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**Crypto in Plain English – by cryptohunt.it**

Every day, we explore the world of crypto and blockchain in one minute and in plain English.

Latest Episodes:

What is a Utility Token? - Crypto in Plain English - Episode 263 - by cryptohunt.it Sep 30, 2022

Show notes

What is a Utility Token?

Welcome to the Cryptohunt Jam, where we spend one minute a day to explain crypto. In plain English. My name is Christian Byza, Co-Founder of Cryptohunt.it and I am your host of this daily show.

Let’s talk about a special kind of token today: The utility token. What is it and do we really need another kind of token?

But first, a little detour into the world of tokens: A token is generally any crypto asset, and there are countless of them. Bitcoin is a token, so is Ethereum. Those two, specifically, are so-called native tokens. They act like the primary money on a blockchain. So just like the US Dollar is the native money in the United States, Bitcoin is the native token on the Bitcoin blockchain.

Utility tokens are different. Their purpose is NOT just to pay and get paid, or to incentivize people to operate the computers that are necessary to run blockchains. Their purpose is to provide a specific utility for a project.

Say, for example, you created a blockchain version of Instagram. People who get likes on their posts get tokens, and they can spend the tokens by liking other people’s stuff. Very simple, but it provides a utility by making social interaction reciprocal.

So - that’s a utility token. And sometimes things get complicated. What if someone bought your tokens from that Instagram clone to give their posts more likes? Suddenly you have a mini economy and utility blends into money.

You see: The lines get blurred in crypto, just as they do in the real world. But now you know what people mean, when they call something a utility token.

Disclaimer: This podcast references our opinion and is for information purposes only. It is not intended to be investment advice. Do your own research and seek a duly licensed professional for investment advice.

What is Solidity? - Crypto in Plain English - Episode 262 - by cryptohunt.it Sep 29, 2022

Show notes

What is Solidity?

Welcome to the Cryptohunt Jam, where we spend one minute a day to explain crypto. In plain English. My name is Christian Byza, Co-Founder of Cryptohunt.it and I am your host of this daily show.

Today’s episode is about Solidity, which is a programming language invented by the Ethereum creators. And you don’t have to be a programmer to understand why it is so useful.

Ethereum was the first blockchain to introduce what we call “programmable money” - the ability to write your own logic into the blockchain. Before Ethereum, all you could do with crypto was to move money around. With Ethereum, you could suddenly make that money flow based on your own conditions.

And that’s really important if you want to rebuild the traditional financial system on a blockchain. Because paying each other is just a small part. We do all kinds of other, more complex things: from getting interest on savings accounts to trading stocks.

Solidity was invented to make all that happen. Developers use it to write code that decides where and how blockchain money moves. You could, for example, write a program that pays interest on people’s deposits.

Now you will ask: Aren’t there already enough programming languages? Did they really have to invent yet another one? Kind of, yes, actually. The issue with generic programming languages is that they are just that, generic. Which makes them powerful, but big and slow.

But with Ethereum and similar blockchains, you have tens of thousands of computers independently running the same code to make sure they all come to the same conclusion, so nobody can cheat. And at that scale, every little bit of efficiency counts.

And that’s why Solidity exists, and is so important. You don’t see it, but next time you look at an NFT or buy Ethereum: It’s the programming language of money that makes it all happen.

What is a mnemonic phrase? - Crypto in Plain English - Episode 261 - by cryptohunt.it Sep 28, 2022

Show notes

What is a mnemonic phrase?

Welcome to the Cryptohunt Jam, where we spend one minute a day to explain crypto. In plain English. My name is Christian Byza, Co-Founder of Cryptohunt.it and I am your host of this daily show.

When you create a new crypto wallet, you’ll often be asked to write down a mnemonic phrase. Well, isn’t that a mouthful?

As usual, crypto people make easy things complicated, and the term mnemonic phrase is no different. It’s actually really simple. This phrase is just a bunch of ordinary, short words in a particular sequence, for example: “disagree”-”jealous”-”apple”.

It may sound stupid at first, but those mnemonic phrases are a simple, yet effective solution to a common problem: Complex passwords are too hard to remember or even write down without making mistakes.

But remember our phrase “disagree”-”jealous”-”apple”? By now, you can probably remember it, because that’s how your brain works.

In crypto wallets, these phrases also act as your key to unlock everything and are usually either 12 or 24 words long, and each come from a list that contains just over 2000 possible words in total.

So: You must be thinking now - 3 words are easy to remember! So it might be easy to guess my mnemonic phrase? Well, do we have a surprise for you! There are almost 9 million possible phrases for just 3 words. For 12 words, which is the minimum in crypto wallets, the number is so large, you’d have trouble counting the zeros. For 24 words, it’s astronomical.

So let’s do this one more time, together:

“Disagree”

”Jealous”

”Apple”

Funny, how our brain sometimes works, isn’t it? So next time you see a phrase like that, think of this podcast and give us a smile!

