XPayIndustry WIKIBack to home
XPAY KNOWLEDGE

Industry WIKI

Digital assets and currencies

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

Banking

Alexander Baring, 1st Baron Ashburton

Alexander Baring, 1st Baron Ashburton (27 October 1774 – 12 May 1848) was a British politician, diplomat and financier. A member of the Baring family, he was the second son of Sir Francis Baring, 1st Baronet.

Trading basics

Azerbaijani manat

The manat (ISO code: AZN; sign: ₼; abbreviation: m) is the currency of Azerbaijan. It is subdivided into 100 gapiks.

Banking

Banker (ancient)

The banker of ancient times was employed within financial activities, during the ancient Mesopotamian, ancient Greek and ancient Roman periods.

Fiat currencies

Bimetallism

Bimetallism, also known as the bimetallic standard, is a monetary standard in which the value of the monetary unit is defined as equivalent to certain quantities of two metals, creating a fixed rate of exchange between them. In all known historical cases, the metals are gold and silver.

Fiat currencies

Bureau de change

A bureau de change (plural bureaux de change, both BURE-oh də SHONZH; British English) or currency exchange (American English) is a business where people can buy or sell a foreign currency.

Fiat currencies

Chartalism

Chartalism is a heterodox theory in macroeconomics that views money as a pure creation of the state, introduced to control and organize economic activity rather than arising from barter or debt.

Banking

Cheque

A cheque (or check in American English) is a document that orders a bank, building society, or credit union, to pay a specific amount of money from a person's account to the person in whose name the cheque has been issued. The person writing the cheque, known as the drawer, has a transaction banking account (often called a current, cheque, chequing, checking, or share draft account) wher

Banking

Cheque clearing

Cheque clearing (or check clearing in American English) or bank clearance is the process of moving cash (or its equivalent) from one bank, from which a cheque is drawn, to another bank, in which it was deposited. Clearance is usually accompanied by the movement of the cheque to the paying bank, either in the traditional physical paper form or digitally under a cheque truncation system. T

Finance

Clearing (finance)

In banking and finance, clearing refers to all activities from the time a commitment is made for a transaction until it is settled. This process turns the promise of payment (for example, in the form of a cheque or electronic payment request) into the actual movement of money from one account to another. Clearing houses were formed to facilitate such transactions among banks.

Finance

Clearing house (finance)

A clearing house, often written as clearinghouse, is a financial institution formed to facilitate the exchange (i.e., clearance) of payments, securities, or derivatives transactions. The clearing house stands between two clearing firms (also known as member firms or participants).

Fiat currencies

Coincidence of wants

The coincidence of wants (often known as double coincidence of wants) is an economic phenomenon where two parties each hold an item that the other wants, so they exchange these items directly. Within economics, this has often been presented as the foundation of a bartering economy.

Fiat currencies

Credit theory of money

Credit theories of money, also called debt theories of money, are monetary economic theories concerning the relationship between credit and money. Proponents of these theories, such as Alfred Mitchell-Innes, sometimes emphasize that money and credit/debt are the same thing, seen from different points of view. Proponents assert that the essential nature of money is credit (debt), at leas

Assets

Cryptocurrency

Cryptocurrency is a type of digital asset that uses distributed ledger, or blockchain, technology to enable a secure transaction.

Fiat currencies

Currency

A currency is a standardized form of money used as a medium of exchange. Under this definition, the US dollar, the euro, the yen, sterling, and the renminbi are examples of (government-issued) fiat currencies. Currencies may act as stores of value and be traded between nations in foreign exchange markets, which determine the relative values of the different currencies.

Fiat currencies

Currency in circulation

In monetary economics, the currency in circulation in a country is the value of

Fiat currencies

Demurrage currency

Demurrage currency, also known as depreciating money or stamp scrip in its paper money form, is a type of money that is designed to gradually lose purchasing power at a constant rate. Demurrage money is often confused with inflation, as they both cause money to lose value, but they have significantly different economic effects. Unlike normal money, demurrage is designed to be only a temp

Banking

Digital card

A digital card is either a physical item, such as a memory card on a camera, or, increasingly since 2017, the digital content hosted

