Shadowing Practice: Crypto Coin vs Token (Differences + Examples) - Learn English Speaking with Video

Let's say you're wanting a new way to get around.

Well, the way that I see it, you can either buy your own car and have to manage that car, like keep it up to date, change the oil, replace the tires, all that stuff.

It's overall responsibility to keep that car because it is yours.

Well, the alternative is that you could rent a car.

This means you can borrow a car for a monthly payment, and in that case, you can use it for whatever purposes you might need, you just pay the owner the rent for using that car, and then you don't have to worry about any of the issues.

Depending on the different factors in your life, you would have to choose the one that best fits your needs, and which one was wiser to go with.

For example, you may not have a bunch of cash to buy a new car outright, or maybe you were just super busy and you don't want to take care of the maintenance.

Well, if you think of this analogy, it's pretty much the same as the differences between a coin and a token.

A coin uses its own blockchain to keep track of all the data, which in our car analogy would be owning the car.

When it comes to a token though, you are using someone else's coin's blockchain as your infrastructure, while you basically pay rent.

When you create a token, code and worry about how it should be validated.

Instead, you just create the token and it runs on that blockchain.

The best example for this video would be Ethereum.

Ethereum is its own blockchain that both stores value and validates transactions.

Ethereum's team has been working very hard the past few years on improving the entire system, updating how it works, and patching vulnerabilities.

An Ethereum token, or an ERC20 token,

uses Ethereum's blockchain's capabilities as its backbone and is an ERC -20 token built on the Ethereum network.

Now the team decided it was not large enough to create their own mainframe, but they wanted to create a system where users could reward the creators that they follow in a simple manner.

Without going too deep into it, the basic attention token team can focus on providing a great product, that is, the Brave browser.

A web browser that automatically replaces a website's advertisements with advertisements that reward the creator with Brave.

If this sounds confusing, we are actually creating a video on the Brave token soon,

and turn on bell notifications if you enjoy these educational animated videos and you want to reward our hard work.

Anyways, by creating a token, the brave team could rely on Ethereum's network to provide safety and stability while they focused on their own product.

Also, you should know that a team of developers can migrate from a token to a coin

if they decide that their project is growing quick enough.

If we think about Crypto .com, they recently just launched their own mainnet, which is a fancy way of saying they launched See,

they used to have a token, but it got so popular that they decided to create their own blockchain and branch off.

So here's an important thing: you can't convert a token straight into a coin.

You can create a coin that functions the same way

and then create a bridge that will allow users to swap out their previous tokens for the new coins.

In some cases, some coins like LEO are tokens on multiple networks.

For example, LEO is on the Ethereum network, the Binance Smart Chain network, and the Hive network.

Some coins are represented as tokens on other networks.

For example, a few days ago I bought something called Binance Peg Ethereum token on the Binance Smart Chain.

I did not actually buy Ethereum, but instead I bought a representation of Ethereum on the Binance Smart Chain network that mimics the price of Ethereum.

You might be wondering why I did this.

Well, a regular Ethereum transaction is around $20 right now.

However, a transaction on the Binance Smart Chain is only 50 cents, so it is much more of Ethereum on the Binance Smart Chain Network.

You can kind of think about it like if you buy a stock of gold.

You own the stock, but all it does is represent the gold.

At any time, you can cash out that stock for a piece of gold.

So it's basically gold, at least for trading purposes.

I hope that this isn't too confusing.

So while that is a simple version of it, there are a few different types of tokens that we can use to categorize the purpose of each token.

Let me go over a couple examples here, and maybe you'll get the hang of it if you haven't already.

to support a decentralized application on the blockchain.

For example, Uniswap is a decentralized application that allows users to swap out Ethereum tokens for other Ethereum tokens.

And even though they are a decentralized app, they also have their own token, the Uniswap token.

This token is given out to those who invest in their platform, and it has the promise that eventually token holders can vote on changes in the future,

and maybe even earn some of the profits from the trades.

Next up we have number 2 which is Security Tokens.

meant to represent ownership of another asset.

For example, say you wanted to buy gold, but you didn't actually want to hold the gold.

Someone could create a token that is tracked to the price of gold.

So instead of actually owning the gold, you owned a representation of it, which technically would be much safer

because it is much more difficult to hack an Ethereum token than it is to break into someone's house.

Now the tricky part here is that there should be a real asset behind it.

For example, I could create a gold token, ask you to invest in it, and not have any which are transactional tokens.

Transactional tokens are used as a fast and easy way to transfer money.

If we think of the coin XDAI, it is currently pegged to the United States dollar, and it's easy for people to pay for, say, maybe coffee, or buying that shirt you like at that local store.

You can use it the same as cash, however, the expenses of it are super low.

