55 guides · 170 glossary terms
Learn crypto
Plain-English guides to the things that cost people money: stuck transactions, fees, look-alike addresses, sanctions and signing blind. Each one ends with the tool that does the job. New to a word? Try the glossary.
55 guides in 6 topics
Basics
10 guidesWhat is cryptocurrency?
What a cryptocurrency actually is, what owning one means, how coins differ from tokens and stablecoins, and the risks to understand before you buy any.
Beginner · 4 min read
Coins vs tokens: what's the difference?
What makes a coin native to a blockchain, how tokens sit on top of another chain, and why the network and contract matter more than the name.
Beginner · 3 min read
Public and private keys, explained without the maths
How a key pair controls a crypto address, what a signature proves, and why a seed phrase is best understood as a backup of your keys.
Beginner · 4 min read
How a crypto transaction gets confirmed
What happens after you press send: broadcast, the mempool, blocks, confirmations and finality, plus what “pending” and “dropped” really mean.
Beginner · 3 min read
What is a blockchain?
How a blockchain records transactions, why blocks are linked by hashes, how thousands of computers agree on one history, and what “confirmed” and “final” mean.
Beginner · 4 min read
How to buy crypto safely
A step-by-step first purchase: choosing a regulated exchange, securing the account, understanding fees and spreads, and moving coins to your own wallet safely.
Beginner · 4 min read
Exchanges vs self-custody: who holds your keys?
What really happens to coins you leave on an exchange, what changes when you hold the keys yourself, and how to decide how much to keep in each place.
Beginner · 4 min read
Crypto wallets explained: which kind should you use?
Exchange accounts, software, hardware and paper wallets, and multisig compared: who holds the keys, what each protects against, and which suits which amount.
Beginner · 4 min read
Self-custody basics: keeping your own crypto safe
Seed phrases, hardware wallets, backups and the scams that target them, the essentials of holding crypto yourself without losing it.
Beginner · 3 min read
Crypto taxes: what records to keep
Which crypto transactions usually matter for tax, what to record for each one, and how to keep a trail that survives exchange closures and changes of wallet.
Intermediate · 4 min read
Bitcoin
8 guidesWhat is Bitcoin?
How Bitcoin works: the 21 million supply limit, mining and the halving, addresses and satoshis, fees, the Lightning Network and holding it safely.
Beginner · 3 min read
How to speed up a stuck Bitcoin transaction
Why Bitcoin transactions get stuck, and the three things that work (replace-by-fee, child-pays-for-parent and waiting) with the maths to get the fee right.
Intermediate · 5 min read
Bitcoin fees and the mempool, explained
What you are actually paying for when you send bitcoin, how the mempool decides what confirms next, and practical ways to pay less.
Intermediate · 3 min read
The Lightning Network, explained
How Lightning channels, routing, invoices and liquidity work, which wallet models exist, and when paying over Lightning makes sense.
Intermediate · 4 min read
UTXOs and when to consolidate small coins
How Bitcoin’s UTXO model affects fees, when merging small coins saves money, and the privacy cost of doing it.
Intermediate · 4 min read
Bitcoin privacy: what a chain observer can see
What Bitcoin transactions reveal, how clustering heuristics work, and the habits that reduce how easily your activity is linked.
Intermediate · 4 min read
Running your own Bitcoin node
What a full node verifies, what it costs to run one, and why connecting your wallet to your own node improves privacy.
Intermediate · 4 min read
Bitcoin multisig and Taproot for savings and teams
How m-of-n Bitcoin multisig works, what descriptors and PSBTs do, and how Taproot changes spending and backup planning.
Advanced · 4 min read
Ethereum & EVM
9 guidesWhat is Ethereum?
Ethereum explained: ether, smart contracts, accounts, gas, proof of stake and layer 2 networks, and what they mean for the tokens and apps you use.
Beginner · 4 min read
Gas fees on Ethereum and layer 2s, explained
Base fee, priority fee, gas limits, and why the same swap costs cents on a layer 2 and dollars on Ethereum, with tips for paying less and not getting stuck.
Intermediate · 3 min read
DeFi basics: swaps, lending and yield, explained
How decentralised exchanges, lending markets and staking actually work, where DeFi yield comes from, and the risks to check before you deposit anything.
Intermediate · 4 min read
Layer 2s explained: why fees are lower on rollups
What rollups do away from Ethereum mainnet, why optimistic and zero-knowledge systems cost less, and which extra risks you take to save on fees.
Intermediate · 4 min read
Bridges and their risks: moving crypto between chains
How bridges move tokens between blockchains, why they have suffered some of crypto’s largest hacks, and how to cross between chains with the least risk.
Intermediate · 5 min read
Withdrawing from a layer 2: challenge periods and finality
Why some rollup withdrawals take minutes and others take days, what fast-withdrawal bridges add, and where finality really comes from.
Intermediate · 4 min read
Contract admin keys and upgrade risk
Who can change a smart contract after you deposit: owners, roles, upgradeable proxies and timelocks, how to find them on-chain, and what good looks like.
Advanced · 4 min read
EIP-7702: when your wallet runs a contract's code
What an EIP-7702 authorisation does, why wallets use it, and how a malicious delegation can drain an account.
Advanced · 4 min read
MEV and sandwich attacks: why your swap got a worse price
What MEV is, how sandwich attacks worsen DEX prices, and which slippage and relay choices really help.
