This is the last thing any normal person wants to figure out. You must. #CriptoNews

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For years, many people have harbored a secret question: What actually is cryptocurrency? Maybe they understood it in some sense—money that existed via some unhackable code?—but they didn’t really get it. Some of us at Slate didn’t get it, frankly! Perhaps you didn’t really get it either. The thing was, for a long time, you could get by in society without really understanding crypto.

Now, in America, that’s no longer true. Crypto is in ascendance—and to understand what it is, and how it works, is foundational to understanding the great American scam that’s currently playing out right in front of all of us in the White House and beyond. You can’t grasp the reality of the second Trump presidency if you don’t start here.

Though he is a relative latecomer to the crypto universe, Trump has realized that he can personally make vast sums of money off it. And thanks to their steadfast support of his latest run for president, crypto enthusiasts have been rewarded with remarkable positions of power in Trump’s new administration—all while he continues to strip down every governmental means of regulation.

What will this mean in the long run? Financial experts are watching warily. The embrace of crypto will not be contained, they predict. As crypto is integrated more thoroughly into all our financial systems, the entire economy is becoming more vulnerable to the crash experts worry is coming.

What does this mean imminently? It means that we can no longer ignore crypto as an alternative financial universe that does not apply to all of us. That’s where these stories come in: We made this as a guide for anyone who has been sitting on the sidelines of this universe, because now there is no sitting on the sidelines. We are all players in crypto, and we need to know what it’s doing to us.

Here, you’ll find a glossary breaking down what all the ridiculous terms that get batted around when talking about crypto actually mean. We’ve also created a guide to all the crypto dudes (and, yes, they are mainly dudes) who have come to positions of power in this administration. And we’ve pulled together sharp essays on how this is manifesting in ways that have become all too familiar—how it contributes to the eerie feeling that America has devolved into a casino, how Trump uses immigrants as the scapegoat for societal ills like fentanyl but gives a pass to the real culprit (yes, it is crypto), and the crucial crypto connection to our ever-declining environment. We’ve provided a guide detailing what parts of the greater crypto universe are serious and what are not. And Slate’s tech podcast, What Next TBD, has done its own special project: It actually made a meme coin itself. (Don’t worry, the show explains what that is.) It might be the most illustrative avenue here to grasp the scam of crypto—the ultimate explanation of why it is so easy for the rich to get richer and so hard for everyone else. It really is everything you need to know about Trump’s America.

You never wanted to know what these words mean. Unfortunately, now you must.

By Alex Kirshner

By Nitish Pahwa

Where are the women?

By Alexander Sampo

We’re addicted to making money for the richest people alive. The Trump administration’s plan for cryptocurrency might be the greatest scam of all.

By Nitish Pahwa

The crypto booster’s agenda for government is going to cook the planet.

by Ben Mathis-Lilley

Trump’s friends in the crypto business have been very useful for the fentanyl trade he supposedly deplores.

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We here at What Next: TBD have been covering crypto for a while. But as journalists, we’ve never dabbled in it ourselves—until this month (for journalism! We swear)!

This March, in collaboration with this project, we decided to make our very own meme coin. People we had talked to about crypto had always told us how incredibly easy it was to launch one. So we figured that even as total neophytes, there was a chance we could make a coin that would go to the moon. And we wanted to chronicle our journey with our listeners to show them what exactly goes into the process of launching a cryptocurrency.

So say hello to $bwainwuhm—What Next: TBD’s very own meme coin: a digital currency dedicated to raising awareness for people with worms in their brains!

You can listen to our episode to get the full story on how we created, named, and launched our coin. But a teaser for you: What we found was that meme coins are anything but accessible and transparent. There’s a very specific game you have to play to successfully launch or invest in a meme coin. And in the crypto casino, the odds are always stacked against you.

Projects like this one are made possible with the support of Slate Plus members. If you’re already a member, thank you for supporting our journalism. If you’re not yet a member—please consider subscribing! You don’t even have to pay in $bwainwuhm. In addition to unlocking this entire package, Slate Plus members will get access to a special Zoom event next Wednesday, April 2, at 5 p.m. where we’ll be talking about Trump, crypto—and most importantly, what we can do about all of this. If you can’t make the event, that conversation will be available to Slate Plus members as a What Next TBD bonus episode. If that’s not enough to convince you, we’re giving away special edition Slate merch to a select number of new Slate Plus members who join at the link below.

https://slate.com/plus