Blockchain for Beginners

What is a blockchain?

A blockchain is a digital record of transactions and a specific type of database,

which differs from a typical database because of the way it stores information.
Blockchains store data in blocks that are chained together, and these blocks are
individual records / data that are linked in a single chain of recorded information;
hence the term Block-Chain.
Although Bitcoin was the first to use blockchain technology in 2009, since then
there have been various other blockchains created. Currently the two most popular and
frequently used would be Ethereum and Binance Smart Chain because they allow for
smart contract and dApp implementations, whereas Bitcoin does not and is viewed
more as a store of value, similar to gold.

Crypto for Beginners

What is Cryptocurrency?
To summarize it as basic as possible, essentially cryptocurrencies are just
digitally owned assets. These assets typically run off different technologies, also
known as ‘blockchains’, and each blockchain serves as a public financial transaction
database.
Examples of different blockchains:
ETH, ADA, BSC, DOT, SOL, ATOM, AVAX, MATIC, etc.
Where do I store my crypto?
There are various exchanges and different wallets you can store your
cryptocurrencies on. Each wallet and exchange will have different promotions and
limitations that make it more appealing for different holders. If you use a main
exchange like Coinbase, Binance, KuCoin, Voyager, etc. for crypto then you are
limited to the cryptocurrencies you can hold in the wallet provided within their
exchange; you will only be able to send or hold tokens that the centralized exchange
(CEX) you are using offers.
The reason investors and holders will use other wallets is because some wallets
will offer better interest rates than its competitors. While some wallets may not offer
any interest rate at all, some may require you to hold and maintain a minimum amount
of a certain token in order for you to receive interest, whereas another wallet may
require you to hold less. Maybe one wallet offers 8% APR on the crypto you don’t
hold, but another wallet offers 5% on the crypto you do hold and this is why different
users will use various wallets.
Some wallets might be used for cold storage, while others offer decentralized
applications (DApps) that connect to decentralized exchanges (DEX). Being able to
connect to a DEX from your wallet is a useful tool because it allows you to buy or
trade your cryptocurrencies for other cryptocurrencies compatible with that
blockchain.
For example: Connecting your Metamask wallet to Uniswap, or your
Trust Wallet to PancakeSwap.
Here is a list of some wallets that will offer different interest rates on
various cryptocurrencies:
 BlockFi
 Celsius
 Nexo
 Gemini Wallet
 Binance
 Crypto.com
 Atomic Wallet
 Daedalus Wallet
 Exodus Wallet
Note: There are plenty of other established wallets and platforms available to
hold your crypto assets in. There are also several projects that possess their own wallet
created within their ecosystem
 Use 2FA – Two Factor Authentication
Always make sure to use two factor authentication when it is offered. Sure, the
extra step of having to receive a code via text or email after attempting to sign can be
a nuisance, but I promise you this will only keep your assets more safe and secure.

Is my crypto safe?
There will always be speculation on the security of digital assets, but this is
why you do some research and check out the reviews on where you plan to store your
crypto, or which wallet you use. Using a two factor authentication is another great
security layer you can add to making sure your assets are safe. The best advice to
keeping your assets safe inside your digital wallet is by making sure you never give
out, or lose your secret passphrase, because if someone obtained that information they
could gain access to your wallet.

How can I cash out?

In order to ‘cash out’ your investment for fiat currency into your bank account
you will need to sell your crypto for your country’s currency; for example in the
United States you would sell your crypto for USD (United States Dollar). Once you
have the value of USD you are trying to withdraw to your bank account, you should
see a ‘withdraw’ tab in the exchange you are using to sell your crypto.

However, this process can only be done in selected exchanges, for example,
you would need to use a centralized exchange like Binance or Coinbase. If you are
holding your assets in a private wallet like metamask, then you would need to send
that crypto to the centralized exchange that you are signed up for in order to ‘cash
out’. Be aware that not all of your assets can be sold for USD, chances are you may
need to swap your tokens to ETH, BTC, or a stablecoin like USDT (Tether) or USDC,
then you would send that to the CEX you are using to sell and withdraw.

Do I get taxed when I sell my crypto?

