I’m sure some of you frown upon r/cryptocurrency, lamenting the decline of quality of the posts due to moon farmers (like yours truly). But there is actually a practical way in which I use this subreddit.

It is really awesome for checking for updates for Coinbase’s Learn and Earn lessons. I swear there were a couple of times in which I received news of new lessons on the sub first because helpful Redditors would post such news on the Daily Discussion thread. It’s actually quite an adorable process. I will hurriedly rush over to open the Coinbase app, mentally preparing myself to be disappointed since the lessons aren’t made available to all its users. Then, a wave of euphoria will sweep my consciousness because I find the lesson lying in wait for me! 

Today was one such occasion. After an exhausting day of fiat mining, I was trying to manage my dismay because the bus I was in was caught in a traffic jam. Turning to r/cryptocurrency for solace was the right move because some one posted about a MINA lesson on Coinbase! 

The coolest thing was that I actually knew of MINA’s existence. Apparently, it's the world's lightest blockchain as it strives to reduce the blockchain from gigabytes to a fixed blockchain size of 22 kilobytes. It's as small as a couple of tweets, so users can verify blockchain transactions at the speed of light. Okay, maybe I made an exaggerated claim but you get what I mean. It harnesses a  technology called “zk-SNARKS" to preserve its transaction records without saving every block. Thus, its ability to process transactions by being so lightweight. 

Without further ado, I went over to Coinbase to tackle the lesson. I learnt that these zk-SNARKS protect the sensitivity of the data and preserve privacy. Best of all, I earned an easy $3 worth of MINA and immediately converted it to BTC!