Crypto 101

The future is decentralised, open and interoperable

Some context:

I had heard about Bitcoin since 2013 but didn’t really understand its potential back then. I only really got a bit more involved in cryptocurrencies including making small investments and passively following the space since 2017. Since then, most of my limited knowledge has come from following some of the smartest people on Crypto twitter.

Additionally, while working within New South Wales government (Australia), i also got an opportunity to write the Emerging Tech guide on blockchain for public servants in 2018. I’m now working as an Emerging Tech Analyst within the public sector, focusing on a key topic known as ‘rules as code’, partly since the last two years. Rules as code, for those who don’t know, is an approach to build a reference machine readable interpretation of legislation, regulation and policies set out by government, and makes compliance easier and faster but also makes government more transparent. The reason i mention this work is because i believe rules as code will converge with the blockchain and the smart contracts space within the next decade, particularly within the financial regulation space. How and when it will happen would perhaps be a fascinating topic for another post.

When Bitcoin crossed its previous all time highs in 2021, it naturally attracted a lot of people to the space, including a few friends who had no previous knowledge about it, or only equated Bitcoin with crypto. They started asking me questions and i started answering them, but i soon realised that i might know a bit more than the average non-crypto twitter person would and hence could help them learn more about some fundamental technology shifts that are happening.

While i believe Bitcoin and Ethereum will most likely be the best investments over the next few decades, I still believe the future will be multiple blockchains succeeding and having their own niche and market share. There are a lot of very exciting technological advancements that are happening in crypto and decentralised finance that will fundamentally transform society within the next 5–10 years.

Given all of this context, I thought to myself: Why not teach some of my friends who are interested, learn some more myself and start gathering some good free 101 resources about crypto in one place? Given that only a very few percentage of the population on the planet has immersed in crypto, we are still very early in the space and hence there are still lots of opportunities to spread the word. So here we go!

For now, the topics below are ones i’d like to cover. This is a work-in-progress post and i’ll continue to add and posts to links as new ideas emerge and the technology advances further. If you’ve got any particular things you’d like me to cover, feel free to post in the comments below! :)

• Bitcoin, Ethereum and smart contracts
• Stablecoins
• Decentralised exchanges
• Decentralised Finance (DeFi)
• Yield farming
• Other smart contract platforms/blockchains (Polkadot, Solana, Avalanche, etc)
• Other decentralised solutions (Decentralised storage, video streaming, insurance, etc)
• Decentralised Autonomous Organisations (DAOs)
• Non-fungible Tokens
• Metaverse