EC-Council CBP key terms

A one-way mathematical function that converts any input into a fixed-length output, where small input changes produce completely different results and reversing the output to find the input is computationally infeasible.

A cryptographic value created with a private key that lets anyone holding the matching public key verify who signed a message and confirm the message was not altered afterward.

The policies, roles, and certificate authorities that issue, distribute, and revoke keys and certificates, letting parties trust that a public key truly belongs to a named entity.

A trusted organization that verifies identities and issues signed digital certificates binding a public key to its owner, underpinning trust in encrypted web and enterprise communications.

Encryption that uses one shared secret key for both locking and unlocking data, offering speed and efficiency but requiring a secure method to distribute that key to every party.

Encryption using a mathematically related key pair, where the public key encrypts or verifies and the private key decrypts or signs, removing the need to share a secret key.

A public-key approach based on the algebraic structure of elliptic curves over finite fields, delivering comparable security to older schemes with much shorter keys and lower processing overhead.

A binary tree of hashes where each leaf is a data block and each parent combines its children's hashes, enabling efficient proof that a single transaction belongs to a large block.

A protocol letting one party convince another that a statement is true without revealing the underlying secret or data, used for privacy-preserving verification on and off chain.

The property of cryptographic algorithms designed to remain secure against attackers equipped with large-scale quantum computers, which threaten factoring and discrete-logarithm based schemes.

A shared record of transactions replicated across many independent nodes, where participants agree on updates through a consensus process rather than relying on one central administrator.

The metadata section of a block containing the previous block's hash, a timestamp, a Merkle root, and a nonce or similar field, linking blocks and summarizing their contents.

The first block in a blockchain, hard-coded into the protocol and having no predecessor, from which every later block descends and against which chain validity is anchored.

The rules and incentives by which distributed nodes agree on the next valid block or state, covering approaches such as proof of work, proof of stake, and practical Byzantine fault tolerance.

A consensus approach requiring miners to expend computational effort finding a value that satisfies a hash target, making historical blocks expensive to rewrite and securing the chain economically.

A consensus approach where validators lock tokens as collateral and are chosen to propose or attest blocks, with misbehavior punished by losing part of that stake.

A penalty that destroys or deducts part of a validator's staked tokens when it provably violates protocol rules, such as double-signing or extended downtime.

A computer running blockchain software that stores ledger data, validates transactions and blocks against protocol rules, and relays them to peers in the network.

A wallet or node that stores only block headers and relies on full nodes or cryptographic proofs for transaction details, trading independence for low resource use on constrained devices.

A divergence in the chain where two valid blocks share a parent; a soft fork tightens rules compatibly, while a hard fork changes rules so old and new software cannot interoperate.

Program code deployed to a blockchain that executes automatically when defined conditions are met, enabling agreements and logic to run without a trusted intermediary.

A unit measuring the computational effort needed to execute operations on a blockchain, paid as a fee to compensate validators and to prevent spam and infinite loops.

A service that feeds external real-world data, such as prices or weather, into a blockchain so smart contracts can act on information the ledger cannot observe itself.

A published interface specification, such as ERC-20 for fungible tokens or ERC-721 for non-fungible tokens, that lets wallets, exchanges, and contracts interoperate predictably.

A unique, indivisible on-chain token representing ownership of a specific digital or physical asset, where each token differs and cannot be swapped one-for-one.

Financial services such as lending, trading, and earning interest built on smart contracts, operating without traditional intermediaries and settling directly on a blockchain.

An attack where one party controls most of a network's mining or staking power, allowing it to reorder or double-spend recent transactions, though not to forge others' signatures.

The attempt to spend the same digital asset more than once, prevented on a blockchain by consensus ordering, confirmation depth, and rejection of conflicting transactions.

A smart contract flaw where an external call lets the callee re-enter the calling function before state is updated, often draining funds through repeated withdrawals.

A programming error where an arithmetic result exceeds the storage range of its type and wraps to an unexpected value, potentially corrupting balances or bypassing checks.

The practices and systems for generating, storing, backing up, and restricting access to signing keys, including hardware wallets, key ceremonies, and multi-signature arrangements.

A wallet requiring a predefined number of approvals from a set of keyholders before a transaction executes, reducing single-point key compromise and supporting shared custody.

Deceptive messages, sites, or wallet prompts that impersonate trusted services to trick users into revealing seed phrases or approving malicious transactions.

A fraud where project insiders abandon a venture after taking investor funds, often by draining liquidity or exploiting privileged functions in a token contract.

Identity verification processes that financial service providers must perform on clients, increasingly applied by exchanges and custodians to meet anti-money-laundering obligations.

Laws and controls requiring institutions to detect, report, and prevent the movement of illicit funds, applying to crypto exchanges, custodians, and certain wallet providers.

A regulatory requirement that virtual asset service providers transmit originator and beneficiary information alongside transfers above a threshold, mirroring rules for wire transfers.

A ledger restricted to identified participants who must be authorized to read, write, or validate, commonly used in enterprise consortia where privacy and accountability matter.