What is Crypto?

What is Crypto

What is Bitcoin? | Bitcoin Explained for Beginners:

Bitcoin is a decentralized digital currency that enables instant payments to anyone, anywhere in the world. It uses peer-to-peer blockchain technology to operate with no centralized authority. The Bitcoin Network uses digital signatures and cryptography to update this ledger of accounts, verifying each transaction to be valid and true. This revolutionary technology began development in 2008 by an individual or group of individuals under the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto.

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What is Proof of Work Bitcoin Mining? | Explained for Beginners

Put simply, Proof of Work is a system used by some blockchains to secure the network and verify transactions by doing mathematical computations which require a huge amount of processing power.

Look, the first time any of us are included in a conversation about Bitcoin mining we leave confused and overwhelmed. “Proof of what now?” “Like turning in a work assignment?” Kind of like that. It’s actually a commonly overlooked bug for Bitcoin, right next to understanding Public & Private Keys. Not a bug in the traditional sense as it poses no real threat to Bitcoin. It’s just an unintentional side effect that happens when trying to understand how Bitcoin works.

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What is Proof of Stake? | Crypto Proof of Stake Explained for Beginners

Proof of Stake (POS) quite simply is a way that some blockchains use to find consensus, this is done by holders of the currency who use their coins as a stake to gain permission to be able to validate the network and this work comes with a reward.

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What is Ethereum? | Ethereum Explained for Beginners

Ethereum is a decentralized blockchain network that brought in some of the most important technological developments to the crypto space including smart contracts, defi, and NFTs.

Being a first mover in the smart contract scene meant that it has been able to capture an incredible amount of market share. Ethereum maintains a significant lead over other blockchains in terms of developers, technological innovation, applications, usage, etc. It has maintained its position as the second biggest coin by market cap for years now. 

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What are Smart Contracts? | Crypto Smart Contracts Explained for Beginners

Smart contracts are programs stored on the Blockchain that will only operate their intended function if certain conditions are met. In 1990 Nick Szabo first proposed smart contracts as “a set of promises, specified in digital form, including protocols within which the parties perform on these promises”. Ethereum introduced this technology with its Blockchain in 2015 and these Digital Contracts are solely responsible for the creation of DeFi (Decentralized Finance) and NFTs (Non-Fungible Tokens). 

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What are Stablecoins? Crypto Stablecoins Explained for Beginners:

Stablecoins provide an always stable market price linked to your standard fiat currencies such as the Dollar and Euro. This allows for some very interesting uses in Blockchain technology.

These digital tokens backed by fiat currency provide individuals and organizations with a new decentralized method of exchanging value while utilizing the same accounting methods used across the world.

There are some concerns among community leaders that these tokens have been used to inflate the market and otherwise steal value from Bitcoins growth. Others argue that Stablecoins only help to ease the transition into a revolutionary new digital economy. 

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What is Solana? Solana Crypto Explained for Beginners

Want to know more about Solana $SOL? Then you picked a great place to start your journey. With Solana’s Ecosystem growing at a tremendous rate, this guide is here to help you understand why Solana is quickly becoming one of the fastest-growing networks in the blockchain space.

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What is Polygon (MATIC)? Polygon Crypto Explained for Beginners

Polygon $MATIC is a Layer 2 open-source protocol built by a decentralized team of contributors from all around the world, created as a framework for building and connecting Ethereum-compatible blockchain networks.

Polygon is quickly becoming Ethereum’s internet of blockchain. Polygon offers security as a service, custom modules, interoperability, and one-click deployment of preset blockchains.

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What is the Bitcoin Lightning Network?

The Lightning Network is a Bitcoin *Layer 2 protocol that scales blockchains and enables trustless instant payments. This is achieved by keeping most transactions off-chain and leveraging the security of the underlying blockchain as a settlement layer.

