We hate to admit this, but crypto can be confusing. That's right, we said it. Trying to distinguish farming from mining, or blocks from swaps, can leave you HODLing.  But fear not. Everything you need to know about decentralization, blockchain and cryptocurrencies is just a few clicks away.

Ledger has launched a new video series called School of Block. The weekly series of 10-minute videos is an independent, entertaining and, above all, authoritative source of crypto education. Whether you are a crypto newbie or even a crypto skeptic, this series will bring you up to speed, giving you the smarts to take control of your own financial freedom.

Let’s start at the beginning to see how we’ve come to be where we are today. In the first video, we look at how, for money to work, it must be a medium of exchange and it needs to be a store of value. It also must be fungible, divisible and finite.

But there are huge flaws in the modern fiat money and currency systems: They’re full of friction, with intermediaries taking their cut. They’re prone to theft and forgery. And, as we have seen just over the last 18 months, they are prone to inflation.

Three separate revolutions have shaken up these money systems for the first time in centuries: the internet, decentralization and distributed ledger technology. 

Perhaps the key moment was when Satoshi Nakamoto developed the timestamp server within a peer-to-peer network. This solved the problem of how to prevent double-spending. This innovation led to the creation of cryptocurrencies, of which there are now more than 8,000. And each one is backed by a different philosophy, governance and technology.

In subsequent videos, School of Block introduces you to the main cryptocurrencies and provides a fundamental grounding in the concepts behind a digital decentralized world. Indeed, blockchain is the closest we have yet come to Sir Tim Berners-Lee’s original vision for the internet: democratic, permissionless, non-discriminatory and resistant to censorship.

But the vision is fragile – and under threat. Governments want to control it. Conglomerates want to own it. That’s why we all need to take control of our digital and financial destinies. 

Educating yourself on the fundamentals of crypto markets will give you the tools you need to thrive in this rapidly changing environment.

School of Block is honest. It will tell you about the problems with crypto – not least is the ecological footprint caused by mining. But it will also tell you where we are and how we got here: the history of money, how bitcoin came about, the development of decentralization and how blockchains are used.

This is investment education, pure and simple. It’s not advice on what to do but about giving you the knowledge you need to make your own financial decisions. 

Being crypto literate has never been more important, especially when the market is developing at such a daunting pace. Now is the perfect time to take stock and refresh your understanding of the crypto ecosystem.

In our next article, we will look at how School of Block covers the latest developments in crypto and gives you the skills to decentralize your financial future. As the saying goes, knowledge is power.