195 words, each three ways: the plain version, the precise version, and a way to say it to a friend. Flashcards for all of them are just below.
Plaina retirement account you fill through your job.
Precisean employer-sponsored, tax-advantaged retirement plan named for section 401(k) of the Internal Revenue Code, added in 1978; contributions are invested in funds chosen from a menu.
Say it to a friend“A 401(k) is a bucket you fill. A pension is a promise.”
Plaina supply that cannot grow no matter how high the price goes.
PreciseSaifedean Ammous’s term for bitcoin’s fixed issuance schedule; economists call it a perfectly inelastic supply.
Say it to a friend“Gold miners dig faster when gold is pricey. Bitcoin can’t be dug faster.”
Plainthe slow, cheap plumbing that moves money between American bank accounts.
Precisethe batch payment network used for direct deposit and most bank-funded purchases; transfers take one to several business days and cost little or nothing.
Say it to a friend“ACH is how your paycheck arrives and how your bitcoin purchase is funded.”
Plainthe number on the mailbox, the thing you hand to someone who wants to pay you.
Precisea string of letters and numbers derived from a public key, usually beginning bc1q or bc1p, that locks a ledger entry so only the matching private key can spend it; safe to share, and best used once.
Say it to a friend“The address is where to send it. The key is what opens it.”
Plainthe S-shaped path every technology that catches on has followed, from a few users to almost everyone.
PreciseEverett Rogers’s diffusion-of-innovations model, with five adopter groups from innovators to laggards.
Say it to a friend“Every new thing starts slow, then everybody gets it at once.”
Plainbeing the driver, not the passenger, in your own money decisions.
Precisethe capacity to act on one’s own choices; in this context, the ability to hold and move value without a third party’s permission.
Say it to a friend“Nobody has to say yes.”
Plainany digital coin that came after Bitcoin and copied its shape.
Precisea cryptocurrency other than Bitcoin, typically with an identifiable founder, foundation, or company that can influence its rules and supply.
Say it to a friend“Ask who issued it. If there is an answer, it’s an altcoin.”
Plainwe prefer a known risk to an unknown one.
Precisethe preference for options whose probabilities are known over options whose probabilities are uncertain, shown by Ellsberg in 1961; why a familiar bank beats an unfamiliar money even when the bank’s risks are larger.
Say it to a friend“People pick the risk they can name over the one they can’t.”
Plainthe first number you hear sticks, and every later number gets judged against it.
Precisea cognitive bias in which an initial reference value shapes later estimates; for bitcoin, the first price a person heard becomes the price in their head.
Say it to a friend“If the first price you heard was $1,000, every price since has felt like a top.”
Plaina school of economic thought that says money should be outside government control and that central banks cause booms and busts.
Precisethe tradition of Menger, Mises, and Hayek, emphasizing individual choice, sound money, and the limits of central planning.
Say it to a friend“Austrian in the sense of Vienna, not in the sense of the government of Austria.”
Plaintrusting a claim more because of who said it.
Precisethe tendency to give extra weight to the opinion of an authority figure regardless of the evidence; a reason to check a famous critic’s claim rather than to ignore or obey it.
Say it to a friend“Buffett said rat poison. Check the claim, not the name.”
Plainrescuing a failing bank with its depositors’ money.
Precisethe conversion of a bank’s liabilities, including uninsured deposits, into equity to recapitalize it; first used at scale in Cyprus in 2013.
Say it to a friend“A bailout is when the taxpayer pays. A bail-in is when you do.”
Plaintrading goods directly for goods, with no money in between.
Preciseexchange without a medium of exchange, which requires a coincidence of wants and fails at scale; the problem money solved.
Say it to a friend“The baker wants a haircut and the barber wants firewood. Barter is stuck.”
Plainthe main Bitcoin ledger itself, as opposed to the fast lane built on top of it.
Precisethe blockchain and its consensus rules, where every entry is final and checked by every node; Lightning settles back to it.
Say it to a friend“The base layer is the vault. Lightning is the road.”
Plainthe network and its rules.
Precisethe open, peer-to-peer protocol and the software that runs the Bitcoin network, launched January 3, 2009.
Say it to a friend“Big-B Bitcoin is the system. Nobody owns it.”
Plainthe most widely used Bitcoin node software.
Precisethe open-source reference implementation of the Bitcoin protocol, maintained by volunteer contributors; one of several implementations, alongside Bitcoin Knots.
Say it to a friend“Most nodes run Bitcoin Core, and anyone can read every line of it.”
Plaina person who holds bitcoin and takes it seriously.
Preciseinformal term for someone who uses, holds, studies or builds on Bitcoin, as distinct from a trader of crypto tokens generally.
Say it to a friend“A bitcoiner is someone who reads past the price.”
Plaina written proposal to change how Bitcoin works.
Precisea numbered design document submitted for public review; the path by which changes such as SegWit and Taproot were specified before nodes chose to adopt them.
Say it to a friend“A BIP is a suggestion. It becomes a rule only when the nodes run it.”
Plainthe money itself, the bitcoin that moves on the Bitcoin network.
Precisethe unit of value recorded on the Bitcoin ledger, divisible into 100 million satoshis.
Say it to a friend“Small-b bitcoin is the money. You can own a piece of one.”
Plaina way of thinking about money that treats bitcoin as the thing you save in.
Precisefrom Ammous (2018); a personal or societal arrangement in which bitcoin serves as the primary store of value and, in the strong form, unit of account.
Say it to a friend“Spend dollars, save bitcoin, think longer.”
Plaina page of the ledger, a batch of transactions added about every 10 minutes.
Precisea data structure holding a set of valid transactions, a timestamp, and the hash of the previous block, accepted by nodes once it carries valid proof of work.
Say it to a friend“A block is a page. Every 10 minutes the network staples on a new one.”
Plainthe ledger’s pages, each one stapled to the page before it.
Precisethe ordered sequence of blocks, each containing a batch of transactions and a cryptographic fingerprint of the previous block, so that changing an old block breaks every block after it.
Say it to a friend“The blockchain is just the ledger in order, with each batch locked to the last.”
Plaina website that shows you the ledger live.
Precisea tool such as mempool.space or blockstream.info that lets anyone look up any block, transaction, or address on the public ledger without running a node.
Say it to a friend“It is the ledger with a search box.”
Plainthe block’s number, counting up from the first one.
Precisethe count of valid blocks since block zero on January 3, 2009; it rises by exactly one each time a block passes every node’s checks.
