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Digital assets and currencies

Understand assets, networks and trading mechanics with sources you can check.

Fiat currencies

Metallism

Metallism is the economic principle that the value of money derives from the purchasing power of the commodity upon which it is based. The currency in a metallist monetary system may be made from the commodity itself (commodity money) or it may use tokens (such as national banknotes) redeemable in that commodity. Georg Friedrich Knapp (1842–1926) coined the term "metallism" to describe

Finance

Midas Touch (book)

Midas Touch: Why Some Entrepreneurs Get Rich — And Why Most Don't is a non-fiction book about personal finance, co-authored by Donald Trump and Robert Kiyosaki. The book was published in hardcover format in 2011. The coauthors became familiar with each other through mutual work at The Learning Annex, and The Art of the Deal. Trump was impressed by Kiyosaki's writing success with Rich Da

Assets

Mining pool

In the context of cryptocurrency mining, a mining pool is the pooling of resources by miners, who share their processing power over a network, to split the reward equally, according to the amount of work they contributed to the probability of finding a block. A "share" is awarded to members of the mining pool who present a valid partial proof-of-work. Mining in pools began when the diffi

Fiat currencies

Modern Monetary Theory

Modern Monetary Theory or Modern Money Theory (MMT) is a non-mainstream macroeconomic theory concerning the role of fiscal and monetary policy in sovereign governments that borrow and issue government debt in their own currency.

Fiat currencies

Monetarism

Monetarism is a school of thought in monetary economics that emphasizes the role of policy-makers in controlling the amount of money in circulation. It gained prominence in the 1970s, but was mostly abandoned as a direct guidance to monetary policy during the following decade because of the rise of inflation targeting through movements of the official interest rate.

Fiat currencies

Money

Money is any item or verifiable record that is generally accepted as payment for goods and services and repayment of debts, such as taxes, in a particular country or socio-economic context. The primary functions which distinguish money are: medium of exchange, a unit of account, a store of value and sometimes, a standard of deferred payment.

Banking

Money changer

A money changer is a person or organization whose business is the exchange of coins or currency of one country for that of another. This trade was a predecessor of modern banking.

Finance

Negative probability

The probability of the outcome of an experiment is never negative, although a quasiprobability distribution allows a negative probability, or quasiprobability for some events. These distributions may apply to unobservable events or conditional probabilities.

Fiat currencies

Nicola Acocella

Nicola Acocella (born 3 July 1939) is an Italian economist and academic, Emeritus Professor of Economic Policy since 2014.

Networks

Nym Technologies

Nym Technologies is a Swiss company that provides internet privacy technology utilizing Nym mix network and noise generation networks. Nym offers VPN and blockchain-related software and network services. Its most notable service, NymVPN, advertises itself as a VPN service for privacy and security.

Trading basics

Occupy Homes

Occupy Homes or Occupy Our Homes is part of the Occupy movement which attempts to prevent the foreclosure of people's homes. Protesters delay foreclosures by camping out on the foreclosed property. They also stage protests at the banks responsible for the ongoing foreclosure crisis, sometimes blocking their entrances. It has been compared to the direct action taken by people to prevent h

Finance

Offshore trust

An offshore trust is a conventional trust that is formed under the laws of an offshore jurisdiction.

Trading basics

Paul Bilzerian

Paul Alec Bilzerian (born 1950) is an American businessman and former corporate raider. For two years, while he owned a controlling stake, he was the chairman and CEO of Singer Corporation. In 1989, he was convicted on nine felony counts of federal crimes, including criminal conspiracy, making false statements, securities fraud, tax fraud, and securities law violations, and sentenced to

Finance

Payment

A payment is the tender of something of value, such as money or its equivalent, by one party (such as a person or company) to another in exchange for goods or services provided by them, or to fulfill a legal obligation or philanthropy desire. The party making the payment is commonly called the payer, while the payee is the party receiving the payment. Whilst payments are often made volun

Finance

Peer-to-peer lending

Peer-to-peer lending (P2P lending) is the practice of lending money to individuals or businesses through online services that match lenders with borrowers. Peer-to-peer lending companies often offer their services online, and attempt to operate with lower overhead and provide their services more cheaply than traditional financial institutions. As a result, lenders can earn higher returns

Trading basics

Permanent Court of Arbitration

The Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) is an intergovernmental organization headquartered at the Peace Palace in The Hague, Netherlands, which was built to house the PCA.

Trading basics

Piaggio

Piaggio Group ([ˈpjaddʒo]) is an Italian motor vehicle manufacturer, which produces a range of two-wheeled motor vehicles and compact commercial vehicles under five brands: Piaggio, Vespa, Aprilia, Moto Guzzi and Derbi. Its corporate headquarters are located in Pontedera, Italy. The company was founded by Rinaldo Piaggio in 1884, initially producing locomotives and railway carriages.

