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Glossary

Plain-language definitions. These are teaching aids — not legal, tax, or investment advice.

Money

Fiscal policy: Government taxing and spending decisions, typically made by Congress and the Treasury — distinct from central-bank monetary policy.
Inflation: A sustained rise in the general price level, which reduces the purchasing power of unchanged cash balances.
Medium of exchange: Something widely accepted in trade so you can sell your work and buy what you need without bartering directly.
Monetary debasement: Weakening a money’s scarcity or credibility — historically by diluting coin metal, today often by expanding currency and credit supply.
Monetary policy: Central-bank actions that influence money, credit, and interest rates — for example Federal Reserve balance-sheet operations.
Purchasing power: How many goods and services a unit of money can buy. A wage can stay the same in dollars while buying less.
Store of value: The ability of money to carry purchasing power from today into the future so saved work is not silently eroded.
Unit of account: A shared measuring stick for prices, wages, debts, and accounting — the yardstick money provides.

Fixed supply: Bitcoin’s issuance is capped by protocol rules near 21 million BTC. Ownership can still be concentrated, and price can still be volatile.
Satoshi (sat): The smallest common unit of Bitcoin. One bitcoin equals 100,000,000 satoshis, so small budgets can still buy measurable amounts.
Volatility: How much price moves over time. Bitcoin’s price can swing sharply even while its monetary issuance rules remain predictable.

Custodial Bitcoin: Bitcoin an exchange or service holds for you. Convenient for beginners, but you rely on that company for access and solvency.
Hardware wallet: A dedicated device that stores keys offline and signs transactions without exposing the seed to your everyday computer or phone.
Seed phrase: A recovery word list that can restore wallet keys. Treat it like cash and keys combined — never type it into a website.
Self-custody: Holding Bitcoin with keys you control (typically via a wallet you manage), instead of leaving coins on an exchange or other custodian.