The BlockPrimer curriculum
Learn crypto, properly
75 free guides organized into six tracks. Start at the very beginning or jump to whatever you need. No paywall, ever.
Foundations
The absolute basics. What cryptocurrency and blockchain actually are, how to buy and store your first coins safely, and how to avoid getting scammed.
What Is Cryptocurrency?
A plain-English introduction to what cryptocurrency is, why it exists, and how it differs from the money in your bank account.
What Is a Blockchain?
The shared digital ledger behind every cryptocurrency, explained from scratch with no jargon.
How a Blockchain Actually Works
Blocks, hashes and chains — a step-by-step walkthrough of how transactions become permanent records.
What Is Bitcoin?
The first cryptocurrency, why it was created, and what makes it different from everything that came after.
Coins vs Tokens: What's the Difference?
Why Bitcoin is a coin, why most crypto assets are tokens, and why the distinction matters.
Crypto Wallets Explained
What a wallet really stores, the difference between custodial and self-custody, and how to choose one.
Public and Private Keys
The pair of keys that secure all your crypto — what they are, how they work together, and why you must protect one of them.
Seed Phrases & Backups
The 12–24 words that can restore your entire wallet — how they work and how to back them up properly.
Hot vs Cold Wallets
Online convenience versus offline security — when to use each type of wallet.
What Is a Crypto Exchange?
Where most people buy and sell crypto — how exchanges work and what to look for.
Centralized vs Decentralized Exchanges
CEX vs DEX: custody, fees, speed and trust trade-offs compared.
How to Buy Your First Crypto
A safe, step-by-step guide to making your first purchase without costly mistakes.
Understanding Gas & Transaction Fees
Why crypto transactions cost money, what gas is, and how to avoid overpaying.
How to Read a Crypto Chart
Candlesticks, timeframes and volume — the basics of reading price charts without getting overwhelmed.
Common Crypto Scams & How to Avoid Them
The most common ways people lose money to fraud — and the simple habits that keep you safe.
Core Concepts
The technology under the hood: consensus, mining and staking, smart contracts, tokens and standards, layers and rollups, and the cryptography that ties it together.
Consensus Mechanisms Explained
How thousands of strangers agree on one version of the truth without a central authority.
Proof of Work
The original consensus mechanism that secures Bitcoin — how mining races turn electricity into security.
Proof of Stake
The energy-efficient alternative to mining, and how validators replace miners.
Beyond PoW & PoS: Other Consensus Models
DPoS, Proof of History, Proof of Authority, and BFT-style consensus compared.
Crypto Mining Explained
What miners actually do, the hardware involved, and how block rewards work.
Staking Explained
How locking up coins helps secure a network and earns rewards — plus the risks involved.
Nodes & Validators
The computers that run the network — full nodes, validators, and why decentralization depends on them.
Cryptographic Hashing
The one-way math function at the heart of blockchain security.
Digital Signatures
How you prove you own crypto without revealing your private key.
Merkle Trees
The clever data structure that lets blockchains verify huge amounts of data efficiently.
The Mempool
The waiting room for unconfirmed transactions, and how it affects fees and speed.
Forks: Hard and Soft
What happens when a blockchain community disagrees — and how chains split.
Layer 1 vs Layer 2
Base blockchains versus the networks built on top to make them faster and cheaper.
Rollups: Optimistic vs ZK
The two main scaling approaches bundling transactions off-chain — how they differ.
Sidechains & Bridges
How assets move between blockchains — and why bridges are a major security risk.
Smart Contracts Explained
Self-executing programs on a blockchain — what they can and can't do.
The Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM)
The world computer that runs smart contracts, and why "EVM-compatible" matters.
Token Standards: ERC-20, 721 & 1155
The blueprints that make tokens and NFTs interoperable across apps.
Stablecoins Explained
Crypto pegged to the dollar — how they hold their value and why they matter.
The Types of Stablecoins
Fiat-backed, crypto-backed and algorithmic — the mechanisms and their failure modes.
Wrapped Tokens
How a coin from one chain gets represented on another — WBTC, wETH and beyond.
Governance Tokens & DAOs
How communities make decisions on-chain and run organizations without managers.
