Hi! My name is Lakshman and I’m super new to the world of crypto. I’m starting this series to explore some of the things that I find fascinating about this space. I’ve been learning a lot from my friends over the last few years and will be getting their help to consult the content and to check for any errors. The aim of this series is to help people understand the full potential of this technology and encourage them to actively participate in the crypto revolution.
I’m an architect and environmental scientist by education and I run a non-profit in Bangalore, India along with my girlfriend Vanessa. The last few years have been a huge learning experience for the both of us. We have pushed ourselves out of our comfort zone and try to accept things as they come.
I grew up in a middle-class family and was raised by my mother and my grandma. The goal of pretty much everybody in our family was to get a high paying job as an engineer, doctor, or any other respectable profession – even better if that job was outside India. Sacrificing everything just to earn a higher salary was considered normal and running a business was looked down on. The family budget was tight, and everything was looked at in terms of scarcity – the perception that we didn’t have as much as other people. In truth, our family was better of that probably 80% of families in the country.
My mom had earned a commerce degree from university but didn’t pursue work in that field. Instead, she worked in a now almost extinct profession called medical transcription – which basically involved people in India typing down an American/British doctor’s notes following a consultation with a patient. This is mostly done for legal reasons as well as helping the hospital manage their records. The job didn’t pay particularly well and required long hours of intense work. My mom worked in this field for about 9 years and burnt out by the time I was in 10th grade.
The consensus in my family is that banks pay them interest for keeping their saving with the bank. They’ve been using the money the bank pays as interest to handle their monthly expenses and this is defined as smart and safe financial management by them. My mum is weary of investing in stocks, shares and mutual funds and feels that they are risky and a source of endless stress. Everyone knows that prices of everyday items in shops go up from year to year, but they don’t understand the concept of inflation. My family strongly believes that the government is on their side and don’t understand how the financial system works or how money comes into existence.
As kids, we feel like the adults around us know everything. Now I understand that they haven’t even scratched the surface. The innate curiosity to question the world around us has been bashed out of them by the education system and an all-pervasive media keeps their minds focussed on other things. This is a world where questioning the status quo makes you an outcast.
We learn our food habits from our parents, and we also learn our relationship to money from them. In my case, I started of at a severe disadvantage. The belief that all rich people are dishonest is a toxic one because it implies that you can’t get rich without being a crook.
I’ve been working on improving my relationship with money over the last few years and I think I’ve started to gain some insight into how the system works and this is what I will be sharing in this series.
Some of the articles in this series are –
· What is money?
· What are cryptocurrencies? What are the benefits?
· Is it possible for governments to ban crypto? What would the outcome be?
· Why does the price of cryptocurrencies fluctuate so much?
· What happens to my money when I lose the password to my wallet?
· How much energy is used to mine BCH?
· Why do forks in currencies occur? How did BCH separate from Bitcoin?
· What do miners actually do?
. What are SLP tokens? How do I create one?
· What are NFTs? How do I turn my artwork into an NFT?
· Top 15 cryptocurrencies explained
· Where do BCH transaction fees go?
· Txstreet - What's the difference between Bitcoin and BCH
· How do I spend my BCH?
· What is the difference between proof of work and proof of stake?
· What are BCH smart contracts? How do they work?
Have an amazing day! I hope you all enjoy it, and I would love to hear your feedback. Please let me know if there if any topic you’d like to learn more about. I’d be happy to work on an article about it!
If you like what we do, please follow us for new articles, leave a comment and consider supporting our Flipstarter campaign!
Would love to see this all in one place!