Intro: Blockchain Basics

Yesterday, Coinbase debuted as a public company with a market cap of $100B. A few months back, Christie’s auctioned a single work of digital art for $69M. 2021 will be forever remembered as the year that crypto went mainstream, and you know what that means…Your one friend who only talks about crypto? They’re not stopping any time soon. If you’re ready to wrap your head around this stuff so you can join in (or shut them up), you’ve come to the right place. Odds are you’ve skimmed some articles on Bitcoin or NFTs, and odds are you’ve finished those articles with little added understanding of what all this means or why it’s important. In my own quest to understand the crypto craze, I’ve realized that mass media coverage glosses over the most important piece of this whole decentralized puzzle. To truly grasp why something that looks like any other JPEG is worth tens of millions of dollars or why Coinbase made a run for the biggest US listing of all time, you need to start with a really solid understanding of blockchain technology. A blockchain is most simply described as: “An open, distributed ledger that can record transactions between two parties efficiently and in a verifiable and permanent way” - HBR If the words “distributed ledger” make you want to unsubscribe from this newsletter, don’t worry (and please don’t 😊 )! I’ve organized the episodes in this pack from least to most technical, so just take it episode by episode and see how far you get. In future packs, we’ll go deep into Bitcoin, Altcoins, NFTs, and everything else your crypto-obsessed friend keeps ranting about. Subscribe here so you don’t miss them!