Say it to a friend“Height 945,000 means 945,000 pages since the first.”
Plainthe new bitcoin a miner is paid for a block, by rule.
Precisethe fixed issuance per block, 3.125 bitcoin after the April 2024 halving, cut in half every 210,000 blocks until it reaches zero around 2140; with fees, it makes up the block reward.
Say it to a friend“The subsidy is the only door new bitcoin ever comes through.”
Plaina loan you make to a government or a company, with interest.
Precisea debt security with a fixed term and a stated rate, the yield, whose price moves opposite to prevailing rates.
Say it to a friend“When you buy a bond, you are the lender.”
Plainwhoever gets new money first wins; whoever gets it last pays.
Precisethe uneven effect of new money on prices and wealth, depending on where it enters the economy.
Say it to a friend“The banks get the new dollars before prices go up. Grandma gets the prices.”
Plainlimits on how much money you can take out or move abroad.
Preciserestrictions on withdrawals, transfers and currency exchange, used to stop money leaving a banking system under strain.
Say it to a friend“Capital controls are when the money is still yours on paper and you can only have some of it.”
Plainthe profit on a sale, taxed higher if you held under a year.
Precisethe excess of proceeds over basis; short-term if the holding period is one year or less and taxed as ordinary income, long-term if over one year and taxed at preferential rates.
Say it to a friend“The calendar changes the rate.”
Plaingovernment money as an entry in the central bank’s own ledger.
Precisea digital liability of a central bank available to the public, with the issuer able to see and, by design, control the entries.
Say it to a friend“A CBDC is cash that knows your name.”
Plainfollowing bitcoin across the public ledger the way an auditor follows money through the books.
Precisethe forensic study of transaction patterns on a public blockchain, used by firms such as Chainalysis and by law enforcement to trace stolen or illicit funds.
Say it to a friend“Every transaction is public, forever. That’s how they caught them.”
Plaina shortcut your mind takes without asking that leads you to a wrong answer in a predictable way.
Precisea systematic deviation from rational judgment, documented in psychology since the 1970s, such as confirmation bias, loss aversion, and the status quo bias.
Say it to a friend“I’m not saying you’re wrong. I’m asking which bias might be doing your thinking.”
Plainthe first entry in every block, where the miner is paid, and the only door new bitcoin comes through; not the company of the same name.
Precisethe transaction that creates the block subsidy plus fees for the miner who found the block.
Say it to a friend“Every bitcoin in existence came in through that first line of a block.”
Plainthe lucky moment when I have what you want and you have what I want.
Precisethe condition barter requires for any trade, and the problem a medium of exchange solves.
Say it to a friend“Barter only works if the barber happens to want bread.”
Plainkeys kept off the internet.
Preciseprivate keys generated and held on a device or medium that never connects to a network, so that signing happens offline.
Say it to a friend“The key never goes online, only the signed transaction does.”
Plaininterest that earns interest, a snowball rolling downhill.
Precisegrowth in which each period’s return is added to the principal, so later returns are figured on a larger base.
Say it to a friend“Divide 72 by the rate for the years to double.”
Plainone more block stacked on top of the one your transaction is in.
Precisethe count of blocks at or above the block holding a transaction; each one makes rewriting it harder, and exchanges often wait for several on a large deposit.
Say it to a friend“Six confirmations means six pages have been added after yours.”
Plainthe rules every node enforces, where breaking one gets your block rejected by everyone.
Precisethe set of validity conditions for blocks and transactions, including the supply cap, the subsidy schedule, valid signatures and valid proof of work, that cannot be changed without near-universal adoption of new software.
Say it to a friend“The rules nobody can waive.”
Plainhow closely two prices move together.
Precisea statistic from minus 1 (always opposite) to plus 1 (always together); zero means no consistent link.
Say it to a friend“In a panic, bitcoin has moved with stocks, not against them.”
Plainwhat you paid for the sats you just spent.
Precisethe original value of an asset for tax purposes, used to calculate gain or loss on disposal.
Say it to a friend“Write down the price and the date every time you buy.”
Plainthe chance that the other side of a deal will not hold up its end.
Precisethe risk that the institution owing you money, such as a bank holding your deposit or an exchange holding your bitcoin, fails or refuses to pay.
Say it to a friend“A bank balance is a promise from the bank. Counterparty risk is the chance the promise breaks.”
Plaina certified public accountant, the person to ask about taxes.
Precisea state-licensed accountant; in the United States, the professional who prepares returns and advises on the tax treatment of bitcoin gains and losses.
Plainsomeone who designs the math that keeps secrets and proves facts.
Precisea mathematician or computer scientist who builds and analyzes encryption, digital signatures and hash functions; Bitcoin was announced on a cryptographers’ mailing list.
Say it to a friend“Cryptographers make a password hard to guess and a signature impossible to forge.”
Plainsomeone else holds your key.
Precisean arrangement in which a third party controls the private keys and the customer holds a claim against that party.
Say it to a friend“On an exchange you own an IOU, not a coin.”
Plainthe four ways to hold bitcoin, from a fund or an app that holds it for you to several keys in several places.
Precisethis book’s name for the rungs fund or exchange account, phone wallet, hardware wallet, and multisig, each trading one risk for another.
Say it to a friend“Higher means more control, and more homework.”
Plainwhen a bank closes your account or refuses to open one, often without saying why.
Preciseaccount closures or refusals by financial institutions, frequently citing risk or anti-money-laundering rules; the subject of a 2025 U.S. executive order telling regulators to stop treating reputational risk as grounds.
Say it to a friend“Debanked means the bank decided it doesn’t want your business.”
Plainmaking more of a money so each piece buys less.
Precisethe reduction of a currency’s value by increasing its supply, historically by diluting coinage and today by expanding the money supply.
Say it to a friend“Same coin, less silver in it.” (Chapter 2).”
Plainno center, no boss, no single place to shut down.
Precisecontrol of the ledger and its rules spread across thousands of independent computers, so that no single party can change the rules or stop the network.
Say it to a friend“There is no Bitcoin headquarters to raid. The record lives everywhere at once.”
Plainno center: nothing to shut down and no one to ask.
Precisethe adjective for a system whose control is spread across many independent participants; see Decentralization.
Say it to a friend“Decentralized means there is no headquarters to raid and no boss to call.”
Plaina video or voice made by software to show a real person saying something they never said.
