Glossary

The U.CASH glossary

43 terms, A to Z: the assets, the rails, the standards, and the principles behind non-custodial settlement. Each definition ends with how U.CASH applies it and where to go next.

Stablecoin

A stablecoin is a token engineered to hold the price of a reference asset, almost always…

Tokenized stock

A tokenized stock is a blockchain token that tracks the price of an equity share: Apple a…

Pre-IPO token

A pre-IPO token tracks the value of shares in a private company held by a Special Purpose…

Payment rail

A payment rail is the plumbing that moves value from a payer to a payee: ACH and SWIFT be…

Fiat on-ramp

A fiat on-ramp is the bridge from traditional money to crypto: card or bank in, token out…

Non-custodial

A non-custodial service moves value without ever holding it: the platform routes, matches…

Confirmation policy

A confirmation policy is the rule for when a blockchain payment counts as paid: how many…

Settlement finality

Settlement finality is the moment a payment stops being reversible: the state where the m…

DEX routing

DEX routing is the machinery that turns 'I want A for B' into the cheapest legal path thr…

Cross-chain swap

A cross-chain swap trades asset A on chain X for asset B on chain Y in one flow: the trad…

ERC-20

ERC-20 is the token standard of Ethereum and every EVM chain: a common interface (transfe…

TRC-20

TRC-20 is the token standard of Tron: the EVM-style interface (Tron's virtual machine is…

Token-2022 (SPL)

Token-2022 is Solana's programmable token standard: everything the classic SPL token does…

Gas fees

Gas is the price of changing a blockchain's state: every transfer, swap, and mint bids fo…

Lightning Network

Lightning is Bitcoin's second layer for instant payments: channels between parties hold f…

Wrapped token

A wrapped token is an asset represented on a chain it was not born on: Bitcoin locked in…

Fiat peg

A fiat peg is a commitment to hold a token's price to a national currency: one token, one…

ISIN

The International Securities Identification Number: a twelve-character code that uniquely…

Web3 name

A web3 name is a human-readable address for a wallet: you.u instead of 0x7f3a9c...42f1. N…

HTTP 402

HTTP 402 is 'Payment Required': a status code the web specified in the 1990s and never us…

Checkout embed

A checkout embed is payment infrastructure as a drop-in: a snippet or component that rend…

Payment link

A payment link is a URL that is an invoice: open it and the payment surface is there, amo…

Chargebacks vs crypto finality

A chargeback is a card payment unwound after the fact: the cardholder disputes, the netwo…

Address poisoning

Address poisoning is a scam where an attacker sends a dust transaction from a lookalike a…

Allowlist (transfer eligibility)

An allowlist is a transfer rule enforced at the token level: addresses on the list may ho…

Batch send

A batch send disperses one balance to many recipients in a single on-chain transaction: a…

Block explorer

A block explorer is the read interface to a blockchain: paste an address, transaction, or…

CBDC vs stablecoin

A central bank digital currency is the sovereign liability version of a token: the centra…

Cold wallet

A cold wallet is key storage that has never touched a network: keys generated and held on…

Hot wallet

A hot wallet holds keys on a connected device: a browser extension, a phone, a server. Co…

KYC and eligibility gates

Know-your-customer is the identity layer regulated finance requires: who holds what, veri…

Liquidity pool

A liquidity pool is a smart contract holding two (or more) assets that anyone can trade a…

Mempool

The mempool is the waiting room: transactions broadcast to the network but not yet in a b…

Multisig

A multisig wallet requires several keys to agree before funds move: two of three, three o…

Off-ramp

An off-ramp is the bridge back: crypto in, bank money out. On-ramps get the headlines, bu…

Oracle (price feed)

An oracle is the pipe between the chain and the world outside it: a price feed, a sports…

Seed phrase

A seed phrase is the master key in human form: twelve or twenty-four words from which a w…

Slippage

Slippage is the gap between the price you were quoted and the price you got: your own tra…

Testnet

A testnet is the dress rehearsal: the same rules, the same tooling, tokens worth nothing,…

Token mint and mint authority

Minting is issuance: the act that brings new tokens into existence, recorded on-chain, au…

UTXO

The unspent transaction output is Bitcoin's accounting atom: coins exist as discrete outp…

Signed webhook

A webhook is the server-to-server tap on the shoulder: when an event happens, payment see…

xpub

An extended public key is the watch-only half of a hierarchical wallet: from one xpub, a…