Hey Everyone! I'm constantly talking to friends and family about cryptocurrencies and there are a lot of questions that commonly get raised. It's honestly happened so many times that I figured I would just sit down and write out my answers so that next time someone asks me I can just email them đ
I also figured that some of you may find value in these responses and this may be able to help answer some very common and fundamental questions about the crypto space.
Please note that these are meant to be introductory and fundamental responses. My goal is not to completely explain what "Blockchain" is, but rather to just introduce someone to the idea of blockchain and give them a solid base to then go out on their own and travel down the crypto rabbit hole. đ°
What is Bitcoin?
Bitcoin is a decentralized peer-to-peer currency that actually should serve more as a store of value than a regularly traded currency due to scalability issues as well as large transaction fees. I and many others consider Bitcoin to be âdigital goldâ.
What is Blockchain?
Blockchain is the fundamental underlying technology for most cryptocurrencies and is the main potential value that cryptos bring to the table. Blockchain has a near-infinite amount of use cases and is fast, scalable, reliable, immutable and efficient. Blockchain (or a future technology based on blockchain) will undoubtedly disrupt nearly every industry on Earth because it can do things better than traditional methods. Imagine much how the internet has changed the way we do business - blockchain should have a similar, if not, greater impact than the internet.
What is a Cryptocurrency?
Cryptocurrency has become a very widely used term and now is more of a blanket statement for startups and projects operating and building upon blockchain technology (or a technology based on blockchain tech). The âcurrencyâ part of cryptocurrency is also very misleading because many of the use cases for 80%+ of the cryptos in existence have little to do with actually being a day-to-day payment currency like a USD or EURO.
Why wonât crypto disappear?
In my opinion, Crypto wonât disappear for 2 main reasons - (1) because there are a plethora of projects that offer highly varied use cases. (2) Because the technology is orders of magnitudes better than traditional systems. Compare the current banking industry to a secured cryptocurrency - the banking industry can take several days to process transfers and also can carry hefty fees for the usage of its services. A proper decentralized peer-to-peer currency on the other hand has no regional borders, very little fees, and near-instant transaction times - my current favorite for these types of peer-to-peer transactions is called Litecoin (LTC).
What is Steem?
- STEEM is a platform that can be used to build apps or Dapps on top of. Think of it as kind of like Ethereum, but in my opinion, much better than Ethereum. The Steem blockchain is one of the most efficient, fastest, and most scalable blockchains out there and actually has a much longer and better track record than many other blockchains as well.
- Steemit is a social media app on top of the STEEM blockchain where content creators and content curators can get paid for their usage of the platform.
- SMTs (smart media tokens) are set to release some time in 2018 and will allow the creation of tokens that can be used for virtually anything you can imagine - like the tokenization of assets for example. Think of SMTs as being STEEMâs equivalent to Ethereumâs ERC20 token protocol.
- To be successful on Steemit, focus on providing value to the network. Here's a few ways to provide value:
- Be a Content Creator
- Be a Content Curator
- Comment on Posts
- Invite Friends to the Platform
- Create a Project on the Platform
- Contribute to a Project on the Platform
- Invest Time and/or Money into the Platform
These are just a few ways, but there are many more ways to provide value. Don't just do 1 or 2 of them, do as many of them as you can and try to tailor it to your personality. Not everyone is a great content creator, but may be an amazing content curator or vice versa. Or maybe you're amazing at both content creation and content curation. Just experiment and find what works for you. The amazing thing about Steem and Steemit is that you can truly find out who you are and share that person with the community.
note: this is a super long rant, but necessary because of my passion for the platform and for the fact that I'm a hardcore salesman of Steem. I literally try to invite every single person I meet to get onto Steemit đ
What are my top 5 (or 6) favorite cryptos?
If I absolutely had to choose:
- Steem
- ARK
- NEO
- LTC
- GNT
- BAT
Here's the Question of The Day, don't forget to post your answers in the comments!
What is 1 question about crypto that you constantly get asked about?
Thanks for reading! Don't forget to leave your thoughts below and I look forward to seeing you in the comments!
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