Precisesynthetic audio or video generated by machine-learning models from samples of a real person, used to lend false authority or false identity.
Say it to a friend“Hang up and call the real person on the number you already have.”
Plainwhat people around you actually do, as opposed to what they say you should do.
PreciseCialdini’s term for the perceived prevalence of a behavior in a group, which shapes individual behavior more strongly than injunctive norms, the stated rules.
Say it to a friend“The sign said don’t litter, but the ground was clean, and that’s what actually stopped me.”
Plainthe volunteers who write and maintain the Bitcoin software.
Precisecontributors to Bitcoin Core and other node software; they can propose rule changes but cannot impose them, since nodes choose what to run.
Say it to a friend“Developers write the code. The nodes decide whether to run it.”
Plainthe rule that keeps blocks arriving about every ten minutes no matter how many miners there are.
Preciseevery 2,016 blocks, nodes compare how long those blocks took to the two-week target and raise or lower the proof-of-work target accordingly; the mechanism that turns a block schedule into a time schedule.
Say it to a friend“It works like a thermostat. More miners, harder puzzle. Fewer, easier. Ten minutes either way.”
Plaina stamp made from your key and the exact message, different every time, that anyone can check.
Precisea cryptographic proof that a message was authorized by the holder of a private key, verifiable with the matching public key.
Say it to a friend“It proves I sent it without showing you my key.”
PlainSocial Security you may claim on an ex-spouse’s work record.
Preciseavailable at 62 or older if the marriage lasted at least 10 years and you are unmarried; up to 50% of the ex-spouse’s full benefit at your full retirement age if that is more than your own; it does not reduce the ex-spouse’s benefit.
Say it to a friend“Ten years married can mean a check later, and your ex loses nothing.”
Plainbuying the same dollar amount on a schedule, no matter the price that day.
Precisea purchase method that spreads a position over time so the average cost paid reflects the whole period rather than a single-entry price; it lowers the chance of buying everything at a top and gives up the chance of buying everything at a bottom.
Say it to a friend“Same $50 every month. Low price, more coin. High price, less.”
Plainthe dollar being the money the whole world has to use.
Precisethe dollar’s role as the dominant reserve, trade, and settlement currency, which gives the United States cheap borrowing and the power of financial sanctions.
Say it to a friend“Most of the world trades, borrows, and saves in dollars. That’s the whole trick.”
Plainthe fall from a high point to the next low point, before things turn around.
Precisethe percentage decline from a peak to the subsequent trough; bitcoin’s four largest were each greater than 75%.
Say it to a friend“Not how much it dropped today. How far it fell from the top before it stopped.”
Plainthe signature math Bitcoin has used since 2009.
Precisethe Elliptic Curve Digital Signature Algorithm, used to prove ownership of a key without revealing it.
Say it to a friend“ECDSA is the stamp. You never have to touch the math.”
Plainone 210,000-block stretch between halvings, about four years.
Precisea period of 210,000 blocks during which the block subsidy stays the same; the first epoch paid 50 bitcoin per block, and each later epoch pays half the one before.
Say it to a friend“We’re in the fifth epoch. Each one pays miners half as much new bitcoin as the last.”
Plaina store that sells bitcoin to the public, like a currency booth.
Precisea regulated business that matches buyers and sellers of bitcoin for dollars, verifies customer identity, and holds customer bitcoin until it is withdrawn.
Say it to a friend“The exchange is the shop. Bitcoin is what the shop sells.”
Plaina fund you buy like a stock inside an ordinary brokerage account.
Precisea pooled investment whose shares trade on a stock exchange; a spot bitcoin ETF holds bitcoin with a custodian and sells shares that track its price.
Say it to a friend“An ETF lets you own a slice of bitcoin through your brokerage without holding a key.”
Plainthe 1933 order that made Americans hand in their gold.
PrecisePresident Roosevelt’s order of April 5, 1933, requiring delivery of gold coin, bullion, and certificates to the Federal Reserve at $20.67 an ounce, before the official price was raised to $35.
Say it to a friend“In 1933 the government called in the gold and then repriced it.”
Plainthe agency that insures bank deposits in the United States.
Precisethe Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, which insures deposits up to $250,000 per depositor, per bank, per ownership category, and publishes the national survey of unbanked households.
Plainthe bank for banks.
Precisethe central bank of the United States, created in 1913, which sets short-term interest rates, lends to banks and controls the base money supply.
Say it to a friend“The Fed doesn’t print bills. It sets the price of borrowing and how many dollars the banks have to work with.”
Plainmoney that is money because the government says so.
Precisecurrency with no commodity backing, given value by legal tender laws and the tax system.
Say it to a friend“Since 1971 a dollar is a claim on nothing in a vault; what backs it is the law that requires it for taxes and the next person’s willingness to take it.”
Plaina professional who helps you plan money decisions, who may or may not know Bitcoin.
Precisean individual or firm, usually registered with the SEC or a state, that gives investment advice for a fee or commission; this book asks you to consult one before acting, and to ask whether they have studied Bitcoin.
Plainknowing enough about money to make a decision you can explain.
Precisethe ability to understand and apply basic money concepts, usually measured with short questions on interest, inflation and risk.
Say it to a friend“Can you say what your money is doing?”
Plainthe plain-English word this book uses for a hash.
Precisethe fixed-length output of a hash function, in practice unique to its input; see Hash.
Say it to a friend“Change one letter and the whole fingerprint changes.”
Plainthe self-regulator of American brokerage firms.
Precisethe Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, which runs the national financial-capability study cited in Chapter 8.
Plainfear of missing out: buying because everyone else seems to be.
Precisethe anxiety that others are gaining from something you are not part of; in markets, loss aversion pointed at a gain you do not have yet.
Say it to a friend“FOMO is what brings people in at the top.”
Plainthe form an exchange sends the IRS about your sales, starting with 2025.
Precisethe form brokers file under the 2024 final regulations, reporting gross proceeds and, on a phase-in, cost basis.
Say it to a friend“The exchange tells the IRS. Your records fill in the rest.”
Plainthe bank keeps a slice of your deposit and lends the rest.
Precisea system in which banks hold only a fraction of deposits as reserves and create new deposits when they lend.
Say it to a friend“Your balance is a promise. The cash isn’t in a drawer.”
Plainfear, uncertainty, and doubt, spread to stop people from looking closer.
