Kite

Decode finance jargon with Kite

Or try:

All 197 terms

Showing 24 of 197

Explain it like a bankFlips every card at once

The scheme that makes a euro transfer between two European countries behave like a domestic one, at domestic cost and speed.

What you already know this as

A regional agreement that abolished the idea of 'international' for one currency across thirty-odd countries.

The second half of a card payment, hours or days after authorisation, when the money actually moves and the held amount becomes a real debit.

What you already know this as

The clearing and settlement cycle. The reason a pending charge changes slightly before it lands.

The currency an account actually keeps score in. Everything you spend in another currency gets converted back into it, and that conversion is where fees hide.

What you already know this as

Your account's base currency. A dollar account that pays for a meal in baht converts at the card network's rate, plus whatever the bank adds.

In Kite: Ours is US dollars. Dollar spends carry no added fee and everything else is a flat 1.8%.

Signature

also called signing, signed message

Cryptographic proof that the key holder approved something, without revealing the key. Every transaction you confirm is a signature. So is every wallet login.

What you already know this as

A digital signature on a PKI certificate, or the chip in your card proving the card is present.

An attacker persuades your mobile operator to move your number onto their SIM, then receives every code sent to you. It is the reason SMS is the weakest form of two-factor authentication.

What you already know this as

Identical, and banks have been losing this fight for years. The fix is the same on both sides: an authenticator app or a hardware key, never text messages.

Getting a worse price than quoted because the market moved or your trade was large relative to available liquidity. Apps let you cap how much slippage you will accept.

What you already know this as

Market impact on a large order, or a limit price that protects you from a bad fill.

Code that lives on the chain itself and executes exactly as written the moment its conditions are satisfied. No discretion, no goodwill, no one to appeal to.

What you already know this as

An escrow agreement plus the core banking code that executes it, fused into one thing and published for anyone to read.

An independent review of a contract's code before people put money in it. An audit lowers risk. It does not remove it, and 'audited' is not a guarantee.

What you already know this as

An external security review, or a regulatory inspection of a core system.

Attacking the person instead of the software. A convincing message, a fake support agent, manufactured urgency. Almost every large crypto loss starts here rather than with broken code.

What you already know this as

The same con behind bank fraud, invoice fraud, and every 'your account has been suspended' text message.

Getting back into a wallet using trusted contacts or logins rather than a written phrase. It removes the single worst failure in crypto, which is losing one piece of paper.

What you already know this as

Account recovery through security questions, a trusted contact and two-factor codes.

In Kite: You can restore access with Google or Apple sign-in, so losing a phone does not mean losing your balance.

A blockchain built for speed and very low fees, handling far more transactions per second than Ethereum. Popular for payments and trading, with a history of network outages earlier in its life.

What you already know this as

A newer clearing network competing on throughput and cost rather than on being the incumbent everyone already connects to.

Evidence of where your money came from, asked for when an amount is large or a pattern looks unusual. Payslips, a sale contract, an exchange statement.

What you already know this as

The same request, from the same regulations, in the same tone.

The cap on how much can go through a card in a day, a month or a year. Separate from your balance, so you can be perfectly well funded and still be stopped.

What you already know this as

The same limits, set by the issuer for fraud and regulatory reasons rather than because you cannot afford it.

In Kite: Ours are $50,000 a day across 50 transactions, and $990,000 a year across 1,040, resetting at midnight Singapore time.

The gap between the buy price and the sell price. It is a fee that is never labelled as one, which is why a service advertising zero commission can still be expensive.

What you already know this as

The difference between the bureau de change's buy and sell rate in the window. The commission was never the point.

Stablecoin

also called stable, dollar token

A digital token built to hold one steady value, almost always one US dollar. Unlike bitcoin, it is not meant to go up. It is meant to still be worth a dollar tomorrow, which is what makes it usable as money rather than as a bet.

What you already know this as

The e-money balance in a payment app. The number in your PayPal or Wise account is not physically dollars either, it is a claim on dollars that spends like dollars.

In Kite: Your Kite balance is stablecoins. You hold USDC or USDT and it behaves like a US dollar account you can spend from.

Stablecoin card

also called crypto card, USDC card, USDT card

A Visa or Mastercard funded by a stablecoin balance rather than a bank account. The merchant is paid in ordinary local currency and never knows or cares.

What you already know this as

A debit card attached to a fintech wallet instead of a current account.

In Kite: The Kite Stable Card. No issuance fee, no maintenance fee, and it spends anywhere Visa is accepted.

Locking tokens to help secure a proof of stake network, earning a share of rewards for it. The yield comes from the network's own issuance and fees, not from a borrower.

What you already know this as

A term deposit, if the deposit also happened to power the bank's clearing system.

The name a payment appears under on your statement, often the parent company rather than the shop you remember. It is the single biggest cause of people reporting fraud on their own purchases.

What you already know this as

The same field causing the same confusion for as long as statements have existed.

Trading one token directly for another inside a wallet or app, without an order book or a counterparty you need to trust.

What you already know this as

Converting between currency balances inside a multi-currency account.

The messaging network banks use to instruct each other to move money across borders. It carries the message, not the money, which is why an international transfer can take days and pass through several banks on the way.

What you already know this as

This one is already the banking answer. The crypto comparison is an on-chain transfer, where the message and the money are the same event.

A unit of value recorded on a blockchain. It might be a dollar, a share of something, a voting right or a queue ticket. The word says nothing about what it is worth or what it does.

What you already know this as

Loyalty points, a prepaid balance, a share certificate or a cinema ticket. All units on someone's ledger, all called by different names precisely because they differ.

Tokenisation

also called tokenization

Representing something that already exists, such as a dollar, a bond or a fund unit, as a token on a blockchain so it can move without a settlement queue.

What you already know this as

Dematerialisation. Share certificates became book entries at a depository, and nobody misses the paper.

Tokenised card

also called Apple Pay, Google Pay, device token

Your card number replaced by a device-specific stand-in, so the merchant never sees the real one and a leak from their systems is worthless.

What you already know this as

Precisely what Apple Pay and Google Pay have always done. Nothing crypto about it, despite the word token.

In Kite: Add your Kite card to Apple Pay or Google Pay and spend from your phone.

Showing 145 to 168 of 197 terms