https://www.coursera.org/learn/cryptocurrency
I took this last year and found it very informative
I do it the hard way as the summaries often leave out a lot or bias facts. Especially mass media.
Start with the coin official site. If you like the pitch, skim the white paper. Abstract and conclusion tells you a lot.
You can learn a surprising amount from just the tone of the founders.
Next, check out the community. Usually Reddit or Slack. Read both sides, e.g. for ETH and ETC. As a general rule, don't invest in something until you know its downsides. If there are no downsides, then you don't understand enough about it.
There's a lot more advanced stuff out there (as you can see in the other comments) that I would touch on once I have a rough overview.
A lot changes in the crypto world month-to-month, and so forums like Reddit and Twitter are usually the best to stay up to date. Unfortunately, there's a lot of useless chunder on these forums you'll have to learn to filter to get access to the quality stuff.
Personally, I avoid the fanboys/girls and like following people who are more critical of the space. Because of this, I've discontinued following r/Bitcoin on Reddit (I'm sure there're smart people out there—there was just too much I didn't agree with and decided to leave).
Some of my favorites today are:
- patio11 on Twitter
- prestonbyrne.com website and Twitter
- buttcoin on Twitter
- Tim Swanson (ofnumbers on Twitter)
- Bitfinexd on Twitter
- http://thereformedbroker.com/2017/11/27/it-just-got-real/
I know this is more of a crypto pessimist crowd but I tend to agree with their views way more than the rest of the herd. I think they're a lot more rational and highlight some great things to look out for.
I would encourage you to fish for some of the rational optimists as well. If anyone has recommendations, I'm all ears!
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15762485
There is a lot of information on Reddit about what is new, but it lacks the same quality filters that HN has so I have not really enjoyed it.
https://www.reddit.com/r/CryptoCurrency/ is a place to start
http://cryptocurrencyfacts.com/
I think it is good for an initial overview
Great resource that covers a array of topics on a spectrum of levels for different audiences.
