The theory of the set-theoretic Yang-Baxter equation is reviewed from a purely algebraic point of view. We recall certain algebraic structures called shelves, racks and quandles. These objects satisfy a self-distributivity condition and lead to solutions of the Yang-Baxter equation. The quantum algebra as well as the integrability associated to Baxterized involutive set-theoretic solutions is briefly discussed. We then present the theory of the universal algebras associated to rack and general set-theoretic solutions. We show that these are quasi-triangular Hopf algebras and we derive the universal set-theoretic Drinfel’d twist. It is shown that this is an admissible twist allowing the derivation of the universal set-theoretic ℛ-matrix.