Delivery versus payment is a specific Institutions coordinate in the Bitcoin knowledge graph. In practical terms, it identifies the subject described here: A settlement design linking asset delivery to payment so one leg occurs only if the other does. This definition is narrower than promotional usage and should be read together with the implementation, date and evidence attached to the entry.
Delivery versus payment is best understood as part of a system rather than as an isolated definition. Its related coordinates show the mechanisms, incentives and historical records that give the term practical meaning.
Delivery versus payment belongs to the documented history and social layer around Bitcoin. Primary records can establish what was published, built or decided; motives, influence and later interpretation should remain separate from those verifiable facts.
Understanding Delivery versus payment helps distinguish a verifiable Bitcoin mechanism or historical record from slogans, products and market narratives.
Primary or authoritative records make these details checkable: delivery versus payment links transfer of a security or asset to transfer of payment so one leg settles only if the other does, reducing principal risk through a defined settlement system. They should be verified before using the coordinate in analysis.
The practical limit is: DvP does not eliminate counterparty default before settlement, liquidity, custody, legal or operational risk; simultaneous technical messages are not necessarily final and irrevocable transfers in every jurisdiction. A definition, office, chart pattern or published claim is not by itself a prediction or Bitcoin consensus rule.
For the clearest picture, read this entry together with Settlement risk, Institutional OTC desk, Institutional bitcoin custody, Probabilistic settlement finality, Counterparty risk, Bitcoin. The reverse links also lead from Settlement risk.