On January 3, 2009, a pseudonymous genius named Satoshi Nakamoto officially invented Bitcoin. Whoever this mystery person or group is, they managed to create the world's first cryptocurrency that would soon change everything as we know it.

No one knows who created Bitcoin, there is no company behind it, and there is not a single entity or person in charge of marketing it, yet today at the time of writing this blog, it is worth over 1 trillion dollars!

This is one of the first questions bitcoin newbies often ask. Naturally, this question pops up as a concern over trust: Who is at the top of the Bitcoin ladder? Is this a scam?

Nobody knows where the 21 million bitcoin cap comes from; this is likely just an arbitrarily chosen number. However, what's important is that this number can't be changed — ever. 

Work is energy. Everything in our lives is closely linked to the price of energy. The cost of any good largely reflects the energy used in producing that good. Bitcoin is no different. To mine new coins requires work, i.e., energy.

Money can also be looked at as stored energy. This is an important principle to understand, as it is the reason why Satoshi Nakamoto introduced proof of work (POW) mining to the Bitcoin network.

Bitcoin has a predetermined supply schedule that caps the total supply of bitcoin at 21 million bitcoin (BTC). Mining bitcoins is the only way new bitcoins are created and entered into circulation.

A node is just a computer that is running the Bitcoin program. More importantly, it is connected to other computers (running the same program) to create a network. The Bitcoin Network is composed of Bitcoin nodes: computers running the Bitcoin program.

People have some questions regarding Bitcoin, valid ones, especially since most people don’t and will not understand the complexities of cryptography and blockchain technology.

A smart contract is a self-executing computer program written in code that is triggered when its predetermined conditions are met.

Ethereum is a decentralized, open-source blockchain with smart contract functionality. Ether (ETH) is the native cryptocurrency of the platform.

Ethereum was conceived in 2013 by a programmer named Vitalik Butterin. After researching and writing multiple articles for the Bitcoin magazine, Vitalik saw Bitcoin as a great innovation for eliminating intermediaries..

Encryption is the process of taking plaintext and converting it into ciphertext or encrypted data so that only authorized parties can decrypt it.

You might think that this is limited to paper bills and minted coins, but anything can be money, so long as it fulfills certain fundamental use cases.

The Cantillon Effect is the most important economic concept you’ve never heard of. Here, we break down what it is and why you should care.

Like a database, a blockchain stores information electronically in a digital format. The difference between a typical database and a blockchain is how the data is structured.

A cryptocurrency is a digital asset that enables the exchange of value digitally on a blockchain (a digital ledger). The term “cryptocurrency” is a combination of the words cryptography and currency.

The metaverse is tricky to define because it's a concept that is still in the very early stages of development. Are we in the metaverse already? The short answer is yes, well, kind of ...

The terms digital assets, cryptocurrencies, and tokens are often used interchangeably. Although these terms have different meanings.

To understand non-fungible, we must first understand fungible. Very few things in life are fungible. Look around you. We mostly encounter fungible objects in financial matters where fungibility is a simplification to make things efficient.

Just as physical gold is mined, the digital gold Bitcoin is also “mined” digitally. We will use Bitcoin as an example to explain the concept of mining, given that it is the same process for other coins that have adopted a similar mining mechanism.

Proof of Work (PoW) and Proof of Stake (PoS) are the most popular consensus mechanisms for cryptocurrencies. Read along as we explain each and compare them.

Money, at its most basic level, is a medium to transfer value. We discuss the three main functions of money: Store of Value (SoV), Medium of Exchange (MoE), and Unit of Account (UoA).

We can think of money as a technology that evolved over time.

Wrapped tokens are tokenized versions of a cryptocurrency that is pegged to the value of the underlying cryptocurrency it represents.

A “rug pull” is a figure of speech that describes the feeling of someone pulling a rug you were standing on unexpectedly therefore leaving you to fall.

A burn-in cryptocurrency is a process of purposely and permanently removing a coin or token from the circulating supply which can be done by the developers or crypto community.

A lot of news lately about countries looking to issue Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDC).

Phishing relies on manipulating humans thus it is more of a social engineering attack rather than software or hardware failure.

Blockchain technology and Cryptocurrencies have introduced us to a world of new possibilities.

Inflation can be defined as the reduction in purchasing power of a currency or the continued increase in prices of goods and services within an economy.

Fractional reserve banking is a system in which banks are only required to have a fraction of bank deposits from their customers backed by actual cash on hand or available for withdrawal.

Fiat money is a government-issued currency that is not backed by a physical good or commodity and it derives its value from the government that issued it.

On August 15th, 1971, President Richard Nixon announced his new economic program “creating prosperity without war” and the aftereffects of these policies have been referred to as the “Nixon Shock”.

