Independent crypto & Web3 media · est. 2021
Curio: Web3, decoded
Crypto moves fast and explains itself badly. Curio is the calm, independent guide honest reviews, plain-English explainers, and the NFT/GameFi culture, including our digital collectibles guide, minus the hype, grounded in primary sources like ethereum.org. Storing what you buy safely starts with our wallet comparison.
No hype · No paid rankings · Not financial advice
Explore Curio
Four ways in
Pick a lane. Each hub links down to reviews, how-tos, and deeper explainers.
Best Crypto Exchanges
Where to buy, sell, and trade, ranked on fees, security, and ease of use.
Explore ReviewsBest Crypto Wallets
Hardware and software wallets to actually keep your keys, and your coins.
Explore ExplainersNFTs & GameFi
Digital collectibles, marketplaces, and play-to-earn, the culture side of Web3.
Explore GuidesDeFi & Web3
Staking, stablecoins, and decentralized finance without the jargon.
ExploreStart here
Reader favourites
What Is an NFT? A Plain-English Guide
What Is DeFi? Decentralized Finance, Explained
Best Hardware Wallets for Cold Storage
Coinbase Review: Fees, Safety & Verdict
What Is GameFi? Play-to-Earn, Decoded
How to Buy NFTs Safely (Step by Step)
Why Curio
A crypto publication you can actually trust
Independent by design
We take no equity from the projects we cover. Rankings follow published criteria, not who pays.
Plain-English, always
Every acronym gets decoded on first use. If your parent could not follow it, we rewrite it.
Not financial advice
We explain how things work and flag the risks. Crypto is volatile, decisions stay yours.
The voices we cite
Curio quotes people who are on the record
We have no in-house guru. Every expert claim on this site is attributed to a named outside source, linked to the original, and labelled with whatever that source stands to gain. Switch between them.
“Dig deep. Ask the hard questions. Criticize the flaws.”
Curio’s read
This is the standard we hold ourselves to, quoted from the industry’s sharpest critic rather than invented in-house. If a page here reads like a brochure, it has failed.
Source, conflicts & caveats
Why weigh this source carefully. White is a critic of the industry Curio covers, and specifically of crypto media that earns from affiliate and sponsorship deals — which is Curio’s own revenue model. We carry her position without softening it, and we disclose ours on every page that earns.
“Avoid leverage, first of all — that’s how most people and funds blow up. Second of all, if you don’t trust the exchange or custodian you’re using, withdraw your funds.”
Curio’s read
Two rules that survived FTX. Notice that neither is a product pick — which is why almost no affiliate-funded site leads with them.
Source, conflicts & caveats
Why weigh this source carefully. Carter is not affiliate-conflicted, but he is a venture investor with sector positions and he co-authored the Proof of Reserves standard he argues for. Recorded on stage days after FTX collapsed, which sharpens the framing.
Nic Carter on Crypto Contagion, Proof of Reserves, FTX Clawbacks?! & Bitcoin Miner Solvency
“The best balance for your security, risk against theft versus accidental loss, is to follow the standard instructions and make a paper backup of the 24 words in your own home. That is sufficient for 99% of cryptocurrency users.”
Curio’s read
The most common way to lose crypto is not a hacker — it is an over-engineered backup scheme the owner can no longer reconstruct. Boring wins.
Source, conflicts & caveats
Why weigh this source carefully. Independent educator with no product to sell in this session. Recorded February 2019 — the principles hold, but any device, firmware or app specifics from that period are out of date.
“In traditional financial markets, such as stock markets, it has circuit breakers when the loss becomes too much. In blockchain and DeFi world, there is no such circuit breaker so far.”
Curio’s read
The structural difference that most explainers skip. Nothing on-chain stops a cascade once it starts, which is why position sizing matters more here than in equities.
Source, conflicts & caveats
Why weigh this source carefully. Academic lecture from the Berkeley DeFi MOOC, not market commentary. No price or investment views appear anywhere in it. Recorded August 2021 — every market figure in the lecture is stale, so none is reproduced here.
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