Bitcoin. Cryptocurrency. Blockchain. It’s going to change the world. You might have heard of it on the news or from that guy in the office that won’t shut up about it. At first, it sounded like a scam or a fad, but it hasn’t gone away. Maybe you even believe what you’re hearing. At the same time, you don’t really understand what these words mean or how they are going to affect your life. You’d like to know more but are either too self-conscious to ask for more information, or when you do, the answers you receive don’t make much sense. You’re left feeling stupid or resigned to the fact that you’ll never understand.
Don’t feel bad. It happened to all of us. It’s been said that cryptocurrencies are everything you don’t understand about money combined with everything you don’t understand about computers. The space around these new technologies is deep and complex. To make matters worse, crypto enthusiasts often speak what sounds like a different language. On top of that, it’s hard to speak about any individual aspect of this technology without leaning on knowledge tied to every other aspect. It’s not abnormal for an excited individual entering this space to spend hours and hours over the course of weeks or months to finally get to a point where they feel they have a good understanding of how things work.
In this series of lessons, I’ll attempt to explain cryptocurrency and blockchain simply, how they work, and how they’re being implemented. In the amount of time it would take you to watch a movie, you’ll be able to learn all you need to know to not only hold a conversation with that guy in the office, but to feel confident that you understand how the world is changing around you. Are you ready to dive in?