I am sure you found some crazed traders on Instagram, Twitter, or even in the great community of Reddit state that bitcoin will reach some astronomical price. You even have Citibank (a reputable banking company) made the claim they believe bitcoin will soar to $300k per coin by end of 2021. As much as I would celebrate on my brand new yacht when it crosses that price point, that’s not something I am betting my dollar on or even expecting it to hit that any time soon. Regardless of the statements made I say it does users an incredible disservice to shout random coins and random prices at them without properly giving them resources or guidance to properly navigate the space safely. You will hear a popular phrase in the crypto space “Do Your Own Research”(D.Y.O.R), but what does that mean? Most people will start with google. If you type in cryptocurrency or any variant of it; this is what pops up.

News articles, Wikipedia pages, top visited sites in the space, and of course definitions. Google now does a great job at placing proper information for people to garner a concept of what cryptocurrency is, how it works, and insight into some new developments. However, in this article, I would love to grant you all some fantastic sources where you can go to learn more about cryptocurrency once you poked around a few places presented by big boy google to expand your knowledge and understand the community!

1. New Sources

Examples: Cointelegraph, Decrypt, and Coindesk

As mentioned prior, news articles are going to be the first place anyone goes to when they hear anything related to cryptocurrency and it makes sense. With news sources being presented first upon google searches and have high SEO, the majority of the traffic of these news sources are going to be from people seeking to learn more about the topic at hand. A few crypto news sources I personally recommend are the colorful thumbnails of Cointelegraph, the deep analysis of Decrypt, and even the classic Coindesk. Reading directly from crypto news as best as they are written by people well-educated in the crypto space as opposes to mainstream sources that gloss over the important information and do not hold an intuitive understanding of the culture nor space.
There are of course more and prevalent news sources in the crypto space as well so don’t just limit your scope to these few! If you find keeping up with the news as a whole to be a cumbersome task, you may also prefer the condensed version that flows through like with Unfolded.

2. Social Media Sites

Now I first decided to group the following sites, but I took a moment to reconsider after I reanalyze just how the crypto community operates differently on each. I know what you are asking yourself, what makes one platform different from another? Well … let me explain by starting with the most popular choice in the space.

Twitter — The Twitter cryptocurrency community is the most active, most interesting, and has the most engagement. Just look up #CryptoTwitter and see all the fun that you are missing out on. You don’t have to follow a structured medium to deliver your thoughts. Your posts are bite-sized and quick. Most of the posts on there is a passing glance, but say the right or the wrong thing and be prepared for a thought-provoking discussion. Twitter has been a place where most of the crypto community came to find both successes and one of the most effective ways to broadcast their content. If you want to capture a snippet of how the culture is feeling, then Twitter is the go-to place! Many assume it is due to the company’s openness towards its crypto positive attitude and Jack Dorsey's personal interest in offering cryptocurrency services through Twitter’s other child companies like Cash App or Square Crypto (soon to launch).
Side note: Twitter is responsible for nearly 50% of web traffic for crypto businesses. This was a fantastic and comprehensive study done by the growth-hacker. I highly recommend it.

Reddit — Next up we have Reddit. I have a love/hate relationship with the platform. Redditors [Cryptocurrency-related subreddits] can either be very supportive or very critical (which is good in some instances). Reddit is a great place for discussions, presenting a major concern, validation of ideas, or quite simply just asking questions. Where Twitter thrives in understanding the thoughts and feelings behind the community, Redditors usually present an idea to a community and the community comes together to discuss it. I love this as it allows for more people to get exposure, and more concerns are addressed swiftly. You can also find a lot of mindless memes going on here as well. But through the depths of it, you can find great conversations that will further enlighten you. So I recommend coming to Reddit to ask your questions, and aid in your crypto research.
Some of my favorite cryptocurrency subreddits:
r/Bitcoin, r/Cryptocurrency, r/Ethereum, r/EthTrader
and a few other crypto projects subreddits like r/UniSwap.

Instagram — the Instagram crypto community is not as prominent as one would believe. I believe that the cryptocurrency scene on Instagram is mainly dominated by short and simple crypto-infographics or people who have crypto in their bio only because they trade Forex. I believe it’s actually something Facebook had did to de-rank cryptocurrency content during the 2017 -2018 ICO craze which hurt the platform when it came to crypto content. Over the years there have been better treatment to the crypto community on Instagram, and in the future, I believe that can change for the better. So if you want to learn about crypto in sporadic digestible bites or the concept of trading the same top 20 coins, then that’s crypto Instagram for you.
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Youtube — Lastly you have the Youtube community which I find the most interesting. Crypto creators found themselves being de-ranked and kicked off the platform for just creating cryptocurrency content. Outside of that, the kind of value you can find from Youtube are some hidden gems. Most of the content is well… just the news with a twist. Crypto YouTubers append some deeper context behind the news you digest. And as always you can also find educational videos, like mine, to help you understand this complex world! My favorite channel I been watching since 2018 that actually inspired me to further pursue a career in cryptocurrency actually has been Dapp University! I was even featured in a few of his videos. So Youtube is definitely a great place to get a walkthrough explanation of any content you find in the crypto space.

My tinfoil hat thoughts: Since cryptocurrency and blockchain technology brings disruption to both the financial and technological industries, I feel that Facebook and Google felt absolutely threaten about their capabilities and tried to restrict it’s growth until it could find a way to either combat blockchain tech or get an advantage above it.

TL;DR:
Twitter to understand the culture

Reddit to discover new ideas, and engage in discussions

Instagram to learn complex topics in short bites, or learn how to trade

Youtube to take a guide on complex topics or get a better understanding behind a news event.

3. Chat Apps

Lastly and my personal favorite place to learn about crypto or what’s happening in the space is no other than using chat apps. When it comes to chat apps in the crypto space there are really only two options that dominate the community to the point it is in the meta to have these two. Those are Discord and Telegram. I love these two for the sole purpose they make it easier to communicate and read about how the community feels. Unlike Twitter, Youtube, and Instagram where you have to follow someone, chat apps give the most fluid form of discussion from “real people”. Your Alice, Bobs’ and Charlies. If I have a specific question that I can’t find nor have the patience to Google myself, I will ask the community through a chat app. If you have an investment in a certain project then it’s a good idea to reach out to the community leaders to ask about their project. They all are pretty open and reachable, so you are going to get your answers pretty swiftly.

Now Discord and Telegram both have methods of approach that both make them slightly different from one another.
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Discord — The Discord platform aims to be based on organizational structure. Once you entered a discord chat you would be present with a list of channels. These channels help keeps things organized and helps people navigate to ask a particular topic without it being overbearing to the main chat. This also helps projects delegate efficiently as opposed to having all messages be generated in one long log.

Telegram — Telegram for the most part is a typical chat app, but has a much more of a simplistic approach. All chats are feed and generated in one singular group. The great thing about it where most people usually expect 10–50 people in a group chat, telegram allows for the capacity for 100’s of thousands. Yeah insane, although the platform chats aren’t as organized as Discord, it’s is just as important for the crypto community to meet and converse
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Last and certainly not least… me! If you are not already following me you want to do so as I break down all the things you need to know to prepare yourself to thrive in this revolutionary world of cryptocurrency!

There you have it! The top places to learn about cryptocurrency! I hope you go to explore these avenues and find out which one works best for you because we all have our options. So when someone says to you, D.Y.O.R, you now have a great pathway to explore and learn more!

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