.
An index is a measurement of the price of multiple assets simultaneously. The S&P 500 is a commonly referenced index for large U.S. equities.
An individual retirement account (IRA) is a tax-advantaged investment account used for retirement savings. There are multiple types of retirement accounts, and each account type has different tax benefits for contributions and withdrawals.
Inflation is a general increase in the price of goods and services in an economy over time. Inflation is primarily due to a constant increase in the monetary base by the local government or central bank.
An inflation hedge is an investment intended to protect against the decreased purchasing power of a currency. An inflationary hedge asset is expected to maintain its value over time and increase in value in the case of inflation. Bitcoin is a strong inflationary hedge.
Initial Block Download or IBD is the process of building the full Bitcoin blockchain from scratch. When a new node is set up and joins the network, it connects to other nodes and asks them for blocks.
An input sequence, or nSequence, is a field of a Bitcoin transaction input. The sequence field was originally intended to enable payment channels similar to the Lightning Network. Today, input sequences are instead used to signal support for Replace-by-Fee (RBF).
An interest rate is the amount a lender charges a borrower. This rate is expressed as a percentage of the loan amount per an amount of time.
The issue price is the initial price, par value, or nominal value paid by an investor for a particular financial instrument.