Crypto 101: A Quick Summary Into Crypto

Introduction

If you are new into the world of crypto, then you can find a quick introduction here. If you are already familiar with crypto, then you probably won’t find anything new here.
For the uniniated crypto may seem like a difficult technical technology, which it basically is. Luckily you can use it without needing to have a deep understanding of the underlaying tech.

Basically it means you can transfer money from one to another without the need of a bank or other intermediary party.
It is fast, cheap to transfer and you aren’t depending on a bank for example.
In order to use it, you need a wallet (that’s your address) (on a phone app, software on computer or website wallet), internet and basically the address of the person you want to send it to.
It allows anyone to have access to a payment system and a way to store money, while owning it. This is what Bitcoin is about.

The Usecase Behind Bitcoin

If you are from a first world country, so to speak, the need for a self-custodity payment system may not seem like something which is very neccesary (at first), however in many, less-developed parts of the world there isn’t always a well working banking system. People don’t always have access to a bank to store money. For them it is a huge usecase.
As for people who do have access to one, self custody is still a very big pro.
Of course the monitary system and inflation is something to worry about, however let’s not delve to much in that for now. But do mind that this is the original idea behind the creation of Bitcoin though, after the big crash of ’08.

Bitcoin was created after the great financial crash of 2008. An financial ecosystem which isn’t like the traditional financial system.
A currency which isn’t bothed by inflation (although new coins get mined, they are not printed out of thin air, and the inflation is not that high). There is no traditional goverment or banking system behind it.

In order to get a true understanding we recommend you to read the Bitcoin whitepaper. It should be one of the first steps for everyone entering crypto. Who better to explain it then Satoshi Nakamoto himself.

Bitcoin Whitepaper

In order to get a true understanding we recommend you to read the Bitcoin whitepaper. It should be one of the first steps for everyone entering crypto. Who better to explain it then Satoshi Nakamoto himself.

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The Number 2: Ethereum

The 2nd largest innovation which came to this space is Ethereum, which is also the 2nd most valued coin. It offers something called smart contracts, which basically means contracts which can automatically be completed once the terms of agreement between parties has been done. This allows for a further financial system built upon blockchain, most often in the so called De-Fi. (Saving, earning interest and lending) space at the moment. It allows for real world usage as well, but let’s not get too technical here. You can find more information about this from a variety of sources already. And in another article we will follow this up.

What else can it do?

All innovation so far with cryptocurrency has been with these 4 technologies (payment system, decentralisation, the blockchain and smart contracts). Other coins can do things faster, more secure, cheaper or with a broader usecase (such as gaming).

Your first steps are going to be to use your own currency (like Dollar or Euro) to aquire cryptocurrency, so you need an entrypoint. Once you have cryptocurrency in your wallet, you are free to send it, use it to trade or use it for another usecase which the crypto you bought offers (such a De-Fi or gaming),

We can narrow down several types of crypto in the following (not full list), with an example coin.

• Payment system (Bitcoin)
• Financial system/ De-Fi (Ethereum)
• Infrastructure to build coins on (Ethereum)
• Gaming (Gala)
• Technology (such as AI, VR, AR) (Agix, Render)
• Real world usage (such as system to process data) (Vechain)
• Decentralisation (building already existing projects, like social media, on the blockchain)
• Memecoins (basically do nothing, but are bought for fun and community) (Dogecoin)

In the follow-up posts you can find a guide on how to buy Cryptocurrency, how to trade it and several ways in which you can use it.