Glossary

Important ideas, in plain language.

A working vocabulary for people building across AI, Bitcoin, and energy. Clear enough to start, precise enough to ask better questions.

AI

Agent: Software that uses a model to choose and perform steps toward a goal, usually with tools and defined limits.
Context window: The amount of information a model can consider in one interaction.
Embedding: A numerical representation that places meaningfully similar content near each other for search and comparison.
Evaluation: A repeatable test of how well an AI system performs a defined task, including where it fails.
Hallucination: A confident-looking model output that is unsupported, incorrect, or invented.
Inference: Running a trained model to produce an output from a new input.
Large language model (LLM): A model trained on large amounts of text to predict and generate language.
Retrieval-augmented generation (RAG): A pattern that retrieves relevant source material and gives it to a model when generating an answer.

Address: A destination used to receive bitcoin, derived from cryptographic information in a wallet.
Block: A batch of valid transactions added to Bitcoin's ordered history.
Confirmation: Evidence that a transaction has been included in a block, with additional blocks increasing settlement confidence.
Lightning Network: A payment network built on Bitcoin that uses channels for fast, low-value transactions with different tradeoffs from base-layer settlement.
Node: Software that independently checks transactions and blocks against Bitcoin's rules.
Private key: Secret cryptographic information used to authorize spending. Anyone who obtains it may control the associated funds.
Self-custody: Holding the keys that control your bitcoin rather than assigning that control to a custodian.

Capacity: The maximum rate at which equipment can produce, carry, or consume power under stated conditions.
Demand response: Changing electricity use in response to grid conditions or price signals.
Grid: The connected system that generates, transmits, distributes, and balances electricity.
Kilowatt-hour (kWh): A unit of energy equal to using one kilowatt of power for one hour.
Load: The power demanded by a device, facility, or group of customers at a given time.
Reliability: The ability of an energy system to deliver electricity when and where it is needed.

Proof of work: An inspectable artifact that demonstrates what you can do and how you think.
Prototype: A testable early version built to answer specific questions before investing in a complete product.
Scope: The explicit boundary around what a project will and will not attempt.
Success criterion: A result defined before testing that indicates whether the work met its intended goal.

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