---
title: "Blockchain payments glossary: 34 terms explained in plain English"
seoTitle: "Blockchain payments glossary: 34 terms, plain English"
description: "Stablecoin, on-ramp, off-ramp, finality, gas, non-custodial, travel rule. The 34 terms of blockchain payments, each defined in one or two lines."
date: "2026-07-31"
updated: "2026-07-31"
category: "payments"
author: "BlindPay Team"
faq:
  - q: "What is the difference between a blockchain payment and a stablecoin payment?"
    a: "A blockchain payment is any transfer of value recorded on a blockchain. A stablecoin payment is the most common kind for businesses: the token that moves is pegged one-to-one to a currency like the US dollar, so its value doesn't swing between sending and receiving. In business payments, the two terms usually mean the same thing."
  - q: "What does on-ramp and off-ramp mean in payments?"
    a: "An on-ramp converts local money, like dollars sent by ACH or reais sent by Pix, into a stablecoin. An off-ramp does the reverse and pays local money into a bank account. Most cross-border blockchain payments use both: an on-ramp on the sender's side and an off-ramp on the recipient's side."
  - q: "What is settlement finality in blockchain payments?"
    a: "Finality is the point after which a confirmed transfer can't be reversed or reorganized out of the ledger. On networks like Stellar and Solana it arrives in seconds. On Ethereum, full finality takes about 13 to 15 minutes. Until a payment is final, a careful provider treats it as pending."
  - q: "What is a gas fee?"
    a: "A gas fee is what the network charges to process a transaction, paid to the validators who include it in a block. On Polygon, Solana, Stellar, and Base it is usually a fraction of a cent to a few cents. On Ethereum it can reach several dollars when the network is busy."
  - q: "What does non-custodial mean in a payment?"
    a: "Non-custodial means the provider never holds your funds. The stablecoins stay in a wallet you control until a transaction you authorized moves them. In a custodial setup, the provider holds the assets on your behalf, which is simpler to operate but adds counterparty risk."
  - q: "What is the travel rule?"
    a: "The travel rule requires financial institutions and virtual asset service providers to pass identifying information about the sender and recipient along with a transfer above a set amount. FATF extended it to virtual assets in 2019, and most major jurisdictions now apply it to stablecoin transfers between providers."
---

Blockchain payments come with 34 terms that rarely show up in a bank statement. The short version: a **stablecoin** is a dollar-pegged token, an **on-ramp** turns bank money into stablecoins, an **off-ramp** turns them back, and **finality** is the moment a transfer can't be undone. Everything else in this glossary hangs off those four ideas.

Each definition below is written for someone who runs payments, finance, or product, not for a protocol engineer. For the bigger picture of how the pieces fit, start with [what blockchain payments are and how they work](/resources/more/what-are-blockchain-payments).

## What are the core terms in a blockchain payment?

**Blockchain payment.** A transfer of value recorded on a shared, public ledger instead of being passed between banks as messages. For businesses, almost always a stablecoin transfer.

**Blockchain (or network, or chain).** The shared ledger itself. Ethereum, Polygon, Base, Arbitrum, Solana, Stellar, and Tron are the ones that carry most dollar stablecoin payments.

**Stablecoin.** A token designed to hold a fixed value against a currency, usually one US dollar. USDC (issued by Circle) and USDT (issued by Tether) are the two largest.

**Token.** A unit of value that lives on a blockchain. A stablecoin is a token; so is a cryptocurrency like ETH. A token is issued on a specific chain, so USDC on Polygon and USDC on Solana are separate deployments of the same asset.

**Wallet.** Software or hardware that holds the private keys controlling an address. A wallet doesn't store coins; it stores the keys that can move them.

**Address.** The public identifier funds are sent to, like an account number. EVM chains (Ethereum, Polygon, Base, Arbitrum) use the `0x` format with 40 hex characters. Solana, Stellar, and Tron each use their own format, which is why sending to the wrong network loses funds.

**Private key.** The secret that authorizes transfers out of an address. Whoever holds it controls the funds. Lose it and nobody can recover them.

**Issuer.** The company that creates (mints) and redeems (burns) a stablecoin, and holds the reserves backing it.

**Reserves.** The cash and short-term government debt an issuer holds so every token can be redeemed at par. In the US, the GENIUS Act, signed on July 18, 2025, sets which assets count.

## What do on-ramp, off-ramp, and payout rail mean?

**On-ramp.** The service that converts fiat money into stablecoins. You send dollars by ACH or wire, or reais by Pix, and stablecoins arrive in a wallet.

**Off-ramp.** The reverse: stablecoins go in, local money lands in a bank account.

**Fiat.** Government-issued money held in banks: dollars, euros, pesos, reais.

**Payout rail.** The local payment system that delivers the fiat at the end. Pix in Brazil, SPEI in Mexico, ACH and RTP in the US, SEPA in Europe, and SWIFT for everything else.

**Payin.** A deposit coming in: fiat that a customer sends so it can be converted into stablecoins.

**Payout.** Money going out: stablecoins converted into fiat and sent to a recipient's bank account.

**Virtual account.** A dedicated bank account number in a customer's name that receives deposits and, with a stablecoin provider, converts them automatically. [What is a virtual account](/resources/more/what-is-a-virtual-account) covers how they work.

## What do settlement, confirmation, and finality mean?

**Transaction hash.** The unique ID of an on-chain transfer. Anyone can look it up on a block explorer, which makes it the closest thing to a public tracking number.

