Crypto in Plain English - by cryptohunt.it

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Regenerative Finance applied: Carbon Credits on the blockchain - Crypto in Plain English - Episode 203 - by cryptohunt.it Jul 08, 2022

Show notes

Regenerative Finance applied: Carbon Credits on the blockchain

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

Last episode, we introduced you to the concept of Regenerative Finance: Trying to use money as a tool to do good, rather than just make amassing it the ultimate goal. When money flows, it can move things, when it sits in someone’s account, it won’t.

It's an ambitious and grand idea, but some projects are already trying to make it happen. One such area is carbon credits.

Carbon credits have existed for a long time. The idea is that anyone, usually a company, can make the deliberate decision to be greener than they need to be. For example, they could invest in solar, and go above and beyond to be green. The company can then certify their action as a carbon credit and sell it to, say, Shell. That makes Shell feel a little better about destroying our planet, and they get to tell the media a nice story.

What is happening here is essentially that carbon credits wrap positive impact into financial incentives that have an open market. This makes it attractive for companies to do good.

Enter blockchains: For the first time in history, we, the people and builder, have control over the flow of money. This is significant, because we don't need to wait for governments to slowly take action, assuming they ever will. A project called Toucan for example, helps create carbon credits as tokens - and anyone who's moving money around blockchains or building Web3 apps can decide to put money there.

Yes - carbon credits are a complex thing, and we agree with you: Maybe Shell shouldn't get away with polluting our planet in the first place. But we are where we are, so it's great to see how blockchain technology puts the action back into our hands.

And with that, we wish you a great weekend! Go and participate in a project like Toucan!

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 Regenerative Finance (ReFi)? - Crypto in Plain English - Episode 202 - by cryptohunt.it Jul 07, 2022

Show notes

What is Regenerative Finance (ReFi)?

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

Today, let's talk about Regenerative Finance and what it has to do with crypto.

The term Regenerative Finance refers to a set of ideas that look at money as a tool to drive positive change rather than something to accumulate.

Let us explain: Traditionally, money in capitalism has always played the role as the ultimate reward, the outcome one strives for. Companies optimize for profits, people for wealth. And that has led to a world where money accumulates with fewer and fewer people, and companies will do anything to make a buck.

Regenerative finance is trying to turn this on its head: Money's job is only to get circulated to achieve something, and the ultimate goal is to create sustainable systems.

Take investing for example. Regenerative Finance investment funds would not invest in a company that makes a lot of money, they would invest in the company that plants the most trees or employs the most people.

Sounds very idealistic? It certainly is a new idea, but that's where crypto comes in. If you want to shape how money gets used, it makes sense to create that money to set incentives. And that's exactly why certain blockchains exist: To use the capital they created to foster outcomes that are non-monetary.

Thanks for taking a step into new ideas with us - and we'll be right back tomorrow!

Why can you trade crypto 24/7? - Crypto in Plain English - Episode 201 - by cryptohunt.it Jul 06, 2022

Show notes

Why can you trade crypto 24/7?

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

If you’ve ever traded stock, you’ve likely encountered an interesting phenomenon: The markets are only open during weekdays at business hours.

Crypto on the other hand is traded 24/7, no interruptions at all.

Why is this? Let’s dive into some of the history.

In the past, stock markets like the New York Stock Exchange, were operated by people, not computers. And people need to go home for dinner and spend weekends with their families. That’s why trading hours existed originally.

But even now, with software doing all the work, those trading hours remain. Part is tradition, but part is also that it reduces crazy price swings as investors react to news. Companies usually announce big things after hours, and the stock market can take a little bit of time to think about those before opening. That helps calm minds.

The reason this doesn’t apply to crypto is easy to understand: Crypto is entirely more modern. It is all just technology that operates anytime. And because things are just a few lines of code away, anyone can create trading platforms and decide to be open for business 24/7.

So there you have it - the stranger thing is actually that stock markets open and close - because it seems natural nowadays that any market would be open 24/7.

Happy trading!