This is accomplished through “payment channels”, where two parties deposit funds to pay each other. This process is instant and saves users from having to wait for block confirmations before they can finalize transactions for goods or services.

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What is CoinMarketCap? | How To Use CoinMarketCap

CoinMarketCap is a free one stop-shop to help you navigate the crypto market. It’s a useful tool that’s jam-packed full of cool features and uses real-time data to help you on your journey as a crypto investor.

Don’t be fooled upon first glance, it may just look like a website to bookmark for quick and easy access to the latest crypto prices – but it’s way more than a price-tracking website.

The site allows you to search the market by category, explore the trending coins, discover new crypto assets, as well as some hidden features located behind a free sign-up page.

No matter whether you’re a beginner that’s new to the crypto space, or a confident crypto investor, CoinMarketCap is for everyone.

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What are Layer 2s? | Layer 2s Explained for Beginners

To begin understanding what Layer 2 technology is. First, you need to know that Blockchains like Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, Cardano, Polkadot, Avalanche, and Elrond are all considered to be Layer 1 Blockchains. They’re the primary level (Core Network) at which information is communicated. These Layer 1 Blockchains will always remain the main place for transactions to settle.

Layer 2 Blockchains simply ease the strain of Layer 1 Blockchains. This is achieved by creating secondary networks or protocols on top of existing ones. These secondary layers help condense and optimize information into smaller bitesize packages, allowing for more information to be verified much quicker, without the required computational power of the main Layer 1 Blockchain.

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What is Optimism? | Optimism Explained for Beginners

Much of the innovation in the crypto-economy is happening at the layer 2 (L2) level. Specifically, the Ethereum L2 level. And for good reason. 

When the 2020 – 2021 bull market congested Ethereum, and transaction (gas) fees spiked into the hundreds of dollars, the free market did what the free market does. Find solutions. Enter Optimism, a premier L2 scaling solution for Ethereum.

This article provides a plain English overview of Optimism. The following is covered: 

  • What is Optimism; 
  • How Does Optimism Work;
  • Governance;
  • Performance and Market Statistics;
  • Tokenomics; and,
  • Future Developments. 

And when you’re ready to start using the protocol, see How to Use Optimism | A User’s Manual. It gives the easiest way to use Optimism and provides recommended dApps and additional resources. 

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How to Use Optimism | A User’s Manual

Are you ready to utilize the full power of the Ethereum network but at a fraction of the price? If the answer is yes, then you’ve come to the right place. 

This is a user’s manual for how to get started with Optimism, one of Ethereum’s most popular layer 2 (L2) scaling solutions. 

This manual covers the following:

  • A brief overview of Optimism
  • How to get started with Optimism in 3 simple steps
  • Recommended dApps and additional resources 

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What are Crypto Tokens? | Tokens vs Blockchains Explained for Beginners

The differences between Blockchains and Tokens are a fairly simple thing to understand. Blockchains like $BTC Bitcoin, $ETH Ethereum, and $SOL Solana have Coins to represent this very first layer of the protocol. Crypto tokens represent property issued on these Blockchain Networks.

For instance, an infinite amount of ERC-20 Tokens can be issued on the Ethereum Network in one day. But, there are limits to how many $ETH Coins can be mined every day. While Emission Rates maintain a Coins supply and economics on Ethereum, no such thing exists for all the Tokens operating on the Solana Network.

While developers of Tokenized projects can and do create supply limits, you have to understand that this is still effectively creating something from nothing. Tokens operate on top of their respective Blockchain Networks. 

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What is XRP? | XRP Explained for Crypto Beginners

Launched in 2012, XRP is a cryptocurrency built for payments. It aims to be a currency bridge between financial institutions using multiple currencies. It achieves this by migrating transactions to an open infrastructure allowing the settlement of payments and remittances in real-time. XRP often gets compared to the SWIFT payments system for international money transfers, which global banks and intermediaries use today when dealing across currencies. 

