With all the buzz about cryptocurrency, it’s always been in my wish list of “Things I’m supposed to know about because they’re relevant (and everyone is talking about them),” but whenever I would slap my hands and dive into the ocean of content available I would be left in a state of confusion.
There were jargon-like phrases in every sentence that ranged from “smart contract” to “DAI” and “liquidity farming.” It was a world of its own language and quirks. What’s the “proof of stake” that everyone is talking about? What’s the reason so many people are dissatisfied with Elon Musk? And how can you keep your mind from turning when you stare at all the coins there that have names that seem to be a bit cryptic, like “PancakeSwap” or “Polkadot?”
You can imagine that I’ve attempted to get into crypto several times, but then gave up and settled for simply nodding in agreement whenever someone mentioned Bitcoin. It wasn’t until recently that I realized the steps to move from “totally ignorant” to “beginner who’s beginning to grasp the language.” I’m pleased to announce 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 enthusiastic about the service.
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 revised the list over time (based on what I wanted to learn about the next). The path to understanding the fundamentals of crypto will be exactly the same, but these are the books that proved to be the most useful to me (and in fact, I selected them due to their ability to keep the vocabulary of cryptography to an absolute minimal level).
Beginning with Crypto
If you’re interested in crypto , but don’t know how to begin Here are some options:
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 this book is rated with more than 250 reviews on Amazon. It shows exactly the reason why Bitcoin can change the world and how it can be the best exchange and store of value than paper money and gold.
2. The sovereign individual
The book was mind-boggling due to the fact that it was released in the mid 1990s however, a lot of the predictions it made have proven to be true. Its main argument is that we’re in the “fourth phase of our society,” which will be characterised by major changes in the world of politics and economics. Even though it was written twenty years ago, in an era when computers weren’t yet popular, it was actually predicting the rise of digital nomadism, remote work, freelance, and even Bitcoin itself , or more specifically, the decentralized currency built around cryptographic algorithms.
This is one of Thiel’s highly recommended books. It basically assists in setting Bitcoin against a broader view of the future: one where the power of Bitcoin is increasingly at the fingertips 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 fairly quickly. If you think crypto is a bit wild DeFi seems even more wild and more risky. You could imagine it as an economic revolution that eliminates banks and other intermediaries that are third-party 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, including hyperlinks to blogs and articles for each chapter. It also covers the different ways to use DeFi including stablecoins, loans and lending.
4. Coinbase Learn
After reading the previous books I was able to feel like I was able to return to tutorials and online posts. To learn about the basics I read the guides for beginners to Coinbase Learn.
Bitcoin and Ethereum remain the two major cryptocurrency players So I thought I’d investigate the two first before moving on to other coins and exploring DeFi more deeply. Coinbase explains what is Bitcoin? as well as What’s Ethereum? They provide clear explanations for the two coins. Then, you can go through other beginner guides, which include what is a blockchain What is a smart contract? and what do you mean by a stablecoin?
5. Decrypt Learn
Decrypt is another website that offers useful information on almost all the most important crypto-related subjects. While you’ll find mainly news articles on their website the crypto guides are 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 of Coin Market Cap
This isn’t actually for you to read but Coin Market Cap shows you the most current list of cryptocurrencies which are ranked based on their market capitalization. If you already know the basics of what Bitcoin as well as Ethereum are You can explore altcoins by analyzing the top 10 coins first on Coin Market Cap.
At the moment that I’m writing this article, the top 10 coins include ADA (Cardano) as well as the 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 all of the most popular 50 cryptocurrency (as in early 2021).
7. Binance, Coinbase, and Kucoin
In this case, you might decide to do some digging and invest in some coins (maybe at first, just a small amount at first , to be cautious!) or even play around with cryptocurrency exchanges. Binance, Coinbase, and Kucoin are typically among the exchanges that are most highly recommended I chose Binance since buying from Coinbase isn’t an option in my area and it was easier to do short-term trades on there as opposed to Kucoin.
No matter which exchange you select which one you prefer, you will get a good understanding of the app by looking through the various options available on the application and understanding the way it functions. For instance, Binance had a Binance Earn feature that allowed you to put your money into certain cryptos which led me to looking into staking options, and it was very easy to use too since it only took a few clicks!
The Cryptela website is a great source for the latest crypto education stories.
8. Bank-free
Bankless is likely to be one of the largest cryptocurrency newsletters on the internet. I am always looking for their emails in my inbox – even as a subscriber for free I get emails each day, ranging from instructions on automating liquidity to news on NFTs.
If you’re interested in this, this article is a goldmine that will keep you busy for quite a long time! They have a podcast as well which delve deep into DeFi and the larger developments in crypto, with new episodes being released multiple times per week. To get a good introduction to the concept of being bankless it is possible to start with their very first podcast episode.
9. r/CryptoCurrency
With all the news sites about crypto available, it may be a bit odd to recommend this CryptoCurrency subreddit. There’s certainly a small amount of overlap with the notorious WSB (you’re likely to meet “to the moon” as well as “diamond hands”) however, after I had a good knowledge of the crypto world, this subreddit was a fantastic resource to stay up-to-date on the latest developments in the field! There’s no doubt that there’s a lot of memes and ambiguous tips, if you read the useful posts, you’ll feel like you’re part an online community (and you might you’ll get a laugh too!).
It took me two months to complete each of them and I consider it as a “free” introduction to cryptocurrency. These are the basic information -From here you can go into reading about whatever subject is interesting to you and interest, from NFTs to gaining interest from stablecoins or airdrops of free coins.
However, all the typical investing tips apply here: examine any project thoroughly before investing in it (don’t invest money simply because everyone else is saying it! ) Don’t make cryptocurrency the sole part of your investment portfolio (unless you’re prepared to live with the risk). It’s an asset that isn’t comparable to others, and with plenty of exciting developments coming in the near future!