What is Discord? - Crypto in Plain English - Episode 260 - by cryptohunt.it Sep 27, 2022

Show notes

What is Discord?

Welcome to the Cryptohunt Jam, where we spend one minute a day to explain crypto. In plain English. My name is Christian Byza, Co-Founder of Cryptohunt.it and I am your host of this daily show.

It seems that almost all the crypto insiders are hanging out on Discord. But what is Discord and why is everyone there?

Discord is a messaging app where communities of all kinds can connect with each other in real-time. What makes Discord special is that chats don’t just happen in one place, they are split across so-called “channels”.

Think of it like a house party. Different groups of people are in different rooms, and each group has their own topic of conversation. At a Discord-style crypto house party, people in the kitchen would talk about NFTs and those in the living room about the recent market crash.

Discord communities are usually open for anyone to join. Unfortunately, that also means they are full of scammers. They will pretend to have an amazing investment opportunity, be there to help you figure out how to use a wallet, or impersonate someone. You should simply assume that you can trust noone - it’s really that bad unfortunately.

Sounds intimidating? We agree, and that’s why we built cryptohunt, a trusted source of crypto knowledge. But if you want to dive deep into the world of Discords, stay safe - and check out our course: “How to buy, sell, and hold crypto”. You’ll learn all about how to keep your crypto safe for the long run. As always, it’s completely free.

Head over to cryptohunt.it and get started today!

What is a whitepaper? - Crypto in Plain English - Episode 259 - by cryptohunt.it Sep 26, 2022

Show notes

What is a whitepaper?

Welcome to the Cryptohunt Jam, where we spend one minute a day to explain crypto. In plain English. My name is Christian Byza, Co-Founder of Cryptohunt.it and I am your host of this daily show.

Let’s say you want to learn more about a new crypto currency that was recently in the news.

Quickly, all signs will point towards a so-called whitepaper. The official site will link to it from the very top, and people will tell you to read it.

And then you realize: This whitepaper is confusing, and full of jargon, code, algorithms, and math.

So… what is going on here?

A whitepaper is meant to be a scientific, detailed document explaining in great detail how something complex works.

When Bitcoin came out in 2008, there was just that one whitepaper to explain what it does. But back then, the audience was a different one too: Cryptographers, mathematicians, computer scientists. For them, it made sense to have that level of technical detail.

But why is it that, even today, everyone still points to whitepapers that you and us can’t possibly understand? Part of this is tradition, and part of it is to give the impression of credibility. Because how, after all, could something possibly be bad if it’s got a document full of impressive formulas?

Well, it still can, and those rarely help. In fact, many bad projects hide behind complicated whitepapers.

Next time, give us a try a Cryptohunt instead - where we’ve gone through the trouble of looking at many projects already and break it down the best we can with an independent, critical perspective - just like in this podcast!

You’ll find us at www.cryptohunt.it.

What exactly is a middleman and why does everybody hate them? - Crypto in Plain English - Episode 258 - by cryptohunt.it Sep 23, 2022

Show notes

What exactly is a middleman and why does everybody hate them?

Welcome to the Cryptohunt Jam, where we spend one minute a day to explain crypto. In plain English. My name is Christian Byza, Co-Founder of Cryptohunt.it and I am your host of this daily show.

You’ll often hear that crypto cuts out the middleman, and somehow that is better. But what does that actually mean? Let’s take a quick look at what this means and why this sentiment is so prevalent in the crypto space.

In centralized systems, large players - such as banks and governments - naturally aggregate power. They sit between the interacting parties. That’s what we call a middleman.

To make things more efficient, these middlemen bundle transactions and services under one company or administration. And this often works really well: For example, well-designed laws can protect consumers from bad investment decisions. Or an efficient fraud detection algorithm can save you from the worst when your credit card gets stolen.

But it can go the other way: Governments can decide to act in a way that it harms you. In 2008, during the financial crisis, governments printed money and caused inflation. Or companies can simply decide to take your data and sell it to the highest bidder, like Facebook did.

Decentralization is essentially about cutting out the middlemen to avoid concentration of power. The distrust in these institutions led Satoshi Nakamoto to invent Bitcoin for example. And we can see how that is a tempting world view with everything that is going on.

But always ask yourself: How bad are these middlemen really? And what real value do they provide? We’ll let you be the judge, but the truth is probably somewhere in the middle!

What is TradFi? - Crypto in Plain English - Episode 257 - by cryptohunt.it Sep 22, 2022

Show notes

What is TradFi?

Welcome to the Cryptohunt Jam, where we spend one minute a day to explain crypto. In plain English. My name is Christian Byza, Co-Founder of Cryptohunt.it and I am your host of this daily show.

If you hear enough crypto talk, eventually someone will mention “TradFi”, often looking down on it as something yucky.

So… What is TradFi? Well, another one of those terms crypto people made more complicated than it has to be. It stands for “Traditional Finance” and simply refers to existing mainstream financial system: Banks, Central Banks, Governments - all the things you’ve lived with your entire life.

