Ultimate blockchain, NFT and crypto learning guide

This thread blew up on my twitter and figured it was probably worth it to put it here as well. Lots of great content here — I’ll be doing more and more of these as I build my blockchain company and have to learn things piece by piece.

Blockchain at Berkley’s Spring 2021 fundamentals course.

Slides and recordings:

https://blockchain.berkeley.edu/courses/spring-2021-fundamentals-decal/

Tim Ferriss, Naval and Nick Szabo’s podcast about crypto and bitcoin:

Similar to one above but Tim Ferriss, Naval and Vitalik Buterin’s podcast on scaling, ETH, NFT’s and more:

Chris Dixon’s essay on NFT’s and a thousand true fans (must read for people getting into NFT’s IMO):

https://a16z.com/2021/02/27/nfts-and-a-thousand-true-fans/

For blockchain devs (or people trying to get into Solidity)… this is best tutorial out there:

https://cryptozombies.io/

Not solely focused on blockchain but great talk throughout around the subject with Naval and Joe Rogan on the Joe Rogan Experience:

https://open.spotify.com/episode/3ijkVfaht5kcFPvHcCbYYD?si=nZZh8hzNSXqcAGydrfC_iw

Coinbase’s beginners guide to DeFi (decentralized finance):

https://blog.coinbase.com/a-beginners-guide-to-decentralized-finance-defi-574c68ff43c4

Balajis on why you need blockchain (from a dev approach):

https://balajis.com/yes-you-may-need-a-blockchain/

Marc Andreessen’s article on why Bitcoin matters (peep that date):

https://a16z.com/2014/01/21/why-bitcoin-matters-nyt/

For anyone getting into tokenomics this Vitalik Buterin is a must read on analyzing the sale models:

https://vitalik.ca/general/2017/06/09/sales.html

Another good primer for NFTs and decentralized web with @garyvee and @CoinDesk (this is a short 15 min guy):

https://open.spotify.com/episode/3kXamm6zTF7j5W1sSIJ7HI?si=fU0w5_gASg28LaBREth4Wg

Why sharding makes sense by Vitalik:

https://vitalik.ca/general/2021/04/07/sharding.html

And on that same note — the limits to blockchain scalability is also up there as a must read by Vitalik as well:

https://vitalik.ca/general/2021/05/23/scaling.html

Bonus (heady) round here on crypto-civilizations by Balajis on Bankless. This REALLY opened my eyes to some possibilities I couldn’t have even thought of in my dreams:

https://open.spotify.com/episode/384lAtw8HxiZ3HjJmc1kuC?si=O3AfPn-tTfuPZ8MyWEquPQ

Forgot about rollups — those are important to understand too. Rudimentary article by Vitalik:

https://vitalik.ca/general/2021/01/05/rollup.html

Consensys’ article on PoS (proof of stake) and PoW (proof of work)

https://consensys.net/blog/blockchain-explained/what-is-proof-of-stake/

Coinbase’s article on understanding web3 approach and mapping through the infrastructure of web2 vs 3 (great dev article):

https://blog.coinbase.com/understanding-web-3-a-user-controlled-internet-a39c21cf83f3

Standford‘s open course for cryptocurrencies, blockchain and smart contracts:

https://cs251.stanford.edu/

Baljis on what blockchain has already helped push the envelope on:

https://balajis.com/and-what-has-the-blockchain-ever-done-for-us/

Fred Ehrsam‘s article on why ETH is the forefront of digital currency:

https://fehrsam.xyz/blog/ethereum-is-the-forefront-of-digital-currency

If you liked this thread feel free to follow for more of this content and also reach out to me on my twitter @_garretthughes.

Garrett