I had an interesting talk last night about crypto ( what else ) with a bunch of people with various interest in this tech and various understanding of the said tech. All were invested in it though.
I find this...a bit bizzare but also very common. People putting hard earned cash into something they half-understand in hopes of hitting the jackpot that some random people promise that will come. Soon. Moon. Whatever.
It's easy to fall for all kind of "prophets' when you definitely know nothing or very little about this.
Reading this, what's your feeling?
A. I know a lot, thank you very much!
B. That's me!
C. ** FUCK YOU!**
I think the safest bet is to agree that most of us are the Jon Snow of Crypto.
I propose a simple test: Can you explain bitcoin got a total newb in less than 5 minutes?
If not: read this famous article
Another test: Do you understand what's the difference between ETH and BTC? Can you explain it to someone else?
IF not: read this
Another test: Can you imagine clearly what blockchain can change and how? Even at a very basic level?
IF not: watch this
Final test: Did you make money trading crypto?
If not, read this [ also this guy is on steemit @benyu]
These are just a tiny tiny tiny part of all the articles I read over the year and had an impact on my understanding. But guess what? Most people I shared these with, will never read them all. Too long, boring, meh, do I really need to.
Where do I send the money?!
Ok. Good luck. Don't be a statistic :)
I tried to read these articles but some were too lengthy and I lost my interest in the half. I have bookmarked them, when I will have time and mood I will finish them.
I am 100% the jon snow of crypto lolz
I'm trying to understand as much as I can, but one should also keep in mind that you don't have to understand it all to part of an economy, a platform or a system. Most people don't understand the fiat money economy very well, but still participate in it.
Of course, understanding helps a lot and putting hard-earned cash down for something you don't understand sounds like a recipe for disaster. This is exactly how bubbles get inflated and then popped - by investors that are way too casual and ignorant of their investment that are ready to overpay because of the hype, but are easily spooked at the first sign of trouble.
I will check out all of your links as I feel I'm still on the ignorant side of crypto.
Explain bitcoin to a newb in 5 minutes: literally impossible. You would have to oversimplify to the point were you wouldn't be able to explain even the basic concepts of bitcoin, and the noob would simply remember that it's "magic digital money". For example, literally 0 mention of cryptography (or private signatures) in the article you linked to. For a crypto-currency that's quite the over-simplification.
well you have to start somewhere.
agreed. However If you're gona invest significant amounts of money (relative to your net worth), spending at least 30 minute on informing yourself seems like a bare minimum. I actually made an article 2 weeks ago about learning about cryptos and by far the best introductory ressource I found was this 26 min video:
However, even there, if functions of modern-day cryptography aren't familiar to you, it'll take 2-3 viewings to really get it
buy when the noobs panic.
I feel you man! People are paying for ''signals'' instead of learning.
Crypto is like the microsoft of this generation.
It's new, people see it taking off and possibly becoming the future currency of the world. So they don't want to miss the train.
FOMO
Everyone needs icing on the cake, no one wants to do hard work
It's taken some time, but I think I can answer those questions with a yes finally
i just upvoted you
good work
You got my vote and a resteem :]
I believe that someone should write that Idiot's guide to crypto-trading. I am already in the process of writing one :D
I started to learn about BTC about a year ago. While I couldn't explain BTC and the bockchain to someone very well, I'm glad I know about and crypto coins. That led me to Steemit, so I am very thankful for that! With my knowledge I know enough how to get my Steem to one of my wallets and then into my bank account if I want to.
I will have to investigate your links, thanks
I'm guessing Jon Snow is a character from Game of Thrones.
I don't watch it, too busy reading.
It's easy to get all swept up in some hype... almost done it a few times lately, then I remind myself why it took me about 11 years to actually get into it. My first intro to it was by accident - was pretty sure it was some kind of video game...later almost every couple of years until May 2017. I would read about it - still wondering "what is this?", so my process was found it again, went "oh yeah" read about it, form some strange opinion, look at the price and think "too expensive", then final step -forget about it.
I guess I have a pretty closed mind. Finally in May 2017 at $1700 I thought "hmmm this is important" - read a lot about it - started to understand (a bit) ha ha - and thought grab it now or never. So I bought.
Still learning massively.
Great post - yep we should know what the heck we're doing (as much as anyone can) but I do wish I grabbed some blindly in 2009. Of course that is hindsight.
tiny tiny tiny is right, then there are masternodes, pos / pow etc ... it just keeps going and going.
Why is this bizarre? "People putting hard earned cash into something they half-understand in hopes of hitting the jackpot that some random people promise that will come. "
You see it every day at casinos / lottery etc.. Its normal to take a chance to make it big :) ... not bizarre
I relate to Crypto Snow lol
I've read, watched videos, and discussed with people who have more time and exposer to crypto than myself, but still I have only a vague understanding. My understanding of how the internet or google works, for example, is limited at best after all these years. Technologies like these seemingly appeared and evolved rapidly. I'm not convinced the average human (myself included) is evolving quick enough to be capable of truly understanding how it all functions. Thinking I understand and understanding are not the same. What has helped me begin the journey of comprehending "crypto" is by actually getting involved. I've experienced the lightbulb of greed go off, the rush of energy for FOMO, the feeling of shear ignorance and doubt about what I'm getting into, the pride of investigating an ICO and deciding not to invest based off of my personal moral compass, but what I like most is the potential for radical change and a new era of global awareness. Im trying to be informed and thankful for finding your blog. I've found your articles to be very helpful on various levels, not just crypto ;) Keep on sharing!