How to explain crypto to your friends who've never heard of it? Keep it dead simple.

Digital money. That's your first word. Not controlled by banks, no government printing more whenever they feel like it.

Secure and permanent—your second one. Every transaction gets locked into blocks, crazy hard to fake or reverse. Once it's there, it stays there.

Trustless system—the third. You don't need to believe in some institution. Math and code do the work for you.

That's it. Don't dive into blockchain architecture or consensus mechanisms on day one. Start with those three concepts, throw in a Bitcoin example (everyone knows it), and you've got the basics covered.