Right now, the transaction fee is .000021 United States dollars, and that is ridiculously low.

over 47 000 transactions and only pay one dollar in fees for them all try doing

that on paypal or through a bank wire number four is utility tokens

so utility tokens are tokens

that have a value tied to their ownership for example basic attention token is an ethereum token

that can be used to advertise on the brave browser in other words

if i wanted to advertise this youtube channel on the brave web browser i could do

so very easily with my basic attention token in other words Security tokens don't do anything, you just buy them and hold them,

but a utility token can actually be used for a commercial intent.

Lastly, we have number five, which is governance tokens.

Governance tokens allow token holders to vote on certain things.

For example, Uniswap could be a governance token in a future version of the Uniswap exchange.

Token holders could choose to vote to raise the fee of a Uniswap trade from 0 .3 % to 0 .6%, and everyone with a token would be allowed to vote on that change.

The decision with the most votes chooses the winner.

So you actually have more voting power by holding more tokens.

Obviously, there's a pretty good reason to hold more tokens.

By holding more, you can actually control the platform more.

But this comes up with the problem of the authority being centralized.

But we'll save that for another video.

Now that we've went over the different types of tokens, hopefully you understand why we need them and how some of them work.

If you've enjoyed this video, we highly recommend checking out some of our other videos, which are created in a similar animated manner.

Thank you guys so much for watching.

hope to see you in the next video.

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407 sentences

Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

This video has 84 sentences and 1394 words to shadow. The speech runs for 7:01. The speaker talks fast, about 199 words per minute, so expect linked and reduced sounds. Only 80% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English, so the vocabulary is demanding.

Key vocabulary in this video

15 words from the video worth learning, with pronunciation and meaning:

Word	Pronunciation	Meaning
token noun	/ˈtoʊkən/	Something serving as an expression of something else.
coin noun	/ˈkoɪ̯n/	A piece of currency, usually metallic and in the shape of a disc, but sometimes polygonal, or with a hole in the middle.
brave adjective	/bɹeɪv/	Strong in the face of fear; courageous.
blockchain noun		A shared record of past transactions in a distributed network, typically used for cryptocurrency.
transaction noun	/tɹænˈzækʃən/	The act of conducting or carrying out (business, negotiations, plans).
browser noun	/ˈbɹaʊ.zəɹ/	One who or which browses.
reward noun	/ɹɪˈwɔɹd/	Something of value given in return for an act.
utility noun	/juːˈtɪlɪti/	The state or condition of being useful; usefulness.
holder noun	/ˈhoʊɫdɚ/	A thing that holds.
governance noun	/ˈɡʌvəɹnəns/	The process, or the power, of governing; government or administration.
ownership noun	/ˈoʊnɚʃɪp/	The state of having complete legal control of something; possession; proprietorship.
representation noun	/ˌɹɛp.ɹə.zɛnˈteɪ.ʃən/	That which represents something else.
invest verb	/ɪnˈvɛst/	To spend money, time, or energy on something, especially for some benefit or purpose; used with in.
asset noun	/ˈæsɛt/	A thing or quality that has value, especially one that generates cash flows.
creator noun	/kɹiːˈeɪ̯təː/	Something or someone which creates or makes something.

Phrasal verbs you will hear

Word	Meaning
go over verb	To look at carefully; to scrutinize; to analyze.
branch off verb	To diverge into two or more separate paths.
cash out verb	To reconcile at the end of a shift; to compare receipts of items sold to records of credit card, check and cash placed into the drawer, verifying that correct…
check out verb	To record the departure or withdrawal of someone or something (such as guests, employees, books, etc.).
come up with verb	To manage to produce, deliver, or present (something) by inventing, creating, thinking of, or obtaining it.
get around verb	To move to the other side of (something, such as an obstruction) by deviating from a direct course or following a curved path.

Grammar in this video

The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:

Structure	In the video
Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it	should be validated · are represented · is given
Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing	mainnet, which is · those who invest · any which are

Pronunciation to watch

The speaker uses 12 contractions and reduced forms, such as don't, can't, didn't. Say them the short way, as you hear them.

The “sh” and “zh” sounds: transaction /tɹænˈzækʃən/, ownership /ˈoʊnɚʃɪp/, representation /ˌɹɛp.ɹə.zɛnˈteɪ.ʃən/, notification /ˌnoʊtɪfɪˈkeɪʃn̩/, transactional /trænˈzækʃ(ə)nəl/
Long words — get the stress right: utility /juːˈtɪlɪti/, representation /ˌɹɛp.ɹə.zɛnˈteɪ.ʃən/, advertisement /ˈædvɚˌtaɪzmənt/, analogy /əˈnæləd͡ʒi/, infrastructure /ˈɪnfɹəˌstɹʌkt͡ʃə/

How to practise with this video

Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
Start at 0.75× speed, shadow it sentence by sentence, then go back to normal speed once it feels easy.
Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like token, coin, brave.

What is the Shadowing Technique?

Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.

Shadowing technique: read the full step-by-step guide →

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