You will get taxed for your trades, gains, and withdrawals. However, the taxes
for cryptocurrencies vary depending on where you reside and it is up to you to do your
research and be aware of the tax rules for your state and or country. It is always smart
to try and keep track of your investments, however it can be difficult to do for some
people, so do not feel overwhelmed because there are companies and experts that will
help you come tax season..
 DeFi for Beginners
What is DeFi?
DeFi is short for “decentralized finance” and is a system in which financial
assets become available on a public blockchain, making it accessible to purchase
without having to use a third party. With DeFi you can do just about anything a bank
does, for example, earn interest, borrow, lend, buy insurance, trade assets or
derivatives, and a lot more. The upside to DeFi compared to centralized finance is that
it doesn’t require paperwork or KYC (know your customer) verification like a typical
bank, lender, borrower, or any other centralized establishment would require. With
DeFi, the user is able to interact peer to peer without an institution facilitating the
transaction, but instead the rules are written in code, a smart contract, serving as the
“middleman”.
What are the benefits of DeFi?
Privacy & Anonymity
 You do not need to share private information like photo ID, passport,
address, email, passport, etc.
 You do not need to open account with each platform, but instead can
just connect your wallet
Flexibility
 You can move your assets anywhere during any time without having to
get approval, or have a limit per day you can transfer.
Interest & Rewards
 Earn higher interest and rewards that pay out more frequently than your
traditional bank or brokerage would.
Transparent
 Everyone interacting with the blockchain can view all transactions,
which is the type of transparency a large institution would never
provide.
What are some disadvantages of DeFi?
 Fluctuating transaction fees
 Your investment can experience high volatility
 A congested network can affect transaction speeds
 Having to maintain your own records for tax purpose — some
companies / software’s can do it for you by connecting your wallet(s).
Conclusion
With absolute certainty decentralized finance has complimented the crypto
space wonderfully. Without DeFi, the market would not be nearly as bullish as it is
today, as it brings several benefits compared to the traditional financial market. Sure,
it has its limitations, but overall DeFi is changing the way the financial system works
by giving investors the ability to lend, borrow, earn interest, buy, trade, and so much
more. It has paved the way and become the backbone for cryptocurrency.

Staking for Beginners

What is staking?
In the simplest terms, staking is the process of holding (locking) your
cryptocurrency to receive rewards or interest. There are various methods for staking,
however in most cases you will need to connect your wallet that holds the assets you
are attempting to stake. In some cases, your assets will not have to be sent out of your
wallet and you will receive rewards or interest just for holding that token in the
exchange or wallet you use. However, you may be required to hold a minimum
amount of an asset before you start earning interest on it.
How do I stake to earn rewards?
You can stake your crypto currency assets through so many different platforms
and wallets. There are staking options that may require you to lock up your crypto
assets for a specified amount of time in order to gain maximum interest rewards. With
those type of staking pools, generally users will have to forfeit up a portion of their
rewards if they try to un-stake those assets too early.
Other times, you can earn interest just by holding the coins in your wallet
without having to send them out to be locked in a staking pool and you will
automatically begin receiving rewards, you would just need to claim them. There are
also platforms and exchanges that will do the work for you and will reward you just
for holding a certain crypto on their platform.
Where can I stake my crypto?
There are many different wallets, exchanges, and platforms for staking. Some
platforms will offer higher interest rates and rewards if you connect your wallet to
their staking site and send your crypto there. In situations like that, which is very
common, you will need to periodically connect that same wallet back to the site so
that you can either view or claim your rewards.
 For those who do not feel comfortable sending your investment out of your
wallet, there are some exchanges and wallets that will offer interest for holding a
minimum amount of a certain asset. However, the altcoin you may be attempting to
stake to earn some passive income may not always be available to stake in the same
wallet as your other assets. This is why more experienced traders have multiple
wallets so that they can get the best rates for each asset. Also, you always want to
make sure to do some research and check out the reviews of previous users of that
exchange, wallet, or website so that you can judge for yourself whether it is a good
decision or not to stake your crypto there.
When do I get rewards?
Rewards are distributed differently depending on where you are staking or
holding your crypto to earn interest. Some interest rewards pay out daily, weekly,
monthly, quarterly, and even annually; it really depends on the platform you are using
to stake. In other cases, you may only be guaranteed 100% of your rewards earned if
you stake for a specified amount of time. Again, this is why it is always best to do
some research and weigh out your options to see which platform is best for you stake
on.

What Is a NFT for Beginners

What is a NFT?
A Non-Fungible Token (NFT) is another form of a digital asset that is
represented by something unique on the blockchain and perceived as a collectible. An
NFT can be anything as a photo, art, music, games, videos, or digital file. There was
even one case of someone selling their home as an NFT, promising the digital NFT of
the home and the physical house itself. In simple words, a Non-Fungible Token is
something that can be created (minted) using blockchain technology to represent
something unique.

How much do NFT’s cost?

The value of an NFT varies on the scarcity, the demand, and who created it.
When it comes to crypto art, the value of the art is represented just how physical art is.
If the artist / creator is well known or famous, then it is very likely the NFT’s they sell
will be priced at a higher value. Now, if an NFT is one out one, the only one of its
kind, that makes it a lot more rare and valuable compared to a limited set.
 There are also crypto games that you can win, earn, or buy different NFT’s that
are either tradeable or sellable. In games, NFT’s can be anything as suits, swords,
horses, shoes, land, clothing, weapons, etc., basically any accessory within that
game’s ecosystem. Depending on demand for that game, the NFT can be worth
something or traded for another asset.

