The New Era of NFTs: THREAD 🧵

Why the case for NFTs is higher than ever and why Reddit made history with their recent NFT campaign 👇

🔵 NFT‘s Potential

NFTs are finally getting significant adoption, and I don’t think this is getting as much attention as it should. I honestly have always been an NFT sceptic, viewing it as little other than a bubble.

In some ways it is due to how absurdly expensive some are, but nevertheless people in Web3 do recognize its benefits, and it’s a matter of time and good implementation to make them function well.

I think a great step towards this was Reddit NFTs. I heard about this quite some time ago, and I knew it was successful, but I didn’t pay too much attention to it.

Until I noticed how successful it is, then I couldn’t stop thinking that this is one of the greatest moments in Web3 history, even more so if we narrow it down to NFT adoption. I honestly don’t think it’s overstated.

🔵 Reddit NFT Campaign

In case you’re not very familiar with the whole deal of Reddit NFTs (I wasn’t), they are a kind of avatar NFT that can be bought on Reddit’s very own marketplace for avatars.

This marketplace offers Redditors the chance to purchase blockchain-based assets for a certain amount of money. It’s worth going over how they did it and what they offer to get a sense of how this was implemented.

Should one decide to buy an NFT-based avatar, they can do that with Reddit’s vault, a cryptocurrency wallet, credit card, or debit card. Reddit has collaborated with several independent artists to generate more than 90 designs.

Once you have purchased a limited edition Reddit NFT, you are presented with the token’s licensing rights, which implies that you acquire the opportunity to utilize the avatar both on and off Reddit.

Furthermore, purchasing one of these NFTs will allow you to customize their appearance with a variety of merchandise that can be obtained in the avatar builder.

🔵 CryptoSnoos

Reddit’s NFT ventures started last year with CryptoSnoos, its exclusive and primary NFT collection. Each NFT within the collection includes an image of Snoo, Reddit’s alien mascot.

These images can come in a variety of distinct styles, as each of them is unique. For instance, an NFT can even have a pixelated appearance, while others might come with disco balls and more.

Every CryptoSnoos NFT comes with a certain stock level that determines how scarce it is. The different categories, or “stickers,” that a CryptoSnoos NFT can be attached to include Rare, Epic, and Legendary.

The Legendary CryptoSnoos NFTs are the rarest in the collection, as they are considered to be “unique, one-of-a-kind,” which is why they are priced more in comparison to the rest.

Epic versions can be regarded as extremely limited editions, while rare versions are classified as limited editions.

Users who are looking to purchase CryptoSnoos NFTs can do so on OpenSea, but they need to have a MetaMask wallet and connect their Reddit account to the CryptoSnoos page on OpenSea.

Once you have bought the NFT you are looking for, you can upload it as your avatar on Reddit. Every CryptoSnoos avatar has a glowing animation, which resembles the animations utilized for collectable avatars.

As stated previously, Reddit NFTs are accessible as avatars that users can collect. However, they can also be directly produced by independent artists on Reddit.

Consequently, a lot of these NFTs can be bought on Reddit or OpenSea, and due to there not being an auction, each of them has a fixed price. Although several redditors utilize a cryptocurrency wallet to buy these NFTs, they can also be bought with a credit or debit card.

🔵 Free Mints

Following the popularity of free mints, Reddit is now sending out airdrop batches to prominent Reddit users within its community, i.e., providing free Reddit NFT avatars.

While the criteria to be eligible for an airdrop are not explicitly mentioned, it is an assumption that these NFTs are created for the sole purpose of being handed out to the top redditors who have gathered enough karma points via its karma program.

When certain members are set to gain these avatar NFTs, they are given a banner that transports them to a place where they can claim the NFT for free.

🔵 Numbers

The overall success of these NFTs has been rather surprising, as redditors essentially created millions of wallets to buy these avatar NFTs, and at a time where NFT trading volumes are nosediving.

How was it able to achieve this? Well, that is the surprising part. What Reddit did was that it deliberately avoided using any terms that could be linked to blockchain or the cryptocurrency landscape in general.

Yet that was able to create approximately 3 million cryptocurrency wallets since its NFT marketplace launch. For reference, OpenSea has 2.3 million...

They are the world’s largest NFT marketplace and has been running for almost five years, yet it was outpaced by Reddit in a matter of months. Here, Reddit’s strategy might just encourage a new approach within the NFT landscape.

Reddit’s seemingly straightforward method of explaining digital avatars and the procedures for claiming and trading them has shown a new, if not more simple, manner for a well-known technological firm to expose its consumers to web3 technologies like cryptocurrencies and NFTs.

