So the crypto literacy journey begins. What better way to dip a toe in than by learning the key terms as if you’re learning the alphabet? It’s a new language; therefore, it’s best to be tackled step by step, or block by block as it were. You can’t read without the ABCs. Let The ABCs of Crypto be your guide.
Every day I hear of someone who has gotten burned by being too eager, and too impulsive in the space. I recommend that everyone take six months to learn before engaging.
It’s still new, there’s still money to be made (which is, from my research the number one reason people dive in), but if you don't truly understand it you're likely to end up on the losing end.
Heck, it's likely even though you do understand it. Bottom line, it's risky business and I'm not advocating getting in, I'm advocating learning about it so that you can form an opinion not colored by FUD or FOMO.
Even with six months’ worth of attention, you’ll still make mistakes. But smart, careful mistakes are a lot better than big ones.
Table of Contents
- My Crypto Learning Journey
- My Capstone Book: The ABCs of Crypto
- Why Everyone Should Be Crypto Literate
- Learning The ABCs Of Crypto
- More Terms Beyond The ABCs Of Crypto
My Crypto Learning Journey
Closed For COVID Open To Learn
Before we get to The ABCs of Crypto, let me tell you just a little about me. I have run a children’s boutique and ecomm site for 18 years. It was during COVID, with the store closed, that I filled out my application to become a fellow at a $1B AUM Venture Capital firm.
The application required a market map and analysis of the industry of my choice. I chose the baby clothing industry.
I would venture to say that this made my application unique. It was a fun exercise during the time away from the store, and as always got me thinking of how the parenting space would be changed by the latest turn of events, and what I could do to respond to the changing market.
In turning in my application, I found myself checking “other” for every question from school to market competencies to age. I laughed about it after, thinking myself crazy for doing it, but why not? What was the worst that could happen?
Through my years starting and operating my own business, I had had the experience of raising money, though not with a venture capital firm. I have always been mystified when I hear of these large Seed and Series A raises.
What do they do with the money? How did they get there? I had raised money with strategic investors aligned to my industry, as well as friends and family, but over the years had seen others raise massive VC funds, and I’d have to admit, it looked enviable.
I was at the dentist’s office when I got the news. I could have screamed in delight (there are scarce few delighted screams at a dentist!) I was in.
Tackling Blockchain
The next year went by in a whirlwind. At one point in October 2021, I was given the chance to help support the Blockchain fund. What did I know about blockchain? Not much. But I did understand the fundamentals that made a good business: product-market fit, a great team, some IP, key partnerships . . . But, eager as ever to learn as much as I could, I leaned in.
For the next 9 months, I immersed myself in the space, realizing immediately, that if I were to add value, I’d have to get up to speed quickly. I started with the terminology and then the technology.
Whether working in Gaming or Metaverse or NFTs or identity tokens or DeFi or L2 Scaling solutions or Alt-L1s, there was a basic understanding of blockchain that I needed to navigate.
What did I do? I listened to podcasts, read whitepapers, and ran down every side street and rabbit hole I could to unpeel this space layer by layer. We started a family mining operation, so I could understand truly what mining was, what it looked like, and how it worked.
We mined ETH and Dogecoin, and some funny cat coin that no one has ever heard of—for good reason, as we were the sole miner (not what you want BTW).
I bought and sold crypto, overpaid gas fees, and experienced overcomplicated too-long cross-bridge transactions. I wanted to appreciate the problem blockchain entrepreneurs were trying to solve.
And, yes, along the way I got scammed buying a worthless NFT because I didn’t tie its provenance to the actual artist.
I went to events, and token-gated conferences, and talked to people working in the business. Anything I could get my hands in, I consumed.
I was having a ball. There was something so fresh about the space, so intriguing. As a former tax lawyer, I remember the feeling of pride when learning something so boarish and offputting to most as the tax code. This was similar.
It took work to penetrate it but once I did (at least a bit-as it evolves, I'm always trying to catch up!), there’s a great sense of accomplishment. After the fellowship, I continue to learn and experiment. I also write content for a crypto exchange, helping demystify the space, and if one is so inclined, give tips on how to proceed safely.
My Capstone Book: The ABCs Of Crypto
To capstone my year-long fellowship at the VC, I embarked on yet another journey: this time bridging my former “normie” self as a baby industry entrepreneur with my new enlightened-in-the-world-of-crypto self by writing and illustrating a children’s-book-style ABC.
With terms like Validator, Decentralization, and FOMO, it’s not exactly for children. But it’s meant to be as simple as that–as inviting–and, I’d argue that the rhyme and the colorful pictures would entertain any little one as you learn alongside.
The ABCs of Crypto / For New Kids On The Blockchain is my contribution for those who want to start to get comfortable with the new technology that in my opinion, is here, in some form, to stay.
My vision is that this is not just a giftable book, but an open door for the crypto-curious to understand some of the fundamentals so that they can (1) talk the talk (2) follow news stories (3) not get carried away by FOMO or FUD (4) have fun.
In the spirit of my mission of crypto-literacy, I’m interviewing folks around me to help shed deeper light on each of the letters in the book. We’re going to dive in and get a hands-on understanding when we can of the various concepts that underpin the technology.
My “letter guides” will be from the crypto industry and from the children’s industry, so that concepts are made as simple and accessible, while being accurate, as possible. I welcome feedback!
Why Everyone Should Be Crypto Literate
Everyone should be crypto-literate. Everyone should be computer literate. Not everyone is. It’s based on an interesting concept, peer-to-peer financial transactions, something for which the writing has long been on the wall.
Satoshi Nakamoto launched Bitcoin in 2009 after Lehman went belly-up. I’m not saying there was a correlation, but I think it’s fair to say that it was a time that many people were feeling disenchanted with big businesses–namely big banks.
What if we didn’t need to pay those big fees that fund those big salaries? What if we could transact with each other in a new way that did not involve a trusted third party that I don’t think I can trust?
As a parent, I am well aware of the merits of a trusted third party in life, but the financial industry moving in this direction made sense in light of all the other changes driven by millennials–share economy with Uber and Lyft, AirBNB, and VBRO. Being the bank like we are the taxi driver or the hotelier seemed to follow suit.
I am not saying it’s necessarily a good idea. I think few people are ready to “be their own bank”. Turns out (many? most? some?) banks do a lot of things that keep us safe that we don’t even think of. Before diving into crypto you want to be sure you really are up to managing your own financial security.
If you took a picture of your seed phrase on your phone and then added a really cool filter app that asked for access to your photo rolls (Yes!), you fail the be-your-own-bank test. More on that later.
This is why they always say, only put in what you’re willing to lose.
Learning The ABCs Of Crypto
So that brings me to The ABCs of Crypto. I chose 26 terms that were important to know if you want to start to embark on your crypto journey. We’re going to take the letters one by one, in order, and dive in with experts. We’re going to try to make is super simple.
More Terms Beyond The ABCs Of Crypto
Of course, as this is an illustrated book, there are some terms that didn’t make it but are important to know as you tackle the world of crypto. Some that come to mind, SHA-256 and PoS. I'm guessing, at least for the later, you know why.
After we’ve done the 26 words, the learning will continue. And between postings, if there’s something that comes up in the real world that merits a discussion, I reserve the right to rant about it. But for now, let’s learn our ABCs.
And so we begin our ABCs of Crypto with A is for Algorithm.