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 😂
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. 🐰
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 “digital gold”.
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 “currency” 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 won’t crypto disappear?
In my opinion, Crypto won’t 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 STEEM’s equivalent to Ethereum’s 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 😊
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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Fantastic! Consider this post bookmarked and ready to send to help answer questions!
Number 1 question? Is it a ponzie (did I spell that right)? I always answer no it is a Fonzie scheme! Because it is so cool...ayyyyyyyy I do explain how there are many platforms and currency is just a party of it, such as Steem.
Great post!
Thanks @sequentialvibe!!
Haha, you got me, that's hilarious! 😂 Yeah the currency issue is something that's hard to get people to wrap their minds around... Just because they are called cryptocurrencies, doesn't mean they are currencies like dollars !!!
🥂
Sadly, no one really asks me about crypto. My girlfriend has asked me about blockchain, We had a pretty good conversation about the potential there. I guess that's what I've told people about the most other than steemit.
Really, the only thing I'm hyping to people in the crypto world is steemit. It's free to join, so people aren't as sketched out about it, but the learning curve usually keeps them away. I've tried to bring up crypto as a better investment than almost anything these days, but people still don't take it seriously enough for me to try to get them to listen or to even take the time to learn about it themselves.
I think once they understand the technology it's up to them whether they think it's worth their time and money.
I agree, Steemit is a great introduction to the crypto space. We have a great community, it's free to join, and it's not terribly hard to use at a basic level. It's once you start getting into the details that things can take a turn and people will think it's not worth their time (they're totally wrong).
I definitely also think its a lack of understanding.. People just don't want to take 30 minutes a day or whatever to learn about blockchain, steem and the technology behind other cryptos. I think that's really going to change over the next year as more and more people realize its potential and the need for them to start learning! Thanks for sharing @jakeybrown!! These are great topics!
yessir! once people take a hard look they usually see the potential, and I honestly think a big part of people getting frustrated is just from comparing themselves to others on the site. There is quite a disparity between new users and the 70 rep folks as far as rewards and I don't think new users understand until they dive a little deeper.
Good post @khaleelkazi
What are your thoughts on the @eosio project?
One of the biggest questions I get asked the most is: “where does the value come from?”
Which makes sense because unless you understand certain concepts of currency and franctional reserve banking, it makes absolutely no sense.
In my opinion, the second most misunderstood concept would the lack of understanding the difference between STEEMIT or the other interfaces that get made like, D.TUBE,STEEPSHOT,DMANIA and the actual STEEM blockchain itself.
Keep up the good work!
Thanks @jdg! I actually am ashamed to say that I'm not too familiar with EOS, I've heard of it several times and have also heard that it's an amazing project, I really want to spend some time learning about it before I give an answer here. I have heard good things so far though!
YES... I've heard these 2 questions a lot myself!! Where the value is and also what the STEEM blockchain actually is are 2 relatively hard concepts for the average person to grasp without doing much research. I feel like once you've done some research, "where the value comes from" is such an easy question to answer, imo. 😊
Thanks for sharing these, great questions and great answers! 🚀
How do I convert crypto into real money? And that's a valid question because unless crypto becomes mainstream or unless some of the major online/offline merchants start accepting crypto, people will definitely ask this question.
Because if one is investing his time/money, they will definitely want to see rewards that actually buy them something in the 'real world'.
And then I shamelessly plug my article where I have explained how to convert crypto into real money (Indian Rupee in our case) :D
Hey @goel.tarun!
Yeah that's definitely a valid question. It's an issue that a lot of people I know have been having as well. There aren't a lot of options as far as "cashing out" goes. Coinbase is really one of the only options for us in the U.S. and I'm really hoping that more options get added soon. Robinhood looks promising. I'm also itching to get my hands on one of these payment solution cards like TenX... that would be an absolute game changer.
Thanks for sharing this, it's a great question and one that I also hear very often!
I agree. Though in India, things are slow. Also the government isn't really very supportive of this crypto scene. Recently, banks stopped taking cash out requests of people who were depositing/drawing money earned through crypto. One bank even threatened a customer that if his crypto withdrawals are continued any further, they will close his account.
Looks like secret arm twisting tactics employed by the government.
I too tell everyone about steemit and try to explain this will help thank you.
The real dream is when the ecosystems develop so that we won’t need to convert our crypto into “real” money.
It will be a domino effect once it happens.
🙏🏽
I usually say
I spent a lot of time researching all this...so can everyone else
Agreed, I usually just give a short answer like those above and then follow it up with telling them to spend a little time researching what I told them and then trying to dig deeper. Learning is definitely more valuable and solid when people have to actually look for the answer themselves.