These NFTs have garnered over $6.7 million in total sales volume. This could also be attributed to the fact that it enables its users to buy these avatars with fiat currencies as well, instead of cryptocurrency.

🔵 The Future of NFTs

In times that have proven to be particularly bad for the NFT landscape, Reddit has demonstrated a unique approach to exposing consumers to the concept of NFTs.

This might instil a larger sense of community while enabling its members to display their individuality in different ways. This approach might just help in supporting a more smooth shift from Web2 to Web3.

The fact that Reddit’s approach to NFTs can succeed without any speculation is one of its biggest strengths. Of course, some of the NFTs are quite expensive, as one would expect, but even if they weren’t, their overall strategy would still work well.

People like to personalize things they use and enjoy. This is very similar to the concept of skins in games like CS:GO and League of Legends.

On one hand, you can claim there is zero utility because it doesn’t affect gameplay, but on the other hand, the fact that people like them and are willing to spend money for them is more than sufficient utility. And unlike NFTs, they don’t have a speculative nature.

I view NFTs going more and more in this direction as digital collectables. A big difference with NFTs compared to such already existing markets is that:

1) They can all be integrated with each other and be part of the same thing (imagine a marketplace that includes both Steam, Riot and everything else)

2) You actually own it rather than the company. Since it’s decentralized and immutable, no one will be able to take the NFT from a user. This is vastly different from the current Web2 environment.

Reddit had one of the most successful NFT projects of all time, with an audience that generally either hates NFTs or barely knows what it is.

To me, this is as bullish as it gets, and I’m willing to bet that 2023 will already see massive adoption. Just recently, Meta announced NFT integration as well, where creators will be able to make collectibles and sell them as NFTs…

A new era is coming. Be ready.

I spent weeks learning about COSMOS

They're trying to build a unique economy that is open, scalable, and interconnected. I think has massive potential once the market turns 📈

Here are 9 reasons outlining #COSMOS potential 👇

A deep thread🧵

1. The Philosophy

The Cosmos blockchain network was constructed to support communication amidst shared ledgers without the need to rely on centralized servers.

Following the release of its whitepaper in 2016, the network was instantly considered to be the “Internet of blockchains”, who aimed to produce an interoperable network consisting of various open-source blockchains, which could also make transactional processes more efficient.

2. Interoperability

Ever since blockchain was first introduced, interoperability has been a big hurdle for developers to overcome. Interoperability is what allows communication to take place between two or multiple systems.

To give a few examples, imagine a Gmail account emailing a Hotmail one. Or even an Android device that can exchange data with an iOS device.

Initially, single structures are constructed, such as in the instance of a blockchain that is specified. However, it is still necessary to enable systems that can communicate with each other.

They would be of little use otherwise, and could even be a barrier to technological adoption.

The Cosmos platform has established itself as the first to allow interoperability between various systems, such as the Binance Chain, Terra, and Crypo.org, for example, with more than 151 billion dollars’ worth of assets under management.

ATOM is the native token that secures and powers this entire ecosystem of blockchains that are made to be scalable and to interoperate with each other.

3. Ecosystem layout

The Cosmos blockchain network is a constantly growing ecosystem of applications or services that are interconnected.

Furthermore, it utilizes hubs, the Inter-Blockchain Communication (IBC) protocol, and the Tendermint consensus mechanism to guarantee the secure communication of blockchains with one another.

There are some platforms that communicate with one another by using smart contracts. Through such a process, tokens are effectively locked in on a single platform, with the assets’ corresponding amount being minted on another.

Consequently, the wrapped tokens serve as an example of how this procedure works. Instead of transferring BTC from Bitcoin’s blockchain to another one such as Ethereum, the BTC stays locked within a working blockchain that offers the service.

The corresponding amount, like wrapped Bitcoin (wBTC), is then issued as pegged tokens on a different blockchain.

Contrastingly, Cosmos provides open-source tools that enable developers to construct sovereign, decentralized application-specific blockchains known as zones rather than being dependent on a single chain.

Hence, the team behind Cosmos has created the software development kit (SDK), which enables developers to construct zones quicker, cheaper, and simpler when compared to other blockchain networks, such as Ethereum.

It reduces complexity and provides basic blockchain functionalities like governance, staking, and tokens, all through popular and easy-to-use software development programs like GO. Developers have complete flexibility and freedom to produce plugins and add any desired features.

4. Hubs

Every zone is linked to another one via hubs, with the Cosmos Hub being the primary hub. However, various other hubs are available too. Any hub or zone is not required to cooperate with another.

