Crypto Academy – Learn About Cryptocurrency
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Welcome! If you’re starting to learn about cryptocurrency you may find the amount of information overwhelming or confusing. We’re here to help make things simple so you can find out everything you need to know about cryptocurrency.
Cryptocurrency Basics
Let’s begin with crypto 101 to help you start to learn about cryptocurrency. Our easy-to-follow guides break information down into bite-sized chunks. So you can build your knowledge of cryptocurrency one step at a time. This is a great introduction to anyone that is new to crypto.
The article above, hard money vs easy money, refers to the basic fundamental differences between the two.
This article is a must-read and it’s one of those topics that people within the crypto community refer to every so often.
Money needs to be scarce. It is very much like rare items that appreciate according to their scarcity. If there is a lot of that item then the value goes down. As a result, the price is determined by supply and demand. The same principle applies to money.
On the other hand, easy money is when there is a lot of a particular currency in circulation. Today money is “easy” when governments and central banks print a lot of it.
Stablecoins
Stablecoins are just that – stable. They are not volatile like other cryptocurrencies. They are stable because they are pegged to a fiat currency like the US dollar.
Most especially they have specific use cases in DeFi. Moreover, they are great for traders when they do not want volatile cryptos or fiat. They can keep stablecoins and exchange them for other cryptos again when they need to.
Meme Coins
Meme coins are cryptos. Their image and name are usually derived from an internet meme. Or they have a funny aspect to their image. You can have a look at the meme coin statistics article to get a better idea of meme coins.
Quite a lot have dogs as their mascot image like Dogecoin or Shiba Inu. Others have random images. Such as the Baguette Token which – you guessed it – has a baguette!
Bitcoin Beginner Guides
Start with the basics of Bitcoin and why it holds so much value. These guides will give you a good understanding of how Bitcoin was invented and how it works.
Bitcoin Halving
One of the most important articles you can read is about the Bitcoin halving.
Until now, Bitcoin determines where the whole crypto market goes. Whether that is up or down. It tends to drag all other cryptocurrencies with it. Usually, though there is some lag. However, behind Bitcoin’s price fluctuations is its Bitcoin halving.
Essentially Bitcoin is mined from its blockchain. Each block provides Bitcoin to the miners as a reward for their efforts in mining Bitcoin. The Bitcoin halving is the point when the Bitcoin reward gets cut in half. As a result, miners get fewer rewards, but it also causes a supply shock.
If you are not aware Bitcoin only has a maximum fixed supply of 21 million coins. This means that the price of Bitcoin will go up because there is still the same demand. However, there is less supply. This draws upon the same principle of hard money we touched upon earlier.
The halving happens roughly every four years. So when the halving happens the price of Bitcoin increases dramatically. That is until it reaches the point when it peaks and comes crashing down again.
The Bitcoin halving article goes into some more detail. Investors find this information useful as it guides them on when to buy and sell. However, note that the article is for cryptocurrency information purposes only and is not meant to be financial advice.
Lightning Network
Bitcoin initially had a scaling problem with its base layer. The base layer is also called layer one. Developers needed to fix the scaling problem. Firstly because Bitcoin could not process more than a certain amount of transactions per second.
This is a problem because it can prevent Bitcoin from going mainstream. Bitcoin needs to measure up to other mainstream payment systems like Visa. Visa processes thousands of transactions per second.
Secondly, transactions were becoming expensive. So as a result Bitcoin developers built a layer 2 solution called the lightning network.
The lightning network allows instant transactions that are cheap to make. It works by layering additional infrastructure that does not register all transactions on layer one.
The additional infrastructure would be services such as example wallets, exchanges etc. What happens is that the exchange or service will support most transactions to happen on the service itself. When there are a certain amount of transactions accumulated the transactions can get registered as one transaction on the blockchain.
Other Bitcoin Upgrades
Although Bitcoin is less complex than other cryptocurrencies, it has its fair share of projects. One of these projects is called Taproot. The Taproot upgrade was activated on the 14th of November 2021.
Taproot is all about making Bitcoin more private. The way it works is that it puts together a bunch of small transactions. As a result, it is less easy to trace who is transacting with who. Additionally, you cannot figure out the amounts that are transacted.
However, critics of this upgrade say that chain analysis can still be done on the blockchain. So third parties can still figure out who is transacting on the network and by what amounts. Regardless this is the biggest upgrade to Bitcoin since 2017.
Blockchain Beginner Guides
Of course, you cannot cover cryptocurrency without covering blockchain. Blockchain is the technology that makes cryptocurrency possible. It is also enabling other innovations.
The space is developing rapidly and expanding into new sectors. Blockchain is affecting a lot of different things and it’s allowing new technological advancements.
Attacking Cryptocurrency
For those of you who do not know, cryptocurrency can get hacked by malicious actors. Not all cryptocurrencies are secure and one might be more secure than the next.
It is possible to attack a cryptocurrency by hacking it and stealing cryptocurrency. The hacker will have to undo transactions on the blockchain and divert funds to themselves.
Hackers can do this if they gain 51% control of the network. In other words more than half of the network computers. Hence why this is called a 51% attack.
