How to Get Started

Enough theory, how do you actually get started with this? Here's my suggestion.

Buy ETH#

Buy a small amount of ETH on Coinbase, Binance, or Gemini. To start, I'd recommend buying somewhere between $300 - $3,000 (0.1- 1 ETH), anything less might not be enough to explore.

These three services (Coinbase/Binance/Gemini) are called CEXes (centralized exchanges). This is where you turn your dollars into crypto and vice-versa, but now you want to move the money to a wallet you actually have the private key to.

Create an Ethereum Wallet#

Download Rainbow, which is by far the best Ethereum wallet (I also happen to work there). Create a new wallet in the app, and when asked to back up your wallet, remember to write down the seed phrase and store it somewhere safe! This is your private key — only you are in control of this wallet, unlike your CEX wallet.

Send the Ethereum that you bought in Coinbase/Binance/Gemini to your Rainbow wallet by copying the address from your Rainbow wallet and using that as the to address when sending. I I usually start by sending a small amount and once confirmed it arrived, I send the rest.

Get an NFT#

There are many places to explore NFTs but my favorites are Zora, OpenSea and Foundation. (If we're friends, just message me and I will send you one for free!)

Get some tokens#

Uniswap has thousands and thousands of tokens available to purchase. From Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC) to tokenized ultra-rare unicorn socks (SOCKS), the possibilities are endless. (Again, if we're friends just message me and I will send you some, gratis!)

Get an ENS domain#

An ENS domain is an NFT that acts as your Ethereum username. Instead of sharing your long and convoluted wallet address, you can purchase a .eth domain like example.eth and use that as your public address instead. This is the Ethereum equivalent of buying a .com domain and using example.com instead of giving people a long and convoluted IP address. You can purchase an ENS domain at ens.domains.