A(nother) Beginner’s Guide to Crypto
Step 1: watch this video to understand the mechanics of Bitcoin. There are a lot of 30min 101s on YT, I really liked this one.
Once you see this, then reading the Satoshi white paper will be a lot easier and fun. https://bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf
Step 2: write an actual smart contract on https://cryptozombies.io You don’t need to know programming. Just the ability to read IF THEN type statements. If you know MS Excel I think you will be fine.
Small Detour: Listen to these while you’re driving or doing chores — they’re both long. Let your imagination run wild for a little bit. This video will help you appreciate a key mind behind the Ethereum movement.
Step 3: Make an account in Coinbase or Kraken or Gemini, buy some crypto. And then also get a crypto wallet. Remember that an account on Coinbase exchange is different to a coinbase wallet.
Google the term: not your keys not your coins to understand this difference.
Step 4: Use your purchased Ethereum on https://uniswap.org and then pause for a moment to compare Uniswap to New York Stock Exchange. Lots of great explanations out there but no better way to get started than by swapping tokens and participating in a liquidity pool.
Step 5: put some money in a “savings” account on https://aave.com
To do so you will have to first purchase a stable coin like DAI. Ask yourself, what is a stable coin? Why are yields so high compared to bank deposits? Listen to a podcast featuring AAVE’s founder.
Step 6: Follow @DeFi_Dad on Twitter and listen to this tutorial on how to do yield farming. At each step, keep asking about the risks involved. Where is the collateral? Who gets to call it? How does this risk compare to buying a bond?
This is finance nerd heaven.
Step 7: Learn about Ethereum 2.0 through this brief podcast from Crypto Casey.
By now you will have paid plenty of gas fees and will be wondering how scalable Ethereum is. Learning about how the Ethereum upgrade is happening will be helpful.
Step 8: Learn about Ethereum alternatives like Solana and Cardano. Ask yourself if the existing applications built on top of Ethereum would ever migrate? Read how TCP/IP became dominant and wonder whether Ethereum will as well?
Step 9: Learn about oracles and flip through this beautiful slide deck from Sergey Nazarov. Read the Chainlink paper and ask yourself why the Oracle problem is so damn hard?
Finally — go back to a problem you care about solving and see how crypto can help you. I found crypto because of my obsession with energy transition infrastructure. This obsession helped me find KlimaDAO and FAIRCHAIN.
I’m writing this post to help you see that crypto is a lot bigger than speculation or finding a 10x or 100x return. Imagine being the person who just speculated on tech stocks in 1999 versus someone who actually started using the Internet to deliver products and services.
Blockchain manages to minimize trust required for people to cooperate. That has value.
Hope you find this useful!
#CBSDigitalLiteracy
