How to Check a King Charles III or Elizabeth II Banknote
Current Bank of England notes feature either King Charles III or Queen Elizabeth II. Both versions can circulate, and the portrait alone does not prove that a note is genuine. Check several security features together. Look at the note Bank of England’s current £5, £10, £20 and £50 notes are printed on polymer. Look for...
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What Is a Mempool? Bitcoin Technical Guide
In Bitcoin documentation, a mempool is a receiving node’s memory pool of transactions that the node has verified as valid but that have not yet appeared in a block. A local view, not one global queue The important word is “node”. Bitcoin’s P2P documentation describes a mempool from the perspective of the receiving node and...
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What Is Blockchain Finality? A Technical Guide
Blockchain finality describes the point at which a protocol treats a block or chain state as final under its own rules. The exact meaning depends on the protocol, so this article uses Ethereum as the technical example. Ethereum’s proof-of-stake example Ethereum’s proof-of-stake documentation describes finality through pairs of checkpoints. Validators vote on these checkpoints, and...
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What Is a Genesis Block? Bitcoin Explained
A genesis block is the first block used to start a blockchain. In Bitcoin, it is known as block 0. Bitcoin’s first block Bitcoin’s developer glossary defines the genesis block as the first block in the blockchain. Because block height counts the number of blocks that precede a given block, the genesis block has height...
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What Is a Mempool? Bitcoin Technical Guide
In Bitcoin documentation, a mempool is a receiving node’s memory pool of transactions that the node has verified as valid but that have not yet appeared in a block. A local view, not one global queue The important word is “node”. Bitcoin’s P2P documentation describes a mempool from the perspective of the receiving node and...
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What Is a Genesis Block? Bitcoin Explained
A genesis block is the first block used to start a blockchain. In Bitcoin, it is known as block 0. Bitcoin’s first block Bitcoin’s developer glossary defines the genesis block as the first block in the blockchain. Because block height counts the number of blocks that precede a given block, the genesis block has height...
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What Is a Blockchain Fork? Bitcoin and Ethereum
The phrase blockchain fork can describe more than one technical situation. In Bitcoin documentation, a fork can refer to competing blocks at the same height. Ethereum documentation also uses “fork” for a change to protocol rules. Forks in the Bitcoin chain Bitcoin’s developer guide explains that blocks produced at roughly the same time can create...
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What Is a Merkle Tree? Bitcoin Explained
A Merkle tree is a structure that repeatedly hashes pairs of data until one hash remains. That final hash is called the Merkle root. Bitcoin uses this structure for the transactions in a block. The transaction data forms the leaves of the tree. Hashes are combined in pairs, and the process continues until Bitcoin has...
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Coin vs token: what’s the difference?
A coin and a token are both terms used for cryptoassets, but they usually describe different technical arrangements. A coin is commonly associated with its own blockchain or protocol. A token is commonly created through a smart contract on an existing blockchain. The labels are useful shorthand, not a test of value, safety or legal...
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Fungible vs Non-Fungible: What the Terms Mean
Fungible means interchangeable. Non-fungible means individually distinguishable. These words describe how units of something relate to one another. They do not establish ownership rights, authenticity, rarity, safety or value. The distinction is useful when reading about tokens and digital collecting. It is a technical and descriptive distinction, not a verdict on what an item is...
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What Is an NFT? The Token and the Rights Around It
An NFT is a non-fungible token: a distinct token recorded through a blockchain system. A token can have its own identifier and a record of transfers. That technical record is different from a claim about a linked image, physical object, copyright or value. NFTs are often discussed in connection with art, games and digital collecting....
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What Is an ERC-20 Token? Explained
An ERC-20 token is a token issued through an Ethereum smart contract that follows the ERC-20 standard interface. The standard gives compatible software a shared way to ask about balances, supply and transfers. ERC-20 is a technical standard. It is not an approval, audit, quality mark or statement about value. What ERC-20 means ERC stands...
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