Important note: If you own more than $1,000 worth of cryptocurrency then you should definitely be using a hardware wallet instead of keeping coins on exchanges.  I recommend a Trezor which you can buy for €89 directly from their website.

This article is a gentle introduction to blockchain technology and assumes minimal technical knowledge.  It attempts to describe what it is rather than why should I care, which is something for a future post.

Shorter companion pieces to this are:

• So you want to use a blockchain for that? Some common misconceptions
• Confused by blockchains?  Revolution vs Evolution
• No, blockchain is not a solution looking for a problem
• A gentle introduction to immutability of blockchains

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