You ever had the feeling that you're in way over your head?
I joined Hive this week, and that's instantly how I felt. Well, not instantly. First I felt welcomed and supported and encouraged. So many nice people helped me get started.
At the same time, amongst all their awesomeness, my head still swam with new acronyms. HBD, HP, and RC were the tip of the iceberg. I would type normal words like "vote", only to find out they have new, nuanced meanings on Hive. I felt I was being corrected on "everything." (And for my sensitive snowflake soul, once or twice it felt less than gentle, lol.)
The confusion made me hunger for clarity.
My "mind-soup" pushed me to seek understanding.
So I researched. I read. I learned. A lot. And I've long known that the best way to learn something, is to teach it.
So I began trying to explain *Hive *to people, and I realized they didn't even know how to sign-up. So I taught them how to sign-up, then realized all the 'keys' were confusing them. So I started to explain keys but realized they needed to understand crypto transactions first. So I gave the basics of crypto but realized they needed to understand the blockchain before all the rest.
I felt like pulling my hair out. Just to get someone to join Hive, I had to give them a university course in crypto. But I'm literally a crypto-infant, one week into my blockchain journey.
What was I supposed to do?
Stumped, I started looking for materials I could send. I searched 'crypto basics', 'crypto beginner', and 'crypto ELI5' (Explain Like I'm Five.) Fortunately, this amazing community came to my rescue, again.
@slobberchops kindly sent me his Demystifying Hive series, which is very informative and gave me a lot of insight. (Actually, he made a comment in a thread along with @nonameslefttouse that said:
"I think I need to explain the wallet first before getting to the big step of extracting the cash. Given my recent bout of idleness it might not be in the next few days, but I will get there."
So hopefully I'm not stepping on any 'tutorial toes' by making this. :) Anyway, he wasn't the only one who helped.
@edicted commented on my 'Hive Is Invisible' post, which led me to his Top Ten Rules Of Crypto, which seemed to be for people who've been in the crypto world for a while.
@pitboy's Hive Wallet Explained turned up in a nuanced google search. Which was a great start at explaining a lot of the new terms and confusing acronyms. It was mostly Hive-focused and didn't cover the 'foundations' of blockchain & crypto, so I knew it wouldn't persuade my beginner friends to join Hive.
EDIT: I also want to mention @dandays , who has no article for me to link, but who gave me a ton of info when commenting on my posts.
Basically, I found some good stuff! But I knew if I sent it to my grandma, she'd still be confused.
Point is, maybe there's a truly beginner Crypto For Dummies out there and available, but I consider myself an above-average researcher, and I've yet to find it.
So I've made my own "Token Tutorial", and I'm sharing it here with you. We'll start with the "basics of bitcoin." (Well, actually, the basics of cryptocurrency in general, maybe you're focused on dogecoin because of the recent buzz.)
Bitcoin Basics
1. Crypto's Heating Up For A Reason.
Most industries in the world have been moving away from 'old' analog methods like printing and video rental. Most fields are rapidly moving to digital methods like ebooks and Netflix. That's what's been happening to the finance and banking industries too. Paper bills are evolving into digital tokens.
Fighting this evolution is as silly as fighting the switch from CDs to mp3s. It's probably smarter to get in as early as possible.
2. It's Really Just Currency.
Like many beginners, I talked to a few crypto-lovers in my circles. The result? Deer. In. Headlights. It felt like I was talking to a scientist. Or we were speaking different languages. It all sounded so insanely complicated. Turns out it isn't. 'Crypto' is short for 'cryptocurrency', and it really is just that, a currency. There are different kinds of currency in our world, and now, there are different kinds of digital currency too. And instead of being bundles of paper called "bills," they're bundles of digital code called "coins" (or "tokens"). Instead of trading goods & services for paper bills, we're now trading them for crypto tokens.