Why give it a new name then? Because it feeds the “us vs. them” narrative. Traditional Finance is evil, crypto is coming to your rescue.

If you ask us – and you know we are not shy to give you a more balanced view – that’s really the wrong way to look at it. The financial system we grew up in works for a majority of people. Sure - it has shortcomings, especially those disproportionately impact the financially less fortunate. But we will not take crypto mainstream, if we don’t all work together.

So, here’s to TradFi just being Fi and all of us getting along to solve problems together!

Oh, and one more thing: You might not know but we release new fun courses about all things crypto, web3 and defi on cryprohunt every week. Last weekends course about DAOs is my favorite one so far. If you always really wanted to understand what a DAO is - we got you covered now. Just go to www.cryprohunt.it, sign up and do the latest course - it’s all for free.

What is the meaning of “fungible”? - Crypto in Plain English - Episode 256 - by cryptohunt.it Sep 21, 2022

Show notes

Are YOU a crypto normie? If so, welcome! CLICK HERE to start (or continue) learning about everything crypto!

What is the meaning of “fungible”?

Welcome to the Cryptohunt Jam, where we spend one minute a day to explain crypto. In plain English. My name is Christian Byza, Co-Founder of Cryptohunt.it and I am your host of this daily show.

You’ve heard the term before NFT: Non fungible token. And just when you thought that crypto people couldn’t make even more simple concepts sound complicated, here we are…

So: What does fungible actually mean, and how does it fit into this context?

Being fungible just means that something is exchangeable for an identical item of the same utility. For example, if a recipe calls for two lemons, and you have a bunch laying around, either two of them can be used in it - doesn’t really matter which.

Another very common example of something completely fungible is a dollar bill. There are billions of those in circulation, and even though they are technically all different items, even with an individual serial number, they are completely exchangeable in practice because all have the same utility: Whether you pay for your ice cream with one or the other doesn’t matter.

You probably saw this transition coming: But crypto currencies are also fungible. One Bitcoin is completely exchangeable for the other.

Which leads us to NFTs… Why are they “non” fungible? Well, because each represents something unique. Out of the 10,000 existing Cyberpunks for example, each is unique, and has a unique value.

We don’t know what’s up with crypto people hiding behind complicated jargon - but let them just feel smart about it. You, meanwhile, can have a good laugh about it knowing that it’s really dead simple afterall.

What is a "pump and dump"? - Crypto in Plain English - Episode 255 - by cryptohunt.it Sep 20, 2022

Show notes

Are YOU a crypto normie? If so, welcome! CLICK HERE to start (or continue) learning about everything crypto!

What is a "pump and dump"?

Welcome to the Cryptohunt Jam, where we spend one minute a day to explain crypto. In plain English. My name is Christian Byza, Co-Founder of Cryptohunt.it and I am your host of this daily show.

A "pump and dump" is a type of common crypto scam that preys on people who fall for big promises.

Here's how it works: Someone, or most often a coordinated group of scammers, create or pick a coin they want to make money off.

They all buy in very, very early, and often very few people own most of the coin.

Then the real work starts: They craft sometimes incredibly genius campaigns to convince others to buy in after them. It's not unusual for them to make wild and false claims, promise guaranteed returns, and even enlist or pay celebrities to promote the coin.

As more people buy in, the price goes up. Everyone feels great about it, telling their friends, and more buyers push it even higher.

Once the price hits a certain amount though, the scammers dump their entire holdings of that coin. Within a short period of time, the price collapses. The money essentially just changed hands - from the investors to the scammers.

So, keep an eye out for those. The signs are often obvious: Glitzy marketing sites, big social promotions, etc. When it sounds too good to be true, and there isn't anything obviously useful behind it, it probably is a scam.

What is a "bag holder" in the crypto scene? - Episode 254 - by cryptohunt.it Sep 19, 2022

Show notes

Are YOU a crypto normie? If so, welcome! CLICK HERE to start (or continue) learning about everything crypto!

What is a "bag holder" in the crypto scene?

Welcome to the Cryptohunt Jam, where we spend one minute a day to explain crypto. In plain English. My name is Christian Byza, Co-Founder of Cryptohunt.it and I am your host of this daily show.

Last week we spent every day on the Etherium Merge - if you did not listen to it - I think you should - we tried to make the best explanation out there! Now, back to explaining some jargon since we did not do this for a while!

A "bag holder", is someone figuratively "holding the bag" when investments go down. It's someone who didn't get out of the market in time and is now stuck with an investment that is worth much less.

Like many crypto insider terms, this one is also one to talk down to people who had the wrong market timing. You'll see it thrown around on social media all the time.

Think of that what you want, but one thing is sure: Investing in crypto is very risky. Markets are volatile and it's easy to lose money. Timing things perfectly is probably just a matter of sheer luck, regardless of what some people claim in hindsight.

So, next time you think about that shiny Lambo you see some crypto influencer drive on TikTok: There are just as many bag holders out there who just don't talk about it. It's a zero-sum game.