Learn in the textbookFinTech, Digital Currencies, and Identity Verification / Anti-Money-Laundering Measures
DefinitionA crypto-asset (暗号資産) is a form of property value exchanged over the internet whose transaction records are managed with technology such as blockchain, and it is not legal tender (法定通貨) issued by a government or central bank.
ExplanationCrypto-assets used to be called virtual currency (仮想通貨), and Bitcoin is a well-known example. The blockchain behind their records links blocks of transaction records like a chain and has many participants' computers share the same ledger, which makes tampering difficult.
AnalogyIt is like a value whose balance is kept not in one bank's books but in a shared ledger of which every participant holds an identical copy.
Memory hookRead the two parts of the Japanese name: 暗号 (cipher) is the technology that protects the records, and 資産 (asset) means property value rather than money itself.