3. You'll Need A Digital Wallet
Where have people stored their money in the past? Banks, mainly. Crypto was born to ditch banks entirely. So everyone exchanging cryptocurrency requires a digital wallet. Your wallet will have a long wallet "Address." You can store Bitcoin in there, or Dogecoin, or Ethereum, etc. You can 'send' and 'receive' funds to and from your wallet. You can even have multiple wallets. Keep an eye out though, because crypto banks are rising up on the horizon. I believe there's at least one official one around already (anchorage.com).
Your crypto wallet is like your bank account. And just like a bank account, your wallet has an 'account number' and a 'PIN number' (sort of). This makes it secure, but we'll get to that more in Basic #5.
4. K, But Where Do I Get Some Crypto?
The "market," basically. If you know about the stock market, you know it's basically an "exchange." It's where buyers and sellers go to exchange things. On the stock market, you can exchange foreign currencies. You can invest in the Euro, or the Dollar, or both. You can sell one and buy the other. You can trade one for another, right? Well, crypto is mainly bought and sold on crypto exchanges, such as CoinBase (or ShakePay for Canadians like me). Usually, you can signup for a free account at an exchange, and start buying or selling your first cryptocurrencies. (Bitcoin feels like the most stable beginner-buy to me, but some people are going nuts for doge at the time of writing.)
Exchanges aren't the only way to get crypto though. Just like in real life, one person can sell a certain currency to another, person to person (or peer-to-peer.) You can also locate a crypto ATM and buy some tokens with cash. Or even 'earn' crypto through contests and rewards programs held by some businesses.
5. Crypto Needs Keys.
It needs way too many keys, in my opinion, but they all have a purpose and ensure the security of your money and digital transactions. So... like... keys are good I guess. (Maybe you can tell that keys are my least favorite part of crypto.) I imagine any beginners who like easy-to-remember passwords will hate them, but they really are worth it, and make everything work.
As with banks, there are two parts to accessing your crypto. The public details (key) needed to receive money, and the private details (key) which you need to access your wallet (and send money.)
Public Key - Banks require an account # and transit code to receive funds. In crypto, this is called a 'public key'. It looks like a long sequence of numbers and letters. (It's also called an address or wallet address too.)
Private Key - This is like your PIN number (or signature on a credit card.) It's lets you access your crypto wallet. It lets you send & spend money. The private key is also a long sequence of numbers and letters. (Alternatively, some wallets may use a 'seed phrase' instead of a long, jumbled private key. This seed phrase is made up of many --12 or 24-- words instead.)
Note: Don't give your private key to anyone as this is like giving someone your PIN number!
Edit: The above section was partly written by @nickyhavey , and I appreciate the help.
Your wallet has a 'private key' and a 'public key.'
(Also called your 'key-pair.') They're both a crazy-long string of letters & numbers, and they're very important. Anyone who knows the private key can also figure out your public key. But you can give out your public key safely, and no one can reverse-engineer your secret private key.
It's like if someone has your PIN, they can use it and quickly find out your account #. But, you can safely give out your account #, and people can't use it to find out your PIN.
If you signed up for a traditional bank, you'd get an account # and a PIN. If you sign-up for a digital wallet, you get a Wallet Address & a Private Key... BUT they (confusingly) sometimes have different names.
It goes something like this: you create a new digital wallet at any digital wallet website. You're then given a key-pair. Your key pair is something like this:
Wallet Address (AKA Public Key): 1A1zp1eP5QGefi2DMPTfTL5Smv7D
Private Key (AKA Master Key): 2B3yf4tO7RHsdf3VBNYxWH4Qcz9A
Now you have a new wallet ready to go. But no one knows it exists. Only when you do your first transaction, will the world know your wallet exists, and only then will someone be asking for your Wallet Address (Public Key), so they can transact with you. Your private key you'll keep to yourself like a PIN, your public key you'll give out for transactions, like an account number.
There's a lot more to keys, but I'll stop there.
Booyah! 5 crypto basics explained with friendly doodles.
("Please, oh great deity of the universe, let this be clear enough for beginners.")