Trading basics

Pierre de Murat de Cros

Pierre de Murat de Cros, O.S.B., (c. 1320 – 1388) was a French monk of aristocratic origins who became a cardinal of the Avignon Obedience during the Great Schism, as well as the Archbishop of Arles and the Chamberlain of the Apostolic Camera (Latin: Camerarius Apostolicus). Refusing from the day of his election to support Bartolomeo Prignano (Pope Urban VI, the former head of the rival

Trading basics

Planned obsolescence

In economics and industrial design, planned obsolescence (also called built-in obsolescence or premature obsolescence) is the concept of policies planning or designing a product with an artificially limited useful life or a purposely frail design, so that it becomes obsolete after a certain predetermined period of time upon which it decrementally functions or suddenly ceases to function,

Trading basics

Platform cooperative

A platform cooperative, or platform co-op, is a cooperatively owned, democratically governed business that establishes a two-sided market via a computing platform, website, mobile app or a protocol to facilitate the sale of goods and services. Platform cooperatives are an alternative to venture capital-funded platforms insofar as they are owned and governed by those who depend on them mo

Trading basics

Popcat

Popcat is an Internet meme originating in October 2020, in a series of videos which showcase two images of a domestic short-haired cat named 'Oatmeal', where one image has its mouth closed and the other has its mouth open, with the second image being edited to give its mouth an 'O' shape. The meme was later created into a popular game. It has since also been made into a widely available

Trading basics

Price

A price in economics is the amount of money that buyers are willing and able to pay for a particular good or service, and that sellers are willing to accept. In some situations, especially when the product is a service rather than a physical good, the price for the service may be called something else such as "rent" or "tuition". Prices are influenced by production costs, supply of the d

Fiat currencies

Price system

In economics, a price system is a system through which the valuations of any forms of property (tangible or intangible) are determined. All societies use price systems in the allocation and exchange of resources as a consequence of scarcity. Even in a barter system with no money, price systems are still utilized in the determination of exchange ratios (relative valuations) between the pr

Securities & exchanges

Private finance initiative

The private finance initiative (PFI) was a United Kingdom government procurement policy aimed at creating "public–private partnerships" (PPPs) where private firms are contracted to complete and manage public projects. Initially launched in 1992 by Prime Minister John Major, and expanded considerably by the Blair government, PFI is part of the wider programme of privatisation and macroeco

Securities & exchanges

Promissory note

A promissory note, sometimes referred to as a note payable, is a financial instrument in which one party (the maker or issuer) promises in writing to pay a determinate sum of money to another (the payee), subject to any terms and conditions specified within the document.

Fiat currencies

Quantity theory of money

The quantity theory of money (QTM) is a hypothesis within monetary economics which states that the general price level of goods and services is directly proportional to the amount of money in circulation (i.e., the money supply), and that the causality runs from money to prices. This implies that the theory potentially explains inflation. It originated in the 16th century and has been pr

Trading basics

Razor-and-blades model

The razor-and-blades business model is a business model in which one article is sold at a low price or even given away in order to increase sales of a complementary good, such as consumable supplies. It is different from loss leader marketing and product sample marketing, which do not depend on complementary products or services. Common examples of the razor-and-blades model include inkj

Trading basics

Retail industry

The retail industry comprises retail businesses that sell goods and services directly to end consumers. It is a fundamental pillar of modern commerce, influencing consumption patterns, urban infrastructure, and labor markets. In major classification systems, retail is treated as a distinct set of activities.

Payments & settlement

RioCard

The RioCard (Bilhete Único) is a smartcard system used in the transport system of Rio de Janeiro state, Brazil. The card is contactless and uses MIFARE technology. It is a form of electronic payment produced and distributed by the Fetranspor company, in cooperation with Itaú bank. Its installation was seen as strengthening Brazil's connection with the Open Standard for Public Transport

Trading basics

Rita's Italian Ice

Rita’s Italian Ice & Frozen Custard (originally and now informally known as Rita's Water Ice) is a privately owned and operated American quick service restaurant chain originating in the Philadelphia metropolitan area that expanded into 30 states, mostly in the Mid-Atlantic region. The chain is known for its Italian ice, or water ice, and frozen custard but also offers multiple other typ

Fiat currencies

Robert W. Clower

Robert Wayne Clower (February 13, 1926 – May 2, 2011) was an American economist. He is credited with having largely created the field of stock-flow analysis in economics and with seminal works on the microfoundations of monetary theory and macroeconomics.

