Ten words we use on this site

Block

A batch of bitcoin transactions plus a proof that a miner did work. Blocks arrive about every ten minutes. The chain of them is the ledger.

Node

A computer that keeps a copy of the rules and, if it is a full node, the ledger. It does not need permission to join.

Key

The secret that lets you move coins assigned to an address. Lose it and the coins are gone. Share it and someone else can move them. An ETF share is not a key.

Issuance

New bitcoin created in each block as a subsidy to the miner. The schedule is written in the software and halves about every four years. The cap is 21 million.

Confirmation

A transaction sitting in a later block. One confirmation is inclusion. More blocks on top make a rewrite more expensive. It is not a bank “cleared” stamp.

ETF wrapper

A fund share that tracks bitcoin’s dollar price. You hold a security. The issuer holds the coins. Flows into the wrapper are demand for the share, not a change to the protocol.

Reserve

On this site: coins a government says it will keep. A bill can describe a reserve. An executive order can create one. Neither is the same as a signed statute, and neither is a purchase order until the text says so.

Cloture

A Senate vote to end debate and take up a bill. It usually needs 60. Failing cloture is not a vote on the bill’s substance and is not a ban on bitcoin.

Basis point

One hundredth of a percentage point. A 25 basis-point hike is 0.25%. The Fed’s 16 Sep 2026 move was 25 bp, to a 3.75%–4.00% funds-rate range.

Custody

Who can move the coins. Self-custody is your key. Exchange or ETF custody is someone else’s key and their rules. A government reserve is Treasury’s problem of keys and audits.

Ten words. When a News card uses one of them, this is the sense we mean.