**Confirmation.** A transaction has been included in a block. More confirmations mean more blocks built on top of it.

**Finality.** The point after which a transfer can't be reversed or dropped from the ledger. Ethereum finalizes a block after two epochs of 6.4 minutes each, which [ethereum.org](https://ethereum.org/en/roadmap/single-slot-finality/) rounds to about 15 minutes. Stellar and Solana reach finality in seconds.

**Settlement.** The moment the recipient actually has the money, with no further steps or conditions. On-chain, settlement and finality happen together. In card and bank systems, settlement comes days after the payment looks done.

**Reversibility.** Whether a payment can be pulled back. Card payments carry chargebacks for months. A final on-chain transfer can't be reversed by anyone, so mistakes are fixed by a new transfer, not a recall.

## What do custodial and non-custodial mean?

**Custodial.** A provider holds your assets and keys on your behalf, the way a bank holds deposits. Easier to operate, but you depend on the custodian.

**Non-custodial.** You keep control of the keys. The provider can't move funds unless you sign or approve the transaction. Less counterparty risk, more operational work.

**Self-custody.** You hold your own keys with no provider in between. Non-custodial taken all the way.

## What do gas fees, quotes, and spreads mean?

**Gas fee (network fee).** What a blockchain charges to process a transaction. Cents or less on Polygon, Solana, Stellar, and Base; potentially dollars on Ethereum.

**Quote.** A price a provider locks for a short window: the exchange rate, the fees, and the exact amount the recipient will get. If the quote expires, you request a new one.

**FX spread.** The gap between the market exchange rate and the rate you get. It's often the largest cost in a cross-border payment, and banks rarely show it as a line item.

**Slippage.** The difference between the price you expected and the price you got, because the market moved while the order executed. A locked quote moves this risk to the provider.

## What compliance terms come up in blockchain payments?

**KYC (Know Your Customer).** Verifying an individual's identity before they can send or receive money.

**KYB (Know Your Business).** The business version: verifying the company, its registration, and the people who own and control it.

**AML (anti-money laundering).** The program of policies, monitoring, and reporting a regulated company runs to detect and report illicit funds.

**Sanctions screening.** Checking people, companies, and wallet addresses against government sanctions lists, like the list kept by the US Treasury's [Office of Foreign Assets Control](https://ofac.treasury.gov/).

**Travel rule.** A requirement for providers to send sender and recipient information along with transfers above a threshold. The [Financial Action Task Force](https://www.fatf-gafi.org/en/topics/virtual-assets.html) extended it to virtual assets in 2019.

**VASP (virtual asset service provider).** FATF's term for any business that exchanges, transfers, or holds virtual assets for others. Most on-ramp and off-ramp providers are VASPs.

## How do bank terms map to blockchain terms?

Most blockchain vocabulary has a close bank-world equivalent. This table is the fastest way to translate.

| Bank term | Blockchain term | What's actually different |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Account number | Wallet address | Anyone can create an address. No bank opens it for you |
| Online banking password | Private key | Lose a key and nobody can reset it |
| Bank | Custodian, or yourself | With self-custody, there's no institution in between |
| SWIFT MT103 / wire confirmation | Transaction hash | Anyone can verify a hash on a public explorer |
| Clearing and settlement (days) | Confirmation and finality (seconds to minutes) | No batch windows, no cut-off times |
| Wire fee and correspondent fees | Gas fee | Paid once to the network, not per intermediary bank |
| Chargeback or recall | None | Final transfers can't be reversed |
| Bank's FX rate | Quote with FX spread | Good providers show the spread before you send |
| Currency exchange (fiat to fiat) | On-ramp plus off-ramp | The stablecoin sits in the middle |

## How do the terms fit together in one payment?

Here's a US company paying a supplier in Brazil, with the glossary terms in bold.

1. The company is onboarded through **KYB**, and the supplier's bank details are verified.
2. The company requests a **quote** that locks the **FX spread**, the fees, and the exact reais the supplier will receive.
3. Dollars arrive by ACH as a **payin**, often into a **virtual account**.
4. The **on-ramp** converts the dollars into **USDC**.
5. The USDC moves **on-chain**, gets its **transaction hash**, and reaches **finality** in seconds on a fast **network**.
6. The **off-ramp** converts the USDC into reais.
7. The reais land in the supplier's account over **Pix**, the **payout rail**, usually within minutes.

Sanctions screening and travel rule checks run around steps 1 and 5. Neither the company nor the supplier ever holds a **private key**, because a provider runs that part. The API version of the same flow is in [how a stablecoin payment works](/resources/more/how-a-stablecoin-payment-works).

## How does BlindPay use these terms?

[BlindPay](/global-payments) is a stablecoin payments API, and its docs come in two flavors that map to this glossary. The Abstracted flavor keeps you in bank terms: virtual accounts, payins, payouts, and bank accounts. The stablecoin settles behind the scenes, and nobody picks a network or holds a key. The Advanced flavor exposes the blockchain vocabulary directly: wallets, addresses, networks, tokens, and on-chain authorization.

Payouts go out over Pix, SPEI, Transfers (Argentina), ACH COP (Colombia), ACH, wire, RTP, SEPA, and SWIFT (POBO/COBO), with no pre-funding. KYC and KYB run inside the API. The [supported chains reference](/docs/kb/supported-chains) lists which networks and tokens each feature accepts.

## What to do next

Pick the five terms your team argues about most (usually finality, custody, and FX spread) and agree on one definition for each before you evaluate a provider. Then read [build vs buy for stablecoin payments](/resources/more/build-vs-buy-stablecoin-payments) to see which of these layers you'd own if you built it yourself.

*This article is for general information only and is not legal, tax, or financial advice.*