Crypto 101: What is it, Exactly?
What is a Cryptocurrency?
A Cryptocurrency is a digital form of currency created by a blockchain network.
It is a result of “blocks” being created on the network by nodes, which are high powered computers(essentially) that help verify blocks and the validity of transactions on the network, that solve a complex cryptographic puzzle in order to continue and verify transactions on the network.
Think of these puzzles as winning a lottery in reverse. Each miner or node knows the winning number, but you can only draw random numbers. The first Miner to find the number mines the block.
When these puzzles are solved, a “block” is mined. This means that the miner gets Bitcoin(or the native coin to whatever the network as the block reward), a portion of transaction fees during that time, and the transactions that happened within that timeframe are verified on the blockchain as permanent
Some Different Cryptocurrencies
Bitcoin - Is a network that allows for transactions using Bitcoin or denominations of Bitcoin. Was intended to be peer to peer digital cash.
Ethereum - Is a network that allow the use of smart contracts in order to create innovative types of “tokens” on the ethereum blockchain. The native token ETH is used to pay for transaction fee’s on the network.
Fantom - is a Directed Acyclic Graph blockchain network that utilizes smart contracts and allows for very high scalability and low transaction fees payed in FTM(fantom coin). Very high Transactions per second.
Hex - A Smart contract based token on the Ethereum Blockchain, which utilizes similar mechanics to a Certificate of Deposit. in order to interact with the Hex contract, a transaction fee must be paid in ETH.
What is a Blockchain?
Think of a blockchain as a giant excel spreadsheet on the internet. All transactions on the network are permanently recorded and can be seen by anyone.
A blockchain verifies all activity on the network through nodes.
It is a form of decentralized network, by having separate “nodes” aka miners all verifying information within a block is correct before updating it on the blockchain permanently. There is no central authority that controls the transactions, the miners, or the validity of anything on the blockchain. Once it is on the ledger(blockchain), short of forking the network(which is making a split in the network), there is no way to remove a transaction. All nodes must agree on the info on the blockchain.
A blockchain creates an incredibly secure way of transacting, where no central party controls the data and once it is verified it cannot be reversed.
What is a Token vs a Coin?
A token is a project or product built on the Ethereum, Fantom, Solana, Binance Smart Chain, Avax, etc network and uses smart contract technology to created innovative uses for cryptocurrency and financial means. A coin is the native reward from the network used for fees.
Even those fancy monkey jpegs called NFT's are tokens; which stands for - Non Fungible Token.
There are many specifics to tokens that go far deeper than this but for now, we will keep the definition here.
So, Whats the point of crypto?
the original cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, was designed to be a decentralized digital peer to peer cash system, in hopes of replacing the centralized fiat system we have today.( View it here: https://bitcoinwhitepaper.co/ )
While we have not adopted crypto in this exact way, cryptocurrencies each have different individual use cases from a technological standpoint. The only problem is most people don’t currently use crypto for a given purpose but more for its potential to profit from the investment.
Technology is allowing us to utilize some crypto on a day to day basis, but it usually comes with drawbacks; including slow transactions or lack of adoption for payments in society, as well as government regulations and taxes.
Cryptocurrency, for the most part, is the most volatile digital asset class in the world. Newer cryptocurrencies can have dramatic swings in price over 24 hours, whereas something like Bitcoin takes many days or weeks for volatility to occur. This means that you can either see things pump many times in price in a short while, or drop up to 90% in a matter of weeks or days.
The point of most crypto it seems, is to create the best digital asset that makes buyers buy a given crypto, hold it for a long enough period of time to see price go up before they sell, and have enough people buy in so that by the time early adopters sell new buyers hold the price up.
Eventually, we may see a completely digital form of decentralized currency, but for now we haven’t reached mass adoption yet.
What is DeFi?
DeFi, or Decentralized Finance, is a complete financial system based on utilizing blockchain technology, completely outside the fiat banking system. Individuals place coins in an exchange, where they can be traded for or against by others. People who do this generally earn interest from having participated in this way.
Borrowing, Lending, providing liquidity to a decentralized exchange or “Blockchain bank” and so much more can be done to earn more cryptocurrency.
It is an ever expanding landscape that evolves with the technology.
Due to new innovations being relatively untested, these can be high risk very high reward situations which can cause you to lose any money you have placed in a DeFi protocol.
It is usually very wise to vet the founders and developers to know their backgrounds, if they are public, if there has been audits on the code and wether it is immutable or there is a roadmap to completion.
Scams EVERYWHERE
the vast majority of projects, tokens or coins in crypto are money grabs and scams. They are usually “meme” coins that have 0 potential utility other than a name, made only to get buyers suckered into buying beefier devs pull the rug out from under them and take all the money.
It is very important to DYOR and expect that things are a scam before they are safe to invest. When people show their faces, or make themselves public about what it is they are creating, it can be a good sign that it is not a scam; however it is not a sure bet.
It seems to me this has happened because of FOMO and greed that this sphere has created, thus giving rise to the opportunity for malicious individuals to take advantage of a situation that is extremely unregulated.
Be aware though that in the early days, even Bitcoin was considered a scam, so extreme research is required about blockchain and cryptocurrencies in general in order to understand the likelihood of an asset being a scam or a hidden gem.
This will take time to understand, so do not expect to make money immediately. Instead, aim for long term gains and only invest with money you can afford to lose.
Our Favourite Cryptos
Hex - Works similar to a GIC or certificate of deposit. Right now the % of yield averages 38% with an average length stake(this means promising using a smart contract that you will not sell for a given time that you choose, but if you break the promise you get penalized). Hex Currently lives on Ethereum but will have a duplicate of itself on the Pulsechain network when it goes live.
Pulsechain - going to be a direct replacement for ethereum through a fork and is releasing in the coming months. It is duplicating over a copy of tokens you own on Ethereum to Pulsechain with a 1:1 ratio. “worlds largest airdrop”
PulseX - The Exchange that will live on Pulsechain where people exchange one token for another on the network. PulseX is the Token used to vote on changes to the fee’s and protocol in the future.
Do Your Own Research!
DYOR AND LEARN THIS INFO FOR YOURSELF.
Don't even take our word for it, take what we have told you and invest more time in understanding what it is we are talking about before investing. It is important to know that many Youtubers are paid influencers by Coinmarketcap to talk about certain cryptocurrencies ONLY, and get you to buy even if they are risky and have a high likelihood of failing.
DO NOT TRUST INVESTMENT ADVICE FROM YOUTUBERS, vet all information and find an opposing argument to find any holes in the argument for and against an investment.
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