PreciseBitcoin slang for a claim made to discourage rather than inform, whether or not it contains some truth. Beware of people who use the word to dismiss a fair question.
Say it to a friend“Some of it is FUD. Some of it is a fair point. Let’s find out which.”
Plainthe difference between what women and men earn.
Preciseusually stated as women’s median earnings as a share of men’s; for full-time U.S. workers it was about 83% in 2024 (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Say it to a friend“Earn less, save less, and inflation bites harder.”
Plainthe first page of Bitcoin’s ledger.
Preciseblock zero of the Bitcoin blockchain, created January 3, 2009.
Say it to a friend“Bitcoin’s first block has a bailout headline typed into it.”
Plainthe 1934 law that moved the nation’s gold to the Treasury and let the president reprice it.
Precisethe Gold Reserve Act of January 30, 1934, which transferred the Federal Reserve’s gold to the Treasury; President Roosevelt then set gold at $35 an ounce, up from $20.67.
Say it to a friend“They took the gold at $20.67 and then said it was worth $35.”
Plainbuying something only because you expect someone else to pay more for it later.
Precisethe idea that an asset’s price can be sustained by the expectation of resale alone, regardless of any underlying use, until buyers run out.
Say it to a friend“The question is whether anyone wants it for a reason besides selling it.”
Plainbad money drives out good: people spend the worse money and keep the better.
Precisethe observation that when two monies circulate at a fixed ratio, the overvalued one is spent and the undervalued one is hoarded; why silver coins vanished after 1965 and why bitcoiners spend dollars.
Say it to a friend“Spend the money that leaks. Save the one that doesn’t.”
Plainthe scheduled cut in new bitcoin per block, every four years or so.
Precisethe reduction of the block subsidy by half every 210,000 blocks, which limits total supply to just under 21 million.
Say it to a friend“The schedule was written in 2009 and nobody can move it.”
Plainsomething that is hard to make more of.
Precisean asset whose supply grows slowly or not at all because producing it requires real cost; gold, land and bitcoin are the usual examples.
Say it to a friend“Nobody can print more gold. Nobody can print more bitcoin, and that one is written down.”
Plaina rule change that splits the chain into two coins.
Precisea non-backward-compatible change; nodes that do not upgrade follow a different chain, as with Bitcoin Cash in 2017.
Say it to a friend“A hard fork builds a second road, and the people who leave get their own coin.”
Plaina small device built to keep the key offline and sign for you.
Precisea dedicated single-purpose device that stores private keys in isolated memory and signs transactions internally, showing details on its own screen.
Say it to a friend“It is a key safe with a screen.”
Plaina fingerprint of data; change one letter and the fingerprint changes completely.
Precisethe fixed-length output of a one-way function such as SHA-256, used in Bitcoin to link blocks and to set the mining puzzle.
Say it to a friend“A fingerprint you can make from the data but not the other way round.”
Plainbuy, keep, and don’t try to time the market; the word is a famous typo.
Precisefrom a December 2013 forum post titled “I AM HODLING”; Bitcoin slang for holding through price swings rather than trading; it is not an acronym, though people later made one up for it.
Say it to a friend“HODL just means I decided in advance not to sell when it drops, and then I didn’t.”
Plaina wallet on a device that is online.
Precisesoftware holding private keys on an internet-connected device, convenient for spending and exposed to that device’s threats.
Say it to a friend“My phone wallet is hot. Good for coffee money.”
Plainthe four questions a U.S. court asks to decide whether something is a security, like a stock.
Precisefrom SEC v. W.J. Howey Co. (1946): an investment of money, in a common enterprise, with an expectation of profit, from the efforts of others; if all four are present, securities law applies.
Say it to a friend“Bitcoin isn’t a security because nobody’s work is behind the return. There’s no company.”
Plainthe idea that bitcoin becomes the money most of the world counts in.
Precisea thesis (Krawisz, 2014) describing a voluntary, market-driven transition from national currencies to bitcoin as the dominant monetary standard; contested and unforecastable.
Say it to a friend“It is a thesis, and the opposite of hyperinflation.”
Plainprices rising so fast that money stops working as money.
Precisethe conventional threshold, from economist Phillip Cagan, is 50% or more per month; Argentina in 2023 was not there, and Venezuela in 2018 was far past it.
Say it to a friend“Hyperinflation is when you spend your paycheck the day you get it because it will buy less tomorrow.”
Plainthe largest bitcoin exchange-traded fund, from BlackRock.
Precisethe iShares Bitcoin Trust, a spot bitcoin ETF approved in January 2024; a share is a claim on bitcoin held by a custodian.
Say it to a friend“IBIT is bitcoin in a brokerage account, held by someone else.”
Plaina U.S. savings bond whose interest rises with inflation.
Precisea Series I savings bond sold by the Treasury at TreasuryDirect.gov; its rate combines a fixed rate and an inflation rate reset every six months, with purchases limited to $10,000 per person per year.
Say it to a friend“An I bond is the government’s promise to keep up with its own inflation number.”
Plainthe International Monetary Fund, the lender countries go to in a crisis.
Precisean institution of 190 member countries that lends to governments in balance-of-payments trouble, usually with conditions; a party to the Cyprus rescue of 2013 and the El Salvador agreement of 2024.
Plainhaving missed a good deal makes you less likely to take a still-good one.
Precisethe finding that people who passed up an attractive opportunity are less likely to act on a later, somewhat less attractive one, to avoid regret about the earlier miss.
Say it to a friend“I should have bought at $10,000 is a feeling about the past, not a fact about today.”
Plainprices rising, so each dollar buys less.
Precisea sustained increase in the general price level, measured in the United States by the Consumer Price Index; the mirror image of a currency losing purchasing power.
Say it to a friend“Inflation is the dollar getting smaller while the number on your statement stays the same.”
Plainsomething you own because it should keep its value when prices rise.
Precisean asset whose real value holds steady or rises during inflation; bitcoin has done this over multi-year windows so far, but fell sharply during the 2022 inflation.
Say it to a friend“A hedge over years, not over months, so far.”
Plainthe square code a shop shows you that says how much and where.
Precisea Lightning payment request, usually displayed as a QR code, encoding the amount, the destination and an expiry time.
Say it to a friend“The QR code on the register is the bill.”
Plainthe school that says governments and central banks should spend and lend into a slump and pull back in a boom.
Precisethe body of macroeconomic thought descending from John Maynard Keynes’s 1936 General Theory, which holds that active fiscal and monetary policy can smooth the business cycle; the mainstream framework behind most central bank policy since the Depression.
