Hi everybody, BigBong here
If you're following this channel, you probably saw me
speak with a robot, or learn English with a virtual teacher
powered by artificial intelligence
Needless to say that I'm very interested in new technologies
And because of course, I'm also passionate about languages
I thought I would explain some words you might have heard
like Bitcoin, cryptocurrency or NFT
for you to understand the basis of it all
Some of you might have heard or read that it's a scam
Others might think it's the perfect opportunity
but don't know how to invest
So I'll try to enlighten everything in the easiest way possible
It's funny because I posted this picture on March 7, 2019
The bitcoin was about $4,000
and nobody seemed to care at that time...
But today, it's ten times more than that
And making this video is also a way for me to share it
to friends and family who keep asking me the same questions
instead of repeating myself over and over
First of all, let me clarify one thing
This video is not sponsored by any company
And the goal is not to push you into buying anything
As a matter of fact, it's a very fluctuating market
so I would not recommend investing money
that you absolutely need in your daily life
like paying the rent or buying basic commodities
Just like any type of investment, there is always the risk
that you might lose some or most of it
So it should be money, you don't need to survive
Ideally, money you don't mind losing
Even if, of course, the goal is not to throw money out the window
I'm well aware that the flow of information could be overwhelming
So don't forget that you can always change the speed of the video
on YouTube or press pause at any time
So I've already used a few words here
And let's start with cryptocurrency or simply crypto
Basically, a crypto is a digital currency designed to work
through a computer network that is decentralized
meaning that it does not require a central authority
like a bank or a government to be functional
I'm not gonna comment on the political implications
but it's a very important aspect
It's interesting because the word "crypto" comes from the Greek
"hidden" or "secret" and for a long time
it was seen as bas because it was associated with
illegal goods and services on the dark web
And if you ask my mother, she might still see it that way
But the true value of cryptos and the reason why
they're so successful, is that they offer
a more interesting alternative to banks
For instance, you don't need to wait for the bank to open
You can send very large amounts of money 24/7
all over the world, faster, and with lower transaction fees
For people living in Western countries and who have family abroad
and especially in developing countries, it's a game changer
Now more about the technology behind cryptocurrencies
because that's where their true value lies
Don't worry, I won't go into too much detail
but it's rather important because it involves
another fundamental word which is "blockchain"
This is essential because it ensures the validity of each crypto
through a constantly growing list of records called blocks
which are connected to each other
A chain of blocks... A blockchain
Each block contains a link to the previous block
a time stamp and a transaction data
A blockchain is usually managed by a peer-to-peer network
of devices validating together each block
which means that in order to hack the blockchain
you would need to access most of the devices on that network
which is so difficult it's close to impossible
By the way, people verifying and assembling transactions
into a block, are called miners
And the reason for that is because they get rewarded with coins
Here comes Bitcoin
It's the very first crypto ever created
Initially released in 2009, it's the most important one
and the biggest in terms of market capital
which means that it's total value is higher
than any other cryptocurrencies on the market
And just like publicly traded companies are associated with
a stock symbol called ticker
which is a combination of up to 5 letters like (NFLX) for Netflix
Cryptocurrencies also have one
For bitcoin, it's (BTC)
You might also hear the noun Satoshi
Funnily enough, it's the original Japanese name of Ash
from Pokémon, but in our case
Satoshi Nakamoto is the name given to the creator of Bitcoin
To this day, we still don't know who that person is
Or even if it was a group of people
But you might see this face from time to time
This guy is Dorian Nakamoto, an engineer
who some people thought was the creator of bitcoin
because of his name, until he went public and denied the claims
But today, the term "satoshi" is also used to talk about
a hundred millionth of a bitcoin
Sometimes, it will be shorten to a "sat"
and it's used to solve the misconception
that bitcoin cannot be divided
You see, most traditional currencies smallest unit is 1¢
So $0.01 for example
But not only bitcoin is far more dividable than that
psychologically speaking, saying that for $500
you become a satoshi millionaire
feels more than receiving 0.01 BTC
even if mathematically speaking, it's exactly the same thing
There are thousands and thousands of cryptocurrencies
apart from bitcoin
They can be called "altcoins" for alternative coins
The second biggest crypto and therefore
the first altcoin is ethereum
It's actually my favorite, why?
Well, a blockchain is the best way to certify transactions
But it doesn't have to be money
In fact, I believe it's the future of voting
No more going and waiting in line at the city hall
just to put a ballot in a box
You'll be able to vote anywhere
But most importantly, there would be no more suspicion of hacking
By the way, I forgot to mention that bitcoin's blockchain
is completely public and so you can retrace
every transaction ever completed... ever
So it's often said that bitcoin is pseudonymous more than anonymous
I'm absolutely not encouraging illegal activities here
but if you're interested in a more untraceable currency
you should check out Monero
That's also the answer to the reason why
there are so many cryptocurrencies
Because each one should serve a purpose that the others don't
This brings us to a question I often get
Where to buy them?
I understand it can be daunting not knowing
where you're investing and who to trust...
The biggest platform by volume is called Binance
I personally have a wallet on this platform
The layout is just great, you can set it up to be user-friendly
or have all the information you need
if you wish to become a trading expert
There is another great one called Kraken
Here is a page on Investopedia.com
where they made a comparison between the two platforms
There are a few differences and I know that
if you live in the US, there are a bit more restrictions
So please keep that in mind
I personally decided to go for Binance
because it offers more cryptocurrencies
I also opened a wallet on Coinbase
because there were cryptos on that platform
which weren't available on Binance
But the great thing on all this platforms is the fact
that you can stake your coins
What does "staking" mean for you?
