PODCAST · education
Easing into Crypto
by Michael Caloz
Cryptocurrency is about a lot more than just making money. We'll get there in later episodes, but first, I want to help you understand how crypto actually works (including how it will transform society, promote social justice, lead to brand new forms of art and creativity, form the foundation of futuristic online worlds, and protect personal autonomy). You might be wondering: - Did El Salvador really make Bitcoin an official currency you can pay taxes with? Yes. - Did an NFT (i.e., a piece of art that lives inside cryptocurrency) really sell for $69 million? Yes. - Is Bitcoin actually useful for anything, or is it just creating a lot of needless pollution? Yes. There's a lot to unpack here, and most educational resources I've come across are either way too simplistic or way too advanced. I'll start at the very beginning and gently guide you through all the concepts you need to understand to feel comfortable with cryptocurrency. There's so
Episodes
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Special: The #1 threat facing our species—worse than climate change and nuclear war
This feels vulnerable to share because this isn't pleasant news, and I might seem crazy. But it feels like I have a responsibility here. It feels like I'm watching the house catching on fire, but few people have noticed. And those who *have* are focusing on that one burning curtain… when the…
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Episode 26.5: Who to trust in the crypto world, who I follow, and technical analysis & market cycles
- The five categories of writers / podcasters / YouTubers - Which of those you should trust - What's wrong with "gurus," and three ways they trick you - Being careful even of people you trust - What's wrong with technical analysis and market cycles - What to do instead of looking at technical…
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Episode 26: Long-time update, reflections on the crash, portfolio, lessons from StrongBlock & Terra
- What happened to me and crypto - Lessons from StrongBlock, Terra, and Anchor Protocol - The portfolio I recommend to friends nowadays - What happened to LUNA/UST - Reflections on the crypto market crash(es) Update: Even since I recorded this a few weeks ago, a lot has changed in the crypto…
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Episode 25: Preparing taxes, upgrading your security & avoiding scams, how to judge new projects
- How my friend was scammed out of tens of thousands of dollars, and how you can stay safe - What you should look for to evaluate if a new crypto project is legit - How I decided recently to upgrade my overall crypto security - My best tips for preparing your taxes with crypto - Maximizing your...
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Episode 24: Holding coins vs. yield farming, where my $ is now, big StrongBlock news, future of crypto
Warning: If you're new to this podcast and jumped straight to this episode, I suggest you instead start at the beginning. I know that learning the secrets of investing and making money in crypto sounds appealing, but this episode relies on a lot of concepts I've been slowly explaining in a very...
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Episode 23: How to invest based on how much $ you have (plus, the market dip, where my $ is, and more)
Warning: If you're new to this podcast and jumped straight to this episode, I suggest you instead start at the beginning. I know that learning the secrets of investing and making money in crypto sounds appealing, but this episode relies on a lot of concepts I've been slowly explaining in a very...
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Episode 22: Wrapping up my 7 categories of investment (including an update on StrongBlock)
Warning: If you're new to this podcast and jumped straight to this episode, I suggest you instead start at the beginning. I know that learning the secrets of investing and making money in crypto sounds appealing, but this episode relies on a lot of concepts I've been slowly explaining in a very...
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Episode 21: StrongBlock - the investment that’s made me the most money by far
Warning: If you're new to this podcast and jumped straight to this episode, I suggest you instead start at the beginning. I know that learning the secrets of investing and making money in crypto sounds appealing, but this episode relies on a lot of concepts I've been slowly explaining in a very...
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Episode 20: Higher-risk, higher-reward opportunities (OlympusDAO, Tomb Finance, yield farming)
Warning: If you're new to this podcast and jumped straight to this episode, I suggest you instead start at the beginning. I know that learning the secrets of investing and making money in crypto sounds appealing, but this episode relies on a lot of concepts I've been slowly explaining in a very...
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Episode 19: Specific investing options (including my personal list), staking, and lending
Warning: If you're new to this podcast and jumped straight to this episode, I suggest you instead start at the beginning. I know that learning the secrets of investing and making money in crypto sounds appealing, but this episode relies on a lot of concepts I've been slowly explaining in a very...