Say it to a friend“Keynes said manage the money to manage the economy. The Austrians said the managing is the problem.”
Plainthe ID check, same as at a bank.
Preciseidentity verification required of financial businesses under the Bank Secrecy Act, which ties your legal identity to your account and its transactions.
Say it to a friend“The exchange has my license. The network never asked.”
Plaina list of who owns how much.
Precisethe complete public record of every Bitcoin transaction since January 2009, held in identical copies by every full node on the network.
Say it to a friend“Bitcoin is a ledger everyone can read, and nobody can edit.”
Plainmoney the law says must be accepted to settle a debt.
Precisea currency that, by statute, a creditor cannot refuse in payment of a debt; in the United States, that is the dollar.
Say it to a friend“El Salvador made bitcoin legal tender in 2021 and made it voluntary again in 2025.”
Plainborrowing to buy more than you have.
Precisetrading with borrowed funds so that gains and losses are multiplied, with the position closed by the platform (liquidated) when losses reach the borrower’s own stake.
Say it to a friend“At 10 times, a 10% dip takes all of it.”
Plainthe fast lane built on top of Bitcoin, where payments settle in seconds for a fraction of a cent.
Precisea network of two-party payment channels, the bar tabs of Chapter 12, anchored to the Bitcoin ledger, across which payments are routed without recording each one on-chain.
Say it to a friend“Lightning is the same bitcoin on a faster road.”
Plainthe longer a thing has survived, the longer it is likely to keep surviving.
Precisethe observation, popularized by Nassim Taleb, that for ideas and technologies the expected remaining life grows with age; used to argue that Bitcoin’s 17 years are themselves evidence.
Say it to a friend“People take every year Bitcoin survives as evidence it will keep going. It is a rule of thumb, not a law.”
Plaina loss hurts more than the same gain helps.
Precisethe finding, from Kahneman and Tversky’s prospect theory, that people weigh losses roughly twice as heavily as equivalent gains.
Say it to a friend“It’s why people sell at the bottom and why I set a schedule.”
Plainthe ability to wait for something better, because you trust it is coming.
Precisea low discount rate on future value relative to present value; in Bitcoin usage, a disposition toward saving and long horizons that some holders report strengthening over time.
Say it to a friend“It is patience, and it grows where promises get kept.”
Plainputting the whole amount in at once instead of a little at a time.
Precisea single purchase of the full intended amount, as opposed to dollar-cost averaging; historically ahead on average and behind in the worst cases.
Say it to a friend“Lump sum usually wins on paper. The schedule is what people actually stick to.”
Plainthe Fed’s broad count of the dollars people can spend.
Precisea money-supply measure: currency in circulation plus checking, savings, small time deposits, and retail money market fund balances, published by the Federal Reserve.
Say it to a friend“M2 is how many spendable dollars exist.”
Plainthe price of the last trade times the number of coins that exist.
Precisemarket capitalization: current price multiplied by circulating supply; a measure of size for comparison, not a measure of money invested.
Say it to a friend“Nobody poured two trillion dollars in. That’s just price times coins.”
Plainthe waiting room where transactions sit until a miner puts them in a block.
Preciseeach node’s set of valid, unconfirmed transactions; miners draw from it, usually highest fee first.
Say it to a friend“Your payment is in the mempool means it is waiting for the next page.”
Plaina network gets more valuable faster than it gets more users.
Precisethe claim, named for Ethernet co-inventor Bob Metcalfe, that a network’s value grows with the square of its users; applied to bitcoin by analysts who count addresses as a stand-in for users.
Say it to a friend“One phone is useless. A million phones are a network.”
Plainwanting something because someone you watch wants it.
PreciseRené Girard’s term for desire that is imitated from a model rather than chosen independently; the closer the model, the stronger the effect.
Say it to a friend“Nobody wants bitcoin until their brother-in-law does. That is not a character flaw. It is how wanting works, and it is why the crowd shows up at the top.”
Plaina computer competing to add the next block, paid in new bitcoin and fees when it wins.
Precisea participant that expends computing work to propose blocks, receiving the block subsidy and transaction fees for blocks the network accepts.
Say it to a friend“Miners propose, nodes decide.”
Plainthe guessing race that orders transactions into blocks and issues new bitcoin on a schedule.
PreciseThe process by which miners compete, using proof of work, to add the next block to the chain and receive the block subsidy and fees.
Say it to a friend“Mining is not digging, and it is not math homework. It is a guessing contest that costs electricity, and the winner gets to write the next page.”
Plaina company that combines many miners’ machines and shares the winnings by work done.
Precisea coordinator that aggregates hash power from independent miners, proposes blocks on their behalf, and distributes rewards in proportion to contributed work; a pool proposes pages but cannot change the rules.
Say it to a friend“A pool turns a lottery ticket into a paycheck. It still has to pass every node.”
Plainmore than one key has to agree before bitcoin moves.
Precisea script requiring M of N signatures, commonly two of three, so that no single key can spend and no single key’s loss is fatal.
Say it to a friend“Three keys, any two sign. A thief with one has nothing.”
Plainthe average interest U.S. banks pay on savings accounts.
Precisea rate the FDIC publishes monthly from bank data; it has stayed below 1% every year since 2009.
Say it to a friend“If your savings rate is under inflation, your savings are shrinking.”
Plainwhat you pay the miner to put your transaction in a block.
Precisethe amount, set by the sender and charged by the space the transaction takes up, that goes to the miner of the block that includes it; it rises when the mempool is crowded.
Say it to a friend“The fee is the tip that gets you into the next page.”
Plain“number go up,” Bitcoin’s joke about its own price.
Preciseslang for the observation that the bitcoin price has risen over long windows; a description of the record, not a promise about the future.
Say it to a friend“NGU brings people in. The reasons keep them.”
Plaina computer with a full copy of the ledger that checks everything for itself.
Precisesoftware that stores the blockchain, validates every transaction and block against the consensus rules, and relays valid ones.
Say it to a friend“It is the auditor, and anyone can be one.”
Plainthe number on the statement versus what it buys.
Precisea nominal figure counts dollars; a real figure adjusts for the change in prices over the same period.
Say it to a friend“Savings up 1%, groceries up 3. I lost 2.”
Plainthe number a miner keeps changing until the block’s fingerprint comes out small enough.
