Glossary
Plain-English definitions for the terms you meet using USDT: ERC-20, TRC-20, gas, seed phrase, HD wallet, slippage, confirmations — each linked to a full guide.
USDT (Tether)
A dollar-pegged stablecoin issued by Tether; each token is redeemable for $1 through the issuer and circulates on many blockchains simultaneously.
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Stablecoin
A token designed to hold a stable value against a reference asset (usually the US dollar), backed by reserves.
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ERC-20
Ethereum's token standard — the interface rules USDT follows on Ethereum and most EVM chains.
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TRC-20
Tron's token standard, ERC-20-compatible; carries the majority of USDT transfer volume due to low fees.
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BEP-20
BNB Smart Chain's token standard; USDT here uses 18 decimals unlike the 6-decimal ERC-20 deployment.
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Token contract
The on-chain program that actually stores USDT balances. Verify the contract address before trusting any token.
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Decimals
How many fractional digits a token uses internally. ERC-20 USDT: 6; BEP-20 USDT: 18. Wrong assumptions break integrations.
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Gas
The fee unit on EVM chains: fee = gas price × gas used. USDT transfers consume ~45k–65k gas.
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Bandwidth & Energy
Tron's two fee resources. TRC-20 USDT spends both; lacking them burns TRX instead.
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Seed phrase (recovery phrase)
12 (or 24) BIP-39 words that deterministically generate your entire wallet. Whoever has it, has your funds.
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BIP-39
The standard that maps wallet entropy to a memorizable word list and stretches it into a cryptographic seed.
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HD wallet
Hierarchical-deterministic wallet: one seed derives a tree of keys and unlimited addresses.
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Derivation path
The route through the HD key tree, e.g. m/44'/60'/0'/0/0 — same path + same phrase = same address, in any wallet.
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Private key
The secret number that signs transactions for one address. Never share it; a phrase is a key factory for many of them.
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Non-custodial (self-custody)
A wallet where only you hold the keys. No company can freeze, lose or hand over your funds — and none can recover them for you.
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PBKDF2
A key-stretching algorithm; this wallet runs 600,000 SHA-256 rounds to turn your PIN into an AES key.
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AES-256-GCM
Authenticated encryption used for the local vault: confidentiality plus tamper detection in one construction.
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Confirmation
One block built on top of the block containing your transaction. Exchanges credit after a threshold (12 ERC-20, 19 TRC-20, 15 BEP-20).
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Block explorer
A public read-only interface to a blockchain: look up any address, transaction or contract.
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Transaction hash (txid)
The unique fingerprint of a transaction; share it to let anyone verify a payment.
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Address poisoning
A scam sending lookalike-address dust so you copy the wrong address from your history. Verify full addresses always.
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Slippage
The allowed difference between quoted and executed swap rate; our desk quotes a 0.5% minimum-received guarantee.
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Swap desk
A manual exchange service: you deposit to a desk address, the desk pays out your chosen asset after on-chain detection.
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Peg
The market mechanism holding 1 USDT ≈ $1: issuer redemption plus constant arbitrage.
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Omni Layer
The Bitcoin-based meta-protocol where USDT launched in 2014; now a legacy rail, superseded by ERC-20 and TRC-20.
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Address reuse
Receiving to one address repeatedly; convenient but links your whole financial history publicly. Prefer one address per counterparty.
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