With all the buzz about cryptocurrency, it’s always been in my wish list of “Things I Must Know about because they’re relevant (and everyone’s talking about them),” but whenever I would slap my hands and dive into the ocean of content available I found myself with a sense of confusion.
There was jargon-like phrases in every sentence including “smart contract” to “DAI” and “liquidity farming.” It was a whole world that had its own language and quirks. So what’s that “proof of stake” everybody is talking about? Why are people so unhappy with Elon Musk? And how can you keep your mind from turning when you stare at all the coins with names that are a mystery, such as “PancakeSwap” as well as “Polkadot?”
You can imagine that I’ve attempted to get into crypto a couple of times before giving up and decided to simply nodding in agreement whenever someone mentioned Bitcoin. It wasn’t until the last few months that I was able to figure out how I could go from “totally ignorant” to “beginner who is finally beginning to understand the terminology.” I’m pleased to report that I have an Metamask wallet, and I’ve made investments with BTC, ETH, and several other altcoins. I’ve finally grasped enough about DeFi to be exuberant about it.
What transpired was that I created a list of books to read instead of wandering around the web of crypto-related information. I wrote and revise the list as I went along (based on what I wanted to learn about the next step). The path to understanding the fundamentals of crypto will be exactly the same, but these are the sources which proved most beneficial to me (and sure, I selected them due to their ability to keep the esoteric language to the minimal level).
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Beginning with Crypto
If you’re interested in cryptocurrency but aren’t sure how to begin Here are some suggestions:
1. The Bitcoin Standard
This was the first book about crypto that I read — and it did a good job of explaining the implications of Bitcoin beyond the whole “this-can-potentially-make-me-a-lot-of-money” lure that usually gets people interested in crypto in the first place.
There’s a reason that this book is rated with more than 250 reviews on Amazon. It explains the reasons why Bitcoin can change the world and how it can be an even better exchange and store of value than paper money and gold.
2. The sovereign individual
It was awe-inspiring since it was written in the latter part of 1990 However, many of the predictions it made have proven to be true. Its main argument is that we’re now in the “fourth stage of our human civilization,” which will be characterised by major changes in the world of politics and economics. Even though it was written twenty years ago, in the time that computers were still far from becoming popular, it was actually predicting the rise of digital nomadism, freelance work, remote work and even Bitcoin in its own right — or more specifically, the decentralized currency built around cryptographic algorithms.
This is one of Thiel’s most recommended books. It assists in setting Bitcoin against a broader view of the future: one where the power of Bitcoin is increasingly within the control of individual and borders between nations are dissolved.
3. How to DeFi: Beginning
If you begin to explore cryptocurrency, you’ll be hearing about “decentralized financial system” or DeFi quite quickly. If you think crypto is a bit wild DeFi seems even more wild and more risky. You could consider it a revolution in finance that takes banks and other intermediaries from third parties out of the equation.
CoinGecko is a well-known price monitor within the crypto sector The book they published describes DeFi in a simple manner, and includes the ability to link to articles and blogs for each chapter. The book also explains the different uses of DeFi that range from stablecoins to borrowing and lending.
4. Coinbase Learn
After having read the previous books I felt that I could go back to the online tutorials and posts. To learn about the basics I read the guides for beginners at Coinbase Learn.
Bitcoin and Ethereum remain the two major cryptocurrency players and I decided to investigate these first before moving to the other altcoins and examining DeFi more deeply. Coinbase explains what is Bitcoin? as well as What’s Ethereum? They provide clear explanations for each coin. In addition, you’ll be able to look over the other beginner guides, which include what is a blockchain What is a smart contract? and what are stablecoins?
5. Decrypt Learn
Decrypt is another website that offers helpful guides on nearly every major crypto-related subjects. While you’ll find mainly news stories on their homepage their crypto guides appear extremely specific and frequently up-to-date.
I’d suggest Coinbase Learn for getting up to speed on the basics. You can then move onto Decrypt when you need to research additional niche topics like Axie Infinity, crypto lotteries decentralized voting, as well as exchanges that are decentralized.
6. Market Cap for Coin Market Cap
It’s not really for you to read but Coin Market Cap shows you an up-to-date list of cryptocurrency that are ranked in accordance with their market capitalization. As you already know the basics of what Bitcoin or Ethereum are It is possible to explore altcoins by analyzing the top ten coins on Coin Market Cap.
As of the time I’m writing this article, the top 10 coins include ADA (Cardano) and (XRP), (XRP), DOGE (Dogecoin), DOT (Polkadot) along with UNISWAP (Uni). One user on Reddit has also made a nice article with a short description of every one of the 50 top cryptocurrency (as as of the beginning of 2021).
7. Binance, Coinbase, and Kucoin
In this case, you might decide to try your hand at it and purchase some coins (maybe only a tiny amount at first , to be safe!) or at the very least, play with cryptocurrency exchanges. Binance, Coinbase, and Kucoin are the top exchanges and I chose Binance since buying from Coinbase isn’t an option in my area and it was more convenient to trade on a short-term basis as opposed to Kucoin.
No matter which exchange you select which one you prefer, you will gain a lot of knowledge by going through the various features available in the application and understanding the way it functions. For instance, Binance had a Binance Earn feature, which lets you place bets on certain cryptocurrency that led me to thinking about staking. And it was very easy to use too since it only took a few clicks!
8. Bank-free
Bankless is likely to be one of the most thorough cryptocurrency newsletters on the internet. I look at their newsletters in my inbox – even as a subscriber for free I receive emails almost every day, ranging from instructions on automating liquidity, to news pieces regarding NFTs.
If you’re interested in learning more about this topic, this guide is a goldmine that will keep you busy for quite a time! They have a podcast as well which delve deep into DeFi and other trending topics in crypto. There are the release of new episodes several times per week. For a brief introduction to the idea of being bankless it is possible to start by listening to their first episode.
9. r/CryptoCurrency
With all the news sites about crypto available, it may seem odd that I’m suggesting using the CryptoCurrency subreddit. There’s certainly a small amount of overlap with the notorious WSB (you’re certain to meet “to the moon” as well as “diamond hands”) however, once I had a solid knowledge of crypto, this reddit was a fantastic resource to keep up-to-date with the latest developments in the field! While there’s plenty of memes and ambiguous tips, if you read the useful posts, you’ll feel as if you’re part of an online community (and you might you’ll get a laugh as well).
It took me about two months to read the entire list and I consider it as a “free” first introduction to cryptocurrency. They cover the basicsand from there you can go into reading about whatever subject is interesting to you starting with NFTs, to earning interest from stablecoins or airdrops of free coins.
However, all the standard investing tips apply here: investigate any project prior to making a decision to invest in it (don’t put money in just because everyone’s telling you so! ) Be wary of making cryptocurrency the sole part of your portfolio of investments (unless you’re prepared to live with the risk). However, it’s an asset which isn’t comparable to other classes, and has many exciting developments to come in the near future!