However, every new zone is connected to the Cosmos Hub, which is the first blockchain to be launched on Cosmos that maintains a record regarding the state of every zone.

Each zone has the capability to operate independently, doing tasks such as executing blockchain modifications, producing and distributing additional tokens, or even validating accounts and transactions.

5. Tendermint

This is a protocol that consists of two primary pieces, which include an application interface and a blockchain consensus engine.

Tendermint Core serves as the blockchain consensus engine that makes the peer-to-peer network function while providing a proof-of-stake (PoS) consensus. It also ensures that all machines that record transactions can do so in the same order.

On the other hand, the Application BlockChain Interface (ABCI) serves as a mechanism for connecting blockchains to the Tendermint Core protocol.

The main goal of Tendermint is to function as a blockchain engine. It is supposed to be a way that developers can utilize to skip technical and time-consuming cryptography by jumping straight into the more advanced stages of application or blockchain development.

6. Inter-Blockchain Communication (IBC)

This is a mechanism that links different blockchains or zones to the Cosmos hub and enables safe message transmissions between them.

Such an innovative mechanism also allows users to safely transfer assets or data across sovereign and decentralized blockchains. The Cosmos Hub can be viewed as a service provider for the chains that need to link to it to gain the benefits of interoperability.

Sovereign blockchains that have different applications, consensus protocols, and validators can still communicate with one another and trade data, regardless of how different their business goals or functions are.

A new whitepaper was recently released that highlights significant expansions to the utility already provided by the Cosmos Hub, most of it beginning with “interchain.”

Moreover, it has also laid out a new vision for its native token, ATOM, which entails proposing changes to its issuance model and utility.

7. Liquid Staking

Holders of ATOM have the option to receive interest when they stake their coins with validators. However, by doing so, they are also locking up their assets within a blockchain address, rendering them unsellable for a period of time.

Third-party applications provide liquid staking alternatives that can free up users, meaning that they can then exchange their staked assets through a derivative token that represents their stake.

Soon, liquid staking will be baked into the network’s foundational code by the Cosmos Hub.

According to @buchmanster, co-founder of Cosmos, “With the native liquid staking module, it provides a better [user experience] for entering one of those liquid staking providers.”

And “Now that the [ATOM] token can start to become more liquid, even while it’s providing security, we can similarly start to offer new ways to connect the security and liquidity of the ATOM token to other tokens that are launching in the ecosystem.”

7. Interchain Security

With the help of the interchain security technology, which Cosmos has recently announced, Dapp chains can now rent security from the Cosmos Hub.

A bit like Polkadot’s own shared security approach, this interchain security produces blocks on one chain while preserving the integrity of another blockchain.

However, where it differs from Polkadot is that its approach is more flexible, in the sense that there are no requirements that are mandatory on every IBC chain.

8. Tokenomics

ATOM's tokenomics have gathered a bit of criticism because of their inflationary dynamics. Therefore, the recent whitepaper proposed a new monetary strategy for ATOM, consisting of two phases.

First, a transitional phase that is up to 36 months long would be launched, the start of which would see around 10 million ATOM being issued every month (which would also momentarily increase the rate of inflation to 41.03% should it launch now).

After that, the rate of issuance would gradually drop until reaching an emission of up to 300,000 ATOM each month, essentially lowering the inflation rate of ATOM to 0.1%. In the long run, ATOM issuance would thus become linear rather than exponential.

9. The Interchain Scheduler

This will serve as an MEV solution, which is short for “Maximal Extractable Value.” MEV is also indicative of the profits that are likely made when transactions inside a block are reordered during its production.

On Ethereum, MEV extraction has already been made more efficient via off-chain services like Flashbots. There are relays used by extractors, also known as “searchers,” for negotiating with validators to carry out their MEV strategies.

The Interchain Scheduler of the Cosmos Hub plans to bring such negotiations on-chain, where its broader network could gain a lot from them. If a Cosmos blockchain is prepared to sell some block space to the Interchain Scheduler...

...it could then issue NFTs that represent the block space “reservations.” Such tokens might even be exchanged on secondary markets and occasionally auctioned off. The share of the revenues would then be given to the original blockchain.

The Interchain Allocator’s purpose is to facilitate economic coordination throughout the Cosmos ecosystem. It is expected to expedite user and liquidity acquisitions for Cosmos projects by forging multilateral agreements between certain entities and IBC blockchains.

But while also securing ATOM’s status as the reserve currency of the network. The Allocator can be utilized by protocols for mutual stake holding; growing ATOM’s liquid staking marketplaces; rebalancing reserves; and taking part in the governance of another blockchain.