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Episode 18: More preparing to invest (security, why SHIB will never rise to $1, realistic price targets)
Warning: If you're new to this podcast and jumped straight to this episode, I suggest you instead start at the beginning. I know that learning the secrets of investing and making money in crypto sounds appealing, but this episode relies on a lot of concepts I've been slowly explaining in a very...
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Episode 17: Preparing to invest (how much to put in, how to get the coins you want, blockchains)
Warning: If you're new to this podcast and jumped straight to this episode, I suggest you instead start at the beginning. I know that learning the secrets of investing and making money in crypto sounds appealing, but this episode relies on a lot of concepts I've been slowly explaining in a very...
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Episode 16: Intro to investing (what could go wrong, and what kind of investing could be right for you)
Warning: If you're new to this podcast and jumped straight to this episode, I suggest you instead start at the beginning. I know that learning the secrets of investing and making money in crypto sounds appealing, but this episode relies on a lot of concepts I've been slowly explaining in a very...
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Episode 15: Wrapping up DeFi (why liquidity is so important, yield farming, LP tokens, major risks)
- What yield means, and the difference between APR and APY - Explaining liquidity staking again: key definitions, why liquidity is important, how ICO's work, and a real step-by-step example using the Raydium DEX on the Solana network - How to choose where to provide liquidity, how to calculate...
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Episode 14: More DeFi (how Uniswap works, liquidity staking, impermanent loss, and more)
- DeFi use case #2: insurance - DeFi use case #3: payments - DeFi use case #4: derivatives - Gas fees and alternative blockchains - DeFi use case #5: currency exchange and liquidity staking, what liquidity is, where DEX's like Uniswap get their coins and tokens, and impermanent loss ----- The...
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Episode 13: DeFi & CeFi, reinventing banking with P2P finance, stablecoins, borrowing/lending
- How you can make money in crypto while helping to reinvent the banking industry - DeFi vs. CeFi - Stablecoins - 4 reasons DeFi is awesome: passive income, composability (and transparency), less bureaucracy and increased access, peer-to-peer finance - DeFi use case #1: borrowing and lending…
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Episode 12: DAO’s (organizations managed by algorithms), governance tokens, collective ownership
- How DAO's (Decentralized Autonomous Organizations) offer an alternative to traditional corporations, and how they work: membership, voting, governance tokens, identity, collective ownership - Collective bargaining and the "network state" - Six DAO's I find interesting: MakerDAO, Universe,...
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Episode 11: Wrapping up NFT’s (what you can actually do with them, upsides, downsides, risks)
- What you can actually do with NFT's: online galleries, digital frames, physical printing, real-world displays, profile pictures, remixes - Upsides, downsides, and risks - Where you can find NFT's, and whether or not you should buy them ----- The corresponding blog post with links and images:...
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Episode 10: More categories of NFT’s (art, video games, virtual reality)
- NFT category #4: Art. Are physical pieces of art more valuable than digital ones? *Must* they be? *Should* they be? Since Ethereum is programmable, what kind of dynamic art could that allow? - NFT category #4a: Generative art, artists Tyler Hobbs & Dmitri Cherniak, and how all this makes art…
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Episode 9: Intro to NFT’s (collectibles, music, research funding & historical significance)
- Quick review of Ethereum (plus some additional details) - NFT's will seem ridiculous at first, but I'll explain why I changed my mind about them - NFT's are unique digital assets, which could mean anything from a piece of art, to a digitized DNA sequence, to a weapon in an online video game...
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Episode 8: Coins vs. tokens, and some real Ethereum use cases—oracles and DEX’s
- What can Ethereum actually do beyond just act as money? - Summarizing five major categories of Ethereum dapps (decentralized apps) - Ethereum use case #1: oracles, for pulling in information from outside the blockchain. And, how oracles know which sources to trust, and how that's very different...