Is Bitcoin a hedge against inflation? - Crypto in Plain English - Episode 200 - by cryptohunt.it Jul 05, 2022

Show notes

Is Bitcoin a hedge against inflation?

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

If you've thought recently that everything is getting more expensive, you are not wrong: Inflation - which is the loss of purchase power of your real-world currency, is at decades-long high.

One often heard claim is that an investment in Bitcoin can offset those losses. But is that really true?

First, let's see where this claim comes from. The year was 2008, and governments were printing money to bail out big banks. That drove inflation up high, and Bitcoin was most likely conceived in protest of governments having that ability.

But it wasn't created to defend the Dollar or Euro against inflation. Instead, the idea was to inflation-proof Bitcoin itself by giving it a limited amount of Bitcoins that could ever exist - and no government could mess with that.

That might have worked in a hypothetical world where Bitcoin became the main currency. But the reality is: All of crypto together doesn't even make up for half the value of Apple. Bitcoin isn’t used like money.

And so, instead of becoming our money, Bitcoin is just another very risky asset. And when inflation is high, central banks raise interest rates, which in turn destroys the value of the riskiest assets the most.

You see: Bitcoin and crypto in general aren't just bad at protecting anyone from inflation, recently they would have even accelerated one's losses.

It turns out, the claims are not true - and people just misunderstood why Bitcoin was created in the first place.

What is a zk rollup? - Crypto in Plain English - Episode 199 - by cryptohunt.it Jul 01, 2022

Show notes

What is a zk rollup?

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

Today we’re going to talk about zk rollups, which several blockchains use to solve the problems of slow speeds during heavy usage.

So, what is zk or zero-knowledge? Let’s start with an analogy first.

Let’s say that you’re sending applications to multiple universities. Each requires a unique essay for each university.

You’re running close to the application deadline, so you quickly seal each envelope and rush out the door to get to the mailbox.

And then it hits you, did you put the correct essay for each college in the right envelope?

You don’t have time to double-check, but what if you could verify that each essay is in the correct envelope without opening it?

And that is what a zk-rollup, or zero-knowledge rollup, can do on a blockchain. It packages up a large amount of transactions into a verifiable envelope.

This one “envelope” makes it possible for that large group of transactions to be added all at once on a blockchain, like Ethereum.

That reduction in the amount of pending transactions frees up space for other transactions, saves money since less transactions need to be validated and this also leads to faster transaction times, even when a network is slammed with activity.

And what about those application envelopes? We are sorry but there is no other way than just opening each one to check if you made things right.

What do you want to learn? - Crypto in Plain English - Episode 198 - by cryptohunt.it Jun 30, 2022

Show notes

What do you want to learn?

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

Today we do something different. After 197 episodes we would love to ask you three questions?

Number 1: How do you like this podcast? Did you learn some basics? Did you sign up for cryptohunt our "duolingo style" learning plattform for crypto? We would love to hear from you either per email at podcast@cryptohunt.it or even better with a little review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

This would help us a lot and would mean the world to us!

And then 2nd - what would you like to hear us break down for you? Is there a term that you do not understand, is there a concept that you would like to learn more about? Send us an email also to podcast@cryptohunt.it and we can discuss in a future episode!

And then last but not least: It would be just awesome if you could press pause right now and share this crypto in plain english podcast with one of your friends or friends groups on Whatsapp, Telegram or SMS. Thanks in advance!

And with that: We will come back to the regular programming tomorrow - until then, keep learning - in plain english!

What is Ethereum’s upcoming Beacon Chain? - Crypto in Plain English - Episode 197 - by cryptohunt.it Jun 29, 2022

Show notes

What is Ethereum’s upcoming Beacon Chain?

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

This time, we’re going to talk about Ethereum’s Beacon Chain. Sounds funny, but it’s serious business - it is supposed to help solve the scalability problems Ethereum suffers from.