Fiat currencies

Digital currency

Digital currency (digital money, electronic money or electronic currency) is any currency, money, or money-like asset that is primarily managed, stored or exchanged on digital computer systems, especially over the internet. Types of digital currencies include cryptocurrency, virtual currency and central bank digital currency. Digital currency may be recorded on a distributed database on

Fiat currencies

Digital gold currency

Digital gold currency (DGC) is a form of digital currency based on mass units of gold. The typical unit of account for such currency is linked to grams or troy ounces of gold, although other units such as the gold dinar are sometimes used. DGCs are backed by gold through unallocated or allocated gold storage. A digital gold currency could be a kind of representative money if it is exchan

Fiat currencies

Early American currency

Early American currency went through several stages of development during the colonial and post-Revolutionary history of the United States. John Hull was authorized by the Massachusetts legislature to make the earliest coinage of the colony (the willow, the oak, and the pine tree shilling) in 1652.

Fiat currencies

Fiat money

Fiat money or fiat currency is a type of government-issued currency, generally created by a central bank, authorized by government regulation to be legal tender but not backed by a precious metal, such as gold or silver, nor by any other tangible asset or commodity. Since the end of the Bretton Woods system in 1976 by the Jamaica Accords, all the major government currencies in the world

Banking

Gold standard

A gold standard is a monetary system in which the standard economic unit of account is defined by a fixed quantity of gold. The gold standard was the basis for the international monetary system from the 1870s to the early 1920s, and from the late 1920s to 1932 as well as from 1944 until 1971, when the United States unilaterally terminated convertibility of the US dollar into gold, effect

Fiat currencies

Hard currency

In macroeconomics, hard currency, sound money, safe-haven currency, or strong currency is any globally traded currency that serves as a reliable and stable store of value. Factors contributing to a currency's hard status might include its historical use as a money (such as gold or silver), or if it is a fiat currency, the stability and reliability of the respective state's legal and bure

Banking

Haute Banque

Haute Banque refers to the network of private bankers which dominated international finance during much of the 19th century, exemplified by the Rothschild family and including numerous other European banking families. Its influence declined in the late 19th and early 20th centuries as it became marginalized by the rise of universal banks and central banks.

Fiat currencies

Legal tender

Legal tender is a form of money that the law recognises as valid for the discharge of a monetary debt in a jurisdiction. What constitutes legal tender varies between jurisdictions.

Trading basics

Manx pound

The pound (abbreviation: IMP; sign: £), or Manx pound (Manx: Punt Manninagh; in order to distinguish it from other similar-named currencies), is the currency of the Isle of Man, at parity with sterling. The Manx pound is divided into 100 pence. Notes and coins, denominated in pounds and pence, are issued by the Isle of Man Government.

Fiat currencies

Medium of exchange

In economics, a medium of exchange is any item that is widely accepted in exchange for goods and services. In modern economies, the most commonly used medium of exchange is currency. Most forms of money function as media of exchange, including commodity money, representative money, cryptocurrency, and most commonly fiat money. Representative and fiat money exist in digital form as well a

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

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

Banking

Monetary system

A monetary system is a system where a government manages money in a country's economy. Modern monetary systems usually consist of a national treasury, a mint, central banks and commercial banks.

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

Peel's Bill

Peel's Bill, or the Resumption of Cash Payments Act 1819 (59 Geo. 3. c. 49) was an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that marked the return of the British currency to the gold standard, after the Bank Restriction Act 1797 (37 Geo. 3. c. 45) saw paper money replacing convertibility to gold and silver under the financial pressures of the French Revolutionary Wars.

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

Saint Helena pound

The Saint Helena pound (symbol: £; currency code: SHP) is the currency of the Atlantic islands of Saint Helena and Ascension, which are constituent parts of the British Overseas Territory of Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha. It is fixed at parity with sterling, and so both currencies are commonly accepted and circulated within Saint Helena. Its base unit is the pound, which i

Payments & settlement

Scrip

A scrip is any substitute for legal tender.

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

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

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.

Trading basics

West African CFA franc

The West African CFA franc (French: franc CFA or simply franc, ISO 4217 code: XOF; abbreviation: F.CFA) is the currency used by eight independent states in West Africa which make up the West African Economic and Monetary Union (UEMOA): Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast), Guinea-Bissau, Mali, Niger, Senegal and Togo. These eight countries had a combined population of 105.7 m