A Dumb Blonde's Guide to Blockchain Technology & Cryptocurrency​

originally published 06/2019

by: Nicole Grinstead

I'm a dumb blonde. I admit it

Anyone else out there feel like they're not smart enough to understand what's going on with this whole blockchain cryptocurrency craze? It's okay. This is a safe, judgement-free zone

I'm talking to the non-tech, non-finance people who don't know what GFI, ETF, or IoT stand for. If you don't know the difference between PoW and PoS (or understand why you should care) this blog is for you

Smart people are saying that blockchain technology – which underlies cryptocurrencies – will revolutionize money, business, and ultimately change the world. So why is technical knowledge of how blockchain works (or what it even is) reserved for the world's tech geeks, whiz kids, and finance magnates?

It's because those tech geeks, whiz kids, and finance magnates are the people who understand it, and they're the ones writing about it. They fill their pages with jargon, with the possible hope that people like me (and maybe you), won't ever bother to decode them. If we don't, we'll never understand the system enough to overthrow it. For centuries, knowledge has been the key difference separating the world's rulers from those they rule. So, if blockchain is really going to change the word, it needs to be accompanied by a redistribution of knowledge, a resurrection of critical thought, and a revival of understanding about what underlies the technology that underlies cryptocurrency. And it needs to be written for the dumb blondes of the world like me, and maybe like you

Still with me?

Good. I apologize for saying that you're not smart enough to understand blockchain technology earlier. You are! Just nothing you've heard or read about it so far has resonated with you. I hope that's about to change

Maybe you're like me and your significant other is obsessed with this whole crypto/DeFi thing, and you just want to gain a little better understanding of what s/he is always talking about. Maybe you are a geek who wants to explain blockchain in a way your non-fintech girlfriend will relate to. Perhaps you'd like to make money by investing in cryptocurrency, but first you need to understand how it works and/or why its value fluctuates. Or maybe you're just tired of not knowing what in the heck this blockchain thing that people are always talking about is

Does that sound like you? If so, great! If not, you might want to consider reading my next article: What is a Blockchain & Why Should I Care?

OMG! Can Someone Dumb it Down for me, Please?!

In the few years I've spent learning about blockchain and cryptocurrency, I've been unceasingly alienated from this system that I've grown to love by a complicated technical jargon that grows by the day. How can I possibly understand what cryptocurrency is when I don't know the first effing thing about finance or how money works?

I decided to teach myself about all this stuff. To do so, I started asking my boyfriend and other fintech-minded people the kinds of questions that drive industry people CRAZY. You know the kind I'm talking about, right? They're very similar to questions you might hear a young child asking her parents about how the world works. Next, I started testing out my own comprehension by trying to explain blockchain to my own young child to see what she could understand and what still needed clarification. I figured that if I couldn't explain it to her, I didn't really know what I was talking about. I wish someone had done that for me!

In simplifying the heck out of the little I knew about money, finance, systems of control, and cryptocurrency, I gained a much better understanding of it all. The more I learned, the more I fell in love with blockchain, and I wanted to share my newfound knowledge with others who might feel alienated by the overly-complicated rhetoric that always seems to accompany words like crypto and blockchain in conversation

I came up with "A Dumb Blonde's Guide to Blockchain Technology." I hope it will help some people understand what blockchain and cryptocurrency are and why they're better than our current systems