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What is Dogecoin (DOGE)? | Dogecoin Explained for Crypto Beginners

Dogecoin (DOGE) launched in 2013 by software developers Billy Markus and Jackson Palmer who met online through the online forum, Reddit. Palmer, a product manager working for Adobe at the time, wanted to create a satire around the hype that crypto was getting. So Dogecoin was created as a joke, knowing they had the skills to create their own fully functioning cryptocurrency. They created it with its own blockchain and mining process based off the Litecoin network. Within two weeks of launching Dogecoin, the value had increased by 300%.

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What is Cardano (ADA)? | Cardano Explained for Crypto Beginners:

Cardano is one of the most prominent layer one blockchains in the cryptoverse. You’ve probably already heard of one of its co-founders and chief, Charles Hoskinson. Cardano has a loyal fanbase that spans the globe, but it seems to be a project you either like or you don’t – there isn’t much middle ground. Hoskinson co-created Cardano with fellow technologist Jeremy Wood back in 2017, and the two of them have a history of working together – having done so at the beginning of the Ethereum project in 2013.

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What is Polkadot (DOT)? | Polkadot Explained for Crypto Beginners

Polkadot is a multi-chain layer one blockchain, built in a similar way to both Ethereum (ETH) and Cosmos (ATOM). The Polkadot blockchain is another where users can build, launch, and operate their own blockchains – creating ecosystems of cryptocurrencies and projects within. One of the reasons Polkadot has several similarities to Ethereum is that it was founded by Gavin Wood (one of Ethereum’s co-founders, and former CTO) alongside Peter Czaban and Robert Habermeier in 2016, with the project launching to the public in 2020. The development of the Polkadot blockchain is overseen by the Web3 Foundation, a Swiss-based company also founded by Wood and Czaban. The Web3 Foundation is also responsible for generating the funding required to support that development.

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What are Wrapped Crypto Tokens?

Wrapped Crypto Tokens in their basic form are just like all other Tokens, issued from the same underlying Network and transferred across that Blockchain in the same manner. A defining difference that makes a Wrapped Token, is in order to create a Wrapped Token, you must first Trade or Swap an existing Token or Coin and remove it from the available trading supply. In its place, a new Wrapped Token is created to represent the original counterpart. These Wrapped Tokens can be used for all types of Decentralized Finance expansion. Allowing for new projects that expand on existing ones. Complicated code manages the majority of these Wrapped Tokens systems that are automated to lock up Tokens in *Smart Contracts in exchange for the Wrapped copy. When the user is ready to claim the original Token. Simply Unwrap the Wrapped Token and retain the original asset.

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What is Litecoin? Litecoin Explained for Beginners

Litecoin (LTC) launched in 2011 by its founder Charlie Lee, a computer scientist and US Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) graduate. Lee became interested in Bitcoin in 2011, having been working for a decade at Google writing code for Chrome OS. Litecoin is an open source, global payments network that’s fully decentralized. Based largely on Bitcoin’s code, Litecoin differentiates itself by being a faster and cheaper alternative. Its technology enables new blocks to be created on the blockchain in a much shorter time, making it more appealing to merchants. Instead of Litecoin competing with Bitcoin, Lee had intended for Litecoin to support the smaller transactions. After a stint at Coinbase from 2013-2017 as their director of engineering, Lee left to pursue Litecoin’s development full-time. Together with the Litecoin Foundation, they are working to increase adoption and usage of the network.

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What is Cosmos (ATOM)? | Cosmos Explained for Beginners

The first thing you should know about Cosmos, is that they are the self-proclaimed ‘internet of Blockchains’. The goal of Cosmos is to unite networks through open-source tools and applications and streamline transactions between them. Interoperability is the key focus of the blockchain and it’s what sets it apart from the rest. The Cosmos network was created in 2014 by developers Jae Kwon and Ethan Buchman, helped by the Interchain Foundation (ICF). Kwon and Buchman created a consensus algorithm called Tendermint – this is the power behind Cosmos, and then later authored the Cosmos white paper.   

