Money and assets

Assets are the raw materials of programmable finance. Tokens make many of those materials legible to software, but a token balance does not by itself say whether the holder has a direct asset, redeemable claim, pooled share, debt claim, derivative exposure, or governance right.

This section builds the distinction in layers:

• Asset asks what has economic value and who controls it.
• Claim asks who owes a benefit to whom and under which rules.
• Token explains the ledger representation without assuming one economic meaning.
• Asset versus claim provides a repeatable diagnostic for layered positions.
• Stablecoin, real-world asset, wrapped asset, and claim token apply the model to common DeFi building blocks.

The question to keep asking

For every balance shown by a wallet or protocol, identify:

1. the unit recorded on-chain;
2. the asset, payment, service, or control right behind that unit;
3. the issuer, contract, custodian, or obligor responsible for the right;
4. the conversion, redemption, or settlement process;
5. who earns any return and who actually pays it; and
6. who absorbs loss when backing, liquidity, code, or legal enforcement fails.

That chain—not the token symbol—is the financial system.