If you're new to Stablecoins and on-chain payment rails compared, fiat-backed versus over-collateralised, redemption terms, network fees, settlement times, depeg history, custody…

of reserves, this piece walks through the concepts that tend to come up in the first week. No hype, no shortcuts, we focus on what actually saves time later.

Most confusion at the start comes from mixing up terms that are related but mean different things. We flag those early and link to deeper material for each.

By the end you should have a mental map you can fall back on when reading anything else on the topic. That map is the main deliverable; everything else is supporting material.