Dogecoin Glossary and Definitions
Block – A block is what miners try to complete to receive coin rewards. They contain a list of transactions that occur on the dogecoin network as well as information about where the transactions took place in the block chain, and other information describing the block.
Block Reward – When a block is found and completed, and confirmed by the network, there is a block reward that the founder receives. In dogecoin, this is a random value of 1-1,000,000 coins for the first 100,000 blocks.
Dig — Dig is the term used in the dogecoin client to refer to mining coins. Running a program, your computer will attempt to solve complicated math problems, and if you are successful at solving them, and it is confirmed by the rest of the network, you will be rewarded with a block reward.
Difficulty – A number that represents how difficult it is to find and complete a block. In dogecoin, it is recalculated by the network every 4 hours. It is computed by the number total mining power that all the miners on the network are using. The more people with good hardware that mine dogecoin, the harder it is to get dogecoins.
Dogecoin Client — This is the software you download from dogecoin.com that contains the dogecoin wallet and allows you to perform basic dogecoin operations like sending and receiving coins.
Mining Pool – A mining pool is a group of miners who work together to find and complete a block. Mining in a group makes it much more consistent for miners to get rewarded for block finding, as coins are split among the mining pool when the block is found, completed and confirmed by the network.
Orphaned Block – An orphaned block is a block that has been mined but has been rejected by the network. This occurs because another block was confirmed by the network that had the same transactions. Because multiple miners may be competing to find a block and finish it before the others, the one to be finished and confirmed by others on the network will be considered valid while any others that were being completed will considered invalid or orphaned. Orphans do not reward the finders with any coins.
Private Key (Wallet) — A private key is used to show proof that you own a public address, and any coins that are assigned to it. In the wallet, these are usually hidden and can only be retrieved through special commands. If you don’t have a backup of your wallet and don’t have the private keys, there is no way for you to retrieve any funds that you had in your wallet. So make sure you backup your wallet!
Public Key (Wallet) — A wallet public key is the public address that can be used to receive coins, is used in transactions, and is otherwise used to “get paid”. Anyone can view the balance or send coins to a public key. But no one can claim ownership of the public key without the private key.
Wallet — A dogecoin wallet is a collection of public and private keys that are used to send and receive coins. They can be password protected and backed up. The easiest way to get a dogecoin wallet is to download the free program located here.