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Digital scarcity
Digital scarcity is the ability to create a digital item that cannot simply be copied, so that only a fixed or limited number of units can exist and be owned. Before blockchains, digital files could be duplicated endlessly; a shared ledger lets a network enforce a limit everyone can check.
What it means for you. A coin's supply limit is a rule in its software that you can verify, not a promise from a company. But the limit applies to one network's units only: a chain can split in a fork and new coins can be launched, so the scarcity of one asset does not make crypto as a whole scarce.
Sources: Nick Szabo, Bit gold (2005), bitcoin.org: Frequently Asked Questions, BIS Annual Economic Report 2018, Chapter V: Cryptocurrencies: looking beyond the hype · checked 4 October 2026
Sound money
Sound money is money whose supply cannot be expanded at will by a government, bank or company, so its purchasing power is not diluted by new issuance. Some crypto supporters apply the term to coins with a fixed, publicly known issuance schedule, such as a hard cap on total supply.
What it means for you. A fixed supply schedule tells you how many new coins can ever be created, and you can check it in the protocol; it does not tell you what a coin will be worth. Coins with capped supply have still swung sharply in value, so a predictable supply and a stable price are different things.
Sources: bitcoin.org: Frequently Asked Questions, Nick Szabo, Bit gold (2005), BIS Annual Economic Report 2018, Chapter V: Cryptocurrencies: looking beyond the hype · checked 4 October 2026