Free geek course on crypto currency and blockchain

1. Cryptocurrency and Blockchain
Decentralize, optimize, and create inclusion

2. What is
Cryptocurrency?
• is a digital asset designed to work
as a medium of exchange that
uses cryptography to secure its
transactions, to control the
creation of additional units, and
to verify the transfer of assets.
• Is generally built on block chain
technology

3. Come again?
• Before we can dive into what
cryptocurency is and what I can
be used for, we need to cover a
few things:
• What is money?
• What is the blockchain?
• How are the connected???

4. A Brief History of Money
And you thought that grade school class was a waste of time…

5. That chedda
chedda chedda
Money must be:
• Scarce
• Divisible
• Transferrable
• accessibility
• Fungible
• All units worth the same amount
• No extra risk

6. Centralization!
• So to achieve this governments
created central banks
• Central banks:
• Control the money supply
• Guarantee its value
• In the past required a third party to
verify the transaction
• Bank
• Paypal
• CC processor

7. Lets do the same
thing, but digital
Scarcity-
• How can we ensure people aren't
just “printing” more money?
Transferable-
• How can I get my digital currency
to someone else?
Fungible-
• Does my money come with extra
risk making it worth less?
• Can I trust my money if its not
garunteed?

8. 2008
• Loss of trust in the central bank
• Loss of trust in a central currency
• A lot of money was printed
• A lot of corporate debt
disappeared
• A lot of blame to pass around
• This distrust leads to the creation
of blockchain technology

9. The Blockchain
A ledger that would make the goblins of Gringotts swoon….

11. So what does that
mean?
• The Blockchain creates an
indisputable, decentralized, secure
ledger. Creates an implicit trust
economy.
• Any one can participate in the
blockchain economy by owning a
device.
• A third party is no longer needed
to transfer money, anywhere.

12. So is it real
money?
• Scarcity-
• All available units of currency are
on tracked on the chain.
• Transferable-
• All transactions are on the chain
making the transaction indisputable
• Fungible-
• The chain has a full history of the
currency you own.

13. But were talking
about Bitcoin?
• Each Bitcoin miner represents a
ledger owner.
• For each transaction a group of
miners is presented a coded problem
that must be solved to validate the
transaction.
• The first miner to solve the problem
and validate the block is awarded
bitcoin
• The transaction (block) is then
timestamed and added to a chain of
blocks and distributed to every other
ledger in the network, giving an
indisputable history and the ability for
every member to prove who owns
what.

15. Other uses of the
Blockchain
• Mortgage Origination
• The implications in the financial market are
insane!
• Shipping Manifests
• International Money Transfers
• Healthcare
• Participatory Economics
• Where do my products come from?
• Digital Identity
• Refugees
• Travel Documents
• Background Checks
• The death of ID theft?

16. The Coins
Ok, Ok, lets talk about the fun part

17. Warning and CMA!
• I AM NOT A FINACIAL ADVISOR, TAX
ADVISOR, EXPERT, AND MAY NOT HAVE ANY
IDEA ABOUT WHAT IM DOING
• I DO HAVE A BIAS FOR SOME COINS AND
PRODUCTS. I WILL NOT MAKE
RECCOMENDATIONS ONE WAY OR ANOTHER
IN THIS CLASS.
• THIS IS AN INCREDIBLY VOLATILE MARKET
• YOU CAN LOSE IT ALL IN HOURS
¯_(ツ)_/¯

18. There are more
coins available than
I could go into…
• New coins are being created everyday.
• Some are based in technology some aren't.
• Some are designed to fill very small niches
• Some want to revolutionize the world
• They will all say they’re the best
• Do some research before buying these coins
• Read the white paper
• Check out the online community
around the coin
• Does the tech exist or is it “in
development”
• Does the market cap make sense?

19. How can I get
some?
• Many Popular Exchanges:
• USD -> BTC, ETH, LTC
• GDAX
• COINBASE
• BTC -> MANY
• BINANCE
• BITTREX
• KRACKEN

20. What is a wallet?
Cryptocurrency itself is not actually “stored” in
a wallet. Instead, a private key (secure digital
code known only to you and your wallet) is
stored that shows ownership of a public key (a
public digital code connected to a certain
amount of currency). So your wallet stores your
private and public keys, allows you to send and
receive coins, and also acts as a personal ledger
of transactions.
Is a means for you to interact with the block
chain and assets you have access too.
Accessed by your private key
• Anyone with your private key can access
your assets!
• If you don’t own your private key, you don’t
own your coins!
• I’m looking at you coinbase

21. Crypto Wallets
• Desktop Wallet: The most common type of
wallet. Typically an app that connects directly to a
coin’s client.
• Mobile Wallet: A wallet that is run from a
smartphone app.
• Online Wallet: An online wallet is literally a web-
based wallet. You don’t download an app, but
rather data is hosted on a real or
virtual server. Some online wallets are hybrid
wallets allowing encryption of private data before
being sent to the online server.
• Hardware Wallet: Dedicated hardware that is
specifically built to hold cryptocurrency and keep it
secure. This includes USB devices. These devices can
go online to make transactions and get data and
then can be taken offline for transportation and
security.
• Paper Wallet: You can actually print out a QR
code for both a public and private key. This allows
you to both spend and receive digital currency using
a paper wallet. With this option, you can completely
avoid storing digital data about your currency by
using a paper wallet.

22. Some examples
• Hardware-
• Trezor
• Ledger Nano S
• Online-
• HolyTransaction
• MyEtherWallet
• BitCoinWallet
• Desktop-
• MyEtherWallet
• BitCoinWallet
• So many others. Many coins have
their own official wallets.

23. The Downsides
We’ve covered the Good, now lets talk about the Bad and the Ugly..

24. The risks
• Unregulated markets
• Potentially decreased Anonymity
and Privacy
• If you lose or share your
wallet/Private key, its gone. All of it.
• No way to cancel/reverse a payment
• Yes, crypto has been and will
continue to be used for criminal
activities. Just like fiat.
• Financial Transparency
• Probably a whole mess of others
that I'm missing…

25. Long story short
• This is a new technology that is
intriguing, disruptive, dangerous and
could change the way we interact
with each worldwide.

26. Thank you for coming!
Please fill out a survey, check out the other Free Geek Courses, and feel free to give
suggestions on other topics you would like to see or ways to improve current
classes!

27. Resources and places I
used to build this class
(i.e. some shameless
copypasta)
http://cryptocurrencyfacts.com/what-is-a-
cryptocurrency-wallet/
www.reddit.com/r/cryptocurrency
http://cryptocurrencyfacts.com/how-to-
trade-cryptocurrency-for-beginners/
Blockgeeks.com
https://www.coindesk.com/information/wha
t-is-blockchain-technology/