ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Unit of account

Hey kiddo! Do you have a piggy bank where you keep all your money? Well, imagine if there was a special coin that everyone used to buy things like candy or toys. This special coin is called a unit of account.

Basically, a unit of account is a way for people to measure the value of things they want to buy or sell. It's kind of like how you use inches to measure how tall you are or how long a toy is. For example, if a candy costs 50 cents, people know that they need 50 of these special coins to buy it.

This special coin (or unit of account) can be anything, like dollars, euros, yen, or even bitcoin. People use this unit of account to compare the values of different things. For example, if you wanted to buy a toy for $10 and a book for $5, you would know that the toy costs more because it takes more of your special coins to buy it.

So, a unit of account is like a special measuring tool that helps people figure out how much things are worth and how much they need to buy them. Cool, huh?