So that's the cryptocurrency section. Now let's move on to the technology that makes crypto possible:
Blockchain Basics
A. What Is A "Blockchain?"
A blockchain is just a digital account book. It's a digital ledger that records transactions. Just like a bank keeps track of who's sending how much to whom, the blockchain keeps track of who's sending how much "data" to whom. It's basically a record book.
The reason people are so hyped about it is that people have tried to create digital money before and failed because they didn't have the "magic" encryption and security methods that the blockchain provides. So when blockchain technology debuted people realized that secure, trustworthy digital currency was possible. Awesome, right?
B. Blockchain isn't bitcoin, blockchain needs bitcoin.
Since the blockchain is a digital 'book' of transactions, it starts out empty. And it has no transactions to record unless people are exchanging things. So if no digital currencies existed, the blockchain would just sit there as empty, unused technology.
It's only when "coins" or "tokens" start being exchanged that blockchain had anything to do. When someone exchanges cryptocurrency (BTC, DOGE, HIVE, etc.), the blockchain records it. So the cryptocurrencies in your digital wallet aren't a blockchain. They're just tokens. Bits of data. And they must "move" to make the blockchain kick in and do its thing.
C. Blockchain Is Financial Transparency.
Unlike the records the bank keeps, blockchain is out in the open. The blockchain can be looked up by the public. There are fewer sneaky dealings and bankers holding all the power. Less moving money in the shadows. Blockchain record books are truly public. This is why the 'keys' are so, well, key.
Nearly everything on the blockchain is heavily encrypted, so that people still have some privacy or semi-anonymity, even if every transaction is visible. We benefit from transparency and openness in the world's transactions.
D. Blockchain Tracks Digital Asset Trades.
Let's say you send 1 bitcoin to your friend Jane. Say you want one of Jane's (NFT) artworks in return. You both make the transaction, and the blockchain records it. Or say your friend Rob pesters you to sell him some dogecoin. He has ethereum. So you both enter the proper keys. Rob gets 2000 dogecoin for 1.5 of his ethereum. Another secure transaction, recorded by the blockchain.
A blockchain does this for any transaction done on it.
Whew! That covers the basics of blockchain.
And let me point out again, that I'm a beginner. I'm a noob. I'm one week into Hive and Crypto. I bought my first 0.00019 of a bitcoin yesterday.
This means, that although I've done my best to research and understand, my information may be incomplete. This is all a complex new technology and my explanations may miss nuances or key details. I welcome (kind) corrections in the comments, but please be gentle. I'm a beginner, making tutorials for other beginners. If this is good enough, hopefully, others can link people to it to clear away some of the fog about crypto.
What About Hive Basics?
Well, I intend to cover the basics of Hive too, but this has gotten long enough. Plus, Hive is a 'different enough' animal that I see it deserving its own post.
**After reading, writing, and photoshopping all this, I feel better. I feel like my head's above water, and I can breathe. I might still be in the middle of a crypto-ocean, but at least I'm treading water. At least my vision is much clearer. Even if this only helps me, I can navigate decentralized media with more confidence than I did before I began.
I'd love if this boosted any other beginners' confidence too. And I'm almost certain I got something 'wrong' or missed an important nuance, but this post is still packed with value, IMO.
So if any hivians have anything to add in the comments, I'm sure it will help any beginners who stumble across this and make their onboarding process smoother and easier.
P.S. All these words & images were created by me (though I did get some of the doodles from Envato, a service I highly recommend to content creators who want to speed up their workflow.)
P.P.S. I'm pretty sure Hive etiquette says not to over-tag people, but I feel these basics are so important to Hive's growth, that I'm going to tag anyone I can think of who might be able to get this information out to beginners better than I can. I'm even tagging the 3speak guy, if he likes it maybe I'll make a video. Anyway, here goes...