Advanced · 4 min read
Security
16 guidesSeed phrases: what they are and how to store them
How 12 or 24 words recreate a wallet, why they must never be typed or photographed, and how to store them so a fire or burglary cannot cost you your coins.
Beginner · 4 min read
How to spot crypto scams before they cost you
The scams that take the most money, the signs that give them away, and how to check an address, a token or a contract with free tools before you send anything.
Beginner · 4 min read
Address poisoning: how it works and how to avoid it
Attackers plant look-alike addresses in your transaction history and wait for you to copy the wrong one. Here is how to spot it and how to make it impossible.
Beginner · 2 min read
Phishing links and fake crypto sites
How lookalike domains, fake claim pages, DMs and search adverts lead to theft, and the checks to do before you connect a wallet or sign anything.
Beginner · 4 min read
SIM swaps and two-factor authentication for crypto accounts
How SIM swaps let criminals take over exchange and email accounts, why SMS codes are weak, and how to move to authenticator apps or hardware keys.
Beginner · 3 min read
Fake support and “recovery” scams
How impostors in Discord, Telegram and search results pose as support, why upfront-fee recovery offers are usually another scam, and where to report them.
Beginner · 3 min read
Setting up a hardware wallet properly
How to buy, verify and test a hardware wallet, write down the seed phrase, decide whether to use a passphrase, and keep the device current.
Beginner · 3 min read
Token approvals and how to revoke them
What you grant when you approve a token, why unlimited approvals and permit signatures are a common way wallets get drained, and how to review and revoke them.
Intermediate · 4 min read
How to read a signature request before you sign
How to tell a plain message from typed data or a transaction, and how permits, Permit2 and NFT approvals can hide behind a safe-looking request.
Intermediate · 4 min read
Wallet drainers: how they empty wallets and how to stop them
How drainer kits turn one bad click into stolen tokens, approvals or delegations, and what to do in the first ten minutes after a wallet is compromised.
Intermediate · 3 min read
Rug pulls and honeypot tokens
How liquidity pulls, mint powers, blacklists, sell taxes and honeypot code trap buyers, and what to check before you touch a token contract.
Intermediate · 3 min read
How to read a crypto address report
Balances, counterparties, flows, labels, clustering and risk scores: what an address report can tell you, what it cannot, and how to avoid common misreadings.
Intermediate · 3 min read
How to read a blockchain transaction
Inputs, outputs, fees and change on Bitcoin; calldata, logs and token transfers on Ethereum: what each field means, and the misreadings that cost people money.
Advanced · 4 min read
Address forensics and clustering: following funds on-chain
The heuristics investigators use to link addresses and follow money on Bitcoin and EVM chains, where each one breaks, and how to reach conclusions that hold up.
Advanced · 5 min read
How to verify a Safe transaction before you sign it
The Bybit theft showed that signers approve what their screen shows. Here is how to check what a pending Safe transaction really does, and why the hash matters.
Advanced · 3 min read
Protecting a DAO or company treasury
Signers, thresholds, timelocks, monitoring and incident plans: the controls that stop one mistake or one compromise from emptying a treasury.
Advanced · 2 min read
Markets
8 guidesUnderstanding crypto prices and market cap
Where a coin’s price comes from, what market cap, fully diluted value and volume measure, why a low price is not cheap, and how to read percentage moves.
Beginner · 4 min read
How crypto exchanges work: order books, spreads and fees
How centralised and decentralised exchanges match trades, what spread and slippage cost you, and where the visible and hidden fees usually sit.
Beginner · 4 min read
Market orders, limit orders and stop orders
What the main exchange order types do, with simple worked examples and the risks that appear when the market is thin or moving fast.
Beginner · 4 min read
Reading a crypto price chart: candles, volume and timeframes
How to read candlesticks, volume bars and timeframes, when to switch between linear and log scale, and what a chart can never tell you.
Beginner · 3 min read
Stablecoins explained: how they hold their value
How dollar stablecoins such as USDT and USDC keep their price, the backing models, what can make one lose its peg, and how to hold and send them safely.
Beginner · 4 min read
Dollar-cost averaging, explained
What DCA is, what it does and does not do for you, how it compares with investing a lump sum, and the costs that quietly erode it. Not financial advice.
Beginner · 2 min read
What the Crypto Fear & Greed Index measures
How the index is built, how to read it, and why it is a sentiment gauge rather than a trading signal.
Beginner · 2 min read
What moves crypto prices
The main forces behind crypto price swings, from issuance and vested token releases to funding, sentiment and Bitcoin's pull on the rest of the market.
Intermediate · 3 min read
Business
4 guidesAccepting crypto: payment requests for small businesses
How to ask a customer for a crypto payment properly: quoting the price, BIP 21 and EIP-681 payment links, QR codes, confirmations, refunds and records.
Intermediate · 2 min read
Holding stablecoins in a business treasury: the risks
Why stablecoins can depeg, the issuer, reserve, chain and bridge risks behind them, and how a treasury can spread and monitor that exposure.
Intermediate · 4 min read
OFAC sanctions screening for crypto businesses
What the OFAC SDN list contains, why screening addresses matters, what a list check can and cannot catch, and what to do about a match. Not legal advice.
Advanced · 3 min read
Treasury and multisig operations, day to day
Setting up a multisig treasury: the propose, verify, sign and execute routine, signer changes, Bitcoin descriptors and PSBTs, and records an auditor can follow.
Advanced · 4 min read