P1. How to research
Researching is hard; I couldn’t even find a joke about it.
Learning how to properly research a project is challenging, especially in the wild west of crypto. Most of us will laugh at the meme above, but you have probably done about every one of the jokes on it. Today we will cover how to research projects and filter out the bad ones, 10x here we come baby!
- how to manage your time
- how to skim projects
- how to deep dive
- final thoughts
How to manage your time
We will cover how to use your time correctly since these rules can easily be adjusted to your preferences. For this info I will be taking inspiration from other writers and Twitter accounts I deem trustworthy.
1. Smaller circles
Divide your research into topics; when I start my research, I always look for key factors, such as holders, supply, price, emissions and FDV. This way, you get a general idea about the token structure of a project. It's also wise to focus on 1 topic in crypto if you're still starting to learn. Start with DAO’s for example, find out how they work and try to think of ideas/ways to implement them into crypto.
2. Don't dive
A common mistake is taking too many deep dives; time management is critical even if you know how to research. Crypto changes daily (look at all the QUEEN meme coins, ARBI season etc.). Keep your research to skims first; this way, you can filter out the garbage.
If you have looked at my research about projects, you will easily be able to see what I think about the project without going into how the project really works; this is very important. Only do a deep dive if you believe this project has 10X potential.
3. Don't research crypto?
This one sounds weird but hear me out; it's hard to research crypto if you don’t know what to learn. Making sure you have a sound foundation is more important than you think. You see a ton of threads on crypto that tell you how to do your research, but there aren't many telling you how to get a good mindset or working schedule, which is just as important. Being efficient is the key to finding the next 10-100X.
4. Network
Here we go again, not talking about how to research a project. But networking is the best way to get alpha and insider info (you know who you are). Investing is all about information asymmetry. Good examples are; insider info, pump and dumps, market manipulation, and so many others. It's not a perfect world, so making a team of like-minded people to discuss research with is very useful.
Additional tips
1. Sleep, yes sleeping takes away time, but if you don’t sleep enough, your performance will be a lot worse than someone well slept. Listen to your body.
2. Make time. I say this to Dale, but he doesn’t listen. Making time is very important. Set priorities.
3. Manage your media. Spending too much time on social media drains your energy and activity; I'm guilty of this, too; I'm spending way too much time on discord. Taking this to the next level, rules are essential, no TikTok, barely any Snapchat or Instagram and working hours where you just play music and work.
4. Spend your media time wisely. Only follow those that add value, there are a lot of gems on Twitter, but it's easy to get hung up with some shitposter. Just don’t do it.
5. Focus, don’t multitask. Humans are imperfect. If you go to the gym, you aren't going to call someone; you need to focus. Implement that rule everywhere.
6. Say no; it's easy to say yes because you want to help; make sure it's worth your time (especially in crypto). When someone asks me to do research for them, I need to know that they would also put in time for me. Sometimes people don’t notice that they are manipulative.
7. Ask, are you working with someone? Keep asking everything, and make sure your always on the same page.
How to skim projects
Skimming a project is very important. We need to be able to see if a project is worth digging into in 10-30 minutes. Finding basic information about projects that haven't launched yet or are just starting is hard. Still, we need this information to ensure we can confidently look into the fundamentals. Here are some bullet points.
- Look at their socials; this gives you the best source of information
- what the team's vision is?
- do they have a reputation? Is it good?
- What problem are they promising to solve?
- who is backing the team?
- Track dev activity; you can see how active a dev is on Github. Use this information to see how credible the development team is.
How to deep dive
Finally, well start talking about how to research crypto projects. My system is a bit different since I personalised it, but this is the best-recommended guide since you can easily personalise it. This is deep-dive research, so filter out the garbage first!
We want to find the next big project; what are we looking for?
- Tokenomics
- Strategy
- Execution
- Team
- Cash
Tokenomics
To understand tokenomics, we need to ask ourselves some questions.
Were where the tokens allocated when the project launched?
What is the supply/max supply?How does the token attract users?
How does the project make sure that you want to hodl?
What is the use case?
If you can't answer all these questions, do some paper research first. This way, you're not putting capital at risk when researching new projects.
Strategy
once we understand the tokenomics of a project, we can look deeper into the project itself. We want to know how they will make us money and why. Nothing is free in crypto; if it seems too good to be true, it probably is.
Which problem does it solve? (always fun to look into new L2s.)
What separates them from their competition?
What are the drawbacks? (Not one project is perfect. Don’t assume it is.)
What’s on their roadmap?
Sometimes it's hard to answer all the questions on this list since you could be looking at a project that hasn’t launched yet; in that case, lurking in their discord/tg is the best way of finding answers to these questions.
Execution
Even if every question prior was answered and everything looked good, that doesn’t matter if the team isn't capable of executing.
Have they hit their milestones?
What is their dev activity? (lurk on Github)
Good marketing?
Audits? By whom, how trustworthy are they?
Team
This one is crucial to me; I like investing in someone’s vision.
Who is on the team?
Who is backing the project? VCs?
What is their vision?
Why are they doing this?
Experience?
Credibility?
You can ask many things here, but this is my shortlist.
Cash
Crypto is all about money, so I want to know what is happening with the funds.
Where are funds held/allocated? This is very important for projects that manage money for you.
What is their monthly return?
How much of this return is paid out (in sound money) to holders?
What is the team compensation?
How much have they raised?
You have been reading for a while now and if you made it to the end. Congrats! Keeping your attention for a prolonged period is hard; more posts on how to research will be published in due time. There is a lot to cover, and this should get you started. In future articles, we'll talk about some good research tools to use when doing skims or deep dives; these will make researching even more manageable, but getting your foundation first is essential. Try to do a skim every 1-2 weeks if you have time. This way, you will stay up to date with new projects, and you might just find your next 10X.
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