Yesterday I caught up with Mark (a pseudonym because well, Apple), a friend of twenty-five years and a former colleague at Apple, and spent a good deal of time trying to articulate to Mark why I was really, really excited about blockchain and the steps I was taking to become familiar with blockchain and cryptocurrencies. Naturally with Bitcoin at yet another ATH (All Time High) there's this feeling of cryptocurrency as the gold rush of this decade. So when Mark mentioned gold rush I thought of this week on the Bankless podcast when I think it was David but it may have been Ryan who said something to the effect of yeah, this may be the gold rush but we're on the California trail and right now we just want to get to San Francisco alive. With Mark I said I thought for he and I it was more like we were still trying to figure out how to cross the Mississippi or maybe I'd crossed the Mississippi and was in St. Louis trying to give him guidance on making his own way to St. Louis so that he too could go west, young man, go west. Imagine if you will then this blog post as something of a digital letter in follow up to a telegram MEET ME IN ST. LOUIS.
Another movie that comes to mind at the moment is Out of Africa when Denys arrives with the plane and Karen asks, "When did you learn to fly?" and he replies, "Yesterday". That's pretty much where I'm at with blockchain and cryptocurrencies so what follows is some initial information and resources I've gathered and I'm sharing these with Mark and with you as possible entry points for your own journey west. Your mileage will vary and perhaps considerably so but I hope for those who are a few days behind me on the trail this will save you a bit of time and while time is money it's even more so during a gold rush.
Getting Your Map and Your Supplies
The MAP: BANKLESS
Let me start with David and Ryan and their Bankless podcast and newsletter. Whatever you do start with these guys in whatever format works for you just make them part of your regular digest of all things crypto. If you are able, spend the $12 to level up to premium and support these guys because I think more than anyone they give you a sense of the terrain and the dangers to avoid. I listen to them almost daily in trying to catch up on all things in this crypto/blockchain wild west.
Bankless YouTube channel
Bankless Apple Podcast
Bankless Newsletter
Bankless Guide
Other news resources I've been following include:
Coindesk TV. I generally catch their 9:00 am (EST) First Mover show and the 3:00 pm (EST) All About Bitcoin. Coindesk only recently started streaming live shows but when you think of finance talk shows this fits that bill but focus on the cryptocurrency space.
The Defiant (YouTube Channel and Podcast) which bills itself as curating, digesting, an analyzing all the major developments in decentralized finance (DeFi, what do folks mean when they say Defi?). Mark Cuban was a recent guest.
I also regularly check Cointelegraph and keep the app on my iPhone (also available for Android).
I think those three will more than serve as a good starting point for folks getting into cryptocurrency and blockchain. If you want to dig deeper and catch some of the enthusiasm of other folks in this space here are others that I've checked out which you may or may not find helpful.
Dave Lee on Investing. Dave is not exclusively focused on cryptocurrency but he does have a number of episodes which do focus on this and he has 124K subscribers.
Orange Pill Podcast. 76.2 subscribers on their YouTube channel. This couple may or may not be your cup of tea but their's no denying their enthusiasm for all things Bitcoin.
Cheeky Crypto. 20.6K subscribers. I like their dives into individual crypto coins.
Crypto Ellis. 14.3K subscribers. Is it hype or news?
Bit-Rush Crypto. 4.55K subscribers. I'm not sure what to think here but it's another perspective that I keep an hear open to hearing sometimes.
AllinCrypto. This is a new kid on the block with 1.21K subscribers but I think worth keeping an eye on.
That's way more than enough news sources to start with but some approaches may strike your fancy more than others. Again, if you subscribe to only one YouTube channel or podcast then I strongly recommend that that be the Bankless one.
How Did We Get Here
If you're like me then you may find it beneficial to read a bit on the people and technology that brought us to this point. If so, here are a few books which I found to be good reads in bringing me up to speed.
The Bitcoin Standard by Saifedean Ammous . (Available in hardback, Kindle, and audiobook) If you only read one book read this one to help understand why in the world a cryptocurrency could be valued at a trillion dollar market cap. As the author says, you may or may not feel Bitcoin is worth investing in after you read the book but you'll have a better understanding of money and what makes for hard or soft money.
Bubble or Revolution?: The Present and Future of Blockchain and Cryptocurrencies by Neel Mehta, Adi Agashe, and Parth Detroja. (Available in paperback or Kindle). A readable understanding of cryptocurrency and blockchain by product managers from Google, Microsoft, and Facebook. I think this book does a good job of separating the hype from the fiction. A good basic introduction to the technologies but not the most exciting reads.
The Infinite Machine by Camila Russo.(Available in hardback, Kindle, and audiobook). Camila is financial journalist who was at Bloomberg News for eight years. She's a good storyteller and takes the reader on the adventurous early days of Ethereum. The full title of the book is The Infinite Machine: How an Army of Crypto-Hackers Is Building the Next Internet with Ethereum. It's important as you turn to cryptocurrencies to first understand what Bitcoin is but after that I think the next step is understanding what are the limits of Bitcoin and why Ethereum is the number two cryptocurrency by market cap. Camila's book is more of a story of the people and less a story of the technology. It's a good fairly quick read and add to an understanding of the lay of the land as most of the characters are still very much active in the cryptocurrency/blockchain space.
