Crypto Basics

Most blockchains operate as islands. Bitcoin doesn't naturally talk to Ethereum, and Ethereum doesn't naturally talk to Solana. Polkadot was designed to deal with exactly that problem.

Chainlink solves a problem that isn't obvious until you think about it. A blockchain, on its own, can't see anything outside itself.

Cardano is a blockchain known less for a single feature and more for how it's built. Its defining trait is method.

Polygon is a real-world example of the Layer 2 idea from the last post. Its whole purpose is to make using Ethereum faster and cheaper.

A Layer 2 is a network built on top of an existing blockchain to make it faster and cheaper to use. The original blockchain, like Ethereum, is the Layer 1. The Layer 2 sits above it.

XRP was built with a specific job in mind: moving money between countries quickly and cheaply.

Crypto lending applies a familiar idea, lending and borrowing, to digital assets. One side lends out their crypto and earns interest. The other side borrows it and pays interest for the privilege.

DeFi is short for decentralized finance. It's the name for financial services, lending, borrowing, trading, saving, that run on a blockchain instead of through a bank.

Most cryptocurrencies move in price constantly. A stablecoin is the deliberate exception. It's a crypto token designed to hold a steady value, most often pegged one-to-one to a national currency like the US dollar.

Solana is a blockchain built around one priority: speed. Where some networks focus on being maximally decentralized or maximally secure, Solana was designed to process a very high number of transactions quickly and cheaply.