Precisea field in the block header that miners vary to produce a hash below the current target; from “number used once.”
Say it to a friend“Miners aren’t doing math. They’re changing one number and checking the fingerprint, billions of times a second.”
Plaina social network with no company in charge, where you hold your own account key the way you hold a bitcoin key.
Precisean open protocol (“Notes and Other Stuff Transmitted by Relays”) for publishing signed messages to independent relay servers; many Bitcoin communities use it, and it supports Lightning tips built into posts.
Say it to a friend“It’s like a social feed, except nobody can delete your account, because there is no company to delete it.”
Plainthe outside source a smart contract has to trust for facts.
Precisea service that feeds external data, such as a price, into a blockchain; a single point of failure that Bitcoin avoids by knowing only about bitcoin.
Say it to a friend“Bitcoin never asks an oracle. It only knows who owns what.”
Plainthe moment Bitcoin makes sense to someone, or the act of helping it make sense.
PreciseBitcoin slang, from the color of the logo, for the shift that turns a doubter into a holder.
Say it to a friend“Getting orange-pilled just means it clicked.”
Plainthe range of ideas the public will tolerate at a given moment, which shifts over time.
Precisenamed for policy analyst Joseph Overton. Bitcoin sat outside the window in 2009, when internet money with nobody in charge was unthinkable, and moved inside it as the argument moved from ignoring to fighting.
Plainan optional extra word that opens a different wallet from the same seed.
Preciseunder BIP39, user-chosen text combined with the mnemonic to derive a separate seed; forgotten, it cannot be recovered.
Say it to a friend“The twenty-fifth word. Lose it and the 12 words open an empty room.”
Plainthe bar tab between you and the Lightning road, opened with one entry on the main ledger and closed with one more.
Precisea two-party arrangement in which balances are updated off the ledger and only the opening and the final settlement are recorded on it.
Say it to a friend“Open a tab, pay as many times as you like, settle once.”
Plainthe company in the middle that takes a customer’s bitcoin and hands the shop dollars.
Precisea service that accepts bitcoin on a merchant’s behalf and settles to the merchant in the currency of its choice, for a fee.
Say it to a friend“The taco truck never holds bitcoin unless it wants to.”
Plainyou are more likely to do a thing when someone like you does it first and turns out fine.
Precisethe finding, from Bandura’s social learning research and Rogers’s work on diffusion, that behavior spreads mainly through observation of near-peers rather than through instruction from experts.
Say it to a friend“My sister didn’t convince me. She just kept doing it, and I watched.”
Plainbuying from a person rather than a shop.
Precisea direct trade between two individuals, often introduced by a platform that holds the bitcoin in escrow until payment clears, with no identity check for personal transactions.
Say it to a friend“Craigslist, but the seller sends bitcoin.”
Plaina promise to pay you a fixed amount every month for life.
Precisea defined-benefit retirement plan in which the employer or government bears the investment risk; exposed to the promiser’s solvency and to inflation when payments are not indexed.
Say it to a friend“A pension is a promise. Check who is making it and whether it rises with prices.”
Plaina supply that does not change no matter what the price does.
Precisethe economist’s term for a quantity fixed by rule; bitcoin’s issuance is set by the schedule and cannot rise when demand or price rises.
Say it to a friend“A million-dollar bitcoin is produced at exactly the same rate as a one-dollar bitcoin.”
Plaina fake message dressed up as a real one, fishing for what you type.
Precisea fraudulent communication or website that imitates a trusted source to capture credentials, codes or seed phrases.
Say it to a friend“Real wallets never ask you to type your words into a web page.”
Plaina long friendship that ends with a fake trading platform.
Precisea romance-or-friendship investment fraud in which trust is built over weeks before the victim is steered to a counterfeit platform that shows fictional gains and blocks withdrawals.
Say it to a friend“The money talk started with someone she had never met.”
Plaina pattern that looks like a straight line on a stretched, logarithmic chart.
Precisein bitcoin, a model that fits price to the time since the first block on log-log axes, popularized by the physicist Giovanni Santostasi; it describes the past and offers no mechanism.
Say it to a friend“A straight line through the past is still the past.”
Plaintreating “now” as special, so a small thing today beats a bigger thing later.
Preciseoverweighting immediate rewards relative to future ones, beyond what a steady discount rate would predict.
Say it to a friend“Your future self is a stranger you keep handing the bill to.”
Plainthe secret that lets you move your entry.
Precisea large random number, kept by your wallet, used to create the digital signature that authorizes spending from a specific ledger entry.
Say it to a friend“The bitcoin is on the ledger. The key is what makes it mine.”
Plaina guessing race that costs real electricity, so you can't rewrite the past without redoing it.
Precisethe mechanism by which miners find a hash below a target, making each block expensive to produce and the chain with the most work the one nodes follow.
Say it to a friend“Energy is the lock on the ledger.”
Plaina shared set of rules that lets strangers’ computers work together, like the rules that let any email reach any inbox.
Precisethe published rules for valid Bitcoin transactions and blocks, enforced by every node, which no single party can change.
Say it to a friend“Bitcoin is a protocol, like email. Nobody owns email either.”
Plaina pair of keys: one you share, one you never do.
Precisea system in which a public key can verify signatures made by its matching private key without revealing it; the basis of Bitcoin addresses and signatures.
Say it to a friend“The address is the mailbox number. The private key opens the box.”
Plainthe Fed buying bonds from banks with money it creates on the spot.
Preciselarge-scale central bank purchases of securities, paid for with newly created bank reserves.
Say it to a friend“QE is not the stimulus check. It’s the Fed typing money into banks’ accounts.”
Plainthe Royal Canadian Mounted Police, Canada’s national police force.
Precisethe federal police service that gave banks the names of protest organizers and participants used in the February 2022 account freezes; it says no list of donors was given.
Plainexpecting whatever just happened to keep happening.
Precisethe tendency to give recent events more weight than the longer record when predicting the future; a close cousin of normalcy bias.
Say it to a friend“Fifteen good years is a record, not a promise.”
Plainone page that tells your family what you own, where the backup is and who to call.
Precisea plain-language document, kept separate from the seed phrase and referenced by the will, that provides the practical access a will cannot.
Say it to a friend“The will gives them the right. The letter gives them the way in.”
Plainanother name for the seed phrase: the 12 or 24 words that rebuild your keys.
Precisethe mnemonic backup defined by BIP39; wallets use “recovery phrase,” “seed phrase,” and “backup words” for the same thing.
