So you’ve got digital money… floating around the internet… somehow secure… not controlled by banks… but what’s really going on behind the scenes?

Let’s lift the hood. 🚗

🧱 1. It All Starts with the Blockchain

Imagine a giant digital notebook.
Everyone has a copy.
No one can erase anything.
Every time someone makes a transaction, it gets added to a new page in the notebook.

That’s the blockchain.
Each "page" = a block.
Each block is chained to the last one = blockchain.

What is a Blockchain? →

👥 2. No Boss, Just Us – It’s Decentralised

Instead of a central bank controlling everything, crypto uses a network of users all around the world who agree on what’s true.

That’s called decentralisation.
It means no single person or company can tamper with the records.

What Is Decentralisation? →

📖 3. The Ledger Is Public — Yep, Everyone Can See It

Every single transaction is publicly visible. No private backroom dealings here.

You might not know who sent the money, but you’ll see wallet addresses, amounts, and timestamps. This is what we call a public ledger.

Everything is Visible – What’s a Public Ledger? →

💳 4. Wallets, Addresses, and Keys — Oh My

To use crypto, you need a wallet. This doesn’t hold coins in the way your real wallet holds cash — it stores access to your coins.

You also have:

• A wallet address – like your bank account number
• A private key – your secret password
• A public key – your “please send me money” ID

There are different types:

• Custodial wallets (someone else holds the keys — like an exchange)
• Non-custodial wallets (you hold the keys — more secure, more responsibility)

Crypto Wallets & Addresses →
Public Key vs. Private Key →

🔁 5. How Transactions & Gas Fees Work

Let’s say Alice wants to send 1 Bitcoin (BTC) to Bob.
Here’s the simple version of what happens:

1. Alice opens her wallet and hits “send.”
2. She enters Bob’s wallet address.
3. Her wallet uses her private key to sign the transaction (proving it’s her).
4. The transaction gets broadcast to the network.
5. Computers (called nodes) check it, approve it, and add it to the blockchain.
6. 🎉 Boom. Bob now owns that BTC.

Every time you do something on a blockchain — like send money or mint an NFT — you’re using computing power.

And that computing power ain’t free.

So you pay a little fee — called gas — to the people (miners or validators) who run the network.

On Ethereum, these can go up or down depending on how busy things are.

On newer blockchains, gas fees are often super cheap.

How Transactions & Gas Fees Work →

Crypto might sound complex, but at its heart it’s just secure digital money run by people, not banks.