001 Crypto In The City: The Basics & Where To Begin
I fell down the crypto and bitcoin rabbit hole thanks to Clubhouse App, where I met bitcoin maxies and crypto shillers in rooms. These rooms would go on for hours talking about the power of blockchain, bitcoin, and the future of cryptocurrency. Soon enough, I was hooked! I bought my first bitcoin on Coinbase and CashApp. I bought Ethereum and also minted my first NFT to celebrate this very column.
People come to understand this new currency in a many ways. Whichever way you choose, empowering yourself about the future of tomorrow is important in keeping physically wealthy.
Start Your Research Here
How does Blockchain work?
Blockchain is a public (or private) database that stores information at a very basic level.
There's no CEO of bitcoin.
One of the recurring statements you'll never hear is that Bitcoin put out a statement because no one is head of the organization like a NASDAQ or an S&P 500. The ledger and node operators maintain themselves. It's de-centralized because Bitcoin doesn't have a board of directors or a CEO.
Bitcoin is the leading and oldest cryptocurrency, but there are other tokens, blockchains, and exchanges on the market. You can learn about them on Coinbase.com by taking interactive quizzes and then earning tokens in your wallet.
Other coins like ETHER also steadily gaining popularity and may be deemed as second in line to Bitcoin, but again you have to do your research on whose backing these coins, what their missions and values are generally what they are all about. In the past, like five years ago, there was a perception that bitcoin was for terrorist organizations but that's totally not true! When we talk about a global appeal, people across the world are now accepting payments in bitcoin. As the currency gets stronger, the people who hold bitcoins will finally be able to make real moves. Let alone, cashing in with big banks, this will be huge!