Money that lives online
Cryptocurrency is a kind of DIGITAL money that exists only on computers, and this word search gathers its key words. You'll be finding the most famous one, BITCOIN, the technology behind it, the BLOCKCHAIN, the digital WALLET that holds it, and the LEDGER that records every transaction.
Each puzzle pulls a fresh selection from the list, so the words change every time you play — gentle on Easy, and a longer-word challenge once the diagonals and backwards words appear on Hard.
Coins, mining and markets
Crypto has a whole language of its own, and the words are here. As well as bitcoin there's ETHEREUM and other coins (an ALTCOIN like DOGECOIN), the process of MINING that creates new coins, and the HASH and NODE that keep the network running. People send crypto using a public ADDRESS and a private KEY, buy and sell it on an EXCHANGE through TRADING, and watch the MARKET — though the price can be very VOLATILE. It's a brand-new kind of CURRENCY that an INVESTOR has to keep SECURE.
A shared notebook nobody can cheat
Normal money usually has a bank in the middle keeping track of who owns what. Cryptocurrency does away with that by using a BLOCKCHAIN — think of it as a giant shared notebook (a LEDGER) copied onto thousands of computers, called a NODE each, all around the world at once. Every time someone sends BITCOIN, all those copies update together, so no single person controls it and nobody can secretly rub out an entry or spend the same coin twice.
New coins are created by MINING, where computers race to solve fiendishly hard maths puzzles to add the next page to the notebook — a process that, for Bitcoin, now uses as much electricity as a small country, which is one of crypto's biggest criticisms. It's also famously VOLATILE: a coin's price can leap or crash by huge amounts in a single day, so an INVESTOR can lose money fast, and forgetting your private KEY can lock you out of your own WALLET forever. Those big ideas about money and trust make crypto a thought-provoking technology or money topic for older learners.
Great for a money topic
It's a great fit for a money or technology lesson, best for older learners — Easy mode keeps the grid small with no diagonals or reverse words. Play online, print a PDF pack, or use Make Your Own to build a grid from your own crypto words.
Frequently asked questions
What's in the Cryptocurrency word search?
The world of crypto — Bitcoin, Ethereum and other coins, the blockchain and ledger, the digital wallet, plus mining, hashes, nodes, the exchange, trading, and words like address, key and volatile. Each puzzle uses a fresh mix.
Which crypto words can you find?
BITCOIN, ETHEREUM and other coins (an ALTCOIN like DOGECOIN), the BLOCKCHAIN and LEDGER, the digital WALLET, plus MINING, the HASH and NODE, an EXCHANGE, TRADING, an ADDRESS and KEY, and how VOLATILE the MARKET can be.
Is it good for a money topic?
Great fit for a money or technology lesson, best for older learners. Easy mode keeps the grid small with no diagonals or reverse words.