# Introduction to Crypto

**Published by:** [CryptoMozhi](https://paragraph.com/@cryptob3/)
**Published on:** 2024-03-18
**URL:** https://paragraph.com/@cryptob3/introduction-to-crypto

## Content

Before we begin - I must say something upfront. I’ve been trading Cryptocurrencies for the last 4 years (Don’t ask me if I’m a millionaire, I’m not lol, it’s a popular misconception that people who trade cryptocurrencies are either millionaires or criminals. I’m neither). Everything that I say here is something that I learned during these 4 years. I begun writing about Crypto early this year in Medium (in Tamil) primarily to educate my family members about Cryptocurrency. Then the circle got widened and there were folks who couldn’t understand Tamil so here I am, going more decentralised and now in Mirror. I intend to write some article that will help you begin your journey with Crypto. If you do not know Tamil, then know that the Mozhi in this channel’s name means “Language” in Tamil. Now, many of these articles and stories that I plan to write may be absolutely wrong or I may present incorrect fact(s). I request you to do your own due diligence and advise not to take any decision based on my writing. None of what I type here or on my Telegram Channel is any form of financial advise. First of all what is Crypto? If you are the curious kind, you would have already google’d and found that it’s a digital $$token$$ or simply digital $$coin$$ (currency). That is a correct definition. But what is the need for a Cryptocurrency? As if we don’t have enough currency around the world. A good friend of mine recently re-sent this video to me - I’m gonna let you go through this. https://x.com/WatcherGuru/status/1769027151532073213?s=20 Many of you may only know about Bitcoin because of it’s world wide popularity. Like how Peter in the above video tells you, is Bitcoin perfect? No, not even close. Then why is Bitcoin so popular and so very… costly? Because Bitcoin is the first of it’s kind, a public blockchain network. So what’s a blockchain? I would advise you to go to YouTube and search for Blockchain Technology, where a lot of people who are smarter than me can give you an overview in like 10 minutes. But if you are the lazy type like me, let me give you a brief overview. A public blockchain is something that’s run on many computers around the world and is tamper proof, similar to how Banks claim that a SWIFT transaction could never be hacked. If tomorrow, the government decides that these public blockchains are becoming very nuisance and wants to shut it down, they can’t. Simply put, blockchain is a very secure technology. Public blockchains are even more secure, untouchable by any single entity like a government. Now, a cryptocurrency $$coin$$ can be the one that governs a public blockchain network - like Bitcoin - currency code $BTC. There are cryptocurrency $$tokens$$ that necessarily doesn’t need to govern a blockchain, but simply be part of a blockchain like $UNI (Uniswap token). Fun fact - at the time of this article, Uniswap token’s market capitalisation [~$9.4 Billion] is greater than IRCTC (Indian Railway Catering & Tourism) [almost $8.82 Billion]. There used to be like 10 notable public blockchains when I started with Crypto. Now? There are hundreds of them. Notable old public blockchains are Bitcoin, Ethereum, Binance Smart Chain, Solana, Optimism, Cosmos etc. Notable new public blockchains - SEI, SUI, Aptos, Celestia, Injective etc. If you noticed, I called $BTC a $$coin$$ and $UNI a $$token$$. Is there a difference? Yes. A coin is something that is native to it’s blockchain. For example, to utilise the Bitcoin network, you pay some fees which would be in … $BTC. Similarly, if you are transacting on the Ethereum Blockchain, you pay some fees which would be in … $ETH. Simply put, you need the native cryptocurrency of a blockchain to transact there. Like how in India you need INR and in Canada you need CAD. So what’s $UNI? Uni is a token, that exists on various blockchains. It started with Ethereum - where you (still) can exchange a token or coin for another token or coin. Like swapping. For example, you have 1 Ethereum and you decide to cash out. Where do you go? Bank? Nope, you go to an exchange where they can take your Ethereum and give you the equivalent USD. Notice the full name of the token? Uniswap - an exchange that lets you swap your cryptocurrency. Now, typically when you do an exchange there would be a middle man. Like if you go to a Jewellery store to sell a piece of Gold that you own. The shop owner takes the gold from you and subtracts a small commission fee and a “wastage” fee (most Indians can relate to this) and gives you cash. In the world of blockchain there is no middleman. You go to Uniswap and you select Ethereum that you own and you select whatever the token or coin you’d like to swap it to. There’s a small fee for this (well yea, it’s not free), but the important thing is you eliminate the need for a middleman and you can do this anytime you want. Crypto is 24/7. Now that you have some idea about what a blockchain is and what a cryptocurrency is, I will give you a list of things you need to do to begin what is more than wild, wild, wild, very, very wild west of American history. Things you need:Protonmail - a secure email service, free. Do not, I repeat, Do not use your Gmail or outlook or your office email for any crypto related stuff. Sign up (shameless referral):https://pr.tn/ref/08SN7407GDB0Twitter (X) account - preferably a new account (separate from the one you use for your day to day stuffs, if you do use). Preferably signed up using Protonmail.Discord account - once again, a new account if you already have one and preferably signed up using Protonmail.Telegram Account - I think you know how to setup a TG account. Pretty straightforward.When you set up these accounts, I would strongly suggest you use a VERY strong password - something that is atleast twelve characters. When I wrote this article in Tamil, I suggested that my readers there use Tamil words as a password and even typed down a funny sounding sentence. A very strong password that I shared in my article there was Kaanj@maadum-kamban9aadum. Now once you setup your Discord and Telegram account, I would advise you to do the following setup so you are safe from the scammers out there. Trust me, there are a LOT of scammers in the world of Crypto. I didn’t say crypto is “more than wild, wild, wild, very, very wild west of American history” just for rhyming purpose (well, it didn’t really rhyme, did it?) Here there are dragons. Discord: Click on the settings and make sure these options are selected.Settings in DiscordAllow direct messages from server members should be OFFTelegram:Settings -- Privacy and SecuritySetup everything like above... I would suggest "Groups & Channels" also as "Nobody" but that'd be for extreme paranoid folks (like a few I know)Apart from all of the above 4 social network setup, you need a wallet. No, not the one you already have with you - a decentralised wallet. There are many decentralised wallets out there for transacting in different blockchains, I would suggest a few in my next post. Hopefully soon. You can follow me socially below - note X (twitter) was just setup today. $$Psst$$ - if you know Tamil, you can follow my other articles at https://medium.com/@CryptoMozhi/ Telegram: https://t.me/CryptoMozhi Twitter: https://twitter.com/CryptoMozhi Email: CryptoMozhi@proton.me

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