The 2008 financial crisis also known as the subprime mortgage crisis devastated the world economy and was mainly triggered by the U.S housing market collapse.

Here’s what you need to know when choosing between a hot and cold wallet or opting for the best of both worlds.

This is a good time to learn about dollar cost average (DCA) investing.

A meme-coin is a cryptocurrency or token inspired by a viral meme or insider joke.

The Fear and Greed index is a market indicator that analyzes market sentiment using fundamental and sentimental metrics.

KYC stands for “Know Your Customer” and is a requirement enforced typically on financial institutions to verify their customer's identities.

Social engineering is the technique of exploiting human weaknesses to gain access to personal information and protected systems.

A cookie is a small file of information that a website creates and sends to your computer for storage.

A 51% attack, also known as a majority attack, occurs when one or more persons gain control of over 50% of a blockchain’s hashing power.

A Denial of Service (DoS) attack is a cyber security threat that is directed towards devices, information systems, or other networks that prevent legitimate users from accessing the service or resource.

Cryptocurrencies have become highly valuable assets thus making them attractive to scammers. It is important for investors to be aware of them and always remain vigilant.

ICO stands for Initial Coin Offering and it is a method used by developers to raise funds for a project within the cryptocurrency space.

Web 1.0, Web 2.0, and now Web 3.0; To understand how the 3rd iteration of the internet has come to be, we need to understand where the internet came from and how it has developed to where it is today.

Web 3.0 (Web 3) is the next iteration of the internet in which machines will be able to interpret information as smart as human.

Anti-money Laundering (AML) consists of a series of regulations, laws, and procedures that help to combat the movement of illegal funds.

Tokenomics is a portmanteau of the words Token & Economics.

DAOs are blockchain-based, self-governing organizations that enable participants to work toward a common goal on a trustless network.

Organizational structure has remained relatively unchanged since the development of the corporate form in the 17th century.

An economy can be defined as the production, consumption, and trade of goods in a given area.

Stablecoins are digital assets designed to maintain a fixed value of a fiat currency or asset over time.

Crypto lending is the process of taking the crypto of one user and providing it to another user (the borrow) for a fee (interest rate).

Crypto lending has been a valuable service to users in the DeFi space, although it is essential to understand its pros and cons.

A bull market describes the condition of a financial market in which a large portion or particular prices of assets are rising or expected to rise for an extended period of time.

A bear market describes the condition of a financial market in which a large portion or particular prices of assets are generally dropping for an extended period of time.

An interest rate is a payment owed to a lender by the borrower per period, which is a percentage of borrowed amount (the principal).

Market sentiment is the overall attitude of investors toward a particular asset or, generally, the financial market.

Candlesticks charts are a type of chart that combines multiple candles to graphically represent the price movement of a given asset within a specific timeframe.

Investing essentially relies on a long-term approach and often applies to retirement accounts.

Fundamental Analysis (FA) is a strategy employed by investors and traders in an attempt to establish the intrinsic value of an asset or business.

Technical Analysis (TA), also known as charting, is a method of analysis that uses historical price action and volume data to predict future market behavior.

The price action of an asset is the transition from rising and falling trends that can be detected through price patterns.

Gold has been the preferred store of value commodity for centuries. The main reason for this is scarcity, the more scarce something is, the higher its value.

Bitcoin and Ethereum are the 2 biggest cryptocurrency blockchains in terms of popularity and market capitalization.

Stagflation is a portmanteau of the words Stagnation and inflation.

Arbitrage trading is a trading strategy in which traders aim to benefit from the price difference of an asset between different markets (exchanges).

The greater the price change or volatility of the assets, the larger the impermanent loss.

In Technical Analysis (TA) there are different types of lines that can be drawn on a chart. These lines are among the basic technical indicators.

A liquidity pool is a crowdsourced pool of funds for two crypto assets locked into a smart contract that provides liquidity to enable the trading of trading pairs on a Decentralized Exchange (DEX).

A bid-ask “spread” is the difference between the highest price buyers are willing to pay (bid price) and the lowest price a seller is ready to take (asking price) for a given asset in the market.

Though some might critique the energy expenditure required for Bitcoin mining, the real comparison is against other monetary standards.

Since energy is available and priced on the market, the fact that miners are able to use it cost-effectively is an indicator that it is not wasteful. What makes proof of work efficient?

In simple terms, staking is a way to earn rewards on your crypto assets. These rewards are earned in percentage terms and known as Annual Percentage Yield (APY).

An airdrop is the free distribution of a digital asset by a crypto project to the public by virtue of holding a certain coin/token or having an active wallet on a specific blockchain.