DeFi & Web3
Decentralized finance, NFTs, DAOs, oracles, bridges and the broader Web3 stack — what these applications do and the risks that come with them.
What Is DeFi?
Decentralized finance — rebuilding banks, exchanges and lending with code instead of companies.
DEXs & Automated Market Makers
How you can swap tokens with no order book and no middleman.
Liquidity Pools & Yield Farming
How providing liquidity earns fees and rewards — and where the yield actually comes from.
Impermanent Loss
The hidden risk of providing liquidity that catches out many newcomers.
DeFi Lending & Borrowing
Earning interest and taking loans with no bank — and how liquidations work.
What Are NFTs?
Non-fungible tokens explained — digital ownership beyond the hype.
NFT Use Cases Beyond Art
Tickets, identity, gaming items, memberships and more — where NFTs actually add value.
What Is Web3?
The vision of a user-owned internet — and how much of it is real today.
Oracles: Connecting Blockchains to the World
How smart contracts learn real-world data like prices — and why it's hard.
Cross-Chain & Interoperability
The push to make separate blockchains talk to each other.
Crypto Gaming & the Metaverse
Play-to-earn, in-game ownership, and virtual worlds — promise versus reality.
Real-World Asset (RWA) Tokenization
Putting bonds, real estate and treasuries on-chain — one of crypto's fastest-growing sectors.
Privacy Coins & Technology
How some cryptocurrencies hide transaction details, and the trade-offs involved.
Tokenomics & Markets
How crypto assets are valued: supply schedules, market cap vs FDV, unlocks and burns, market cycles, and the fundamentals of analysis and risk management.
What Is Tokenomics?
The economics of a crypto token — supply, demand, incentives and why they decide value.
Supply: Max, Total & Circulating
The three supply numbers every investor should understand.
Inflation & Emission Schedules
How new coins enter circulation and what that means for price.
Token Burns & Buybacks
How projects remove supply to support value — and when it's just theatre.
Market Cap vs Fully Diluted Valuation
Why two projects with the same price can be worth wildly different amounts.
Vesting & Token Unlocks
The scheduled supply cliffs that can move markets — and how to track them.
Crypto Market Cycles
Boom, bust and the four-year rhythm that has defined crypto so far.
Bull & Bear Markets
What drives the big swings in sentiment, and how to keep your head.
Understanding Volatility
Why crypto moves so much, and how to think about risk realistically.
Trading Basics & Order Types
Market, limit and stop orders — the mechanics of placing a trade.
Technical Analysis: An Introduction
A grounded look at chart-based analysis — what it is, and its limits.
Fundamental Analysis for Crypto
How to evaluate a project beyond the price chart.
Risk Management & Position Sizing
The skills that keep you in the game — protecting capital before chasing gains.
Dollar-Cost Averaging
The simple, boring strategy that beats most active trading.
Safety, Tax & Regulation
Self-custody, security best practice, how crypto is taxed and regulated around the world, KYC/AML, and what CBDCs mean for the future.
Crypto Security Best Practices
A practical checklist to protect your accounts, devices and seed phrase.
Self-Custody: Your Keys, Your Coins
What it really means to hold your own crypto, and the responsibility it carries.
Crypto Regulation: A Global Overview
How major jurisdictions are approaching crypto, from the US and EU to Asia.
Crypto & Taxes
The general principles of how crypto is taxed — and why record-keeping matters.
KYC & AML in Crypto
Why exchanges ask for your ID, and how anti-money-laundering rules apply.
CBDCs: Central Bank Digital Currencies
Government-issued digital money — how it differs from crypto and what's at stake.
History & Context
From the history of money and the cypherpunks to the Bitcoin whitepaper and the biggest booms, hacks and collapses that shaped the industry.
The History of Money
From shells and gold to paper and bits — the long road that led to crypto.
The Cypherpunks: Crypto's Origins
The privacy activists and cryptographers who laid the groundwork for Bitcoin.
The Bitcoin Whitepaper & 2008
How a nine-page paper during a financial crisis launched a new asset class.
A Timeline of Crypto's Defining Moments
The milestones, manias and meltdowns from 2009 to today.
Notable Hacks & Failures
Mt. Gox, The DAO, Terra and FTX — the disasters every newcomer should learn from.