The wider world · 88 / 90 · 3 min

Reading a document

Read the sentence that can freeze you. The sentence that calls you safe is the one they hope you stop on.

A worked case

Someone reads a homepage that says the customer owns the coins, and stops there. The terms let the firm halt a withdrawal. The halt arrives. The homepage was a claim. The terms were the rule. The sentence they liked was the one they were meant to stop on.

What to mark

Mark a line only if it names a fee, a person who can change the terms, or a person who can halt, delay, or keep the money. A slogan about the future is not that line.

If the line is not on the page, write that it is missing. Do not borrow it from the advert, the logo, or a stranger's summary.

Three pages

A pitch is what they claim. The terms are what you would be agreeing to. A government page can be official and still be a proposal. A kind sentence in the first does not cross out a freeze in the second.

A signature is shorter, and it is its own page. It is the permission you are about to give. Read it. It is not a cookie banner.

The sentence people stop on

FTX's terms were widely reported, after the collapse, as telling customers that title to their digital assets stayed with them and did not pass to the firm. In November 2022 withdrawals stopped anyway. The comforting sentence was real enough to quote. It did not move the keys, and it did not open the withdrawal. A pitch, a terms file, and a halt are three different documents. People read the first, trusted the second's kindest line, and met the third.

The same reading applies to a government page. The Bank of England's pages on a digital pound describe a design. They do not say a digital pound has been issued. They say that if one is issued, Parliament would have to be involved. A page can be official and still be a proposal. Marking it means writing what it actually says, including what it refuses to decide.

Mark a sentence only when it names who is paid, who can change the terms, or who can freeze, delay, or keep the money. A slogan about safety is not one of those sentences. If the power is missing from the page, leave the line empty. Filling it from hope is how the kindest sentence wins.

Read it yourself

• Bankruptcy of FTX
• The Bank of England on the digital pound

These links are the record. They are not a recommendation, and they are not instructions. A news story or a court paper can still be wrong about a detail. The check does not change because a famous name is in the story.

Apply the check

Open a question. The line is about this topic. It is not a verdict that anything is safe.

Check yourself

Write it in your own words. The course's answer opens after that. Nothing is sent.