Bitcoin private key = another word for bitcoin private address.

 

Bitcoin public address = a character string (usually 34 alphanumeric characters) that serves as the ‘send to’ address of bitcoins in the bitcoin monetary system. It is the publicly displayed characters that have been uniquely derived from the bitcoin private address.

 

Bitcoin public key = another word for bitcoin public address.

 

Bitcoin wallet = the storage medium - usually a software program, online website or hardware device - which can store the bitcoin private address/s a user owns. 

 

BTC = the currency abbreviation for ‘Bitcoin’. 

 

Checksum = similar to a hash but is used to check that a computer file is the same as another computer file. It does this by creating a hash of the two (called the checksum) and seeing if they are the same. If the hashes are the same, then the computer files are the same. It can also be used to check if a bitcoin public address or other character string is a valid character string.

 

Cold storage = storing bitcoin seeds or private addresses (and therefore the bitcoins in it) in an offline electronic device or using a service that is offline. It can also less commonly refer to storing bitcoin private addresses online but in a secure and encrypted format (like a TrueCrypt file) and having the encryption key (or password) being stored offline.

 

Deep cold storage = storing bitcoin seeds or private addresses (and therefore the bitcoins in it) in a completely offline electronic device and requiring significant work to access. 

 

Email pdf file = a password protected pdf file that is about to placed in a TrueCrypt 7.1a volume and then uploaded or sent to an email address or addresses.*

 

Hash = a character string (eg. 62A82899E6E14D29524E8CABBB216ADC) that has been created after taking another character string such as a password and applying a specific one way algorithm or mathematic formula to it. The ‘one way’ in this instance means that it is near impossible to reverse the hash to get the original input. Methods that try to reverse the hash can only do so by using ‘brute force’ guessing, where all combinations are tried. Common hash functions are MD5, SHA-1, SHA256 and SHA512.

 

Key generation = process of creating random numbers and the encryption keys or codes derived from them.

 

Keylogger = a malicious malware program whose primary purpose is to record keystrokes and other information a computer user enters into their computer, and then sends or makes available this information to another individual or group.

 

Keylogger/ malware proof = completely free from the danger of keylogger or malware programs. When something is keylogger/malware proof or invulnerable, it is unaffected by keyloggers or malware because these programs cannot exist in its systems or processes.

 

Linux usb operating system = any usb device that has had any one of the two Linux based operating systems installed on it (either Linux Mint or Zorin OS Core) according to this website’s instructions.*

 

Malware = any software package that is designed to cause harm or compromise to the normal operation of a computer system. This harm may among other things be in the form of stealing information, disrupting computer functions, or displaying unwanted advertising. 

 

Master private key = same as a seed but not necessarily made up of words only. It is the term commonly used in many bitcoin wallet programs other than electrum. In electrum, simply the term ‘seed’ is used.

 

Master public key = like a seed but will only recreate in the electrum wallet program all the bitcoin public addresses related to the seed and not both the public and private addresses. Every electrum seed has a corresponding master public key consisting of about 111 alphanumeric characters. 

 

Open source = relating to software (and sometimes hardware) where the source code of the software is available freely online for anyone to analyse, inspect and alter to create new software programs from. Open source software is more secure based on the thinking that any backdoors, vulnerabilities or other flaws in the program can be discovered by another person, brought to light, and then corrected.

 

Password protected pdf file = any PDF (format 1.6 or before) document that has had an open or user password added to it using AES126 bit encryption, via the ‘Foxit Advanced PDF Editor 3.1.0.0’ program, and by following the procedures shown on this website.*

 

Public-Addresses-Only pdf = any pdf document that contains some or most or all of the bitcoin public addresses a user owns. For security reasons, this document may or may not include the ‘Master Public Keys’ that may have been used to generate those addresses (since anyone who knows the master public key + a single private key can calculate the master private key).*

 

Seed (electrum seed) = a sequence of 12 or more randomly generated words, or 12 or more randomly generated words plus user selected words added, which has been used to generate a wallet containing bitcoin private and public addresses. This is a term used by the electrum wallet program and some other programs. A seed is more powerful than the private addresses generated from it because anyone who knows the seed can recreate the entire wallet and know all the private addresses generated from that seed.

 

SHA512 hash = one of the most secure of the common hash functions in use, more so than MD5 or SHA-1. This means it is exceptionally unlikely a source character string or file will have the same hash value as a different source character string or file.

 

TrueCrypt pdf file = any TrueCrypt 7.1a volume (or drive) that has a sufficiently well chosen password, and contains a password protected pdf file within it, and which has been made by following the procedures shown on this website.*

 

TrueCrypt 7.1a = second last version of the popular, free, open source TrueCrypt encryption software program available for download from the internet.