How to avoid 95% of all rugs on StarkNet:
StarkNet comes with both great benefits & risks - users must remain vigilant when researching StarkNet projects.
Protect your assets & research the team, tech, & goals of any project before apeing.
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As you know, StarkNet is permissionless meaning anyone can join the fam and start buidling, without requiring permission from any centralized authority. The open access to StarkNet ensures that no single entity can control it, allowing it to remain secure and reliable.
That's amazing, but for you, as a user also risks as no central babysitter is overseeing the fam; you as bag holder need to be aware of the potential for malicious and incompetent actors.
Continue utilizing secure wallets and DYOR to get information about StarkNet and any farms building on it.
Degens should be aware of potential scims, as malicious actors can exploit your lack of knowledge about complex smart contracts. The best practice is to store digital assets in a secure, offline wallet.
How can you as a noob find out if a project is legit or not? Here are some basics on how to avoid scams, honeypots, slow bleeds and rugpulls.
1. DYOR -> FAFO is expensive. Ensure that the project team has an established tape in the StarkNet fam. Check out their socials, website, and whitepaper to get an idea of the project’s purpose, roadmap, and timeline.
secret power -> Use the search function in discord.
2. Check the code. Make sure that the project code is open source and available to review. You should be able to verify that the project has not been tampered with or contain malicious code.
3. Be aware of red flags:
- a lot of airdrop talk, white-listing, rewards, invites and OG roles (airdrops are a regulatory risk for the founders, any project hammering it hasn't made their DD or knows already that it never will happen)
- unclear or missing documentation, cheap hompy with no substance, or just pump talk. nft games without artwork are ded.
- Team members with anonymous profiles and no community history, anon is ok but no empty github repo or zero track record.
- Fleeing communication during stressful times, blaming others, larping and simping
- Fake buy or mint walls, domain with anon registry, short history and just secured for the minimum time.
-Fake engagement on socials (look at the retweets, check if all have the same gang sign, and read the comments and previous posts of the pumpers). Avoid projects working with pump groups
-Join the discord or TG, are there deep discussions or just GM and ”I like the project”. Are the mods answering critical questions?
4. Don’t invest more than you can afford to lose. This is just a basic rule of thumb when investing in any asset or project. The StarkNet space is still young; some of the best projects had to pivot.
Remember always to do your DD and be aware of potential scams. By remaining vigilant and understanding the basics of StarkNet you can stay safe when investing in projects.
StarkNet is about scalability, new use-cases, and interoperability. Projects which are real should cover one aspect of that. A simple PFP or degen farm is probably not the next unicorn and could have launched on a sidechain. Look for the computation-hungry, composable stuff.
We have many low-effort copy pasta drops emerging….redacted…be careful.
Soooo… it's important to remember that when loading any project, you should use your best judgment. DD the team, the tech, and the project goals. Shun away from those who ask for large commits upfront without any substantial story, community or product.
Above all, never invest more than you can afford to lose.
StarkNet is ushering in a new era of possibilities for blockchain tech.
With tis permissionless nature, security and scalability, devs can build stuff that are secure, reliable and free us from oppressive standards and norms, especially those that promote inequality and discrimination.
The future of wassies is brighter than ever, just ape with a decent mental model!