Trading basics

San Francisco congestion pricing

San Francisco congestion pricing is a proposed traffic congestion user fee for vehicles traveling into the most congested areas of the city of San Francisco at certain periods of peak demand. The charge would be combined with other traffic reduction projects. The proposed congestion pricing charge is part of a mobility and pricing study being carried out by the San Francisco County Trans

Trading basics

SAP

SAP SE (; German pronunciation: [ɛsʔaːˈpeː] ) is a German multinational software company based in Walldorf, Baden-Württemberg, that is the world's largest vendor of enterprise software. In June 2025, it was the largest European company by market capitalization, as well as one of the 30 most valuable publicly traded companies in the world.

Trading basics

Saul Steinberg (businessman)

Saul Phillip Steinberg (August 13, 1939 – December 7, 2012) was an American businessman and financier. He became a millionaire before his 30th birthday and a billionaire before his 40th birthday. He started a computer leasing company (Leasco), which he used in an audacious and successful takeover of the much larger Reliance Insurance Company in 1968. He was best known for his unsuccessfu

Payments & settlement

Scrip

A scrip is any substitute for legal tender.

Trading basics

Shell money

Shell money is a medium of exchange similar to coin money and other forms of commodity money, and was once commonly used in many parts of the world. Shell money usually consisted of whole or partial sea shells, often worked into beads or otherwise shaped. The use of shells in trade began as direct commodity exchange, the shells having use-value as body ornamentation. The distinction betw

Banking

Silver standard

The silver standard is a monetary system in which the standard economic unit of account is a fixed weight of silver. Silver was far more widespread than gold as the monetary standard worldwide, from the Sumerians c. 3000 BC until 1873. Following the discovery in the 16th century of large deposits of silver at the Cerro Rico in Potosí, Bolivia, an international silver standard came into e

Finance

Simple living

Simple living refers to practices that promote simplicity in one's lifestyle. Common practices of simple living include reducing the number of possessions one owns, depending less on technology and services, ascetism, and spending less money. In addition to such external changes, simple living also reflects a person's mindset and values. Simple living practices can be seen in history, re

Trading basics

Sklavenkasse

The term Sklavenkasse (lit. 'slave-fund') was a travel and ransom insurance scheme designated to pay ransom for European seafarers who had been captured by Barbary Pirates in the Mediterranean and off the coasts of Western Europe and sold into the Barbary slave trade. Several North German free imperial cities set up their own slave funds which existed until the mid 19th century.

Assets

Smart contract

A smart contract is a computer program or a transaction protocol that is intended to automatically execute, control or document events and actions according to the terms of a contract or an agreement. The objectives of smart contracts are the reduction of need for trusted intermediators, arbitration costs, and fraud losses, as well as the reduction of malicious and accidental exceptions.

Fiat currencies

Social credit

Social credit is a distributive philosophy of political economy developed in the 1920s and 1930s by the British engineer and economist C. H. Douglas. Douglas attributed economic downturns to discrepancies between the cost of goods and the compensation of the workers who made them. To combat what he saw as a chronic deficiency of purchasing power in the economy, Douglas prescribed governm

Trading basics

Standard of deferred payment

In economics, standard of deferred payment is a function of money. It is the function of being a widely accepted way to value a debt, thereby allowing goods and services to be acquired now and paid for in the future.

Securities & exchanges

Stanley Druckenmiller

Stanley Freeman Druckenmiller (born June 14, 1953) is an American billionaire investor, philanthropist and former hedge fund manager. He is the former chairman and president of Duquesne Capital, which he founded in 1981. He closed the fund in August 2010, at which time it had over $12 billion in assets. From 1988 to 2000, he managed money for George Soros as the lead portfolio manager fo

Fiat currencies

Store of value

A store of value is any commodity or asset that would normally retain purchasing power into the future and is the function of the asset that can be saved, retrieved and exchanged at a later time, and be predictably useful when retrieved.

Banking

Strahan, Paul & Bates

Strahan, Paul & Bates was a London private banking house founded in the 17th century and with a reputation for respectability. The bank failed in 1855 with liabilities eventually estimated at £750,000 (equivalent to £70,000,000 in 2025). The subsequent bankruptcy proceedings revealed that customers' securities had been sold or otherwise disposed of by the partners and the proceeds had be

Trading basics

Subvertising

Subvertising (a portmanteau of subvert and advertising) is the practice of making spoofs or parodies of corporate and political advertisements. The cultural critic Mark Dery coined the term in 1991. Subvertisements are anti-ads that deflect advertising's attempts to turn the people's attention in a given direction. According to author Naomi Klein, subvertising offers a way of speaking ba

Finance

SunGard

SunGard was an American multinational company based in Wayne, Pennsylvania, which provided software and services to education, financial services, and public sector organizations. It was formed in 1983 as a spin-off of the computer services division of Sun Oil Company.

