How to Build Your Network in Crypto

Part 1 — Fundamental Analysis

Many people coming into crypto go through a similar path:

1 — This crypto thing sounds like a total scam, I’m not going anywhere near it

2 — Wait a minute though, people are making a lot of money and I wouldn’t mind a piece of that

3 — There’s something to this crypto thing after all. These are real problems that I’ve been thinking about for a while and the solutions are being worked on by really smart people

4 — Alright you got me, crypto is fucking awesome

You join Twitter, follow a bunch of people, think you’ve got it all figured out, keep reading, make some bets, make some money, lose some money, lose even more money and then

So what now?

I’m going to give you everything you need to start building out your network, the rest is up to you

The Importance of Having a Network

In any market, especially one as dynamic and fast moving as crypto, there are always opportunities to make money

Which is great but when there’s always opportunity it makes it very difficult to zoom in on the few that you really should be taking

You quickly come to the realization that the big multiples are made in taking selective early bets on solid projects that are under the radar but which you believe will get a lot of traction when word gets out

It’s clearly obvious to you that the people that have the best networks are getting access to this kind of information all the time

Their asymmetrical access to information gives them an edge

To be clear — we’re not talking about the much discussed “pump and dump” schemes here but good projects with real potential for upside over time

But you don’t know any of these people personally

Worse than that — it seems like everyone is trying to be their “friend”

What are you meant to do?

No Such Thing as a Free Lunch

I’ll tell you what 99.9% of people do:

• Simp
• Beg

Whether comments on Tweets, being tagged or in DMs every large account has thousands of messages that are a variation on the following:

• Sir you’re the greatest of all time, please shine some of your light on me
• Sir I’m poor. Please throw me some scraps of money and/or alpha
• Sir please spend time and effort teaching me things. I promise I’ll be the best student of all time

To be blunt, this doesn’t work

Why?

Talking personally, I am REALLY busy

I literally never, ever have anywhere near enough time to finish even a small percentage of the things I want to do

On top of that, the nature of my work life means I am constantly battling to spend time and effort nurturing the relationships that are most important to me — my friends and family

Money is no longer my number one priority, time is

This hasn’t always been the case

In the distant past I moved continents with my meagre life savings and a dream

I had all the time in the world but no money

Believe me, I have done my fair share of grunt work, toilet cleaning and all nighters in my time to slowly but surely shift that balance

I don’t think it’s a stretch to assume that the vast majority of people who you’d like to be in your network are in a somewhat similar situation

Cut out The Survivorship Bias

As a business owner you learn the hard way that you’re not going to be the next Mark Zuckerberg

Yes, some people have an idea, launch a website and boom, they’re a Billionaire

But most people don’t

In fact, most people just fail and give up

(for proof — check on every one of your friends/cousins/neighbors who’ve launched an “awesome business idea” and see how they’re getting on)

The vast majority of those who “make it” have taken the age old path

Working harder than most people would be willing to, having an obsessive ability to continue in the face of seemingly endless failures and overwhelming evidence that you should give up and patience to grind through the long process towards success

It’s the same in crypto

Yes some people took their last $100 in their mom’s basement and bet on a DeFi coin, rolled it forward and ended up with millions of dollars that they’ve managed to keep

Guess what, it isn’t going to be you

The odds are so tiny it’s not even worth considering

So drop that bullshit in your head right now and strap in for the grind

It’s going to take time, it’s going to take monumental effort, you’re going to want to quit over and over and over again

There’s not going to be any instant satisfaction here

Are you ready?

Help First

When your biggest asset is time, then you can use it as currency

If you’re offering time to people who have very little of it, they’re much more likely to pay attention to you

But how do you do this?

What not to do

“Sir, I’m willing to help you with anything you want, just tell me what to do”

I’ll tell you why

I own businesses — I know people are willing to help me with anything I want if I give them something in return for it

I know this because I have staff, it isn’t news to me that this is how things work

What I do know is that getting people to help me out almost always first involves a significant amount of my time — again, the one thing I don’t have to spare

When I started in crypto I had 0 followers, knew nobody and didn’t know where to start

Although I had developed a good network offline, eventually I decided that I wanted to build out my online network too — from the ground up

I had to figure out a way to stand out and get the attention of the people I wanted to notice me

So here’s the secret, you ready?

What to do

Watch big accounts on Twitter, ones you would like to be in your network

See what they’re commenting on and what they’re posting about

When you see them post something that seems like a question such as:

“I keep seeing $XYZ mentioned. Sounds cool actually but I don’t have the time to look into it”

Boom, now it’s your chance to shine with your DM:

“I saw you posted a question about $XYZ on (wherever they posted it)

I’m not related to the project at all but it looks interesting and I’ve done some research on the project for you, here’s a link to my report (insert link)

I’m not looking for anything in return, just happy to help

If you’ve got any questions about the project let me know!”

Had I done FA on the project before I saw the comment?

Of course not, the comment was the first I’d heard of it

I then took the time to do my research on the project, put together a quick, easy to read FA report and sent it over (as a link to a Google doc, because people don’t want to open random files)

Many times this meant jumping off my couch, opening my computer and putting in 2–3 solid hours of work at 11pm on a Friday night instead of drinking a few beers and relaxing

This is just the nature of the beast

Either you’re willing to put in the work or someone like me will do it first and you’ll be shit out of luck

What Next?

A lot of the time I never heard back, that’s going to happen

It doesn’t matter, in the end you only need one domino to fall to start making progress

If you don’t hear back, that’s just one more for your portfolio, one more chance you got to practice and, if you were lucky enough to be researching a project you actually liked in the end— a chance you didn’t have before to learn about a potentially great investment

I guarantee that eventually you will hear back with a:

“wow this is awesome, thanks a lot”

“So Now You Ask for Something, Right?”

