Glossary

Bitcoin

Refers both to the general protocol enabling the issuance and management of the decentralized digital currency created by Satoshi Nakamoto in 2009 (written with a capital letter), and to the units of account of this currency (written with a lowercase letter) which, in September 2025, were worth more than $100,000 each.

Blockchain (sometimes referred to as a chain of blocks)

A shared file reproduced in each validator node of the Bitcoin peer-to-peer network, which has approximately 18,000 nodes. More generally, a blockchain is a file shared on a peer-to-peer network that evolves by adding pages (called "blocks") linked to each other (also known as "chained") and monitored by all validator nodes in the network. The pages are linked to each other because, for example, each new page begins with the fingerprint...