Securities & exchanges

Swap (finance)

In finance, a swap is a derivative in which two parties agree to exchange one stream of cash flows for another, based on some agreed formula. An example is a floating-for-fixed interest rate swap, which calls for (a) payments by one party based on the product of a floating interest rate and a fixed amount, called the notional, in exchange for (b) payments by the counterparty based on the

Securities & exchanges

Swap execution facility

A swap execution facility (SEF) (sometimes swaps execution facility) is a platform for financial swap trading that provides pre-trade information (i.e. bid and offer prices) and a mechanism for executing swap transactions among eligible participants.

Finance

Tax farming

Farming or tax-farming is a technique of financial management in which the management of a variable revenue stream is assigned by legal contract to a third party and the holder of the revenue stream receives fixed periodic rents from the contractor. It is most commonly used in public finance, where governments (the lessors) lease or assign the right to collect and retain the whole of th

Finance

The Philosophy of Money

The Philosophy of Money (1900; German: Philosophie des Geldes) is a book on economic sociology by German sociologist and social philosopher Georg Simmel. Considered to be the theorist's greatest work, Simmel's book views money as a structuring agent that helps people understand the totality of life.

Trading basics

The Vanguard Group

The Vanguard Group, Inc. is an American registered investment adviser founded on May 1, 1975, and based in Malvern, Pennsylvania, with approximately $13.3 trillion in global assets under management as of 2025. It is the largest provider of mutual funds and the second-largest provider of exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in the world after BlackRock's iShares. In addition to mutual funds and E

Finance

Think Big and Kick Ass

Think Big and Kick Ass: In Business and in Life is a non-fiction book by Donald Trump and Bill Zanker, first published in hardcover in 2007 by HarperCollins. Another edition was subsequently published in paperback in 2008 under the title Think Big: Make It Happen in Business and Life. Trump and Zanker had prior business ventures together before writing the book; Zanker's company helped g

Trading basics

Toy library

A toy library is a type of library that lends or hires out toys, puzzles, and games. They can function as either as a rental shop, part of a public library, or family resource program. Some toy libraries offer play sessions for families. Toy libraries are internationally federated by the International Toy Library Association (ITLA).

Payments & settlement

Truck wages

Truck wages are wages paid not in conventional money but instead in the form of payment in kind (i.e. commodities, including goods and/or services); credit with retailers; or a money substitute, such as scrip, chits, vouchers or tokens. Truck wages are a characteristic of a truck system, and are banned by the labour legislation of many countries.

Finance

Underemployment

Underemployment is the underuse of a worker because their job does not use their skills, offers them too few hours, or leaves the worker idle. It is contrasted with unemployment, where a person lacks a job at all despite wanting one.

Finance

Unisys

Unisys Corporation is an American technology company founded in 1986 and headquartered in Blue Bell, Pennsylvania. The company provides cloud, AI, digital workplace, logistics, and enterprise computing services.

Trading basics

Unit of account

In economics, unit of account, sometimes called currency unit or monetary unit, is a standard unit of measurement of the market value of goods, services, and other transactions. Also known as a measure of relative worth and a standard of deferred payment, a unit of account is a necessary prerequisite for the formulation of commercial agreements that involve debt.

Finance

Venture capital in the Czech Republic

Venture capital in the Czech Republic refers to activity by private equity investors who finance companies in early stages of development in exchange for an ownership stake. The market's origins date to the early 1990s, when foreign funds began operating in the country following the transition to a market economy after the Velvet Revolution. From the mid-2010s, investment volumes grew, d

Payments & settlement

Virtual goods

Virtual goods are non-physical objects and money purchased for use in online communities or online games. Digital goods, on the other hand, may be a broader category including digital books, music, and movies. Virtual goods are a subclass of intangible goods.

Fiat currencies

Wage unit

The wage unit is a unit of measurement for monetary quantities introduced by Keynes in his 1936 book The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money (General Theory). A value expressed in wage units is equal to its price in money units divided by the wage (in money units) of a man-hour of labour.

Trading basics

What Has Government Done to Our Money?

What Has Government Done to Our Money? is a 1963 book by Murray N. Rothbard that details the history of money, from early barter systems, to the gold standard, to present day systems of paper money.

Trading basics

Workplace democracy

Workplace democracy is the application of democracy in various forms to the workplace, such as voting systems, consensus, debates, democratic structuring, due process, adversarial process, and systems of appeal. It can be implemented in a variety of ways, depending on the size, culture, and other variables of an organization.