Decryptopedia™

Terms that start with “P”

1. PancakeSwap

   A Decentralized Exchange (DEX), utilizing the automated market maker (AMM) protocol for defining digital asset prices and providing liquidity, built on Binance Smart Chain (BSC). Pancakeswap is a fork of Sushiswap, a DEX built on Ethereum that also utilizes the AMM system.

2. Paper Hands

   Paper Hands is a slang phrase made popular on Reddit, describing crypto traders who sell too early because they don’t have a risky bone in their body. They’re completely afraid of losing money because the risk of holding their open position is too high for them to handle.

3. Paper Wallet

   Another form of cryptocurrency wallet that is literally a physical piece of paper with your public and private keys written or printed on it. It lets you store and access your cryptocurrency offline, or not connected to the Internet.

4. Peer-to-Peer (P2P)

   Describes the sharing of data or assets between 2 or more parties without any central authority making the transaction happen. P2P exchanges tend to offer transactions that are censorship resistant, cheap, private, and secure.

5. Plaintext

   Information that’s unencrypted, waiting to be sent or transmitted to another party. Plaintext is the input given to a cryptographic algorithm, such as an encryption algorithm, which then encodes data into ciphertext. The ciphertext is the message transmitted to the receiving party.

6. Plaintext

   Specific to encryption, plaintext is inputted into an encryption algorithm, which then takes that plaintext message and produces a ciphertext. Using the process of decryption, ciphertext can be reversed to generate the original plaintext.

7. Polkadot (DOT)

   Polkadot (DOT) is an open-source blockchain protocol for cryptocurrencies, dubbed the “blockchain of blockchains”, that allows different, incompatible networks to communicate with each other and share data, using a multichain design.

8. Poloniex

   Poloniex is a cryptocurrency exchange that started in 2013, becoming one of the major centralized cryptocurrency (CEX) exchanges in the world. Once owned by Cricle, Justin Sun, founder of Tron, let the acquisition of Poloniex by an outside investment group based in Asia. It was reported at the time that the investment group would invest up to $100m into Poloniex. With the acquisition, Poloniex stopped offering all services to U.S. customers.

9. Private Blockchain

   A type of blockchain mainly used by enterprises where access to it is restricted to only employees or invited guest users. The network owner can do whatever it wants to the data on the blockchain, including editing or deleting it. Private blockchains still use cryptography to secure the blockchain, but they’re less focused on identity protection and transparency, as the blockchain already controls who has access to it.

10. Proof Of Staked Authority (PoSA)

    Proof of Staked Authority (PoSA) is a combination of Delegated Proof-of-Stake (DPoS) and Proof-of-Authority (PoA) consensus mechanisms. Binance Smart Chain (BSC) relies on Proof-of-Staked Authority.

11. Pseudonymity 

    In blockchain security, the pseudonymous nature of certain blockchains keeps a network user’s identity hidden from other network users while still linking all of the transactions made by that person to a pseudonymous identity that CAN be tracked by almost anyone.

12. Public Blockchain

    A network that is globally accessible by anyone anywhere in the world. Another name for a public blockchain is a permissionless blockchain. Bitcoin and Ethereum are the most popular decentralized public blockchains in the world.

13. Pump

    The price of a digital asset increases, often at a faster pace or in larger moves than normal. Actors, celebrities, social media influencers, professional athletes, and tweets from Elon Musk have all been involved in pumping the crypto market.

14. Pump and Dump (PND)

    A trading scheme where the market trader, like a whale or even a group of traders, get together to sell a cryptocurrency abruptly after artificially inflating its price – or “pumping” it up. It’s common to see the “pump” happen on Twitter or Discord or Telegram.