Additionally, it would safeguard under-collateralized financing methods, provide the potential for Liquidity-as-a-Service providers, and lessen the likelihood of insolvency brought on by extreme market occurrences.

You can read the unrolled version of this thread here: https://typefully.com/DazaiCrypto/gt6Had8

COSMOS thread

The ultimate guide on how to make it in crypto.

One of the best 🧵 on secrets & strategies on how to find & invest in low-cap gems. 

(1/110)  👇 


This thread was written by @CryptoDamus411. I am posting it to help him gain a bigger audience, as I've done with others. 

Please go to his page and make sure to follow him for more great content! Everything below this was written by him.

1/ 
There are 5 parts to this thread: 

1. Strategy
2. How to find gems before anyone else
3. How to do research
4. When to buy
5. When to sell

2/
1.Introduction to my strategy

My strategy is fairly simple:

I buy projects with a small market cap (>50 million marketcap) with super strong fundamentals & a bottomed out chart before they go mainstream and I hold for 6 - 12 months.

3/
I sincerely believe this is one of the most profitable strategies out there. 

Why?

1. Plenty of room for error:

Say I invest 5K in 5 different projects.

Project 1 goes to 0
Project 2 goes to 0
Project 3 does a 30X
Project 4 does a 10X
Project 5 goes to 0

4/
I now have 200K.

I put 100K on the side and instead of 5K, I now invest 20K into 5 different projects.

Repeat.

60% of my projects just went to 0 and I turned 25K into 200K.

In reality, because of the research I do, no projects go to 0.
And some do a 50 - 100X.

5/ You don't need a lot of money to make it. 

Following the above you can:

Turn 5$ into 200$
Turn 50 dollar into 2000$
Turn 500 dollar into 20 000$

And repeat.

6/ Another advantage is I sleep better at night. 
I don't need to check charts day in day out, check my stop losses or daytrade.

I can take days of.

It gives me peace of mind, which is worth as much as the money to me.
Learn to be patient and you will be rewarded generously

7/ The disadvantage? 

90% of my time goes into research. 

99% of the projects out there are trash.

I check every detail.
I check the top wallets for days.
I try to get in touch with the founders.

It's tiring sometimes, but there are no free lunches in this game.

8/ Why do so many fail following this simple strategy?


Not because of the projects they invest in. 
I share them for free on my twitter and many others do as well.



9/ They get impatient and start jumping from project to project. 
The ultimate route to disaster.

Patience is rewarded.

10/ Part 2. How to find gems early? 

The key is to be REALLY early. 
If everyone on Twitter is talking about it, you're too late.

You have to have the balls to invest in a project which nobody is talking about.

So how do I find gems early?

Let's take a look.

11/ Method 1: 

Backtracking tickers on Twitter.

Think of a small-cap quality project which recently started gaining attention.

I will take $QUARTZ as an example.
Of course this is applicable to other projects as well, even to older projects.

12/ $QUARTZ 

You can see $QUARTZ started gaining serious attention on the 15th of December 2021.

We are now going to find people who were talking about $QUARTZ way before that.

They are the ones who were really early.

And we are going to keep a close eye on them.

13/ Type $QUARTZ in the upper right search-bar. 
Enter.
Now click the 3 little dots on the right.

Click advanced search.

in 'These Hashtags' type $QUARTZ

Pics below


14/ Dates: 

Let's go back 6 months before $QUARTZ went viral.

Set dates accordingly.

You can of course change this to your liking (longer/shorter).

Click search.

15/ Congratulations, you now found a bunch of people who probably do their own research and talk about gems before anyone else does. 

Click the 3 dots next to their name.
Click 'add to list'
Create new list & add them to it.

Continue to do so.
Repeat for other tickers.


16. You now have a custom list of alpha seekers. 
You can make 1 big list or make lists per ticker.

I regularly remove people from the lists as well.

I discovered plenty of gems this way.

17. Method 2. 

Backtracking wallets on block explorers.

I will take $QUARTZ again as an example.

After doing research, I have decided for myself that $QUARTZ is a quality project.



18. It would be safe to assume that people who hold $QUARTZ are holding similar quality projects, right?

19. But how do we find these people, except from on twitter?  We look at their wallets on block explorers.


I will use etherscan as an example. On the blockchain, all the info is publicly available.
You just got to know what to look for.

20. Go to http://coinmarketcap.com.

Look for QUARTZ at the top right corner.

Click on the Etherscan adress (this can also be BSC, solana,...).

Scroll down a bit and click on 'Holders'

You now have an overview of all the wallets holding $QUARTZ.