Please help this post reach beginners: @lordbutterfly , @intothewild , @crosheille , @nickyhavey , @vikisecrets , @joshman , @meesterboom , @grindle , @karinxxl , @bil.prag , @anaclark , @traciyork , @theycallmedan , @saintchristopher , @cynshineonline . If people wanna not curate me, hate me, downvote me, or whatever, so be it. I know that tons of beginners will be flocking to crypto and hive, and we don't have time to educate them all by hand. These basics, even if they're slightly off base, will save everyone loads of time answering questions. It took me a ton of study, re-writes, and doodling to make. And I did all that with a good heart, aimed at helping Hive and the community overall. Hopefully, that spirit shines through.
Thanks for reading.
Welcome to Hive @ryzeonline! Pleasure to meet you. Way to hit the road running. Your blog is awesome. Gunna share with a few friends. This space is tricky to explain. I think what you created will help. Looking fwd to seeing you around. 🌼
Thanks for the warm welcome, @yogajill! The pleasure's mine! And great to hear this counts as a 'running start.' I always aim for what I share to be valuable, and simplifying tricky things is often a key part of that. I'm thrilled to know you feel it will help. Looking forward to seeing you around too! Thanks again! 😁🙏
I did a top ten list many moons ago, careful though, it might make you a lot of money...
https://hive.blog/life/@meesterboom/crypto-trading-fundamentals-part-1
Awesome! Thanks for linking this, I (and likely other noobs) can use whatever educational resources we can get. I'm looking forward to checking it out, but would like to rest my mind from all the writing I just did first :)
HAhahah, oh dont worry. The kind of links I spam will never tax the mind
I dunno, it was an intense read, I expressed my shock and awe in the comment I left on your post, lol :)
Well done on this beginners guide! You have pretty much grasped the basics of it and used nice clear diagrams!
The one bit that I think you over did was about keys because even I started getting confused about how you described it. You can probably trim it down.
As with banks, there are two components to owning your crypto wallet. The public details/key that are needed to receive money and the private details which you need to access your wallet to send money.
Public Key - in the UK banks, account number and sort code are needed if you want to receive funds. This is called public key in the crypto industry and is a long sequence of numbers and letters.
Private Key - This is akin to your PIN number (or signature or private info) needed to access your bank account so you can send money. The private key (or "seed phrase", depending on the wallet you use) is a long sequence of numbers and letters (or a sequence of 12/24 words).
Don't give your private key to anyone as this is like giving someone your PIN number!
If you wanted more reading material or inspiration, I did a whole blog series like you called Bluffer's Guide To Cryptocurrency but going to be revamping this on a new website soon. I think it would be great to have some articles from you if you'd be interested in doing a few guest blogs?
Thank you! I was a bit nervous that I was getting something wrong, so glad you feel I've grasped the basics.
Is it alright if I edit that in and credit you for your explanation? I appreciate the help and improvements.
I'd love to read your Bluffer's Guide, and I'd be honored to contribute an article or two to your new site. Please keep me posted! 🙏
Yeah man, no worries, feel free to edit as you see fit!
I'll keep you posted about that, still waiting for my website guru to get back to me with an update on the site! Still a way to go to build it but you can't rush awesomeness! The Bluffer's Guide will be re-written a little and the last one I did was quite a few months, maybe a year ago so I can't find it on my profile - I'll keep you posted. Are you on Twitter? Will reach out to you on there.
Edits made :)
And I totally agree. Everything at it's correct pace. Yes, I'm @ryzeonline on Twitter (and just about everywhere else, lol.)
Very helpful indeed. Thank you for taking the time to write this 👍
I'm glad you liked it and appreciate the time it took, thanks again and wishing you a great day! 🙏
Funny that you bring up that top ten list:
I just remade it to be a little bit more newbie friendly.
https://leofinance.io/@edicted/top-ten-guidelines-for-crypto
Still, it's not like anyone who reads that will be any closer to doing something specific.
Very generic guidelines.
Ah! Not sure if you believe in coincidences, but that's great timing! I'll definitely read the updated version later. And generic guidelines are better than no guidelines, I'd say, so I'm glad you wrote them up.
