“Caveat Emptor” is Latin and directly translates as “Buyer Beware”.
So what do you need to be beware of?
You need to be very careful when operating in the Crypto space. You need to be prudent and cautious. Here are just a couple of pointers.
Apart from Cryptocurrencies being extremely volatile …. you need to be wary of some cons - particularly cons perpetrated by Governments, Central Banks and the Banksters. If I were you, I would treat any Cryptocurrencies originating from any of these sources as suspect – but that’s just me. Anyhow, more on this matter in a short while.
It’s also very easy to make mistakes in the Crypto space. People have literally lost Cryptos because they made some simple errors in transferring Cryptos.
But don’t let these issues put you off.
Before we proceed any further, you need to be aware that not all Cryptos are the same – not by any means.
What I’m going to outline below is a very elementary guide to Cryptos. Hopefully, it will explain the basics. To those of you who already know about Cryptos, you can skip this part – maybe the entire video is superfluous for you.
Bitcoin was the first Cryptocurrency. It came into being in 2009. Its creation is attributed to Satoshi Nakamoto.
What is a “cryptocurrency”? A “cryptocurrency” is a virtual currency – it’s a digital asset used as a medium of exchange. It’s an internet based currency. It is called a “cryptocurrency” because it uses cryptography to secure transactions. The most well known cryptocurrency is obviously Bitcoin, but there are many, many others. All of them use blockchain technology.
What is a “blockchain”? A“block” in a “blockchain is a store of information of verified transactions. To put it another way, it is a ledger of all transactions made with regard to that cryptocurrency. The ledger can be thought of as a statement of account. When someone makes a transaction, it’s recorded on the ledger. This transaction, however needs to be properly checked and verified before being uploaded onto the ledger. The ledger is held on a network so that many computers hold copies of the ledger. A blockchain is formed when all the broadcasted information fills a block.
Maybe it will help to think of the blocks as being (virtual) shipping containers and the blockchain is a giant, (virtual) transporter tanker. The shipping containers get loaded onto the tanker. A real tanker gets filled up and then leaves port. But for the blockchain, it’s just information that gets stored in computers.
Who is in charge, or holds power of a Cryptocurrency? There is a triumvitrate of miners, developers and users. Governance is a fairly important issue in the crypto space, but this aspect need not concern us here.
Cryptos can be put into two broad categories - De-centralised Cryptos and Centralised Cryptos. This aspect is very important indeed. In fact, your future well-being might depend on you being aware of this distinction. And I’m not kidding when I say this.
De-centralised Cr