21. See the little piece of paper next to the wallets? 

Those are smart contracts, so they are not private wallets. Those you can skip.  Let's take a look at the other private wallets.



22. Let's click on NFAdventures.ETH 

This wallet address has a name, it's a paid service some people use.
It doesn't mean anything else, it's a private wallet.

Click on his address.

23. Open the drop-down menu. 

You now have an excellent shortlist of projects to research.
Repeat for wallet 10, 11,12,etc etc.

But there's more.

I always look for similarities between wallets.
Take a look at the pictures below.

Are you seeing what I am seeing :)?


24. Not only does this method give you shortlists of projects to look for. 

You can easily spot similarities between whale wallets, which is usually a good sign for a project.

This is how I found $XFT.

25. Method 3. Check.Every.Ticker. 

I can't tell you how many times I saw a project pass by on Twitter, ignored it only to find out 3 weeks someone called it.

If you do like everyone else, you will get the same results as everyone else.

26. A lot of the tickers I see, I quickly check on CMC. 

Usually after 10 seconds I see it's trash.
But 1 out of 30 - 50 will be good. 
And I will be early.

Where most people ignore shilling, I do a 10 second check and look up the project.

27. Method 4: Share & connect 

This might be the most important tip i can give you.

Found a gem using method 1,2 or 3?
Got some alpha?

Share it with other people. 

For free. 

Don't ask anything in return.

Do it again and again.

28. I reached out, and still reach out to numerous people I don't know. They all got more followers than me & have more experience than me.
How?  Very simple: 

Hey, I saw you like 'X' type of projects on your twitter. I found a project which you really might like, check it out.

29. And I continue to do so, again & again.  

I share everything I know. For free.

Why?

After a while people start returning the favor.

They add you to their Telegram chat with other alpha seekers.
Instead of 2 eyes, you now got 20 eyes looking out for projects.

30. Contribute more to the group than others. 

Now people start to take you seriously.

They'll invite you in other groups.
They'll send you alpha on Twitter.
They"ll trust you.

31. Some of my favorite Telegram channels for quality alpha: @ElonTrades 's Patreon community. 100$/month, but the best group out there. 


I'm not affiliated in any way nor do I get money for saying this. I genuinely think this is the best value for money you can get.

32. @wavejumpers 's Telegram has quality projects as well. It's free to join, and they focus on qualitative projects. 
There's an announcement channel and an open chat.

I suggest to join several TG groups and if you don't like the vibe, just leave.

33. Reaching out helped me build a network of strong, reliable alpha seekers who give me alpha before anyone else is talking about it. Want to stay in these groups? Keep on contributing. A big part of success comes from giving without asking for something in return, remember that

34. I also reach out to founders of different projects a lot. 

How?

'Hey, I love your project, let me know if you need some help one way or another. I have a small Twitter community and know some well connected people'.

So what if they don't reply?

35. If you focus on quality projects it will show, and founders will be glad you will promote their project. 

In return you might get some early access to alpha, beta-testing, updates,...

Don't be afraid to put yourself out there.

36. Method 5: Follow the money 

When a project gets an investment from a top-notch crypto investment firm, it's usually a good sign.

Often (definitely not always) it means they have a promising roadmap ahead.

All VC firms have different strategies.

37. Andromeda for example invest in a lot of different projects. 
Too many if you ask me. Their investments mean little to me.

Some VCs which I like:

Alameda
Coinbase Ventures
Binance Labs
Jump Trading
Pantera Capital

38. I often google 'Alameda'(can be any firm) and filter for the most recent results first. 

Often you can scoop a nice project before it goes mainstream.
Be sure to follow the big VC firms on Twitter as well.

39. Part 2: 

Framework I use to evaluate projects.

Throughout the years I developed a methodology which helped me evaluate projects of all kinds.

My framework is always the same for each project.

I review the following elements:

40.
1. Innovation/Unique Selling Point 
2. Tokenomics
2.1 Token allocation
2.2 Token vesting
2.3 VC/Seed price
2.4 Token Utility
2.5 Wallet distribution
3. Team
4. Narrative
5. Catalysts & Marketing

Point 1 & 2 are definitely the most important ones.

41. 
1. Innovation 

What makes the project unique?

I avoid projects who are slight improvements of previous projects.

Let me give you some examples of unique projects below

42. The below are all projects I invested in: 

$QRDO: The ONLY project which offers decentralized MPC
$KADENA: The ONLY POW project which solves the blockchain trilemma
$QUARTZ: The ONLY project which offers dynamic yield redirection

See where I am getting at?