Say it to a friend“Recovery phrase, seed phrase, same twelve words. Guard them the same way.”
Plainthe second call after the loss.
Precisea fraud in which someone claims, for an upfront fee, to be able to recover funds lost to a previous fraud.
Say it to a friend“A fee to get your own money back is the scam again.”
Plaina government agency that writes and enforces the rules for an industry.
Precisein the United States, the SEC for securities, the CFTC for commodities, the IRS for taxes, and state agencies for money transmission, among others.
Plainsomething a government or a company holds in its vault to keep its value over time.
Precisean asset held by a central bank, treasury or corporation as a store of value and a source of liquidity, traditionally gold and foreign currencies, and since 2020 sometimes bitcoin.
Say it to a friend“A reserve asset is what you keep when you don’t need to spend it yet.”
Plainthe founders take the money and vanish.
Precisea token or project whose creators drain the pooled funds or sell their holdings and abandon it, leaving holders with nothing.
Say it to a friend“Who controls the supply? Then they control the exit.”
Plaindivide 72 by the interest rate to get the years it takes money to double.
Precisean approximation for doubling time under compound growth; at 5%, about 14 years; at 24%, about 3 years.
Say it to a friend“72 divided by the rate. It works for debts too.”
Plainthe penny of Bitcoin, only smaller.
Preciseone hundred-millionth of a bitcoin, 0.00000001, the base unit the ledger counts in.
Say it to a friend“You don’t buy a bitcoin. You buy sats.”
Plainless of a thing than people want, and no way to make more on demand.
Preciseless of a good than people want, with no way to make more on demand; in bitcoin’s case the supply also does not respond to price, because issuance is fixed by rule at 21 million and no demand can raise it.
Say it to a friend“Gold is scarce because digging is hard. Bitcoin is scarce because the number is in the rules.”
Plaina newer signature method added to Bitcoin in 2021.
Precisea signature scheme activated with Taproot that is simpler, slightly smaller, and lets several keys sign as if they were one.
Say it to a friend“Schnorr is a cleaner stamp, added in 2021.”
Plainthe U.S. agency that polices stocks and investments.
Precisethe federal agency enforcing securities law; its chairs have said bitcoin is not a security; the CFTC is the regulator that classed it a commodity, which is why it is regulated differently from most tokens.
Plainthe 12 or 24 words that rebuild every key in your wallet.
Precisea mnemonic under the BIP39 standard that encodes the random number from which a wallet derives all of its keys.
Say it to a friend“Lose the phone, keep the words, keep the bitcoin.”
Plaina 2017 upgrade that changed how transaction data is stored.
PreciseSegregated Witness, a soft fork activated in August 2017 that moved signature data out of the main transaction body, fixed a long-standing bug, and made Lightning practical.
Say it to a friend“SegWit was the 2017 upgrade that the users, not the miners, decided.”
Plainyou hold your own key.
Precisecontrol of the private keys by the owner, with no intermediary able to move or freeze the funds.
Say it to a friend“Nobody can freeze it, and nobody can save me.”
Plaina retirement account that can hold things beyond ordinary funds, including bitcoin.
Precisean individual retirement account whose custodian permits alternative assets; the custodian, by law, holds the assets, so the owner never holds the keys.
Say it to a friend“Tax shelter in, key custody out.”
Plainwhatever holds your private key and approves each payment: a phone, a computer, or a hardware device.
Precisethe device that stores the private key and produces the digital signature for a transaction; in a phone wallet the phone is both the wallet and the signing device, while a hardware signing device keeps the key off any internet-connected computer.
Say it to a friend“The app shows the money. The signing device holds the key.”
Plaina thief moves your phone number to their phone.
Precisean attack in which a carrier is tricked into porting a victim’s number, so the attacker receives text-message login codes.
Say it to a friend“If your phone suddenly has no service, call the carrier before you do anything else.”
Plainthe fund that protects your investments if your brokerage firm fails.
Precisethe Securities Investor Protection Corporation, which replaces missing securities and cash at a failed member brokerage up to $500,000 per customer, including $250,000 in cash; it covers spot bitcoin ETF shares but not bitcoin held on an exchange, and never covers a fall in price.
Say it to a friend“SIPC covers a broker that fails, not a price that falls.”
Plainprograms on a blockchain that move money when conditions are met.
Preciseself-executing code on networks such as Ethereum that depends on outside data fed in by an oracle; Bitcoin supports only simple spending conditions by design.
Say it to a friend“A smart contract is only as honest as the oracle feeding it.”
Plaintricking a person instead of breaking a machine.
Precisemanipulating someone into giving up access or money through trust, fear or urgency rather than through any technical attack.
Say it to a friend“They did not hack the phone. They talked to the person holding it.”
Plainwe assume a thing is right when people like us are doing it.
Precisethe tendency to adopt the beliefs or actions of a reference group, especially under uncertainty; the mechanism behind the neighbor effect in Bitcoin adoption.
Say it to a friend“The neighbor who bought matters more than the argument.”
Plainan upgrade that old software still accepts, so the chain stays one chain.
Precisea backward-compatible tightening of the rules; SegWit (2017) and Taproot (2021) were soft forks.
Say it to a friend“New lane markings on the same road.”
Plaina fund that owns bitcoin, sold as shares in a brokerage account.
Precisean exchange-traded product approved in January 2024 that holds bitcoin with a custodian and issues shares tracking its price, minus a fee.
Say it to a friend“You own a slice of their pile, and you cannot send it anywhere.”
Plainthe fee hiding in the price.
Precisethe gap between the price a platform quotes you and the price the market is trading at, kept by the platform in addition to any stated fee.
Say it to a friend“Compare the price they gave you to the price on the chart. The difference is the spread.”
Plaina digital dollar issued by a company.
Precisea token designed to hold a fixed value, usually one U.S. dollar, backed by reserves held by an issuer that can freeze or redeem it.
Say it to a friend“A stablecoin is a dollar with a company behind it. Bitcoin has nobody behind it on purpose.”
Plainbuying small amounts of bitcoin regularly and keeping them.
PreciseBitcoin slang for accumulating satoshis over time, usually by fixed, recurring purchases regardless of price; a description of what many holders do, not an instruction.
Say it to a friend“I’m not trading. I just stack a little every payday and leave it alone.”
Plainwe prefer whatever we already have, simply because we have it.