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Chainlink is the best-known Oracle, or data-provider, in the world of cryptocurrency. It aims to support all blockchains with smart contract capability, by providing them with reliable, real-world data. It is an information gatherer, and with over 77 use cases, Chainlink has huge utility. With smart contracts needing to rely on data sources external to their applications and blockchains, there’s a massive need for an Oracle in the crypto space. An example use case could be a smart contract agreement that provides a user with insurance to cover loss of their crypto. These agreements may need access to APIs that bring back insurance rating factors or other data sources for pricing.

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What is Avalanche? Avalanche Crypto Explained for Beginners

Avalanche is a “semi”-permissioned blockchain that bridges siloed public and private blockchains together to enable two things at once. It was designed to be customizable, scalable, and interoperable.

Everything on Avalanche is a subnet, and every chain is part of a subnet. Their consensus protocol was inherently designed to be immune to any type of 51% attack. In order to gain control of the network, an entity would need to acquire 80% of the network’s validators in order to influence such control.

Unlike other blockchains, the digitization of assets on Avalanche can obey special covenants, making it a suitable solution for adhering to legal compliance.

Use cases that the team are developing include Private Securities, ILOs, DEX’s, Synthetics, Stablecoins, Prediction Markets, Equities, Bonds, Debt, and Real Estate.

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What is Monero? (XMR) | Monero Explained for Beginners

You may have heard that using Monero enables you to keep your transactions on the blockchain confidential and untraceable. Monero (XMR) was one of the first cryptocurrencies to feature cryptography that offered real privacy. Monero’s key differentiator being the ability to allow users to send and receive transactions without making this data available to anyone examining its blockchain.

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What is SHIBA INU? | Full SHIBA INU Guide

Is your bark loud and proud?

If the answer is yes, then you might be a good candidate for the SHIBArmy, the global fighting force behind the powerful SHIBU INU token and ecosystem.

In this guide, you’ll find a simple two-step instruction for how to get started with the SHIBA INU token and ecosystem. Specifically, we will explore the following:

  • What is SHIBA INU?
  • Getting Started with SHIBA INU in Two Simple Steps
  • The SHIBA INU Universe: Recommended dApps and Resources

OK, let’s chew on this bone.

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What is NEAR Protocol?

In the world of Layer 1 blockchains, NEAR Protocol is a relative newcomer, having launched its live mainnet as recently as April 2020. NEAR’s defining characteristics are that it’s a public proof-of-stake blockchain, designed to handle smart contracts and run decentralized applications.

That means, basically, that it’s intended to do what Ethereum can, but better. And by better that means with security and decentralization, but faster and more cheaply, and without the need for Layer 2 scaling solutions.

As for whether NEAR can achieve those aims, the answer would have to be, on paper, yes. NEAR uses a built-in sharding system called Nightshade, which differentiates it from Ethereum and allows it to scale efficiently, keeping transaction costs low and throughput high.

However, although NEAR has technical advantages, Ethereum has first mover advantage and strong network effects on its side. As an alternative Layer 1, NEAR Protocol’s most direct competitors are the likes of Cardano, Solana, Avalanche, Algorand and BNB Chain.

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What is Tron (TRX)? | Tron Explained for Beginners

You may be thinking, “TRON? Isn’t that some old-school 80s sci-fi movie? The one with those ghastly glow-in-the-dark suits.” Well, I’m not here to talk about that TRON. So crypto-curious investors, listen up. TRON is a blockchain making moves in the world of entertainment and content. You’re either going to be a content creator, a content consumer, or both. But regardless of which camp you fit into, this blockchain has the potential to revolutionize the entertainment industry. 

Let’s dive into what TRON is, how it works, and how the TRON ecosystem has been growing since its inception. This beginner guide will give you the TRON blockchain basics in less than 10 minutes.

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