SBF? FTX? WTF!!! This whole scene is NUTS. 

I *do* understand the technical details of cryptocurrencies and NFTs. Cryptocurrencies are a fascinating technical solution in search of a problem, but they are too inefficient to be practical for widespread use, which is why bitcoin evolved from an effective currency into a speculation vehicle. All tgey really are are extremely inefficient distributed databases. On the technical level, cryptocurrencies are (mostly, some use different techniques) "backed" by the cost of hardware and electricity required to maintain the ledger, though some have external personal or institutional backing--kind of like how US dollars are backed by the government's promise to let you pay your taxes with them. NFTs, on the other hand, have alway been insanely stupid.

If you want to understand cryptocurrency then take everything you don't know about money and add it to everything you don't know about computers.