On the wiki page for Grothendieck group, the first sentence says the Grothendieck group is the "best possible" way to construct an abelian group from a commutative monoid.
What actually does this mean formally?
On the wiki page for Grothendieck group, the first sentence says the Grothendieck group is the "best possible" way to construct an abelian group from a commutative monoid.
What actually does this mean formally?