Crypto in Plain English - by cryptohunt.it

Latest Episodes:

What is Pollen Mobile, and how does it try to replace wireless phone carriers? - Crypto in Plain English - Episode 213 - by cryptohunt.it Jul 22, 2022

Show notes

What is Pollen Mobile, and how does it try to replace wireless phone carriers?

Welcome to the cryptohunt jam where we spend one minute a day explaining crypto. In plain English.

Two episodes ago we talked about Helium, which tries to create an alternative wireless data network for internet connected devices.

Today, let's talk about Pollen, a project that is quite similar, but tries to replace the actual wireless phone carriers. Don’t confuse that with Pollen DeFi, which we covered last time!

Pollen Mobile creates network coverage through so-called flowers. Those are essentially 5G antennas that connect to your home or office internet. When someone uses your flower, you get rewarded in Pollen tokens.

And the connection couldn't be easier: Simply add or replace the SIM card in your existing phone with their "Hummingbird" SIM, and you are ready to use Pollen Mobile.

But to verify that these flowers are working well, the project has a trick up its sleeve: So called Bumblebees. Those are small devices that community volunteers use to measure signal strength and speed of the 5G "flowers" out there.

Using blockchains and tokens has a few advantages according to the company: Lower costs, because you don't have to pay for overhead like marketing and executive compensation. You might also get coverage, where traditional cell phone companies don't - simply because they decide the location is too expensive, but volunteers can easily set up antennas.

And there you have it: Blockchains might do more in the future than just move money around… They may end up replacing Verizon and AT&T.

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.

How can blockchains democratize investment strategies? - Crypto in Plain English - Episode 212 - by cryptohunt.it Jul 21, 2022

Show notes

How can blockchains democratize investment strategies?

Welcome to the cryptohunt jam where we spend one minute a day explaining crypto. In plain English.

What if you could simply tap into the investment knowledge of other crypto experts?

That's what Pollen DeFi, a community driven approach to investing is trying to do.

The idea is pretty simple: If you are great at investing, why not share your portfolio and trades with the community so they can do the same?

In return, you get rewarded with the Pollen token. That token comes from those who are subscribing to you, because you help them make trades. They convert their money to Pollen, and put it into your trading strategy.

The project is still relatively young, and of course there are very high risks involved with just blindly letting someone else invest the money for you. But we think it's a great example of how blockchains and community can come together.

Just always remember: Never invest into something you don't fully understand. As tempting as it seems, investing in crypto can mean that you lose all of your money.

How can blockchains help map out the world? - Crypto in Plain English - Episode 211 - by cryptohunt.it Jul 20, 2022

Show notes

How can blockchains help map out the world?

Welcome to the cryptohunt jam where we spend one minute a day explaining crypto. In plain English.

You probably take great maps for granted: All you have to do is hop into your car, turn on Google Maps, and off you go.

There is a problem though: There are only a few companies that own all of the data. What if Google decided that navigation would suddenly cost everyone $9.99 per month?

And that's not hypothetical: If you want to use maps in your own product, Google is charging an arm and a leg, up to hundreds of thousands of dollars per year even for startups.

Enter blockchains, and a project called Hivemapper.

Hivemapper's community buys a dashcam from the company, and when they are driving around to collect map data, they get rewarded with the Honey token.

And the blockchain is smart enough to increase or decrease those rewards based on where mapping is most needed.

Companies that want to use the maps buy Honey tokens and essentially send them to the mappers. And even more interesting: If there is a region they want mapped, they can pay a little more to give people a reason to drive around in it.

So - why not just have Hivemapper pay people? Why do we need a blockchain? Because it sets the rules of the game in stone, so everyone is on the same page. It also prevents the company to go the same way that Google did: Change their mind and start charging an arm and a leg.

And tomorrow, we'll talk about how this concept of rewarding community can be applied to crypto trading.

What is Helium (HNT) and what makes it special? - Crypto in Plain English - Episode 210 - by cryptohunt.it Jul 19, 2022

Show notes

What is Helium (HNT) and what makes it special?

Welcome to the cryptohunt jam where we spend one minute a day explaining crypto. In plain English.

You know that we really love when blockchains actually solve a real problem. Today, let's talk about Helium!

What if, instead of using an expensive cellular plan to connect all of your devices to the internet, you could use a cheaper alternative provided by the community?

That’s the idea behind Helium, a network of everyday folks worldwide who plug Helium-compatible transmitters into their home or business internet.