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Episode 7: Intro to Ethereum, smart contracts, dapps, gas, Proof of Stake, and Ethereum 2.0
Recommendation: I notice that a lot of people skip straight to this episode. Even though I agree that Ethereum is more interesting than Bitcoin, I want to encourage you to listen to all the episodes in order—the earlier Bitcoin-focused episodes explain a lot of key concepts that apply to crypto…
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Episode 6: Overview of wallet types, specific recommendations, security, and hardware wallets
- All the different categories of wallet (exchange, memorized, paper, browser extension, web-based, app-based, software-based, node-based, hardware); plus, some details that will help you better understand how crypto works in general - What I personally use - How to actually get cryptocurrency…
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Episode 5: How to store crypto, wallets, cryptography, identity, and the future of democracy
- How to actually store and use crypto coins - What wallets really are and how they work - A basic cryptography lesson - Public keys, private keys, hashing, and cryptographic signing - Blockchain tech is trustless, and could lead to much better identity management - The "pseudonymous economy,"...
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Episode 4: How crypto offers autonomy, why it can’t be stopped, and the value of decentralization
- Why blockchain records can't be falsified, and how crypto could give you autonomy and protect you from authoritarian regimes and catastrophe - Why crypto can't just be shut down, even by the US government; and, how traditional services, including literally any website, *can* be shut down - Why...
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Episode 3: Bitcoin's environmental impact, who runs the blockchain, and Bitcoin mining
- How the blockchain keeps running 24/7 (who pays for all this) - What blockchain nodes do - The incentive to turn your computer into a Bitcoin node - Where new Bitcoins come from (i.e., how mining works) - Consequences of mining: high barrier to entry, negative environmental impact, human rights...
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Episode 2: How crypto actually works, why Bitcoin is valuable (even if it’s just "made up!"), blockchains
- Why money is useful at the foundational level, and the characteristics of a currency - Why the price of Bitcoin (and Dogecoin!) keeps going up - Explanation of ledgers and blockchains - How you would actually buy something in Bitcoin - Where all this might lead in the future ----- The...
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Episode 1: Why should I care? What’s in it for me? Why is crypto important (it's not just about making $$$)?
- Why crypto is interesting - Feeling like you're too late to the party - 10 reasons crypto is useful - Why Bitcoin is important for social justice ----- The corresponding blog post with links and images:...
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Episode 0: Series overview, who this is for, why you might consider listening to me, being careful
Warning from future-Michael: Hi there! Thanks so much for starting my crypto series. This first episode was created back around October, 2021. I’m writing this addendum in October, 2022. I still very much believe in the future of crypto, despite the current market slump. But my warning to you is...
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ABOUT THIS SHOW
Cryptocurrency is about a lot more than just making money. We'll get there in later episodes, but first, I want to help you understand how crypto actually works (including how it will transform society, promote social justice, lead to brand new forms of art and creativity, form the foundation of futuristic online worlds, and protect personal autonomy).
You might be wondering: - Did El Salvador really make Bitcoin an official currency you can pay taxes with? Yes. - Did an NFT (i.e., a piece of art that lives inside cryptocurrency) really sell for $69 million? Yes. - Is Bitcoin actually useful for anything, or is it just creating a lot of needless pollution? Yes.
There's a lot to unpack here, and most educational resources I've come across are either way too simplistic or way too advanced.
I'll start at the very beginning and gently guide you through all the concepts you need to understand to feel comfortable with cryptocurrency. There's so
HOSTED BY
Michael Caloz
CATEGORIES
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Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does Easing into Crypto have?
Easing into Crypto currently has 29 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is Easing into Crypto about?
Cryptocurrency is about a lot more than just making money. We'll get there in later episodes, but first, I want to help you understand how crypto actually works (including how it will transform society, promote social justice, lead to brand new forms of art and creativity, form the foundation of...
How often does Easing into Crypto release new episodes?
Easing into Crypto has 29 episodes. Check the episode list to see recent publication dates and frequency.
Where can I listen to Easing into Crypto?
You can listen to Easing into Crypto on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.
Who hosts Easing into Crypto?
Easing into Crypto is created and hosted by Michael Caloz.
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