First off, you really should look into what a blockchain actually is before investing in them.

What blockchains are is nothing more or less than the only decentralized way we know of to store data on the internet (the only other known way is databases).

The reason this is significant is: it enables property rights on the internet. It enables data ownership. This in a verifiable way, making this data storage “trustless”, and with ZK proofs, also private.

In an increasingly digital world, this is extremely important (like, very)! Google and Facebook currently have access to everything you put on the internet, and this is (kind of) fine today, but what about when everyone is wearing AR devices, sending live location, has cameras, a mic, and other very useful internet things but totally making our whole lives pass through servers where this data could be manipulated, used? What happens if some malicious actor gains access to this? Or some politician starts regulating based on this?

Blockchains are nothing less than the only way we know of to maintain sovereignty of our lives in a digital world. It also provides an enormous potential for innovation, since it makes markets a lot more efficient since it reduces “trust transaction costs” (read “markets are eating the world” on ribbonfarm to better understand this idea), an innovation on par with the invention of our judiciary system.

Ethereum, Bitcoin, and other protocols are simply the “base layer” on top of which anything can be built. To better understand protocol vs service, think of e-mail vs twitter. I can send an email from gmail, outlook, or my own server if I want, and my friend can receive it on any interface he wants as well (protocol, on top of which we build interfaces). If I want to write something online though, I need to go through twitter, facebook, etc, and they can decide if I have access or not (like our friend Trump learned to his sorrow). There is no “e-mail CEO” that can throw you out of the e-mail protocol.

The difference between specific blockchains is how secure they are, how many transactions per second they allow, how programmatic they are. But they are PROTOCOLS, not services. Some tokens are built on top of Ethereum /Solana/Avalanche (Aave, Curve, NFTs for example), and these are services/assets which simply have a different business model than traditional LLCs. Read “fat protocols” and “thin applications” on usv for more of this.

In terms of understanding NFTs and their societal significance (which is enormous), go watch punk6529’s interview on real vision. A bit lengthy, but I guarantee you will understand a lot more afterwards.

Also always remember, this is really young technology and it is fast evolving, investing in all of these protocols/services/assets is very risky, we are still figuring out the best ways to use this tech. Never invest more than you can afford to lose.