Whoever wants to use that community internet connection simply needs to have a Helium-compatible device and some Helium tokens, to pay for the data they use.

The hotspot’s host then gets those "HNT" tokens as a reward for transmitting that data. They can sell those on an exchange for cash, or apply them towards their own data usage.

This also incentivizes hosts to put Hotspots where there is no coverage yet: Because if you are the first one in that location, all data goes through you, and you earn more.

That's an example of how blockchains solve a real problem and create useful incentives. And while this will not replace your cell phone provider anytime soon, it is already used in devices like Lime scooters all over the world.

And tomorrow we'll look into a similar project that wants to use blockchains to create an alternative to Google Maps.

What is Proof of Physical Work? - Crypto in Plain English - Episode 209 - by cryptohunt.it Jul 18, 2022

Show notes

What is Proof of Physical Work?

Welcome to the cryptohunt jam where we spend one minute a day explaining crypto. In plain English.

Today, we'll look into a relatively novel concept: Proof of Physical Work.

If you've been listening to this podcast, you have a pretty good understanding of what Proof of Work is - and don't worry if you are just tuning in now. Proof of work refers to a complex computation that crypto miners need to perform when they process transactions. In turn, they get rewarded with crypto.

But what is Proof of Physical Work then? It means that someone has to perform actual work to get rewarded, not just computations. Let's look at an example: Helium.

Helium is a blockchain that powers thousands of tiny wireless access points. Their purpose is to provide cheap and reliable internet connections to devices around the world. If you've ever zipped around a city on one of those scooters - many actually use Helium to connect to the internet, because it's much cheaper than having each equipped with a 5G phone.

Here's where Proof of Physical Work comes in: People who provide those connections attach a little box to their home network, that allows these scooters to dial into the internet. And when their connections get used, they make crypto money.

That's what Proof of Physical Work does: It incentivizes people to do physical work: Like providing internet access, or driving around and mapping out areas.

And in the next few episodes, we look at some really cool use cases in depth. Stay tuned, and until then!

Why are all these crypto companies declaring bankruptcy? - Crypto in Plain English - Episode 208 - by cryptohunt.it Jul 15, 2022

Show notes

Why are all these crypto companies declaring bankruptcy?

Welcome to the cryptohunt jam where we spend one minute a day to explain crypto. In plain english.

The latest crypto company to declare bankruptcy is Celsius, putting almost $5bn dollar of user deposits at risk. You may remember the name because we talked about their crumbling business a while back.

But what is happening here in general? Don’t these companies have at least enough money to weather through a crypto storm?

No, because their business models never worked. Especially those promising high returns to lenders have been playing a very dangerous game.

Here’s how they operated: They borrow money from you and promise you high returns. Then they take that money and put it in the market, say into Bitcoin. And it’s easy to promise you 20% interest if the price of Bitcoin goes up by 40%.

But that’s exactly the problem. It only works as long as prices shoot up and people keep piling money into the lending platforms. As soon as prices go down, and too many people want their money back, companies like Celsius don’t have enough money because they lost much of it in a crash: The hole is at least $1.2 billion dollars deep in their case.

So: As always - if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. We think a lot more companies will crumble. Be safe out there and remember yesterday’s podcast about regulations? We might need some of that!

What is the role of regulation in crypto? - Crypto in Plain English - Episode 207 - by cryptohunt.it Jul 14, 2022

Show notes

What is the role of regulation in crypto?

Welcome to the cryptohunt jam where we spend one minute a day to explain crypto. In plain english.

As crypto becomes more and more popular with every boom cycle, the calls for more regulation have also become louder.

But what is regulation and what influence does it have on crypto?

Regulations are laws and directives that governments put in place to influence a certain industry or section of the economy.

"But wait", you say! Crypto was supposed to be something governments can't mess with! Clearly, rules must be a bad thing!

But things are always more nuanced than they seem. Sensible regulation can be a very good thing.

Imagine laws that force the issuers of tokens to be more transparent, or force exchanges to educate people about the risks of a crypto investment. Those could prevent a lot of crypto-novices who are blinded by the potential for a quick profit from losing money.

Likewise, regulations could increase innovations. The status quo is, that many countries simply don't have any crypto regulations yet. And that means companies who want to build something in the space run the risk of being shut down or even be criminalized in the future. One example is crypto exchange FTX which relocated to Hong Kong from the United States.