You basically agree to lock some of your cryptos
for a certain amount of time
And in return, you get a percentage of interest on your investment
By the way, if you live in Canada and you wanna earn $30 right away
there is a new app called Shakepay
The problem with Binance is that I can't transfer
Canadian dollars from my wallet to my bank account
So I use Shakepay for that
You'll actually need to buy $100 worth of bitcoin
or ethereum which are the only cryptos available
in roder to get the $30 within 24h
But nothing prevents from reconverting your coins
into Canadian dollars and withdrawing your money
right away after that, if that's what you're looking for
However, I'm not part of any affiliate program
Once you become a client, you'll get your own referral link
And you could also earn $30 for each person you'll refer
Knowing that they'll all receive the same amount of money
If you think, it's too good to be true
and you're wondering how the company makes money
they're actually transparent when it comes to that
And the truth is that they work pretty much
like an exchange office, so they will sell bitcoin
and ethereum slightly above the market price
and buy it for slightly lower
I'll leave my referral link in the description
and I'll also tag their YouTube channel
so that you can see for yourself
But the most awesome thing on top of referring friends
is that it's not called Shakepay for nothing
You can literally shake your phone once everyday
and get a few satoshis
Actually, Coinbase and Binance also have their own referral program
On Coinbase, it's $10 for the same conditions as Shakepay
And for Binance, you get a 100 USDT cash back voucher
for at least, a $50 deposit
And since we're talking about how you can earn money for free
if you wanna learn more about everything I'm saying
both Binance and Coinbase have a "Lean & earn" section
which means you can earn a little bit of cryptos
by taking some online courses on these platforms
I'll also leave these links in the description if you're interested
Now back to the reason why Ethereum is my favorite blockchain
Of course, I'm amazed and entertained by its co-founder
Vitalik Buterin who's a fellow Canadian
But it's also because it's the main blockchain for NFTs
NFT stands for "non-fungible token"
Actually, you might also hear people use "token"
as a synonym of "coin"
In our context, a token is a component of a blockchain
So a coin is a token, an NFT is also one
But an NFT is not a coin... Do you get what I'm saying?
If the purpose of a blockchain is certification
then it can work the same way a gallery certifies its art
or Rolex its watches
So it naturally became a new stage for artists to sell their creations
There are crazy stories about people earning
hundreds of thousands of dollars for literally
drawing pixels on paint like Benyamin Ahmed
the 12 year old boy from London who sold
his collection of "Weird Whales"
There is also the NFT self-portrait by Sophia the robot
that was sold for about $700,000
Though I have to admit, that's a piece of history
One of the most famous collections is the Bored Ape Yacht Club
with celebrities like Eminem and Madonna
buying NFTs for more than $450,000 each
If you're interested in buying NFTs, Binance has its own market
But the most popular one is OpenSea.io
This is the very first NFT I personally bought
It's a trading card from a collection called Satoshiverse on Binance
in collaboration with DC and Marvel comic artist José Delbo
But it seems like they changed their plans, so I should look into that
Among my favorite artists, there is Bakaarts
who's got his own futuristic design
There is also Mehdi Aouichaoui who's leaning more
a Japanese anime style
And finally, there was Mekaverse, which looks like
if Lego had a kid with Gundam
But unfortunately, it's not as successful anymore...
Actually, Mekaverse is a play on word with "Metaverse"
If you look at the definition in the Oxford dictionary, it says that
the Metaverse is a virtual-reality space in which users
can interact with a computer-generated environment and other users
Pretty much like the movie "Ready Player One"
You might also know that Facebook is embracing it
by completely rebranding the company to "Meta"
There is a platform called "The Sandbox"
which reminds me of Minecraft
You can build stuff but most importantly
you can own and trade virtual lands on it
The concept of ownership is very important
when it comes to NFTs
Because games like League of Legends, Fortnite or World of Warcraft
you don't really own your skins and characters
Of course, you can play them but you can't sell them, right?
Well, you see people trying to sell their accounts anyway
I'm not sure if it's illegal per se
But it's clearly against the game's terms of policy
which can get your account disabled or banned
But NFTs completely change the dynamic of it all
A game like Hearthstone...
There is a very similar game called God's Unchained
But the main difference is that you own your cards
Like Magic: The Gathering or Yu-Gi-Oh
And you can actually sell them
on a market place dedicated for that
I actually started playing God's Unchained
about a year ago, only the weekends
I think it's still in Beta but if I'm starting a gaming series
it's probably gonna be with that game
Alright, that's about it guys
Now you should be able to handle a conversation on this topic
You know what cryptocurrencies are
and that they're decentralized
You know that bitcoin is the very first ever created
Then come all the altcoins with ethereum being the largest
You can buy them on cryptocurrency exchanges
like Binance or Coinbase
You know that you can stake them if you want to
They all work on a blockchain which can serve other purposes
like voting or minting non-fungible tokens
These NFTs can be artwork, trading cards to play
or stuff you can use in a virtual environment
Thank you so much for watching, if you enjoyed this video
please let me know in the comments with a thumbs-up
Feel free to share it to anyone who would be interested
I really hope we can make a little bit of money
through all these investments
Alright, take care!