A Beginner’s Guide to Crypto — A Directory of My Favorite Resources
Written by Robert Yang — Twitter @robertythoughts
First of all I’d like to state that I’m no expert. I actually think that gives me more credence since like many of you, I know what it feels like to start from 0 in crypto. But don’t fret, there’s more resources than ever for you to learn from. I’ve compiled a list of such resources in topical sections so that you can start your journey into the cryptoverse.
Some tips before we begin:
- Figure out all the terminology (there’s a lot of it)
- Ignore pedantic gatekeepers (the space is too new for that)
- HODL
Bitcoin
Ah, what is crypto without our founding father, Satoshi Nakamoto, and his beautiful invention, Bitcoin. Bitcoin carved the path as the first crypto money and laid out the foundation for blockchain technology. Before you dive deep into the crypto ecosystem, I recommend you nail your Bitcoin fundamentals. You’ll come to see in your future research that there’s strong thematic similarities between Bitcoin and the rest of the cryptoverse.
Resources
- Bitcoin Whitepaper
The founding document of Bitcoin. Considered the constitution of crypto. - Blockchain: Simply Explained
A concise video on the workings of blockchain. - Goldman Sachs Report (Crypto: A New Asset Class)
An institutional look into Bitcoin for the use case of “digital gold.” - The Debate Behind Bitcoin’s Energy Consumption
A good look in to both sides of the energy argument. - A History of Bitcoin: Told Through 5 Different Point of Views
A great article detailing the narratives that populate bitcoin - The Bitcoin Revolution
A deep dive into the monetary implications of Bitcoin
Smart Contracts
Now you should have enough knowledge to shill Bitcoin to your Uber driver in peace. But you’ve just scratched the surface of the crypto revolution. As a critical development, some smart people decided to store code in blockchain transactions. That led to an awesome possibility: the decentralization of everything. Imagine a world where processes can’t be intervened by corporate or government interests. That world is now a reality.
Resources
- Smart Contracts Explained
A concise video describing smart contracts for beginners - 12 Decentralized Applications
A video showing the potential of decentralization - Decentralizing Everything
An iconic speech by Vitalik Buterin, the founder of Ethereum
The Scaling Trilemma
Now you‘ve gotten a look at the huge potential of crypto in disrupting our future. As you now know, the goal of crypto is not to exist in a vacuum, but in a plethora of future use cases. But before that’s achievable, there’s a host of scalability issues that prevent networks from achieving mass adoption. Currently, a whole category of protocols are working hard to solve these infrastructural issues. I warn you, this section does get more into the weeds about blockchain infrastructure, so it does get a bit technical.
Resources
- An Overview of the Blockchain Trilemma
A high level look into the trilemma and its solutions. - Ethereum 2.0 Explained
A video for beginners to understand Ethereum scaling initiatives. - Layer 2 Scaling Explained
A video describing solutions to Ethereum’s scalability issues.
DeFi
DeFi, or Decentralized Finance has seen a MASSIVE boom since the summer of 2020. That’s because DeFi is one of crypto’s first major applications to reach critical success. It still has a long ways to go, but the infrastructure being laid out right now will one day disrupt finance as we know it.
Resources
- DeFi: Crypto’s ‘Wild West’ of Finance
A good overview of DeFi by the Wall Street Journal - What is DeFi
A descriptive video about DeFi for beginners - What is Yield Farming
A video describing the process of yield farming - What is a Liquidity Pool
A video describing a key innovation in DeFi: the liquidity pool - What is an Automated Market Maker
A video describing another key innovation: the automated market maker
NFTs
You might’ve seen the news. People are making millions selling and trading JPGs on the internet. We’re at the starting line of a digital gold rush. There’s no need to display your wealth through a lambo anymore when you can change your twitter profile pic to a Bored Ape. Sounds like a scam, I know. But NFTs aren’t a scam (albeit, some collections may be experiencing bubbles). They have huge real world utility.
Resources
- What are NFTS?
A WSJ video describing the hype and utility behind NFTs. - Making Sense of the NFT Marketplace
An article diving deep in to NFT economics and marketplaces. - Play-to-Earn, the Metaverse, and NFTs
The success of crypto games and the future of NFTs on the Metaverse.
Congrats
You’re done. You’ve completed the crash course. You’re light years ahead of everyone and your earnings power has just skyrocketed. With your newfound knowledge, you can stand to make a contribution to the new digital age, profit off a slew of cryptocurrencies, or just troll on Discord. Whatever you see fit.
I’ve selected a number of extra resources that’ll help you in your ongoing journey. Remember, crypto is growing at an insane rate. The best way to understand what’s going after learning the basics is to get your feet wet.
Open a crypto wallet. Start trading on an exchange (centralized or decentralized). Go on Twitter or Discord to find new protocols that catch your eye. GLHF! WAGMI!
Extra Resources
Written by Robert Yang. Robert is the founder of Personify, which is working on the creation of a “smart resume” on the blockchain. Robert is also a Research Analyst at the NEU Blockchain Association and a student at Northeastern University. Feel free to contact him on twitter @robertythoughts or by email at yang.rob@northeastern.edu.
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