43. A staking project which offers higher APY than previous projects is not unique. 

A game with 100 000 users instead of 25 000 users is not unique.



A payment app with a 0.3% transaction fee instead of a 0.6% transaction fee is not unique. Those are temporary USPS.

44. Don't fall for unique features nobody will use. Look for disruptive projects which try to change the industry. Look through the marketing crap most projects try to sell you. 

Ask yourself:

What makes this project unique and is there a need in the market for this feature?

45. 
2 Tokenomics 

I value tokenomics the most of all elements when I do research.

It's the single most important tool to help estimate the selling pressure (VC price/seed price/vesting/..) vs. buying pressure (token utility) which ultimately determines the price.

46. Tokenomics is the topic of understanding the supply and demand characteristics of a project. 

It's similair to the shares of a company.

If you don't know what tokenomics is, there is plenty of free content on the internet.

47. The following 3 subcategories help determine the possible selling pressure: 

1. Token allocation
2. Token vesting
3. VC/Seed/private price

48.
2.1 Token allocation 

Each project allocates tokens to different holders. 
The tokens are often allocated during different phases in time.

Some are being allocated behind closed doors, before the project launches, some tokens are sold publicly.

49. 
Not all tokens are allocated to either companies, private or retail investors. 

An overview of the most common token allocations:

1. Team - Tokens reserved for team members
2. Seed/VC - Investors (usually bigger companies) who got tokens at a discounted price

50.
3. Private sale - semi-private sale to a limited number of people, often community related 
4. Public sale - sale to everyone
5. Foundation/marketing - a fund for the team to run the business/market the business

51.
6. Liquidity pool - tokens allocated to provide liquidity on DEX's 
7. Staking-mining reward - rewards to people who stake or mine

52.
I can not tell you an allocation % for each point which is acceptable. 

You need to look at the global picture and ask yourself if it makes sense that entity has that % of tokens.

The more tokens VC/seed & private have, the bigger the possible selling pressure can be.

53.
Staking/mining rewards are also important metrics. 

Check if tokens have been allocated for this, or if they are being created.
The latter is a red flag since this causes inflation & negative price impact.

54.
Below an example of a horrible token allocation schedule from $KASTA. 

If you look closely, you can see that only 2.5% of the tokens were available publicly. 

They hide it, using different words like marketing/development/operations which actually all mean the same.🔥

55.
Look at their chart: Constant dumping each token unlock.


Take-away: Avoid projects with dishonest allocations which happened behind closed doors.

56.
2.2 Vesting
Tokens are always subject to vesting, meaning they are released to tokenholders during different phases in time. Why is this important? Ideally tokens are released in small % and gradually. The longer vesting & the smaller the releases,the smaller the price impact

57. I prefer linear vesting, where during a fixed period of time, the same amount of tokens are released. 
This way you know what's coming.
Big token releases tend to have a negative price impact, although projects often tend to release bullish news in the days before the unlock

58. I don't anticipate these unlocks by buying/selling.  

They're often unpredictable and difficult to trade.

I just hold through them and I suggest you do the same.

59. Below an overview of a pretty typical vesting release schedule. 

I particularly like that the private sale tokens have been released immediately, often a good sign.

This means that people who wanted to sell, often already sold.

60. Take-away: 

Look at the vesting schedule & check if big unlocks are coming.

If a big price dumps happened and you don't know why, look at the vesting schedule if a big unlock happened.

61. 
2.3 VC/seed price 

Central question:

At what price did VC's get their tokens and what is the price now?

Why is this important?

An example below

62. Let's say a Venture Capital firm got 30% of the tokens of project ABC at 0.10$, before the public sale. 

We are now 2 years later and you can see on the vesting schedule that the VC tokens will be released next week.

Coin ABC is trading at 5.00$.

63. If a VC firm invested 20.000$, they now have 1 million $. 

You can rest assured they will lock in profits and sell a big portion of their tokens.

But what if the token was currently only trading at 0.25$?

VC's will be reluctant to sell at 'only' a 2.5X.

64. I can not stress how important it is to: 

1. Check the VC price & compare it to the current price
2. Check when they will get access to their tokens

The above are the most important elements when evaluating the possible selling pressure.

65. You can usually find the info on VC price in the whitepaper. 

I use http://cryptorank.io a lot as well.

They have a tab for most projects which shows the allocation & VC-price.
If I don't find it, I just ask it in the Telegram or via Twitter DM's.

66. Take-away: 

Avoid projects where VC's are up big time and have big allocations which are yet to be released.

67.
2.4 Token utility 

Central question:

What utility does the token have to the holder?
What incentive would a holder have not to sell?

