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Most crypto problems start with a gap in fundamentals. People buy Bitcoin on an exchange, watch the price, and never actually learn how any of it works. Then something goes wrong and they don't know why. This page covers the building blocks.
A blockchain is a public ledger that nobody owns and everybody can verify. Every transaction ever made on Bitcoin or Ethereum is recorded on it permanently. You don't need to trust a bank or a company. You trust the math and the network of computers that maintain it.
That's the whole idea. Instead of one central authority keeping the books, thousands of computers around the world keep identical copies and agree on what's valid. Once a transaction is confirmed and added to a block, it cannot be edited or reversed.
Every crypto wallet has two keys. Understanding the difference is the single most important thing you can learn.
Public key: This is your address. You can share it freely. People use it to send you crypto. It's like your email address. Giving it out does not put your funds at risk.
Private key: This is the password that controls your funds. Never share it with anyone. Not your wallet app's support team. Not a friend. Not a website asking you to "verify" it. Anyone who has your private key has full control of your crypto. There is no customer service line to call and no password reset.
Modern wallets use a seed phrase, usually 12 or 24 words, that generates all your private keys. Write this down on paper. Store it somewhere safe and offline. Never type it into a website. Never photograph it and store it on your phone or in cloud storage. If someone gets your seed phrase, they get everything. If you lose it, you lose everything permanently.
When you send crypto, you're broadcasting a message to the network: "Move X amount from my address to this other address." The network checks that you have the funds and that your private key authorized the transfer. Miners or validators package your transaction into a block and add it to the chain. On Bitcoin this takes roughly 10 minutes. On Ethereum it's usually under a minute.
Once confirmed, the transaction is final. There is no reversing it, no disputing it, no calling a 1-800 number. This is the tradeoff of self-custody: you have total control, but you also have total responsibility.
Bitcoin is a store of value and a payment network. It does one thing and does it well: moving value without a middleman. Ethereum is a programmable blockchain. It can run applications called smart contracts, which enables things like decentralized finance, NFTs, and tokenized assets. They are not competitors in the way most people think. They serve different purposes.
An exchange like Coinbase or Kraken holds your crypto for you. It's convenient but you don't control the keys. If the exchange goes down, gets hacked, or freezes your account, you're stuck. Self-custody means you hold your own keys in a wallet you control. It's less convenient but far more secure. The standard advice is correct: not your keys, not your coins.
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