GLOSSARY
The vocabulary of money that moves through code
A working reference for the concepts behind custody, compliance, and stablecoin rails. No jargon left unexplained.
A TO Z
Terms worth knowing
Short, honest definitions you can share with a teammate who is new to the space.
- Non-custodial custody
- A model where the platform never holds custody of user funds. Users control their own funds, and no movement happens without the user’s approval.
- Stablecoin
- A digital token designed to track the value of a reference asset, usually a fiat currency like the US dollar. Its stability depends on the reserves and redemption promises behind it, not on the token itself.
- Travel rule
- A compliance requirement that transfers above a threshold carry identifying information about who sent the money and who receives it, so regulated institutions can screen the parties involved.
- Mandate
- A pre-authorized permission that lets an application or agent move a defined amount of money under specific rules, without asking the account holder to approve every single transaction.
- KYC / AML
- Know Your Customer and Anti-Money-Laundering: the checks that verify who a user really is and screen activity for signs of illicit funds. Together they gate access to regulated financial services.
- Virtual account
- A dedicated account number that routes incoming funds to a single customer or purpose, while the actual balance sits inside a larger pooled account. It gives each user their own reference without a full bank account each.
- Proof-of-reserves
- Verifiable evidence that a custodian actually holds the assets it claims to back. It combines a snapshot of on-chain holdings with an accounting of the liabilities owed to customers.
- MCP
- Model Context Protocol: an open standard that lets AI models connect to external tools and data through a consistent interface, so an agent can request actions like a payment without custom glue for each service.
- Idempotency
- A property that guarantees repeating the same request produces the same result. In payments it prevents a retried call from charging or transferring money twice.
- Attestation
- A signed statement from a trusted party confirming that something is true, such as an auditor confirming that reserves exist or a service confirming a user passed identity checks.
- Step-up approval
- An extra confirmation, often biometric, required from the user before a higher-risk or high-value action goes through, so sensitive movements are never automatic.
- On / off-ramp
- The bridges between traditional money and digital assets. An on-ramp converts fiat into tokens; an off-ramp does the reverse, moving value back into a bank account or card.
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