Where can I buy NFT’s?

There are a lot of different marketplaces to purchase or shop for NFTs, even
eBay recently revealed they were opening up to the NFT market. However, the most
popular marketplace for people to buy, auction off, or list to sell their NFTs is
OpenSea. There are hundreds of other marketplaces to buy, sell, or trade NFTs, it all
just depends who has what you are looking for.
Once you find an NFT you would like to purchase, you would have to connect
your wallet to that site (marketplace) like you would Uniswap or Pancakeswap. Once
your wallet is connected you will need to select “buy”, and once the purchase is
successful the NFT will be in your wallet.
How do you know if a NFT is authentic or not?
If you are ever in doubt that the NFT you are trying to buy is a scam or of fake
authenticity then you should always wait and do some research before purchasing.
There are incidents of people uploading other artists’ work and pretending to sell it as
that artist, which is why most NFT creators will supply you with a unique identifier
that can be verified on etherscan or bscscan. You can also check the transaction
history of that specific NFT, which should lead back to the wallet address where the
NFT was minted. This will help you legitimize the NFT you are attempting to
purchase because you will be able to see where the piece originated from, date and
time.
What does minting a NFT mean?
The term “minting an NFT” or “mint / minted an NFT” all derives from the
same idea of coins being minted and added into circulation. Simply, it is another word
for created, and refers to the creation of a unique good or asset.

What Is Yield Farming for

Beginners

Yield farming explained

Yield farming, also commonly referred to as ‘liquidity mining’, is a process
that allows cryptocurrency holders to earn interest and rewards for providing liquidity
on their assets through DeFi. In simple terms, yield farming just involves lending out
your cryptocurrency to provide liquidity, and by doing so you will earn more crypto
via high interest rates.
What is a yield farmer?
A yield farmer is anyone who is providing liquidity to earn interest and rewards
to a liquidity pool.
How does yield farming work?
Yield Farmers typically lock their asset into a liquidity pool that offers a high
interest rate, however, they have to do so by providing an equal value of each token.
For example, if you want to provide liquidity for Uniswap for the trading pair
USDT/ETH, then you would need to provide the same value of each asset — $1000 of
USDT and $1000 of ETH for example.
Each pool offers different rates and rewards, for example some pools will pay
you in rewards via multiple tokens — in the asset you provided and another coin.
There are also options to provide liquidity in a pool to earn coins for a new project;
this can be more risky since the rewards you are earning may not have much value at
first, but if or when they receive attention and adoption then your rewards can turn
into a large profit.
 How do yield farming interest & rewards work?
Different pools offer various interest rates and rewards, but the amount of
rewards you receive are based on how much you provide to the pool; the larger you
provide, the higher your rewards.
Some pools will allow you to withdraw your provided liquidity at any time,
whereas other pools may have a locking period. There are also pools that will allow
for early withdrawal, but may charge a fee for doing so; an example would be giving
up a percent of your earned rewards up for an early withdrawal.
The rate at which rewards are paid out to the liquidity farmer are based on that
specific pool itself and the rules of the protocol its contract depends on. Most times
the interest rates are calculated on an annual basis, but if you are one of the first ones
to enter a pool, or one of the last to leave, that is when you will earn the most rewards
since the pool is not having to distribute to as many farmers.
What is Impermanent loss?
Impermanent loss refers to the temporary loss of funds while providing
liquidity. This happens due to the volatility of one of the assets you provided, which
becomes less dollar value at the time of withdrawal than at the time you deposited and
provided it.
Disadvantages of yield farming
 Typically, only worth it if you provide thousands of dollars as capital to
the pool.
 You could be at risk of an impermanent loss, especially when the market
becomes volatile.
 The pool you provide liquidity to could be vulnerable to hacks or fraud,
especially by an unaudited protocol because their coding could be
susceptible to bugs.
Advantages of yield farming
 Earn considerably higher interest compared to your traditional bank
account
 If your funds are sitting stagnant you can lock them into a DeFi protocol
to earn more
 Overall, it is a great source to earn passive income.
 Yield farmers can earn tokens for new projects that have potential to
produce a massive return on investment if the token appreciates.
 The most popular yield farming protocols
 Compound
 MakerDAO
 Aave
 Uniswap
 Balancer
 Synthetix
 Yearn.finance

How to Do Your Own

Research

DYOR = Do Your Own Research

What does this mean?
Blindly investing into something without having any idea what that project or
token does is not a smart idea. Sure, in some cases it may work out for you, but that is
not always the outcome. It is always best to have an understanding of what exactly
you are investing into and this is where doing your own research comes into play — it
allows you to get a better grasp of a project and its utility. Comprehending the use
cases and the long term vision or goal for a project are always an important factor
when trying to understand whether or not there is a real world value within your
investment.
What to look for when doing research?
There are many aspects to unfold when looking into a project. Below are some
key factors to help you identify what to look for when researching.

