Crypto Foundations
intermediateDeFi & Web3 From Zero: Using Crypto Safely
The companion to Crypto From Zero — how to actually use crypto (trade, lend, stake, NFTs) without getting drained. Understand what you're signing, where yields come from, and every risk before you take it.
About
What this course covers
Holding crypto safely is one skill; using it — connecting your wallet to applications, trading on decentralised exchanges, lending, staking, buying NFTs — is another, and it's where a whole new class of risk appears. The moment you connect a wallet to the wider crypto world, you can lose money in ways that simply don't exist when you just hold: a malicious approval, a bad signature, an unsustainable yield, a smart-contract exploit, a bridge hack. Most people learn these risks only after they've been drained.
This course teaches you to use crypto safely, before it costs you. You'll learn what "connect wallet" and signing actually do (and how to read what you're approving), how decentralised exchanges, lending, staking, stablecoins, bridges, and NFTs really work, where yields genuinely come from (and how to spot the ones that are too good to be true), and every major risk — smart-contract, liquidation, scam, and more — with concrete ways to protect yourself. It ends with your own plan for using crypto wisely, if at all.
No product shilling, no yield farming tips, no promises of returns — anyone offering those is usually the risk. Just the safety-first understanding to use crypto without becoming another cautionary tale, built on the custody foundation of Crypto From Zero.
Curriculum
8 modules, 40 lessons
0m of video
Beyond holding — the world of using crypto
The companion to Crypto From Zero. What it means to use crypto rather than just hold it, what Web3 and DeFi actually are, and why interacting multiplies the risk.
- Welcome — from holding to usingFree preview
- What Web3 and DeFi actually meanFree preview
- Smart contracts — programmable money🔒
- Why the risk multiplies when you interact🔒
- Check your understanding🔒
Connecting your wallet to the world
The gateway to everything and the source of much loss: what connecting and signing actually do, the hidden danger of token approvals, and how to read what you're authorising.
- What 'connect wallet' really does🔒
- Signing — transactions, approvals and messages🔒
- Token approvals and the hidden risk🔒
- Reading what you're signing🔒
- A signing safety plan🔒
Decentralised exchanges and trading
How trading works without a broker: automated market makers and pools, slippage and price impact, liquidity providing and impermanent loss, and the real risks.
- How a DEX works🔒
- Slippage, price impact and MEV🔒
- Liquidity providing and impermanent loss🔒
- The risks of DEX trading🔒
- Check your understanding🔒
Lending, borrowing and yield
Where the 'passive income' lives and where much of it is a trap: how DeFi lending works, where yields genuinely come from, liquidation risk, and spotting unsustainable yields.
- DeFi lending and borrowing🔒
- Where does the yield come from?🔒
- Liquidation risk🔒
- Too good to be true — unsustainable yields🔒
- A yield evaluation🔒
Staking, stablecoins and bridges
Three more building blocks and their risks: what staking really is, the types and dangers of stablecoins, cross-chain bridges (a favourite hacker target), and wrapped tokens.
- Staking and what it really is🔒
- Stablecoins — types and risks🔒
- Bridges and cross-chain risk🔒
- Wrapped and derivative tokens🔒
- Check your understanding🔒
NFTs and digital ownership
Cutting through the hype: what an NFT actually is, its real uses versus the speculation, the scams, and what digital ownership genuinely means and doesn't.
- What an NFT actually is🔒
- Uses, hype and reality🔒
- NFT scams and risks🔒
- Digital ownership and its limits🔒
- An NFT reality check🔒
The risks and how to survive them
Pulling the dangers together: smart-contract risk and audits, the scams of DeFi and Web3, the protective habits that actually work, and what to do when something goes wrong.
- Smart-contract risk and audits🔒
- The scams of DeFi and Web3🔒
- Protecting yourself — the habits that work🔒
- When something goes wrong🔒
- Check your understanding🔒
Using crypto wisely
Bringing it together into a wise, safety-first approach: whether you even need DeFi, sizing your risk, staying current and skeptical, and your own plan for using crypto.
- Do you even need DeFi?🔒
- Position sizing and risk in DeFi🔒
- Staying current and skeptical🔒
- Ethics and the future of Web3🔒
- Your DeFi and Web3 plan🔒
Free course
Free