Thanks for sharing this post👍
Hey @ryzeonline! Here we are again :D
These graphics are amazing! As I was reading I was thinking to myself
It didn’t hit me until I came to the graphic with Hive in it that your name was under all of them lol. Quite impressive.
This in my opinion is a good starter for those wanting to dip and dive into the crypto world. I’m still learning everyday, learned more from reading this too. I started off by only wanting to learn the basics in order to do well on this platform. Then the more my husband got into crypto and the more I got involved here, suddenly I intentionally started educating myself more about it.
I admit it was a scary world at first because...it’s new and seemed so complicated (the exchanges are still quite that way for me but I am slowly getting more comfortable and understanding them better).
I loved the flow of your post. It’s always cool when a beginner teaches what they know because they do it in a way that’s not intimidating. You made it funny and interesting but in the same sense very educational. Nicely put together ;)
Ayyy, thank you so much, @crosheille ! I'll take all the praise and kind words I can get. Yes indeed, I made all the graphics. Took quite a while, but worth it I feel.
I mostly made it because everything I read and Googled was either too complex, too intimidating, or too generic for me to pass along to friends interested in crypto. Plus, I intend to write a similar post for Hive Basics, but couldn't do that without explaining all this stuff first.
I love your story of how you got into it for one thing, then because of your husbands interested, you transitioned to another thing. It's similar to my own tale. I started learning this for a semi-unintentional reason, then transitioned to intentionally educating myself (and others!)
Flow is so important and writing, especially in long 'explainer' posts I'd say, so I'm very grateful that you resonated with it. It is very "for beginners, by beginners", lol.
Anyway, if you meet a beginner in the future, hopefully, it'll save you some time just to send 'em to this primer. :)
Either way, thanks for the great comment.
You're welcome ;)
I’m so glad you decided to make your own graphics. The work you put into them is clearly seen.
👆🏽 This is very true.
For sure. I will definitely remember this when a newbie needs some guidance when stepping into the crypto world ;)
Yay! Glad my efforts are appreciated, feels good!
I kinda wish I was taught 'flow' earlier, but at least I know now :)
Thanks for keeping it in mind, I don't want people to go through what I did just to get started in this wonderful space. :)
I must say..for someone who is in over his head so short, you are in over your head for a good one :D
sweet comparisons in the infographics as well, yeah this is the stuff we need so people do understand.
Ow yeah another thing to not forget. Sleep and your social life hahaha. Because it can be so consuming that it gets out of hand so fast and since you want to run the marathon, never forget it is not a sprint hehe
Thank you, I'm touched to hear that! I did my best to understand well, then teach what I had learned. For beginners, by a beginner, lol.
Yes, that is very good advice, and I think I'll take a break from posting soon. Marathon, not a sprint, great reminder.
Thank you for caring about me and my well-being, @karinxxl . Much appreciated and wishing you a great day!
Welcome aboard to this storm ship. You have taken the description of this world for beginners seriously and I must say that you have done very well. Congratulations.💪😜
Thank you kindly! As a beginner myself, I noticed that I couldn't find a 'serious' description of this world that didn't intimidate or wander off topic, so I did my best to create one.
I'm honored to read that it was a job well-done, thank you, congrats are much appreciated. 😁🙏
You're welcome! 😎🍻 !BEER
This is so awesome, lol! I just commented on @karinxxl 's beer blog, and now I'm receiving some kind of digital Hive beer from @seckorama - coincidence, or are the beer-gods are smiling on me? Hmm....
And it looks like I can 'stake' this beer? (Yay? More to learn? lol!)
Thanks, I appreciate this :)
View or trade
BEER.Hey @ryzeonline, here is a little bit of
BEERfrom @seckorama for you. Enjoy it!Learn how to earn FREE BEER each day by staking your
BEER.Thanks so much @beerlover !
