CryptoCurrency Slides Quiz 1

Central Bank

An institution that manages a country's currency, money supply, and interest rates (e.g., Federal Reserve); often criticized in slides for enabling inflation and debt via fiat money creation

Fiat Money

Government-issued currency not backed by physical commodity (gold/silver); slides link it to post-1971 Nixon shock and ongoing debt growth

Gold Standard

System where currency value is directly linked to gold; U.S. Constitution referenced it, ended in 1971 per slides

1913 Federal Reserve Act

Year the Federal Reserve was created; slides imply it enabled central banking and income tax, with Wilson regretting it

1971 Nixon Shock

When Nixon ended dollar convertibility to gold, leading to pure fiat system and inflation pressures (slides show debt clock extension)

Bitcoin

A decentralized peer-to-peer electronic cash system created in 2009 by Satoshi Nakamoto; solves double-spending without trusted third party via proof-of-work

Proof-of-Work

Mechanism in Bitcoin where miners solve computational puzzles to validate transactions and add blocks; secures the network

Decentralized Finance (DeFi)

Financial services (swaps, staking, yield farming) built on blockchain without intermediaries like banks; contrasts with traditional centralized systems

Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC)

Digital form of fiat money issued by a central bank; slides list benefits (inclusion, efficiency) vs. costs (loss of freedom/privacy)

Blockchain

A distributed ledger that records transactions across many computers; immutable, decentralized, censorship-resistant

Internet of Things (IoT)

Network of physical objects (appliances, vehicles, sensors) connected to the internet, collecting/sharing data; enables smart cities, usage-based insurance

5G

Next-generation cellular network with high bandwidth/low latency; enables massive IoT data transfer for FinTech

Banking as a Service (BaaS)

Model where banks provide APIs for fintechs to offer branded banking products without a full license

Application Programming Interface (API)

Set of rules allowing software applications to communicate; key for open banking, payment processing, white-label services

Payment Service Provider (PSP)

Company that offers payment processing (e.g., PayPal); handles credit cards, ACH, etc.

ACH (Automated Clearing House)

Network for electronic funds transfers (bill payments, direct deposits); slower but cheaper than wires

SWIFT

Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication; dominant for cross-border payments (~$125T volume per slides)

Wire Transfer

Fast bank-to-bank transfer (often same-day); used for large/high-value payments like home purchases; more expensive

PCI DSS

Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard; 12 requirements to protect cardholder data (firewalls, encryption, access control, etc.)

Artificial Neural Network (ANN)

Computing system inspired by biological neural networks; used in AI/ML for pattern recognition, classification

ReLU (Rectified Linear Unit)

Common activation function in neural networks: max(0, x); helps solve vanishing gradient problem

Generative AI (GenAI)

AI that creates new content (text, images, code); based on large models trained on massive data (e.g., GPT, Gemini)

Robotic Process Automation (RPA)

Software that automates repetitive rule-based tasks; often used in robo-advisors alongside AI

eToro Contest

$100K virtual trading contest referenced in slides; students track portfolio weekly in Google Sheet