One Year in Web3: A Reflection
Down the rabbit hole, looking up, and pondering...
One year ago, on this day, I announced on LinkedIn that I was leaving the Venture Capital space to go into web3. (The original post can be found here: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/longpham91_blockchain-web3-learning-activity-6884698880538230785-k5RF.)
I have been in crypto for a while, though. Since 2017, when I bought my first BTC. Still, crypto never ceases to amaze me. It has been nothing short of a remarkable rollercoaster ride with basically no end. From the highs of BTC to the lows of ETH in 2017/18, from the DeFi Summer of 2021 to the LUNA crash of 2022, or from the emergence of Axie Infinity & Play2Earn to the collapse of Ponzinomics. You name it. I’ve seen it.
Still, web3 itself is something far more different. Granted, it is a marketing term, one that represents the consumer values of blockchain technology in the eye of the normies. But that’s precisely why it got me so excited in the first place, even until today. The future of blockchain and cryptocurrency lies not in the hands of a handful of degens on CT/Discord, but rather in the minds of millions of potential web2 users out there, who are oblivious still about web3 and what it brings.
Anyhow, I don’t mean to write too much on web3 here. This write-up is simply a reflection upon my one-year journey down the rabbit hole and the lessons I’ve picked up along the way. (Partially inspired by my crypto bruh Danny and his own reflection here: https://tdannyd.notion.site/tdannyd/A-wild-noobs-s-mentor-appeared-c871c08b8d774ae699b0feff3973d16e.)
Lesson #1: Don’t Go In Alone
Prior to and after making the switch over to web3, I spent quite some time just hanging around and making friends with other people in web3. Some friendships worked out; others didn’t. Still, the ones that stuck are the ones I’m still talking web3 with today, almost daily.
What do we talk about? Hell, lots. NFTs, meme coins, L1/L2 protocols, etc. The space is expanding so fast and changing so quickly. If you don’t have a group (or groups) of companions on this journey, you become easily and increasingly lost in the gargantuan forest of knowledge.
Being in companionship with fellow web3 degens also helps bring about some balance in your life. We are in such a nascent industry that even our own loved ones don’t fully understand. Sometimes, it feels like such a lonely journey that only those in web3 understand, or when shit hit the fan, commiserate.
Lesson #2: Read, a lot
Web3 evolves fast and furiously. If you don’t spend adequate time doing research and learning new insights and knowledge, you risk becoming a dinosaur in no time. So, read whenever, wherever you can. Whether on Twitter/Discord/Telegram or on Substack/Mirror/other blogs, find your best sources of information to continue enriching your web3 library and stay updated on the latest developments/trends in the space.
Here are some of my own picks:
Cobie’s blog:
Balaji Srinivasan’s blog: https://balajis.com/
Patrick | Dynamo DeFi’s tweets: https://twitter.com/Dynamo_Patrick
Messari’s tweets & reports: https://twitter.com/MessariCrypto
Watcher Guru’s tweets & websites (for news): https://twitter.com/WatcherGuru
Wu Blockchain’s Telegram channel (also for news & insights): https://t.me/wublockchainenglish
If anyone reading this has other cool stuff to share, please comment.
Lesson #3: Understand On-chain Data
(OK, full disclosure, this is the most important lesson I’ve learned in the past year, IMO.)
Whether you’re trading cryptos or not, it helps tremendously to be able to read & understand on-chain data. When researching a new L1 protocol, looking to ape in an NFT collection, or just in general trying to figure out how macro indexes are looking, you basically need to do some form of due diligence. Web3 is beautiful in this aspect because all the raw data are already there on the blockchain. What you need to do, however, is to break down the data and absorb it in your own way. Sounds easy enough?
Well, the truth is, it is not that easy, and not everyone can analyze and understand on-chain data properly. On-chain data analytics is, to me, the equivalent of data science meets social engineering. Pulling the raw data from blockchain explorers is like step 1 out of 10. You also need to be able to identify “real” vs. “fake” data; for instance, NFT wash trading vs. organic transactions. So, following others who provide good (and mostly free!) analytics is also a good way to get started.
Here are some of those free providers:
The DataNerd: https://twitter.com/theData_Nerd
Lookonchain: https://twitter.com/lookonchain
DeFiLlama: https://defillama.com/ (ok this is a bit overwhelming, but spend some time and you’ll get the hang of it; also please follow their founder on Twitter, such a cool llama: https://twitter.com/0xngmi)
Again, if anyone reading this has other cool stuff to share, please share in the comments.
Lesson #4: Keep a Balanced Lifestyle
(This is the one lesson that I didn’t follow myself in 2022, for the most part.)
Being in web3 is fun and all, but at the end of the day, we’re still humans. We need to eat, sleep, exercise, relax, etc. Yet, more often than not, we all let the craziness in web3 leak into our lives, one way or another. We spend so much time embedded in the space that we tend to forget to live a little as well. We care less about our loved ones, our own well-being and fitness, and maybe even our sanity.
Every now and then, take a break from reading/learning/researching and just go work out, have a coffee outside, or just go for a walk/run. Whatever makes you feel more relaxed and keeps your mind away from web3, do it.
Four lessons, four New Year's resolutions. I really don’t want to jinx myself, so I’m just gonna leave it at that.
To all my web3 friends, please give it a read and comment with your feedback. I can only hope that my own lessons can provide some personal recourse to some of you in some way. It has been a rough year, after all.
Onward and upward from here, together.