Precisea preference for the current state of affairs, in which any change is weighed as a loss; documented by Samuelson and Zeckhauser in 1988.
Say it to a friend“The dollar feels safe because it is familiar, not because anyone checked.”
Plaintaking care of something you plan to hand on.
Preciseresponsible management of an asset on behalf of a future holder; in Bitcoin, self-custody plus a plan for inheritance.
Say it to a friend“You are holding it for whoever comes next.”
Plaina share of ownership in a company.
Precisean equity security that gives its holder a claim on part of a company’s profits and assets, traded on exchanges and regulated by the SEC.
Say it to a friend“A stock is a slice of a company. Bitcoin has no company.”
Plainhow many years of new production it would take to double what already exists.
Preciseexisting supply divided by annual new supply, a measure of scarcity; about 60 for gold and about 120 for bitcoin after the 2024 halving.
Say it to a friend“Sixty years to double the gold. A hundred and 20 for bitcoin, and it doubles every halving again.”
Plainstaying with something because of what you already spent on it.
Precisecontinuing a course of action because of past, unrecoverable costs rather than future value; the reasoning that keeps people in careers and positions they would not choose fresh.
Say it to a friend“What you already paid is gone either way. Decide on what comes next.”
Plaina price settles where what sellers will sell meets what buyers will buy.
Precisethe basic market model: when demand rises against a fixed supply, the price must rise, and when demand falls, it must fall.
Say it to a friend“Bitcoin’s supply can’t change, so demand does all the moving.”
Plainthe messaging network banks use to wire money across borders.
Precisethe Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication, a Belgian cooperative whose messages instruct banks to move money between accounts; it carries instructions, not money, which is why a wire takes days.
Say it to a friend“SWIFT is the bank’s way of sending a message that money should move.”
Plaina 2021 upgrade that made complex transactions look like simple ones.
Precisea soft fork activated in November 2021 that added Schnorr signatures and a way for multi-key spending conditions to appear on the ledger as a single ordinary signature.
Say it to a friend“Taproot made a three-key wallet look like a one-key wallet on the ledger.”
Plainthe $700 billion bank rescue Congress passed in October 2008.
Precisethe Troubled Asset Relief Program, created by the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008; about $443.5 billion was paid out.
Say it to a friend“TARP was the bailout that came four weeks before the whitepaper.”
Plainany moment the tax code wants a number from you, including buying lunch with sats.
Precisea transaction that triggers a reportable gain or loss, such as selling, exchanging or spending property.
Say it to a friend“Spending sats is selling sats, as far as the IRS is concerned.”
Plainwhat Satoshi’s original code called the blockchain.
Precisethe term used in early Bitcoin source code, emphasizing that each block is above all a timestamp and the chain is a clock.
Say it to a friend“Tick tock, next block.”
Plainhow long until you need the money, the length of your runway.
Precisethe period before expected withdrawal, which sets how much short-term swing and long-term erosion a holding is exposed to.
Say it to a friend“At 22 a bad year is a blip. At 76 it is the plan.”
Plaina rule that says these coins cannot move until a set time has passed.
Precisea spending condition enforced by the network that makes an output unspendable until a given block height or elapsed time, used in inheritance plans to activate a recovery key after a period of owner inactivity.
Say it to a friend“A dead man’s switch, enforced by the network.”
Plainhow much more you need to be offered before you will wait.
Precisethe rate at which a person discounts future value against present value; low means willing to wait for a real reward.
Say it to a friend“It is a dial, and it moves when promises get kept.”
Plaina mark that proves something existed at a certain time.
Precisea field in every block recording when it was made; the first block also carries a newspaper headline as proof it was not made before January 3, 2009.
Say it to a friend“The first block has that day’s headline in it, so nobody can claim it was made earlier.”
Plaina digital receipt for something kept somewhere else.
Precisea blockchain token representing a claim on an underlying asset, such as gold, bonds or real estate, held by a custodian.
Say it to a friend“A tokenized gold coin is a claim check. The gold is still in someone’s vault.”
Plaina fund of government IOUs sold as tokens on a blockchain.
Precisea money-market-style fund holding Treasury bills whose shares are issued as blockchain tokens and redeemed through the issuer.
Say it to a friend“It is a T-bill fund with a token for a share certificate. The issuer still holds the bills.”
Plaina short-term IOU from the U.S. government.
Precisefederal debt that matures in a year or less, sold at a discount to face value; the main asset backing dollar stablecoins.
Plainhaving no bank account at all.
Precisethe FDIC’s term for a household with no checking or savings account; “underbanked” means having an account but still using check cashers, money orders or payday loans.
Say it to a friend“Unbanked means you pay a fee every time you touch your own money.”
Plainsomething is good money when it is expensive to make and impossible to fake.
PreciseNick Szabo’s 2002 term for the property shared by shells, gold, and bitcoin: real cost to produce and no way to counterfeit.
Say it to a friend“Every bitcoin cost electricity to make, and no one can print a fake one.”
Plainjudging an amount by the size of the unit instead of by what it is worth.
Precisethe tendency to prefer whole units and to misjudge value when a unit is very large or very small; the reason $100 of bitcoin feels like “almost nothing” and a million worthless tokens feels like “a lot.”
Say it to a friend“You don’t need a whole coin any more than you need a whole dollar. Count in sats.”
Plainan unspent entry on the ledger, a specific amount of bitcoin locked to your key that you have not spent yet.
Preciseunspent transaction output. The ledger stores no balances, only these entries, and your wallet adds up your UTXOs to show what you own.
Plainhow much and how fast a price swings, like the pitch of a small boat in open water.
Precisethe size of an asset’s price changes over a period, usually measured as the standard deviation of returns; bitcoin’s has been several times that of a broad stock index.
Say it to a friend“It swings. Whether that is a problem depends on when you need the money.”
Plainthe app or device you use to hold and send bitcoin.
Precisesoftware or hardware that stores the keys controlling bitcoin on the ledger; the bitcoin itself never leaves the ledger.
Say it to a friend“The wallet holds the keys, not the coins.”
Plainthe international lender for development projects, and a source of remittance data.
Precisean institution that lends to developing countries and publishes global statistics, including the cost of sending money across borders cited in Chapter 5.
Plainthe interest a bond or account pays, as a percentage of what you put in.
Precisethe annual return on a debt instrument expressed as a percentage of its price; moves opposite to bond prices.
Say it to a friend“Yield is the rent your money earns.”
