Cryptocurrency & NFTs

This is the first in a series of posts explaining the concept of cryptocurrency, NFTs and the future of money. Why? Because I will be selling some of my art and products via this format and want to help my patrons understand this new technology. The ultimate benefit of utilizing this new form of commerce is that banks will no longer be the gatekeepers of your money.

Money is becoming digital. In some ways it is already digital with the use of credit cards, and online banking, but over the next decade most financial transactions will be placed on the blockchain. What is a blockchain? 

A blockchain is a database of secure and decentralized record of transactions that is shared amongst a computer network. A blockchain guarantees the fidelity and security of data, generating trust without the need for a trusted third party (like a bank). 

Bitcoin is the world’s first successful decentralized cryptocurrency and payment system, launched in 2009. The word “cryptocurrency” refers to a group of digital assets where transactions are secured and verified using cryptography – a scientific practice of encoding and decoding data. Those transactions are often stored on computers distributed all over the world via a distributed ledger technology called a blockchain. 

Bitcoin is considered a store of value like gold. This is because the price of a single bitcoin has increased considerably since its inception – from less than a cent to tens of thousands of dollars. Dollars can be traded into Bitcoin and vise versa. There are many crypto currencies out there, but in my opinion Bitcoin is the safest. 

NFTs (which I will be integrating with some of my upcoming projects) are connected to the cryptocurrency landscape and I will talk more about them in the next post. 

There are many people that can explain Bitcoin and digital commerce much better than I can, so here are some references-

Here is a good written overview. 

Crypto Dad (You can learn a lot from his You Tube channel) 

Trader University (Good overviews along with specific understanding of economics and Bitcoins place in it) 

Like any new technology there will be fears as to how it is going to change our reality. I dove into this paradigm five years ago and use Bitcoin for transactions and will take it on my website for everything I sell. I encourage you to learn more about this bold new world of digital commerce. Stay tuned for more info.