One important note is that the difficulty of hacking a network would depend on the network size. This is why Bitcoin is one of the most secure networks. It has so many nodes running the network that it is the most secure. This is because mounting an attack costs money.
In fact, it is more cost-effective for a hacker to mount an attack on a smaller network. As opposed to cryptocurrencies with a larger network. For example, if someone had to attack Bitcoin it would cost around $500,000 per hour. On the other hand, if someone had to attack Bytecoin it would cost around $500 per hour.
DeFi Beginner Guides
DeFi is short for decentralised finance. Cryptocurrencies are decentralising finance. This means that there is not going to be a small group controlling finance. Instead, larger groups or many individuals will contribute to different aspects of finance.
In other words, it is different from CeFi. CeFi is short for centralised finance and is what we have now. It is our current system. It is not just about money; DeFi has to offer money and all the services CeFi has. That means a complete financial system.
Financial systems have a lot of infrastructures to cater for all sorts of services. The services include savings, investments, asset management, payment systems, trading and exchanges, lending and borrowing and more.
What’s amazing is that DeFi is still at the start of development. It started back towards the end of 2016. If you consider we need a whole financial system, DeFi still needs quite a lot more work. However, there are a lot of developers working on lots of different projects for the DeFi system.
What is up and running on DeFi
There are some things that are already operational. For example, you can get an interest rate paid on your crypto deposits. Similar to what used to happen with banks in the past. You will need to deposit crypto and you can earn interest. This is called staking. Note that different cryptos will give you different interest rates or yields.
Developers are also working to make things easier for blockchains to communicate with each other. So far each blockchain ecosystem is working separately. It is a fully autonomous system able to sustain itself. However, it would be more beneficial for society if blockchains could communicate with one another.
Ethereum Beginner Guides
Privacy Coins
As you can see there is a lot going on in the crypto world. With crypto being a payment method it is complimentary to how the internet is going to develop.
All these new advancements are going to intersect with each other. As a result, they are going to create a different world – a new crypto-based world. It is going to make our lives more efficient, convenient and definitely interesting.
Privacy coins are cryptocurrencies that are private. They are open to anyone that would like to participate. However, the blockchain is private. So you will not be able to see who is transacting with who and by how much.
Bitcoin, for example, is not like this. This is because it openly displays wallet addresses and transactions on the internet. However, Pirate Chain is a proper privacy coin. In fact, it is one of the best privacy coins out there.
You might want to check out the best privacy coins here.
NFT Beginner Guides
NFTs are really popular at the moment. Read the articles below to get an idea of what NFTs are and how they work.
NFTs Explained
Thanks to blockchain we now have a way to verify authentic digital tokens. Additionally, we can verify ownership of that token. They are one of a kind. Tokens can be artwork, collectables, metaverse (more on this further down), utility, games or DeFi related.
In fact, NFTs stand for non-fungible tokens. Effectively they are going to revolutionise the art world, games and collectables.
There are already a good number of marketplaces where you can buy NFTs. Different marketplaces have different types of NFTs that they sell. Some specialise in sporting moment collectables such as NBA Top Shot. Others, like Nifty Gateway, specialise in artwork. Axie Infinity is a game world with its own Axie Infinity marketplace.
It is a really big space that is booming. You can have a look at the extent of it on our NFT statistics page. In fact, Nifty Gateway has sold some high-value NFTs. Beeple, who has sold the most expensive NFTs so far has sold some of his artwork on Nifty.
How to Create NFTs
For the creative at heart, this is an article on how to create NFT Art. Since this is a new space for the art world it made sense to have a section on this. Especially because some of our team members are fans of NFT art.
The article goes through the technical details that you need to know. Several marketplaces are listed so that you can figure out what’s best. And we have some handy tips on file management which you should definitely read.
The rest of the article is dedicated to setting up accounts, gas fees, commission fees, minting and royalties. All of this is essential information for any NFT creative to know.
The Metaverse
The Metaverse is also another great innovation. You can read about the metaverse here.
This article is a fascinating read. Even just to see the images of what is going on within the Metaverse.
The Metaverse refers to virtual worlds or augmented reality. There already have been concerts held in the Metaverse. Meanwhile, in South Korea, Seoul is to become the first city to enter the metaverse according to Euro News. The idea behind Seoul’s Metaverse is that government institutions will be able to virtually communicate with residents. So instead of the residents visiting their physical offices, they can do so online. They can lodge complaints or consult officials.
The Metaverse is still being built. Additionally, there are not that many Metaverse worlds. Seoul only announced they are building theirs. However, the most popular metaverse worlds are Decentraland and The Sandbox.
You can walk around and attend festivals or meet with friends. If you want to change your look you can buy some clothes and change your avatar. You can also buy plots of land on these metaverse worlds.
Naturally whatever you purchase you will need to purchase them using crypto. You can build on plots of land much like other people or companies are doing. For example, KuCoin built a virtual office in Bloktopia as detailed on Cointelegraph.
Learn About Cryptocurrency Trading
Some people in cryptocurrency want to learn how to trade. Here are some basics to get you started on the right track.