Great answers, I really like basic attention token. Great project with a solid team.
Here is the top 5 questions I get from people I know constantly (in this order)....
The basic jist is a ton of people have a negative opinion of it, yet almost non of them have even the slightest clue what it is...
What are my top 5 (or 6) favorite cryptos? If I absolutely had to choose: Steem, ARK, NEO, LTC, GNT, BAT
At for the top cryptos to hold, my top 10 are... PPT/PLR/NEO/OMG/LTC/XLM/ARK/ZRX/ICX/STEEM (EOS could also make the list but it personally doesn't make my top coin list).
I know that is 10 but IMO all 10 of those have a lot of substance and will be around for the long run (many of which overlap with some of the ones in your list).
wow....!!!! wonderful post sir @khaleelkazi ... it 's really important us... i like your 5 Answers to the 5 Questions that my Friends Constantly Ask Me About Crypto post.. thanks for share the post
very intersting.......👌👌
thanks for reading!
Beautiful piece @khaleelkazi.
People really want to know what crypto is all about but it's digital or abstract-like nature makes it challenging to them, especially when they are used mainly to fiat transactions.
This in my opinion, is the most troubling question such people have. They often confuse cryptocurrency with ponzi schemes. Well, do I blame them? No, but gradually, we will enlighten the globe. Good job💪
Im doing that since btc fees went skyhigh. As said eth is performing much better than btc so to compare your gains you need to compare with putting entire bag on ethereum. Also I never move money from exchange in btc always in eth or other alt (again due to fees) so why should i measure in btc again? Lets say btc recovers... do we really think its gains are more than ethereum in long term? Prolly not so you should compare investing in alts vs eth not btc.
You like that word "plethora" a lot. OK. I will get to the question of the day but I can't linit this to just one.
I don't want to mention names but:
People ask if there is a crypto bubble.
People ask if crypto is the same as the stock market.
People ask how you can cash Steem into fiat.
Just an interesting picture to add to the comment:
Wow great informations. Thank you
this ans are increase our knowledge @khaleelkazi thanks for this
Excellent information sharing. I find many answers. One thing more if you answer?
How to increase our reputation on Steemit and how to increase our Steem Power as we are low ranked with low rewards.
How to improve our posts which get more attention?
Resteemed post
Thanks @khaleelkazi
The question " Why won’t crypto disappear? " is that I want to know . I agree to your No.2 reason of your opinion.
Great answers to some common questions! Could you give a quick explanation for why these are your favorite?
The main question which people plagued me: "how to make money on cryptocurrency? And when you explain that this is not difficult, people begin to say "Yes can't be."It's weird..
really ecellant answer sir @khaleelkazi
This is such a great post, I really enjoyed reading about your thoughts on all of these questions. You have also put a lot more confidence in my crypto long term investing! Thank you very much for sharing this and making Steemit a better place to be!
A: People always ask me, what is the best way to get into crypto currency?
How do I get my money out of crypto?
Simple, sell your alt coin to BTC, LTC or ETH. Send that to coinbase, sell it and transfer the cash to your paypal or bank.
Appreciate the write up, 5 questions I often get from people new to crypto.
follow me
Are you sure this isn't a scam? Haha
Well not a question I get a lot but I know a lot of my other friends who have friends that ask them this question.
Thanks for your post. I appreciate the way you carefully explain this subject. These are question my friends always ask about and I do not no the best way to answer them. I will simply just ask them to read the post. I also love to do well on Steemit, those key point are really vital point I have been doing to improve my Steemit life. I hope others asking these questions should read this post
Thanks for the great read and info! It looks like the main question I get is what others already have mentioned, how to convert to “real” money. But, my question is, and I know it might sound stupid, what actually is a curator?
I never hear any love for XLM Stellar Lumens. I understand some of the arguments surrounding it but wow- it continues to outperform other cryptos day after day..not all others but many.
I have a feeling that in the next year, XLM will be the next big thing that everybody wished they’d have got into early.
I’ve yet to research Arc... I see Neo beating Ripple or at least bitcoin cash in the not so distract future though. Something about BAT confuses me, are you able to get paid in BAT for looking at ads in the Brave browser or do BAT get paid to the website?
Now I get what SMT is about I was saying to myself there is Steem, Steem power and Steem Dollar why SMT. You just answered that questions
"How safe is it?" Most persons that ask this questions are usually sceptics and sometimes convincing them is pretty hard because they don't have the patience to listen. Other set are those that do not have knowledge of how this works.