A lot of excellent projects have poor token utility.

68. The worst stand-alone utility? 

Governance. It's basically saying you can't come up with a utility. Utilities I like: 

1. Staking/boosted APY
2. Discounts (on transactions for example)
3. Validation: you need to hold a % of tokens to validate the network and get rewards

69. Take-away: 

Use VC/seed/private price & allocation (selling pressure) vs token utility (buying pressure). Preferably, buying pressure outweighs the potential selling pressure by a lot. There are other elements determining the buying pressure which I will discuss later on.

70. 
2.5 Wallet distribution 

On block explorers you can see the wallet distribution.
It shows who holds what % of the token supply

Go to 'Holders' on any project and you can see all wallets with the amount they hold.

This is an additional selling pressure check.

71. Below the QUARTZ holders. 

Only looking at private wallets, the distribution is fairly light. 
The biggest holder is holding 0.10% of the supply, second biggest 0.08% which is reassuring.

No red flag, standard distribution.

72. Now let's take a look at the Kasta wallet distribution:🔥 

There is 36 million $ sitting in 2 unlocked wallet accounting for over 7% of the supply.

I don't have to tell you what will happen if they decide to sell.
Who says they're not the same person?

73. I highly suggest you start using Etherscan if you don't already to check out the wallet distributions before investing. 

Also verify if everything which is stated in the whitepaper is correct (team allocations, locked liquidity).

Explorers don't lie :)

74. If you come across a project, just go to etherscan and check the wallets.  

Repeat a couple of times and you will start to get a good idea of average wallet distributions.

It's not possible to tell which wallet belongs to which holder.

75. 3. Team 

Who is the team behind this project?
Are they public?
Why not?

Public teams have a huge advantage for me, which doesn't mean that anonymous teams are always a red flag.

76. Look up the team on Linkedin. As in business, elite teams usually deliver elite products. What previous experience they have?  Look at their Twitter. Who do they know? Who are they following? Do they tweet from time to time? Type their name in Google etc, what do you find?

77. I often see CEO's/founders with limited crypto experience but often surrounded by a strong team of developers. 

CEO's who lack experience is not exceptional and is definitely not a red flag.

A public team with experience in crypto is a big plus of course.

78. When I see things which are not clear when researching a project, I reach out to members of the team. 

To get clarity on the subject, but also to see how they react.

How do they reply? 
Are they trying to hide something? 
How professional is their reply?

79. When I ask a question and I get replies like: 

Lol, fudder.
Why do you want to know?
Jeet
...

I'm out immediately

I also avoid smaller teams (like 3 people) making huge promises, they usually fail to meet expectations.

80. Take-away:



Big, public & experienced team are very nice to have and a big plus to any project.



Team is an important criteria for me in my evaluation, but not the most important one.

81. 
4. Narrative



Defi-summer
NFT season
Gaming & Metaverse
Layer 1's



During the peak of the above 4 narratives of 2021 you could launch any projects which fitted the narrative and people would buy them.

82. 
There were games with a 2 billion $ valuation which didn't even had a working game. 

I don't invest in projects only because they fit the current narrative.

I avoid investing in projects which don't have a strong narrative.

83. An example:



$RAZOR 



Razor is a decentralized data oracle, a project with strong fundamentals and a promising product that can compete with Chainlink. Do you know what a data oracle is? Not many people do, which is exactly the reason I didn't invest.

84. A lot in crypto is driven by hype & narrative.



Even projects with the strongest fundamentals will fail to gain traction because lack of narrative fit.



Ask yourself: Do you see thousands and thousands of people buying into this project for an extended period of time?

85. 
5. Catalysts & Marketing



Catalysts:

I invest in both new and existing projects.

It doesn't make sense to invest in older projects if they don't have any catalysts coming.



What else could cause them to gain traction again after all this time?

86. 
Some common  catalysts are: 

1. Product/Mainnet launch
2. Central Exchange Listing
3. Collaborations with other projects



If a project has been dead for several months and it doesn't have any catalysts coming, it will stay dead.

87. Marketing. The marketing of a project is often underestimated. I always monitor the following channels closely:
1. Twitter 

88. Do they post regularly? When was their account created & how many followers do they have? How much interactions do their tweets get? Who is following them?

89. Older projects with few tweets/followers are always a red flag to me. 

You can have the best project in the world, if you don't spread the word regularly, your project is doomed to fail.

Remember, crypto is driven by hype, not utility.

90. 
2. Telegram 

Is there activity in the TG?

Is the team active? 
Do they sound professional?

Are the mods up to date on the latest developments, or are they random strangers?

