Last updated on February 8th, 2022 at 11:05 am
The cryptocurrency was first noticed in India around 2015-16 as Bitcoin. But still, it is a matter of imbroglio for most of us. Terms like "decentralized", "blockchain", "disintermediation", "DeFi", and "mining" are mostly a matter of bewilderment. But, no matter how technical they sound, even non-technical people can master them. To understand the concept of cryptocurrency, here are the top five resources for non-technical people.
- The Quiet Master of Cryptocurrency - Nick Szabo (#244)
The polymath, Nick Szabo's podcast, is a steal. He is known for his deep understanding of cryptos and is a lawyer, computer scientist, and cryptographer. He is also known for coining "smart contracts" and designing Bit Gold. This podcast consists of his conversation with Naval Ravikant and covers the topics:
- Definition of Bitcoin and other cryptos and what problem do they solve
- “Social scalability”
- Ethereum, its strength and weaknesses
- Smart contracts
- Initial coin offerings
- Blockchain governance
- Wet and Dry code
- Pascal’s scams
- Future
- Why Bitcoin Matters by Marc Andreessen
On 21st January 2014, New York Times published an article on Bitcoin by Marc Andreessen, the founder of Netscape. This Bitcoin tutorial consists of a highly in-depth overview of why bitcoin matters and what he believes to be the future, as this technology is evolving faster. This article is available for free in the Dealbook section of NYT.
Fat Protocols by Joel Monegro
Fat Protocols is an article published by United Square Ventures on 8th August 2016 and projects a different perspective on how investing in cryptocurrency is different from investing on the internet. It says that most monetary gains on the internet come from the "fat" application layer such as Google, Facebook, and Amazon as halted by the "think" protocol layer. You can read this article for free on the USV's official website.
The Internet of Money
The Internet of Money is a book written by Andreas M. Antonopoulos, and he is an expert in Bitcoin and cybersecurity. This book consists of the best of his speeches, explaining his concepts about Bitcoin and cryptocurrency.
Non-technical people who have a limited understanding of cryptocurrencies can check this book to get detailed knowledge regarding underlying technology and the social implications of cryptos. With the help of this book, Andreas M. Antonopoulos goes a step ahead in exploring the technicalities and how they can change the world permanently, the way the internet did.
Ethereum Whitepaper by Vitalik Buterin
A whitepaper is usually issued by a company and is an authoritative, persuasive report of a problem and provides a solution. The whitepaper of Ethereum is the founding document of the crypto and provides details about the goal and pathway to create a decentralized internet. Similar to the Bitcoin Whitepaper, this document also contains details regarding technical terms.
This will provide a non-technical person with enough idea about the technical terms, how the total cryptosystem works, and the future aims of this decentralized world. The white paper of Ethereum and Bitcoin (by Satoshi Nakamoto) are available free of cost on their official website, and individuals are free to download and read the information.
If you are interested in undertaking your career in fintech, then the knowledge of blockchain technologies is very demanding.
Hence, knowing every bit of it will help clear concepts on mathematics, finance, and economics. So, when you search financial technology courses, make sure that the one you choose covers every primary and in-depth topic related to fintech.