Ops! I didn’t know that my article ranked on Google with the keyword - What is Hive Wallet! That's the power of SEO my friend. 😁
Thanks for tagging. Though I wrote a lot of articles on blockchain and crypto for beginners, which may you help newbies like your friends. 😉
I loved how much effort you gave on this post. A very good read. I'm inviting you(and all) to subscribe our brand new community Hive SEO. Hoping to see your post in our SEO community soon.
Yes! Your article came up instantly when I searched. (The power of SEO indeed.) It's quite well done and taught me a lot. Somehow I didn't realize you had more in the same vein, I'll definitely check them out. I'm grateful for any resources that make this stuff easier.
I haven't put much attention on SEO in the past, but perhaps now's a good time, since I'm being invited to a community for it. Consider me joined, and thanks for the kind words.
YAY! OMG This is super helpful. I know wayyyy less about all this than you do and this tutorial was quite helpful for me. Ok I got to see it before it was posted but still. I didn't understand what the blockchain was until I read this.
@saintchristopher tried to explain some of this to me but I didn't understand. But he did his best. I do appreciate your efforts Christopher. You're so sweet to have shown me the way but I still feel a bit lost lol. I'm getting it though so thank you ❤️
@ryzeonline I think this is a great way to explain crypto and the blockchain. thank you for taking the time to make this. I hope it's as helpful to others as it was for me.
~Love, Cyn
Yay, glad you're feeling it. When learning new things, it often helps that everyone pitches in. The community here is so helpful, and everyone contributes a bit 'more' understanding, for the most part.
I'm thrilled if it helped in any way.
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Dang man, you put this together really well. Is your grandma a whale yet?
If you've yet defined whale to her, please do so before allowing her to read the above question
And my bad, I totally spaced you were new why with all these fancy instructions and all:
Thanks man, much appreciated!
And omg haha, I would have to explain whale, and social media, and who you are, all before I showed her this question. I can safely say she's not a whale in any sense of the word.
And hey, if I can pass for 'not new', I'll take it.
That said, I'm not new to blogging, just to crypto/hive.
Now you've got me curious though, "A Professional Blogger Extraordinaire" eh? I'll check it out when my head is rested from writing.
Thanks again, superstar :)
One thing at a time. Stay tuned for how to send me all your BTC.
lol, that sounds like a key lesson...
Oh. I thought we were doing tutorials about cabinets.
There you go theenkin again.
I didn't mean to.
If this is anything like the last post I read of yours, I'm in for quite a ride... :)
Loved reading this, thanks for the tag
My pleasure! You probably already knew it all, but if any friends ask you about crypto, hopefully this makes explaining it easier :)
Easy to follow yes
Cheers
😁🙏🙌
great point!
Thank you!
I think a Hive 4 Beginners series would also be fine, because Hive has a lot of features (social + web3/dapps + earning crypto for bloggging + text actually stored on a public blockchain/uncensored) that are quite unique in the blockchain space.
Yes! I intend to create a Hive Basics post soon, but I have to learn more first. For example, this is the first time I've seen the term 'web3', lol. But if this post goes over well and helps a reasonable amount of people, I could see myself doing a Hive one. :)
Very very helpful thank you
I'm glad it was helpful to you. I'm working on a 'part two' that covers all the Hive Basics, if you're interested :)
Yeah mate I am, let me know when it's done 😎
Thanks, I definitely will, just posted a progress-update! :)
nice.
someone made an interactive beginners guide if i remember correctly. i will send you the link if i find it. maybe you can do something with it.
Thank you! That'd be great, any resources or help is appreciated! :)
@bunny11 you might be interested in this...
Honored that you feel this may help someone. Wishing @bunny11 a wonderful crypto/hive experience! :)
@ryzeonline Thank you very much for this excellent guide. You explained everything very well and in a fun manner. Love the doodles!! Well done you put a lot of work into the guide. A big thank you from this novice!
My pleasure, I'm so glad you enjoyed it. Us novices gotta help each other, right? :) 🙏