Editorial methodology
How a term becomes a learning tool.
Crypto Term Game publishes a daily grouping puzzle and supporting guides for crypto, finance, and AI vocabulary. This page explains who is responsible for the content, how groups are built, where sources fit, and what we reject.
The site is independently maintained as an educational vocabulary project. It does not publish token recommendations, price targets, exchange rankings, or personalized financial guidance.
Our purpose
Many readers encounter specialist language before they understand the system behind it. An exchange screen may show order and margin terms. A wallet may request an approval. An AI product may mention retrieval, agents, evaluations, or guardrails. A stablecoin report may discuss reserves and redemption. Our purpose is to help readers recognize those words, compare neighboring ideas, and identify the next question to ask.
The game format is a recall exercise, not the final explanation. Each daily board connects to an answer page, glossary definitions, and longer guides. The strongest guides include an applied reading scenario, concept boundaries, knowledge checks, and a source trail. This structure turns a correct guess into a reviewable learning path.
Five-step publication workflow
Start with a real reading task
A term should help a reader understand a product interface, technical document, policy paper, risk report, or market-structure explanation. We do not add a word only because it is trending.
Define the system role
We ask what the term does: describe an asset, permission, data input, execution instruction, risk threshold, control, or operating process. This prevents groups based only on words that sound similar.
Compare neighboring concepts
A useful definition explains a boundary. Reserve is compared with collateral, spread with slippage, evaluation with monitoring, and provenance with truth. Readers learn more from the difference than from a synonym.
Check primary material
For source-backed guides we prefer regulators, standards organizations, protocol documentation, technical specifications, and first-party institutional research. Sources support a claim; they do not replace our plain-English explanation.
Review the learning path
Before publication we check whether the title matches the page, the four puzzle groups have distinct explanations, links resolve, dates and slugs are unique, and the page offers a next step through answers, glossary terms, or a longer guide.
A worked example: four words that should not be merged
Reserve, collateral, liquidity, and margin can all appear in a discussion of financial safety. Grouping them as money that protects something would be too vague. Our review instead records the role and the boundary of each word.
| Term | System role | Important boundary |
|---|---|---|
| Reserve | Supports an issuer's redemption obligation. | Size alone does not show liquidity, custody, or legal redemption rights. |
| Collateral | Secures a loan, position, or contractual obligation. | It may be volatile and may need to exceed the amount being secured. |
| Liquidity | Describes the capacity to transact near an expected price and size. | A solvent asset or issuer can still face short-term liquidity stress. |
| Margin | Provides a buffer for a leveraged position. | It changes with gains, losses, fees, and venue-specific risk rules. |
This comparison can then produce more precise puzzle groups. Reserve, attestation, redemption, and issuer risk can form a stablecoin-mechanics group. Initial margin, maintenance margin, mark price, and liquidation can form a leveraged-position group. The shared function is explainable, while the terms remain meaningfully different.
How we use sources
Sources are selected for authority and proximity to the subject. A technical specification is preferred for how a standard works. A regulator or international body is preferred for policy definitions and consumer-risk context. Protocol and language documentation is preferred for implementation behavior. We use secondary material only when it adds context that a primary source does not provide.
A source link is not presented as proof that every sentence is universally true. Product designs, laws, and technical systems differ. The role of the source trail is to show what informed the guide and give the reader a direct path to verify or challenge the explanation.
What automated checks do and do not do
The publication workflow uses automated checks for puzzle dates, duplicate identifiers, category structure, term links, and production builds. These checks protect site integrity, but they cannot decide whether a category teaches a real distinction. Concept fit, wording, source choice, and educational usefulness still require editorial review.
We do not publish a board solely because a generator produced valid data. A structurally valid puzzle can still be rejected when a group is ambiguous, promotional, repetitive, or impossible to explain in plain English.
Our rejection checklist
- A category depends on a pun or spelling pattern without teaching a concept.
- A term is included mainly to promote a token, project, venue, or sponsor.
- A definition makes a return, safety, or performance claim without support.
- Two groups overlap so heavily that a careful reader cannot distinguish them.
- A page repeats a short definition without a scenario, comparison, or next step.
- A source is cited for authority but does not support the nearby distinction.
Updates, corrections, and independence
Guides display an update date. We revise a page when terminology changes, a source becomes outdated, or a reader identifies an unclear boundary. A correction should include the page URL, disputed wording, and a primary source or concrete example when possible. Send it through the contact page.
Core puzzle terms, definitions, and answer keys are not paid placements. Any future sponsored learning material must be labeled near the relevant content and cannot control an independent definition or category. The full policy is available on the editorial policy page.