6 Years of Web3 Insights: What I've Learned
6 Years of Web3 Insights: What I've Learned
My Journey through web3
My convictions came in 2018 when the bear market started to hit. At that time, I installed Metamask on my computer for the first time to mint a crypto kittie, and that was the moment I understood the power of a new decentralized internet.
I still believe in Bitcoin and haven’t sold a single one for more than seven years (except for some minor Bitrefill purchases). Still, the Ethereum community is the most vibrant, innovative, and open-minded, in my opinion.
During DeFi summer, my crypto thesis was validated, and a new paradigm of a decentralized internet was born, and that’s when things took off for me and the ecosystem as a whole. After getting airdropped some $UNI tokens in approximately ten different wallets, I could not believe what was happening and how it financially impacted my life for the better.
In this first issue, I want to share a few lessons I’ve learned over the years, which made it easier for me to manage the bear market.
Bear markets are not permanent
2017 was the most exciting year of my life. After moving to a new country for love and not knowing what to do, I discovered Ethereum. I’ve had Bitcoin in the past but was unaware of smart-contract, which changed my life.
Bear markets are the best time if you are not over-invested in crypto; you can learn more (I learned to code during the previous bear market) and sharpen my knowledge without the noise around. There are fewer people in the space and more quality information.
Most of the people left in the market are builders who understand the importance of crypto in our life. There will come a time sooner or later when the bull will be back.
I’ve learned that positioning myself into great projects is happening during a bear market, with some exceptions.
Education is key
I read books such as Mastering Ethereum and The Sovereign Individual, which changed my view on cryptocurrency and the importance of a digital nation-state or The Bitcoin standard to understand why we need Bitcoin.
I also spent a lot of time trying to understand protocols such as Uniswap and the value they can bring to a more decentralized internet.
Build Build Build
My biggest regret during the previous bear market was to focus too much on accumulating coins and not enough on building the future of the internet. I got financially rewarded, but I have the potential, understanding of the market, and ideas to build a solid Web3 project. That is why during this bear market, I started Bonsai Finance, a Web3 dashboard that will give you superpower on how you use Web3 protocols at its core. I have a lot of ideas that I’m executing and thinking about.
Web3 is here to stay.
One thing I noticed during the previous year is that even though we are in a bear market, some of the most innovative developers I know are leaving their web2 jobs to join web3 protocols, DAOs, or startups.
This is because there is a hugely challenging problem to solve, and it is a fascinating field that combines politics, tech, and finance.
I selected a few blue chips that I believed in
I don’t say you necessarily have to do this because everyone has a different strategy when investing and picking coins. Still for myself, I noticed what was happening during the ICO boom with all the scam coins (fortunately only invested in one failing ICO).
I mainly deployed capital into Ethereum and Bitcoin. When DeFi summer came, I started deploying more capital into blue chip Defi protocols such as MakerDAO or Compound. Luckily, I was already a DeFi power user, so I got rewarded with many valuable airdrops for over two years.
For this bear market, my capital is mostly ETH and BTC. I also use stablecoins that I made as profit during the previous bull market to farm coins such as $STG on Stargate Finance and $OP on Optimism, Curve on Convex, or provide liquidity to AAVE or Compound. There are a lot of opportunities to be taken during bear markets.