Of course, regulations must still allow innovation. If they are so strict, that they simply make using or building blockchains impossible, that would swing the pendulum the other way.

And there you have it: As always, it depends. But in either case - we are sure to see much more talks about regulations in crypto.

What is Saga, the crypto phone? - Crypto in Plain English - Episode 206 - by cryptohunt.it Jul 13, 2022

Show notes

What is Saga, the crypto phone?

Welcome to the cryptohunt jam where we spend one minute a day to explain crypto. In plain english.

Since the introduction of the iPhone in 2007, the world has gone mobile. There are phones with great cameras, phones that survive even construction work, phones with large screens... and now there also is a crypto phone.

Announced by the makers of Solana, the popular blockchain, the phone goes by the name of Saga and is purpose-built to make crypto easier and safer on phones.

At first, it looks like any other higher-end Android smartphone: Big display, fast hardware, and all the features you'd expect.

But it also comes with a feature that makes it safer for crypto users: A special hardware component can securely store your crypto keys and guard access to those. In theory, creating a hardware store like this will provide an extra layer of security that is very hard to breach as a hacker.

But before you get too excited, here are a few things to consider: The phone isn't shipping until at least early 2023, and it's not uncommon for projects like these to be announced under a lot of fanfare, only to quietly die.

It's also very expensive, costing $1000 dollars.

And then there is always the elephant in the room: What happens to your crypto if the phone gets destroyed or stolen, and with it your keys? We'll hold our breath on that one until the makers explain it in more depth.

Why Bitcoin will never change - Crypto in Plain English - Episode 205 - by cryptohunt.it Jul 12, 2022

Show notes

Why Bitcoin will never change

Welcome to the cryptohunt jam where we spend one minute a day to explain crypto. In plain english.

Bitcoin has been one of the most influential technologies we've seen in a long time. And despite being the very first cryptocurrency, it has a surprisingly complex set of features as well.

But there are problems too. If you've followed this podcast, you know that we don't like how Bitcoin's "Proof of work" destroys the planet and makes it too slow for everyday transactions.

But every tech product changes, right? Over time, programmers figure out better ways of running things, and so even the most inefficient blockchain can evolve, no?

Unfortunately, Bitcoin is very unlikely to change. Let's find out why it's different from all the other software out there.

It's not that Bitcoin as a technology couldn't evolve in theory. The answer lies in the economics, as always. Bitcoin mining requires special hardware investments that miners have made in hopes of returning a profit. Shaking up the way Bitcoin works - for example by using a less energy-consuming method of mining - would mean they paid money for nothing.

And there you have it: Because a lot of people are way to invested in Bitcoin the way it is, they will very unlikely allow it to change for better.

Unfortunately, we think. Bitcoin has the potential to be much more, but likely never will.

How an exchange bankruptcy can wipe out your crypto portfolio - Crypto in Plain English - Episode 204 - by cryptohunt.it Jul 11, 2022

Show notes

How an exchange bankruptcy can wipe out your crypto portfolio

Welcome to the cryptohunt jam where we spend one minute a day to explain crypto. In plain english.

Do you have crypto sitting in your account with a crypto exchange? It may not be as safe there as you think it is.

That comes as a surprise to you? No wonder, because until recently, exchanges weren’t required to highlight this type of risk. So let’s understand what is going on.

There are two ways to own crypto. Traditionally, you would have your own wallet, and manage the private keys to it directly. Without those, nobody can touch your holdings.

But those keys are a pain to deal with. They are impossible to memorize and easy to lose - and many fortunes have indeed been lost. That’s why many companies, such as exchanges said: Let’s just manage those for you. All you need is an account with us, and we save the private keys.

There is one big problem though: That means they are in possession of your crypto. In the case of an exchange going bankrupt, that has big consequences. Bankruptcy is a process meant to protect those, that a failing company owes money to. When it is initiated, all operations and funds are frozen, with the goal to repay debts.

But there is a pecking order - first, banks and other institutions will get money back… and you are at the very end of that list. By the time they get to you, your crypto will very likely have gone to satisfy a debt to someone much higher on the list. No more money for you.

There you have it - “not your keys, not your crypto” as they say. But the good news is that many exchanges offer wallets that you truly own, and money transfers are very easy. Check those out, you might thank us later!

Our TOPPODCAST Picks

Follow Us

Stay Connected

Crypto in Plain English – by cryptohunt.it

Related Podcasts

Links

Stay Connected