I will introduce you my experience in crypto and the reason why it’s real hobby for me today.
I came across the crypto sphere by meeting a neighbor in February 2023.
Father of my oldest daughter’s best friend, he introduced me his own and self-published crypto’s guide (Ecartez-vous du faux! Ses premiers pas dans la crypto: guide cryptomonnaie Broché – 26 août 2021)
I, already, knew the satoshi and bitcoin story through an Arte tv documentary (Le mystère Satoshi enquête sur l’inventeur du bitcoin).
I was, already, concerned about finance / investing topics but away from crypto tumult.
I decided to follow his advices and begun to learn.
The beginning
I started this journey with an idiom in my mind : « Not your key Not your money ».
Thus, Swissborg was my first exchange platform and I started to buy token / currencies (such as bitcoin, ethereum, …).
Quickly, I started to follow French specialized channels (such as #hasheur, julien roman, bfm crypto, …) and bought my first cold wallet (Ledger Nano S).
The cryptosphere was on the rise and buzzing due to FTX exchange platform misfortune.
By the way, i learned how to create smart contracts as a result of crypto developers scarcity.
Scam attempt
I registered on twitter (aka X) and subscribed to crypto topics.
Having done that, a stranger approach me on X and invite me to earn money on NFT trades.
It was, definitely, a scam when I was invited to transfer my recent bought crypto-currencies (around 500€ at this time) on a weird platform.
The idiom saved me this day.
So, I went on my deep learning and familiarized myself with this special vocabulary :
- Blockchain
- Private key / Public key
- Hot wallet / Cold wallet / Exchange
- Defi
- Layer 1 / Layer 2 / DAO
- Proof of work
- Proof of stake
- Proof of history
- [Sth] To Earn (play, move, ….)
- NFT
- Metaverse
- Airdrops
That’s all as an introduction
What is blockchain ?
A blockchain is a distributed ledger with growing lists of records (blocks) that are securely linked together via cryptographic hashes. (wikipedia source)
In other words, each block contains signed transaction datas and each blocks is hashed with his direct previous hashed block.
In this way, previous dataset cannot be altered without changing the overall semantic.
Then, the blockchain is registered in a node (aka database) and duplicated on different servers around the world (aka decentralized).
The proof of work is a consensus that resides on a complex calculation that vote the next reliable block.
This complex calculation is harder with time.
This is, globally, the case for well known « Bitcoin ».
This technology is interesting due to its resilience over the time.
Ethereum changes his calculation process by using the proof of stake.
To secure the blockchain, the participants stake their token and earn yields.
Ethereum expands the usage of cryptocurrencies with smart-contrats concept.
With smart contract, we create many use cases with crypto currencies / token (such as NFT, Stablecoins, tokens, …).
This open new vocabularies such as Layer 1 and Layer 2.
Layer 1 is commonly used for sustaining the token usage endorsed with a consensus (proof of stake, proof of history or both).
Layer 2 is used to create real life usage (NFT collections, coins, tokenized real-life assets, …).
Central Banks are appealed to the blockchain technology and develop their own cryptocurrencies (such as China, Europe, US, …).
In conclusion, crypto currencies are slowly but definitely changing our world.
I took years to be accepted and will take time to be, massively, adopted.