What is Cryptocurrency?

Your introduction to cryptocurrency–the roadmap.

Hello there & welcome to the Make Shyft Happen blog and podcast! This series will cover everything you need to know to start making shyft happen in the world of cryptocurrency. My name’s Leslie and I'll be your guide on this journey because I’ll be going on it with you–I'm a bit of a crypto newbie myself...

I actually have NO excuse for not getting into this space sooner because for almost two years now, my partner has been begging me to look into bitcoin, ethereum, blockchain, NFTs, you name it, but I completely brushed it off because, if I’m being honest, I had no finance management system or practices or understanding of any kind so really, any form of investing intimidated me. This means the thought of buying bitcoin was just too scary for me.

I was too embarrassed to admit that until I landed a job working for Gary Vee in Vayner Media's NFT department in New York City. For anyone who doesn't yet know what an NFT is, don't worry we'll get there... but basically, when I started this job I just got dropped layers deep into crypto and I had to work overtime just to catch up & try to figure out what all of this stuff is and why some guy named beeple sold a jpeg for $69M and why one of the most prestigious fine art auction houses in the world, Christies, auctioned off Gary Vee's doodles for $1M. Does that make Gary Vee an artist? An influencer? A businessman? A random crazy person? More on that soon...

Cryptocurrency is being adopted faster than the internet

"I'm still learning myself, so this isn't financial advice, it's just me sharing what I've learned so far bc one thing I know for sure is that you have to start learning about this stuff now because this space is evolving and moving at lightning speed."

People today are adopting Cryptocurrency faster than humans have adopted any technology in recorded human history. And I’m not misspeaking; People are adopting cryptocurrency TWICE as fast as they adopted the internet. Not the web today–I'm talking about at its prime growth time in the late 90s!!! In 1997 the internet was being adopted at a rate of 63% a year. Today in 2021, crypto users are growing at a rate of 113% per year. This past year, it grew over 880%. That means that each year, cryptocurrency users are doubling! And it is still just getting started.

So, now that we’ve established that this is the fastest-growing technology in the world right now, let's dive into what exactly is happening in this space because it is absolutely blowing my mind

Should I invest?

I can't share who I'm working with and what projects we're working on at Vayner NFT right now, but I can tell you that Fortune 500 & Fortune100 companies are realizing this too and they're getting into the space very soon, as we've already seen with Visa buying a Crypto Punk and Budweiser buying a rocket from Tom Sachs Rocket Factory. This is also the first time ever that you can make money off of them; You can benefit off of these large brands and not the other way around like it’s always been done before. & I'll explain the strategy there, in a future post.

However, I should note that I'm not here to sell you anything. I don't benefit from sharing this knowledge and I don't make money off of this in anyway unless you're a fortune 500 brand who wants to work with Vayner NFT bc that's my job and in that case... hit me up 😉!

“This isn't financial advice. It's not my goal to get you to invest in anything. You might get to the end of this series and decide you hate cryptocurrency. That's perfectly fine, but at least learn enough about it to formulate an opinion sooner rather than later because if you decide it is for you, you don’t want to have major FOMO for not getting into it sooner."

Also, keep in mind I am not an expert in this–no one is. So my only mission with this personal podcast is to give my family & friends the information they need to understand how to play in this space (if you choose to) without getting eaten alive.

Now, that sounds dramatic, but I just mean in a space with massive rewards–and this is the biggest financial opportunity of our lifetime–that also means there's potential for massive loss. So you need to know what it is and how it works in order to use the technology to your advantage.

Keep in mind, the longer you wait to learn about crypto, the harder it will become because there are layers within layers of it so you have to get started because idk when this is all going to stabilize, but you may only have about 3 months to make your move if you want this to change your life in 3 years, for example. I don’t know.

So strap in my friends, because by the end of this series you'll understand the core concepts of bitcoin, the blockchain, ethereum, web 3.0, NFTs and all things crypto. & you don't have to know a single thing before we get started so anyone who wants to come along for the ride - you're more than welcome.

Let's go... TO THE MOON! 🚀🚀🚀

First stop: Bitcoin

The Make Shyft Happen podcast is hosted by Leslie Wheeler and produced by Yaristotle. If you enjoyed this, please don't forget to subscribe! Tweet us any questions you might have @makeshyfthappen