Cryptocurrency and Blockchain – Introductions and Staying Safe – Talk & Open Lab

One of our members will be giving a talk on the cryptocurrency space.

At this talk we will teach people how to safely set up a wallet in the Ethereum network. Wallet creation is the first step to interacting with any blockchain network- but its also a huge hurdle for those who aren’t computer savvy. The speaker chose the Ethereum network since Bitcoin transactions are currently too expensive and slow for the purposes of this demonstration. Also ETH is very popular in the crypto-trading world and can be used to do some pretty cool things like smart-contracts. What will be covered could be applied to any blockchain network!

There will be a brief introduction to investing/trading. It would be naive to ignore the fact that investing is the primary use right now, so we will touch on some safety tips there as well.

Please familiarize yourself with the basic concepts of blockchain prior to attending.

High level overview – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WiRFuHXHBhk
Slightly more technical introduction – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SSo_EIwHSd4

Audience: Anyone interested in setting up a cryptocurrency wallet, and making a transaction on the blockchain.

Objectives:

– Learn the fundamentals of “hot/cold” and “hardware/software” wallets
– Utilize private/public key pairs to create an Ethereum wallet on MyEtherWallet.com
– Interact with a “Smart” contract on the Ethereum network
– Develop best practices for securing your personal wallet
– Avoiding hype, scams, and other common pitfalls when trading or investing

• What to bring
Laptop is a must, to participate