Utility / Use Case(s)

 What is the token used for
 Does it have multiple use cases within their platform
 Ex: staking, governance, yield farming, rewards, access
 Is the token the major currency used to fuel their network or platform
 Any games, lotteries, NFTs, or extra earning opportunities

Team
 You always want to look into the team, founder, CEO, Investors etc.
You are mainly checking to verify if the team is legit or not, and that
they hopefully do not have any previous scams or negative reputations
surrounding them.
 Although there are plenty of successful projects out there with an
anonymous team, it is more of a risk to invest with one.
Tokenomics
 How many coins / tokens are there currently in existence minus any coins that
have been burned (Total Supply)
 The amount of coins that are circulating in the market and available to the
public (Circulating Supply)
 If the token is inflationary or deflationary
 Deflationary will only make coins more valuable as tokens are burned out of
existence
 These are all aspects that help give more insight into a project
 You can join their telegram chat to get questions or skepticisms answered
 Just always BE AWARE of fake admins. Real admins will never ask for your
money!
 Looking at twitter, reddit, or blogs will only benefit you to understand how
active a team may or may not be on updates, announcements, news,
developments, etc.
 Distribution
 The rate of which the tokens will be released to the public if total supply isn’t
already circulating.
Whitepaper
 Each project should have a whitepaper accessible through their website
 A whitepaper will provide facts, diagrams, statistics, quotes, and all the
information you should need to gain more knowledge about a token and the
team.
 A whitepaper should also explain the technology and the ecosystem of the
project to give you a better understanding of how it operates.
Twitter, Blogs, Telegram Group, Reddit
 These are all ways to get more of an insight
 You can join their telegram chat to gets questions or skepticisms answered
 Just always BE AWARE of fake admins. Real admins will never ask for your
money!
 Looking at twitter, reddit, or blogs will only benefit you to understand how
active a team may or may not be on updates, announcements, news,
developments, etc.
Conclusion
Researching all these different aspects of a project will only benefit you and
give you a greater understanding of what exactly each project’s goal is. Once you
have done research for yourself, you will be able to identify whether or not there is a
use, or will be a use, for that project in the future; therefore, making it a valuable
investment or not.

What Are Stablecoins

What is a stable coin?

A stable coin is a digital asset that is designed to imitate the value of fiat
currencies, like the US dollar or euro for example. The purpose of stablecoins is that,
unlike all other cryptocurrencies, stablecoins’ prices remain steady in accordance with
whichever fiat currency backs them. This makes using stablecoins as a source for
payment easier than having to deal with the volatility that comes with paying in BTC,
or ETH for instance.

Examples of some USD stable coins

USD is the most popular pegged currency in the world, therefore making it the most
popularly backed stablecoin.

 USDT ~ Tether

 USDC ~ USD Coin

 BUSD ~ Binance USD

 DAI ~ Dai
 UST ~ TerraUSD

Tether, or USDT, is the second most traded

cryptocurrency in the market, and as of writing it currently has a 24 hour trading
volume that is more than double of Bitcoin’s (May 21, 2021). USDT mirrors the
price of the US dollar and claims to be backed by a third party reserve that
maintains a sum of dollars to an equal number of USDT coins in circulation.

What are stable coins used for?

Stable coins are typically used as a store of value and as a medium of
exchange. This means that traders will typically move their assets or profits to a
stable coin when they encounter market volatility. Also, the volatility of
cryptocurrencies is what derails institutions from accepting and processing crypto
payments, but the stability of a stablecoin can change that since it is backed by a
1:1 ratio. They also are commonly used in the DeFi space for things like lending,
liquidity providing, yield farming, and more.

Disadvantages to stablecoins

 Speculation behind whether or not stable coins are truly backed by a

reserve or if they were just printed out of thin air.

 Tether claims they are 100% fully backed with a reserve, but have yet to
prove it

 Stablecoins aren’t necessarily always stable. For example, there are

times where they will increase or decrease by a few cents, which may
not seem like much, but if you have thousands or hundreds of thousands
invested in a stablecoin, that .02 – .05 cents will make a difference.
However, the majority of the time stablecoins are stable, just not 100%
of the time.
  Stablecoins are limited to the blockchian they were minted on. For
example, USDT is an erc-20 token, whereas BUSD is a bep-20 token.

Conclusion
Even though stablecoins carry some disadvantages they are still a key
component in the cryptocurrency space. Sure, they may not be stable 100% of the
time, but when compared to all other digital assets, they are a lot safer from market
fluctuation. Stablecoins were created to aid investors in mitigating risk from volatility,
but since then have proven to be more than a safety net by giving investors the ability
to earn interest, borrow, and lend.