# Collateral The ability to capitalize one’s wealth by putting one’s assets up as collateral is a key source of social and economic power in capitalism. The collateral question is really a question about who gets to determine what “assets” are, and how they can be utilised for leverage. In the existing economic space workers’ primary asset - their labor power - is only collateral in the context of slavery: the capacity of the employer (owner) to use the worker as collateral; not the workers’ capacity to use what they are capable of as collateral. The collateral question is the financial version of ‘class’. In postcapitalist economic space, all [Agent](/agent.md)s can issue assets to be used as [Collateral](/collateral.md) and central amongst these will be [Stake](/stake.md): agents will use the stake they hold as collateral, and lenders can determine credit limits on the basis of the valuation of stake. The construction of a [Protocol](/protocol.md) for distributed determination of collateral is the key challenge to the current capitalist order. It is the centrepiece of our strategy for a distributed economic system. --- # Agent Instructions: Querying This Documentation If you need additional information that is not directly available in this page, you can query the documentation dynamically by asking a question. Perform an HTTP GET request on the current page URL with the `ask` query parameter: ``` GET https://glossary.ecsa.io/collateral.md?ask= ``` The question should be specific, self-contained, and written in natural language. The response will contain a direct answer to the question and relevant excerpts and sources from the documentation. Use this mechanism when the answer is not explicitly present in the current page, you need clarification or additional context, or you want to retrieve related documentation sections.