Okay so now you want to buy some cryptocurrency
I don't think it's necessarily too complicated to buy cryptocurrency but there can be some extra steps and extra things to keep in mind or to keep safe that you might not think about as much with other currencies or investments. Of course, your perspective is undoubtedly going to be informed by just how the currency of your home country has been experienced in your lifetime. This is something that Camila in The Infinite Machine is good at underscoring as does Saifedean Ammou in the Bitcoin Standard. I'm by no means an expert and the following is meant to be neither definitive nor exhaustive it's just some things I suggested my friend Mark should look at or think about in dipping into this space and perhaps will serve as a point of entry for you too.
"The first publicly-quoted* Bitcoin investment vehicle and the first digital currency investment vehicle to attain the status of an SEC reporting company"-Grayscale
One of the least complicated and exceedingly popular ways to buy cryptocurrency is through Grayscale Trusts. You can purchase Grayscale trust products through brokers like Charles Schwab or for your IRA at Vanguard. Grayscale has a product just focused on specific cryptocurrency marketcap leaders such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Litecoin. Alternatively, Grayscale also offers a Digital Large Cap fund which carries a basket of top cryptocurrencies. Each of these investment products is attempting to closely match the value of the underlying asset however, there is a premium one pays for "avoiding the challenges of buying, storing, and safekeeping" your asset directly which is why I note these first. If you already have an account with a broker this may be the easiest and most comfortable way to get exposure, as they say. While you will get exposure some say you are foregoing this at a cost which leads Seeking Alpha to call this Bitcoin for Boomers and Retirees and Pure Lunacy. I think it really depends on how comfortable an investor is with the steps that follow. Given the ever escalating price of cryptocurrencies in this bull run folks are probably not minding the premium for the convenience Grayscale affords but time will tell.
Binance and COINBASE - Buying Cryptocurrency on an Exchange
If you want to buy your own cryptocurrency then two of the most popular exchanges are Binance US and Coinbase (word on the street is that there's a Coinbase IPO planned for 2021). I have accounts with both BINANCE US and Coinbase. Not every cryptocurrency you read about and want to invest in is available on every exchange. Mark tells me for example that he Binance US isn't available in Texas yet and he can't by Cardano's ADA on Coinbase yet (though Cheeky Crypto is speculating on when we might see ADA on Coinbase). I'll go into my experience with Binance US and Coinbase in a future blog post but for now these are considered newbie friendly exchanges.
Not Your Keys, Not Your Coins
If you decide to buy your cryptocurrency on an exchange then fairly quickly you're going to run across the phrase "not your keys, not your coins" popularized by Andreas Antonopoulos. Basically, in short, exchanges have been hacked. So if you do buy your coins directly from an exchange then you owe it to yourself to learn about hard wallets and cold storage.
Personally I use the Ledger Nano X seen in the above commercial. This post is already too long so I'm not going to go into the details of the LEDGER Nano X but I will cover my experience in a future blog posts. I know the excitement that comes when you decide to get into crypto. I mean how can you ignore BITCOIN at $$$$$$ headlines these days. I just want to make sure that if my friend Mark buys some crypto he understands the need for security.
"Should you come out of reading this book thinking that the bitcoin currency is something worth owning, your first investment should not be in buying bitcoins, but in time spent understanding how to buy, store, and own bitcoins securely."- Saifedean Ammous, The Bitcoin Standard
I've tested my friend Mark's patience and probably yours but I wanted to create a beginner's starting point for him to think about and return to as he makes his way to St. Louis. Mark and I shared the excitement of the internet when he helped set up my first Mac and dial-up modem, he and I worked at Apple during the days of the release of the iPod and then the iPhone, but as I tried to convey my excitement about blockchain technology I tried to steer him away from all get-rich-quick talk of the digital gold rush and focus on the possibilities opened up at each of the previous major technology milestones. For Mark and I this digital gold rush of 2021 feels like 2004/5 when Apple's renaissance was becoming apparent to a much larger world but as I told Mark, blockchain is going to be a tsunami that dwarfs everything that came before as a mere prelude. Time will tell but let's close with Douglas Adams, shall we:
“I've come up with a set of rules that describe our reactions to technologies:
1. Anything that is in the world when you’re born is normal and ordinary and is just a natural part of the way the world works.
2. Anything that's invented between when you’re fifteen and thirty-five is new and exciting and revolutionary and you can probably get a career in it.
3. Anything invented after you're thirty-five is against the natural order of things.”
? Douglas Adams, The Salmon of Doubt
Stay safe out there in #cryptoland it is the wild west, after all.
