Glossary
Crypto payments, in plain English.
Definitions for the terms that show up in Plaitr docs, pricing, and product copy. Bookmark or share.
- Non-custodial
- A payment architecture where the provider never holds the merchant's funds. Payments route directly from the payer's wallet to the merchant's wallet. Plaitr is non-custodial.
- KYC (Know Your Customer)
- Identity verification process where a payment provider collects government IDs, business registration, and beneficial ownership. Required by most card processors and custodial crypto gateways. Plaitr requires no KYC at any volume.
- Stablecoin
- A cryptocurrency pegged to a fiat currency. USDC and USDT are the two largest, both pegged 1:1 to USD. Plaitr settles to USDC by default and supports USDT, DAI, and others.
- USDC
- USD Coin. A regulated stablecoin issued by Circle and pegged 1:1 to the US dollar. Available natively on Ethereum, Solana, Base, Polygon, Arbitrum, and more.
- USDT
- Tether. The largest stablecoin by market cap, pegged 1:1 to USD. Dominant on Tron (TRC-20) for low-fee transfers.
- L1 (Layer 1)
- A base blockchain. Ethereum, Solana, Tron, and BNB Chain are L1s. They settle transactions directly without depending on another chain.
- L2 (Layer 2)
- A scaling chain built on top of an L1 (typically Ethereum). L2s like Arbitrum, Optimism, Base, and Polygon offer lower fees and faster finality. Plaitr supports all major L2s.
- Settlement
- The final transfer of funds to the merchant. With Plaitr, on-chain settlement happens in seconds to minutes; fiat off-ramp completes same-day in 100+ countries.
- Gas (gas fees)
- The fee paid to validators or miners to process a blockchain transaction. Plaitr does not add to gas. Some chains (Tron, Solana, L2s) have near-zero gas.
- Webhook
- An HTTP callback the payment gateway sends when an event happens (payment confirmed, payout settled). Plaitr signs webhooks with HMAC for verification.
- Idempotent
- A property where calling the same API endpoint twice produces the same effect as calling it once. Plaitr's mutation endpoints accept idempotency keys so retries are safe.
- Chargeback
- A forced reversal of a payment by the issuing bank, common on card payments. Crypto payments cannot be charged back. This is a structural cost saving for high-risk merchants.
- Custodial
- A payment model where the provider holds merchant funds before settling them. Custody implies counterparty risk: the provider can freeze, lose, or restrict access. Stripe, BitPay, Coinbase Commerce, and NOWPayments are custodial. Plaitr is not.
- Fiat off-ramp
- Converting crypto to local currency and depositing to a bank account. Plaitr offers same-day fiat off-ramp in 100+ countries as an optional service.
- Hosted checkout
- A merchant accept-payment flow where the gateway serves the entire checkout page. Plaitr's hosted checkout requires zero code: just paste a link.
- Payment link
- A shareable URL representing one payable invoice. Can be one-time-use, expiring, or token-gated. Plaitr supports all three.
- Dynamic QR
- A QR code generated per payment, encoding the destination address, amount, and chain. Plaitr renders dynamic QRs that work with every major wallet.
- BEP-20 / ERC-20 / TRC-20 / SPL
- Token standards on BNB Chain, Ethereum, Tron, and Solana respectively. Plaitr supports all four natively.
- Self-hosted gateway
- A payment gateway you run on your own infrastructure. BTCPay Server is the most prominent. Plaitr is the managed alternative with the same non-custodial guarantees.
- High-risk merchant
- A business in an industry traditional processors restrict or ban (iGaming, adult, firearms, CBD, kratom, forex). Crypto rails like Plaitr are typically the only viable option.
- Cross-border payment
- A payment between parties in different countries. Traditional cross-border wires take 1-5 days and cost $25-50. Stablecoin rails complete in minutes for cents.