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Value going straight from one person to another with no intermediary holding it along the way, at any hour, across any border.
Sending through a payment app, except no institution is warehousing the money overnight in between.
A login tied to your device and unlocked with your face or fingerprint, replacing the password outright. Nothing to remember and nothing to phish, because there is no secret to type.
Exactly what your banking app already does when it opens with Face ID instead of a PIN.
Singapore's instant transfer service, addressed by phone number, NRIC or company registration number, with a national QR standard layered on top. Effectively every bank and wallet in the country supports it.
A domestic instant payment scheme with one shared directory, so a phone number is enough to be paid.
The promise that one token equals one dollar, and the machinery that keeps it there. A peg holds because the issuer will always redeem a token for a real dollar, so any gap gets arbitraged away within minutes.
A currency board, like the Hong Kong dollar's link to the US dollar, where a reserve pledge rather than market sentiment sets the rate.
A payment that has been authorised but not yet settled. The amount is held, the final figure can still change, and it is why a hotel or a petrol station can show more than you agreed to.
The same pending line on the same statement, clearing in the same day or two.
A fake site, message or support agent designed to get your seed phrase, password or approval. In crypto it is the leading cause of loss by a distance, well ahead of any technical exploit.
Identical, and just as old. The difference is that a crypto payment cannot be reversed once it goes.
The plastic. Still the only thing that works at some terminals, and the only thing you can hand over at a restaurant counter.
The card in your wallet. Unchanged for fifty years, and still stubbornly necessary.
A scam run over weeks. Someone builds a friendship or a romance, then introduces an investment platform that shows steady profits and will not let you withdraw. Industrial in scale across South East Asia, much of it run from trafficked compounds.
Affinity fraud, run patiently. The relationship is the product and the platform is a stage set.
The number that proves it is you at a terminal or a cash machine. It is checked against the card itself, not looked up by the shop, which is why nobody behind the counter can tell you what it is.
Brazil's instant payment system, free for individuals and available around the clock. It went from launch to near-universal in a few years.
An instant payment scheme run by the central bank itself rather than by the banks.
A balance that is not money but converts into something later: a discount, a token, a fee rebate. In crypto they are often used to hint at a future airdrop without ever promising one.
Airline miles or supermarket points. A currency the issuer controls, can devalue, and can retire whenever it likes.
A network that runs alongside Ethereum to make transfers fast and cheap. Widely used for stablecoin payments because moving money on it costs a fraction of a cent.
A low-value payment rail, used precisely because putting small payments through the main settlement system would cost more than the payments are worth.
In Kite: One of the networks you can top up from, with either USDC or USDT.
The secret number that proves a wallet is yours and signs every transaction. Anyone who has it owns the money. It is never typed into a website, ever.
Not your PIN. The actual key to the safety deposit box, where a copy is as good as the original.
Thailand's national instant transfer and QR standard, linked to a phone number or ID number and accepted almost everywhere, including markets and taxis.
A domestic instant payment scheme with a single national QR standard on top.
A recent bill or statement showing where you live, used to finish an identity check. Where you legally reside usually decides what a service is allowed to offer you.
The utility bill every bank has asked for since long before crypto existed.
The rules a system runs on, usually as published code. In crypto the protocol is the institution, which is why people say 'the protocol decides'.
Card scheme rules. Visa's rulebook governs a payment far more directly than your bank's opinion does.
The shareable half of the pair, which your wallet address is derived from. Safe to post anywhere. It lets people send to you and lets anyone verify your signatures.
Your account number and sort code. You give it out precisely so people can pay you.
All 17 terms shown.
