The whole path Start at the beginning 29 guides, about 4 hours 10 minutes of reading in total. Nothing here assumes you know the vocabulary.

Start guide one

Four tracks

Each one assumes the track before it

You can jump around, and plenty of people do. The order exists because each guide leans on the one before it, so if something later feels confusing the answer is usually a few steps back.

Track 1

Foundations

What a blockchain is, what Bitcoin and Ethereum actually do, and the key pair that makes ownership work. Read these first even if you are impatient.

7 guides57 minNot startedStart this track Track 2

Getting hands on

The doing part. Set up a wallet, protect your recovery words, buy something, swap something, and learn to read what happened afterward.

7 guides58 minNot startedStart this track Track 3

Going deeper

Stablecoins, DeFi, lending, memecoins, NFTs, dApps, bridges and token supply. This is where you start being able to judge a project instead of guessing.

10 guides85 minNot startedStart this track Track 4

Practical matters

Taxes, identity checks, the extra passphrase people talk you into, what happens to your coins when you are gone, and the mistakes that catch almost everyone once.

5 guides50 minNot startedStart this track

Every guide

All 29, with what each one costs you in minutes

01What is crypto?A line in a shared ledger, and a key that lets you move it. Everything else is detail.Beginner7 min readFoundations 02Why crypto existsWhat it does that nothing else does, and what that costs. Both sides, same page.Beginner9 min readFoundations 03What is a blockchain?Forget the buzzwords for a minute. Underneath, a blockchain is a very boring idea implemented very carefully.Beginner8 min readFoundations 04What is Bitcoin?Launched in January 2009 by someone using the name Satoshi Nakamoto, who then disappeared and has never been identified.Beginner9 min readFoundations 05What is Ethereum?If Bitcoin is digital money, Ethereum is a computer that anyone can deploy code to and nobody can switch off.Beginner10 min readFoundations 06Public and private keysThis is the single concept that makes everything else in crypto possible. It is worth ten minutes.Beginner8 min readFoundations 07How a transaction actually worksFour stages, one of which is where almost all the confusion lives.Beginner6 min readFoundations 08Wallets explainedThe word wallet is genuinely misleading, and clearing that up removes most of the confusion at once.Beginner9 min readGetting hands on 09Seed phrases, properly explainedThis is the highest stakes twenty minutes in crypto. Get it right once and it protects you for years.Essential8 min readGetting hands on 10Your first crypto purchaseTwenty dollars, about twenty minutes, and you will understand more than a week of reading gives you.Beginner, hands on9 min readGetting hands on 11Your first onchain swapThis is the moment crypto stops being a brokerage account and starts being something genuinely different.Beginner, hands on10 min readGetting hands on 12How to send cryptoTwo checks decide whether this works, and a test transaction covers both of them.Beginner8 min readGetting hands on 13Gas fees, and why they existNobody enjoys paying them, but the reason they exist is genuinely good.Beginner7 min readGetting hands on 14Reading a block explorerThis is the skill that turns you from someone who trusts claims into someone who checks them.Beginner7 min readGetting hands on 15StablecoinsThese are the working currency of crypto. Far more value moves in stablecoins than in Bitcoin.Beginner8 min readGoing deeper 16DeFi explainedEvery service a bank offers, rebuilt as code that anyone can use and nobody can switch off.Beginner9 min readGoing deeper 17Lending and borrowingYou can earn interest, or borrow without selling. Either way, one number decides what happens to you.Intermediate13 min readGoing deeper 18Memecoins, honestlyNo product, no revenue, no cash flow. Just the next buyer. Here is how that actually plays out.Beginner12 min readGoing deeper 19NFTs, beyond the picturesThe speculation was loud and mostly ended. The underlying primitive turned out to be genuinely useful.Beginner7 min readGoing deeper 20dApps, and connecting a walletThe front end is a normal website. The part that holds your money is not, and that difference is everything.Beginner8 min readGoing deeper 21Bridges and moving between chainsNecessary, useful, and the most dangerous piece of infrastructure most people touch.Beginner7 min readGoing deeper 22Tokenomics, supply and unlocksMost people check the price. Almost nobody checks the supply schedule, and that is where the information is.Beginner8 min readGoing deeper 23Market cap vs priceThis one misunderstanding costs beginners more money than almost anything else.Beginner6 min readGoing deeper 24What decentralized really meansTreat it as a spectrum with several independent axes, not a badge.Beginner7 min readGoing deeper 25Crypto and taxes, the basicsThis is general information, not tax advice. Rules change and your situation is specific. Talk to a professional.Practical7 min readPractical matters 26KYC, and why exchanges want your IDThey are not being nosy, they are complying. That does not make the data safe.Beginner11 min readPractical matters 27The 25th wordAn extra secret on top of your recovery words. It has no undo, and no error message.Intermediate11 min readPractical matters 28What happens to your crypto when you dieNo beneficiary form, no password reset, no court that can help. This one is worth an afternoon.Beginner12 min readPractical matters 29Twelve mistakes beginners makeNone of these require intelligence to avoid. They require knowing about them, which is what this page is for.Beginner9 min readPractical matters

Look anything up

191 terms, in plain language

Every term on the site links here. If a guide uses a word you do not know, it is defined in one sentence at the top of its own page.

BlockchainA shared record of transactions that no single party controls.Seed phraseTwelve or twenty four words that regenerate every key in your wallet.GasThe fee you pay to have the network process your transaction.Rug pullWhen a project team abandons it and takes the money.JeetSomeone who sells early, and the insult aimed at them for it.Impermanent lossThe gap between providing liquidity and simply holding the two assets.

Open the glossary

Four levels

This path is the first of four

When the basics feel comfortable, keep climbing. Forty eight more guides take you from using DeFi with confidence all the way to consensus, cryptography and smart contract security. Each level is written for the reader it names.

Level 1You are here

Beginner

Never used crypto, or used it without being sure what was happening.

29 guidesThis level Level 2

Intermediate

You hold crypto in your own wallet and you have made a swap. Now make it work for you.

16 guidesOpen Intermediate Level 3

Advanced

For active DeFi users and traders who want the mechanics, not the marketing.

16 guidesOpen Advanced Level 4

Expert

For builders, researchers and auditors who want to reason from first principles.

16 guidesOpen Expert

Not sure where you fit? Find your level

When you have read some of it

Find out what actually stuck

Reading and knowing are not the same thing. Both of these are free, take a few minutes, and tell you where the gaps are.

Test your knowledge

Eight quizzes, 64 questions, four levels. An explanation after every answer and a rank from Plankton to Orca that you can share.

Take a quiz

Phishing simulator

Ten realistic screens where you decide whether what you are looking at is safe. Nothing in it is real and nothing accepts input.

Open the simulator

Would you rather do it together?

A session is one to one and screen shared. We open the accounts, secure the wallet and complete a real transaction while you watch, so the first time you do it alone is actually the second time.

See session options Browse the glossary

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