Bitcoin Terminology

Who First Said HODL?

     The true identity is unknown of the person who inadvertently coined the term "HODL". The original misspelling of the word occurred in a post by the user "GameKyuubi" on the Bitcointalk.org online forum, at 10:03 a.m. UTC on Dec. 18, 2013.

     HODL, or “Hold On for Dear Life,” is now a widely known concept in the crypto community that refers to the strategy of not selling your digital assets, even amid extreme price changes in the market.

     Wallets are software apps which generate and store keys used to send and receive bitcoin. Wallets can be backed up by storing the 12-24 word recovery phrase given by the wallet at inception. This recovery phrase allows ultimate recovery of all funds within a wallet, so they must be protected against loss and theft.

      A crypto wallet owner needs a private key to access their funds. Not Your Keys, Not Your Coins (NYKNYC) is a term used to describe how crypto users do not have their private keys for their digital assets on crypto exchanges — the exchanges do. Exchanges have full control over customer accounts.

   Acronym for free and open source software. Note that "free" here means "freely modifiable and redistributable," not necessarily "free of charge."