Right now, Ethereum is like a busy airport with millions of travelers arriving. Those travelers, which are the equivalent of blockchain transactions, are all crowding up in front of a single customs agent. Even worse, the agent takes bribes, so whoever pays most, gets to go first. This is what makes Ethereum’s transactions so expensive in addition to being slow.

But now, let’s say you’ve recently returned from traveling internationally, and you need to get through the very busy customs section at that airport. Suddenly, over the noise of the crowd, you hear a new customs supervisor start organizing everyone.

The supervisor divides the crowd into groups and then points each group to the shortest line in front of other agents in booths on the other side of the room.

This agent is doing the job of Ethereum’s Beacon Chain, which is designed to route transactions between Ethereum’s upcoming “shard chains”. Think of those as Ethereum going from one customs agent to many.

And that’s what the Beacon Chain does. When in effect, it may actually solve the things we criticize so often about Ethereum: Slow and expensive transactions that are only for the wealthy.

And when will that happen? Unfortunately, your guess is as good as ours. The date has been pushed out so many times, we can’t even count anymore.

What is Sharding? - Crypto in Plain English - Episode 196 - by cryptohunt.it Jun 28, 2022

Show notes

What is Sharding?

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

Today, let’s talk about “sharding”, which is one way that blockchains are looking to solve scalability issues.

High scalability allows a blockchain to efficiently process transactions, even when its number of users increases.

Sharding is one way to do this. Instead of relying on a single blockchain to process all transactions at once, transactions are divided among several chains, or “shards”, that process smaller batches of transactions at the same time.

Think about sharding like checkout lines at a grocery store. If there was only one cashier and hundreds of customers, many of those customers would have to wait forever and get frustrated.

Sharding allows blockchains to have multiple cashiers, or chains, available to process those transactions. Each register is also connected to a central system that coordinates and records the transactions from the individual cashiers.

In practice, a user’s transaction will be processed automatically on the least busy shard while still getting the benefits of using that blockchain through the central system. Think of it like standing in the shortest line.

The best thing: To the user, this all happens transparently. All they notice is that things are transacting very fast.

This is exciting news for blockchains like Ethereum, which will soon transition to a sharding system run by “The Beacon Chain”. The Beacon Chain will coordinate and combine the transactions between Ethereum’s shard chains when they are hopefully released sometime in 2023.

What is POAP (Proof of Attendance Protocol)? - Crypto in Plain English - Episode 195 - by cryptohunt.it Jun 27, 2022

Show notes

What is POAP (Proof of Attendance Protocol)?

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

Today, let’s take a look at POAPs - what they are and why they were invented.

POAP stands for “Proof of Attendance Protocol” which is a technology that was created to give badges to people who attend a conference. Those badges are recorded on the blockchain, which makes them verifiable for everyone.

Why would anyone want such a thing? Well, think of the bigger picture. Having attended a conference, webinar, or university class may signal that you have a certain expertise. But people often claim they attended something, when in fact they didn’t.

POAPs make that impossible because the blockchain record can’t be faked and only be created by the organizer.

Technology in search of a problem or the future of credentials and diplomas? As always, we’ll let you be the judge.

What is a crypto “degen”? - Crypto in Plain English - Episode 194 - by cryptohunt.it Jun 24, 2022

Show notes

What is a crypto “degen”?

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

“Degen”, short for “Degenerate” was originally used as a negative term describing inexperienced gamblers who’d bet large amounts of money on single bets in the hope of striking it big.

You may have also come across it browsing Reddit’s “Wallstreetbets”, the social media forum where people talk about risky investments in the stock market.

In the crypto scene though, this term has actually become a positive one: It celebrates those people who make wild bets on crypto markets and getting rewarded for the risk they took with large payouts.

And now that you know what a “Degen” is in the crypto context, we should look a little into the culture surrounding the term. A lot of crypto’s value explosion, especially for meme coins like Shiba Inu, can be traced back to influencer marketing. Celebrating risky investments is part of that narrative - and remember: This only works as long as things go up.

Ask yourself: Why do people praise me for taking a win-or-lose position? What do they have to gain?

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