Plainchain

The plain-English crypto primer · not financial advice

Crypto, explained without the hype.

Plainchain is a calm, plain-English primer for people meeting cryptocurrency for the first time. We explain what it is and how it works, then help you weigh the risk — and we never tell you what to buy, whether to buy, or what a price will do.

Start with the basicsSee how it works

Definitions · how it works · how to weigh the risk — never a coin tip

How a crypto transaction actually works

Sending crypto is not like a bank transfer that a person approves. Your wallet signs a message, the network checks it, and it is written into a shared record almost no one can change. Here is that journey, step by step.

01Your walletYou decide to send some crypto to an address. Your wallet holds the secret key that controls it.
02You sign itYour wallet signs the transaction with your private key. Nothing leaves your device except the signed message.
03BroadcastThe signed transaction is sent out to thousands of computers that keep a copy of the network.
04Validators checkMiners or validators verify your signature and that you have the funds. Invalid transactions are simply rejected.
05Into a blockOnce accepted, your transaction is bundled with others into a new block, chained to the one before it.
06ConfirmationsEach new block added on top makes your transaction harder to reverse. After a few, it is settled for good.

Simplified for clarity · the exact steps differ a little between Bitcoin, Ethereum and other networks

The primer

Every entry →
14Oct 13, 2026

Coinbase Withdrawal Code Text: Scam or Real? What to Do Now

An unrequested Coinbase withdrawal code is bait for a fake support call. What the scammer wants and what to do in the first ten minutes.

Entry →13Oct 13, 2026

What Does Coinbase Do? How It Works, Earns Money and Holds Coins

What Coinbase actually does: the products, how it earns its money, who holds your coins, what it charges and where the risks are.

Entry →12Oct 13, 2026

What Is Uphold? How the App Works, What It Costs and How Safe It Is

Uphold converts between crypto, cash, metals and stocks in one step, priced through a spread. How it works, what it costs and the caveats.

Entry →11Sep 3, 2026

Common Crypto Scams for Beginners (and How to Spot Them)

Beginners are the favourite target of crypto fraud. Here are the scams you're most likely to meet — fake giveaways, seed-phrase theft, 'guaranteed' returns, rug pulls — and the simple rules that defeat them.

Entry →10Aug 20, 2026

Crypto Jargon Glossary: 40+ Terms in Plain English

Crypto is drowning in jargon designed to make outsiders feel lost. This plain-English glossary defines the words you'll actually meet — from blockchain to rug pull — without the mystique.

Entry →09Aug 6, 2026

Is Crypto Safe and Legal? An Honest, Dated Answer

Crypto is legal in most major countries but increasingly regulated, and 'safe' is the wrong word for it. Here's an honest, dated look at the law and the real risks, as of September 2026.

Entry →

Almost everything written about crypto is trying to sell you something — a coin, a course, a can't-miss trade. Plainchain is the opposite. It exists to answer one question well: what is cryptocurrency, really? We start from zero, use plain English, date our facts, and stop where honesty ends — which means we will never hand you a coin tip or a price prediction dressed up as a tip.

Start at the beginning

If you are brand new, read the beginner's explainer first, then see how a blockchain works and how Bitcoin works. Each page answers its question in the first two sentences and builds from there, so you can stop the moment you have what you came for. Nothing assumes prior knowledge, and nothing assumes you have decided to buy anything.

The honest bit about "what should I buy"

Plenty of people arrive at a page like this really asking what to buy and whether to buy now. We take that seriously by refusing to answer it with a pick, and answering the honest version instead: how to research a cryptocurrency for yourself, and whether you should buy crypto at all — including the perfectly reasonable answer of "no." Learning to judge risk yourself is worth far more than any tip.

How we keep it trustworthy

Every fact that can go stale — a rule, a fee, a piece of law — carries the month we checked it. The site is almost entirely free of adverts; the only place we earn anything is a single, clearly labelled "how to start safely" handoff, and we tell you plainly when a link is an affiliate link and when a recommendation pays us nothing at all. It is all set out in our affiliate disclosure. Read anything here as education, never as financial advice.

Beginner questions, answered plainly

What is cryptocurrency, in plain English?
Cryptocurrency is digital money that lives on a shared, public record called a blockchain, rather than inside one bank's computers. No single company or government runs it; instead, a large network of computers around the world keeps the same list of who owns what and agrees on every change. That design is what lets people send value directly to each other without a middleman — and also what makes it volatile, unforgiving of mistakes, and a target for scams, which is why understanding it comes before anything else.
Is cryptocurrency real money?
It depends what you mean by money. A few cryptocurrencies can be used to buy things and to send value across the world, so in that narrow sense they work like money. But most are not accepted in everyday shops, their prices swing wildly, and only a handful of places treat any of them as legal tender. It is more useful to think of most crypto as a risky, speculative asset than as a stable currency you would keep your rent in.
Do I have to buy a whole bitcoin?
No. Bitcoin and most cryptocurrencies are divisible into tiny fractions, so you can hold a small slice rather than a whole coin — one bitcoin splits into 100 million units called satoshis. The headline price of a single coin does not set a minimum you must spend. This is education, not a suggestion to buy: whether to hold any crypto at all is a decision only you can make, and only with money you can afford to lose.
What is the difference between a coin and a token?
A coin is the native currency of its own blockchain — bitcoin runs on the Bitcoin network, ether runs on Ethereum. A token is built on top of an existing blockchain rather than having its own; thousands of tokens, including most stablecoins, live on networks like Ethereum. The practical takeaway is that anyone can create a token cheaply and quickly, so the vast majority are low quality or outright scams, and the word 'token' alone tells you nothing about whether something is trustworthy.
Is crypto safe?
Crypto carries real, stackable risks, and it is safest to assume you could lose everything you put in. Prices are highly volatile; transactions cannot be reversed if you send to the wrong place; exchanges can be hacked or fail, as FTX did in 2022; and the space is full of scams aimed at beginners. None of that means crypto is a fraud, but it does mean the honest answer is 'risky, and only as safe as your own understanding and habits make it' — never 'safe'.