Does the team avoid certain questions?

91. I always spend a couple of days in the TG, just to get a feel of who's in there and what's being said. Thirdly I also check the website: 
Is it professional? Clear? 
Or does it look like it's made by a 5 year old?

If the first thing I see is a 'BUY NOW' button, I'm out.

92. Summary - doing research: 

The above should give you a solid framework to start with. The best thing you can do now is start applying it to different projects, qualitative or non-qualitative. You'll start seeing similarities between both good and bad projects.

93. If you're lost, and I see you are doing your best and are not being lazy, I'll be happy to help. 

Just please don't ask me questions like: what are your thoughts on ABC :).

94. Some things can only be learned with experience & experimenting.



I can not tell you how an acceptable wallet distribution or token allocation looks like for example. 



It varies from project to project and depends on multiple factors. Stop reading & start doing.

95. The fastest way to learn? Each time you read a term you don't understand, look it up on youtube until you find the answer and fully understand the matter.


Keep on doing so. Don't be lazy, but don't hesitate to ask for help.

96. 
3. When to buy 

I always assume that worst case, a project goes to it's all time low. It's a very simple hypothesis which is very easy applicable which helps me estimate the potential to the downside.

Let's apply this hypothesis to 2 different projects as an example.

97. 
1. Project 1 
Look at the chart below.

Let's say the market goes to shit, or some FUD around the project spreads.
Most people who wanted to sell this project, already sold.

Sure it might go down another 10 - 20%.
But it's rather unlikely it goes down another 80 - 90%.

98. This thesis, and my whole strategy, is build around asymmetric betting.



Asymmetric betting is when you put your eggs in different baskets and win infrequently, but when you win, you win big.



In other words: Investing with limited downside and huge upside potential.

🧵 Algorithmic stablecoins: case of $BEAN 

This thread was written by @DeFi_Made_Here. I am posting it to help him gain a bigger audience. Please go to his page and make sure to follow him for more great content! Everything below this was written by him.

First of all let's understand what kind of stablecoins exist and what are pros and cons for each of them. There are three main types of stablecoins: fiat-backed ($USDT, $USDC), overcollateralized ($DAI, $MIM) and algorithmic ($UST, $FEI).

The most popular stablecoins are backed 1:1 by fiat currency. Fiat collateral remains in reserve with a central issuer or financial institution, and must remain proportional to the number of stablecoin tokens in circulation.

Because the underlying collateral isn’t another cryptocurrency, this type of stablecoin is considered an off-chain asset. Users can not verify how real is the backing of the stablecoin and rely on regulators to investigate the legitimacy of the backing funds.

CFTC Fines Tether and Bitfinex $42.5M for ‘Untrue or Misleading’ Claims

https://www.coindesk.com/policy/2021/10/15/cftc-fines-tether-and-bitfinex-425m-for-untrue-or-misleading-claims/

Crypto-collateralized stablecoins are backed by another cryptocurrency as collateral. This process occurs on-chain and employs smart contracts instead of relying on a central issuer. You are locking your cryptocurrency into a smart contract to obtain stablecoins in return.

Crypto-collateralized stablecoins are also over-collateralized to buffer against price fluctuations in the collateral asset, so we can say that in some terms it is an inefficient use of capital. For example to take a loan of 1000$ you have to deposit 1500$ worth of collateral.

Algo stablecoins don't have any assets or collateral for backing them. So, how are algorithmic stablecoins classified as stablecoins when they don’t have any collateral for backing them up? Instead, they follow an algorithm for controlling the stablecoin supply.

With the rise in demand, new stablecoins will be minted to bring the price to the peg. In the event of considerably low coin trading, the system will reduce the number of tokens in circulation.

Algo stablecoins have the highest level of decentralization. On the other hand, they depend on continual growth for ensuring success. You should know that there is no collateral involved with algo stablecoins for liquidity, and everyone can lose money in case of a crash.

So let's come back to the @BeanstalkFarms. It is complex to understand all the soil, beans, pods, weather, etc terms there, but once you get it you can find great opportunities.

The protocol mints new $BEAN (stablecoin) when the price is above the peg and when it is below the peg users are incentivized to buy back $BEAN from the market and burn it (sow) for the Pods (NFT which is redeemable for $BEAN at 1:1 ratio when the price is above the peg).

Additionally users are rewarded with an interest rate (weather) for sowing $BEAN (or $ETH) into the Field (you need Soil which is representing how many Beans the protocol is willing to borrow)

🧵 Thread

COSMOS thread

🧵 Thread

Algorithmic stablecoins: case of $BEAN (DeFi Made Here)