Nope, that’s how you fuck it up

What you do now is let them know, as Jordan Belfort would say, that you are:

Sharp as a tack. Enthusiastic as hell. An expert in your field

You reply back with something like:

“Glad you liked it! I love doing this kind of research

If you see something else that you’re interested in just shoot the name over to me and I’ll do the same again, anytime”

Will you always hear from them again? No

But eventually you will start getting some responses

What’s the Point?

This seems like a lot of work for nothing, right?

Wrong

Sincere effort is never wasted, even if the result isn’t what you expected

Even if nothing comes out of it at all in terms of building a network, now you’re someone who knows how to do FA on any project that you come across in a quick an efficient manner because you’ve put in the time and effort to practice

But with persistence something will come out of it

In my experience, once I’d gained even a little traction it snowballed pretty quickly

Suddenly I was being asked by big players, even ones I hadn’t reached out to directly, if I wouldn’t mind helping them out with something

I was being invited into private discussions, offered positions and asked if I was interested in participating in investments

As with all things in my life — first came the effort, then the money followed

So that’s the theory — but maybe you’re stuck about exactly how to put it into practice now?

Don’t worry, I’ve got you

Step by Step Guide

Twitter

If you’ve used Twitter already then you’ll know about following accounts, turning on Notifications and creating Lists

All of these are fine and will do what you need

Personally, I like to streamline data and minimize alerts as far as possible

This method can help you to put the data automatically into a format that’s easy to manage

Reports

Writing an Investment Thesis before making an investment is very helpful

I have done it both inside and outside of crypto, for myself and for others

It takes a LOT of time and effort

It has a time and a place but this isn’t really it

If you start getting really good at FA you could try to write one for yourself just to go through the process, who knows where it might lead?

Good examples of these can be found from Sino Global Capital here https://github.com/sinoglobalcap/investment-theses

I’m telling you right now, there’s no way on earth you’re knocking one of these out in 2–3 hours (at least, not well)

You want to start with a simple, structured template that you can follow to get yourself started

If only someone had such a thing and would share it with you for free…

Today’s your lucky day champ — check out the template and notes below

SHORT FA TEMPLATE

Overview

Project name:

Cashtag:

Website:

Whitepaper / Lightpaper:

Genre:

Blockchain:

Github:

Audit Company/Link:

Twitter:

Telegram:

Launch date:

Launch platform:

Market Cap at launch:

Fully Diluted Market Cap at launch:

Introduction (Introduction, concept, any relevant info)

The basic overview can be taken from their website, whitepaper, CoinGecko, Medium etc but should be referenced if it has been copy/pasted from somewhere, as we know that anything directly written by the project will have an inherently positive bias.

Introduce the overall concept of the project and how it fits into industry and/or the broader crypto/blockchain/defi landscape. Plus any other information that is likely to be important for the reader.

This section should be objective information, there is no need for any commentary on your own thoughts about what the project is at this point.

Token and Tokenomics (What is the token for, release and distribution plans)

This section should give all the required information about the token that would be needed to quickly identify where it fits in the wider market and what the purpose of the token is with regards to the project — some examples are: governance tokens, used to pay fees on the platform, staking, off-chain payments, on-chain voting

Which chain is the token launching on/already on? Is it planning to be cross-chain in the future? Where can it be traded and how active are those markets?

If the report is about an IDO details such as the price for each round, percentages being given to different allocations, vesting schedules etc are very relevant.

If the report is for a token that’s already live, the emissions/inflation schedule, upcoming tranches of tokens to be released from vesting and distribution between different stakeholders and important upcoming roadmap items/releases is important.

If it is a new project, will the liquidity be locked? Where is it being locked? Is it automatic or manual locking?

A pie chart/diagram of the distribution can normally be found in the whitepaper, but sometimes teams won’t release this information until closer to the launch.

Team and Community (Who, Telegram/Twitter/Social Media presence)

This section should give as much information as possible about the team.

If a team is doxxed then it can be their actual credentials — which projects they’ve worked for, what experience and education they have, what connections they have in the industry, whether they have worked together or not in the past etc.

If a team is anonymous then that rarely means there is no information about them. You can look at which projects they’re known to/have declared they have worked on previously. You can see what the Admins in TG/Twitter/Medium/other people are saying about the team. What partnerships they have etc.

When researching the community then things like number of followers, engagement of followers and the atmosphere in the Telegram or other social media channels is relevant. An assessment made on the core community values is important. For example, are they supportive of the project, moonboys, toxic to new people, how do they deal with FUD/critical questions, does it seem to be a cult of personality?

Overall Outlook (Why you like this project, any weaknesses or concerns, analysis on future potential)

This section should be a summary of your own thoughts about the project based on all of the research you have done.

This should take into account everything you have seen or read and important details such as whether the code has been audited/who did the audit/what is their track record should go into this section.

Not all sections will be relevant, depending on which stage the project is currently in.

If it is a new project, will the liquidity be locked? Where is it being locked? Is it automatic or manual locking?

What percentage of the raise is being used for liquidity?

In crypto it is very easy to call everything a scam but we’re trying to take a balanced view. If you’re sure it’s a scam? Why? If you think it could be at risk of a rug pull, why?

Once we get past the “is it a scam or not” barrier, we’re looking at the project as a whole:

• Where does it fit in the market? What are the background conditions that this project is launching/operating in?
• Does anyone need/want this product/service?
• Who is backing it? Is it likely to be a hyped pump and dump, a long term slow burner, a failure from launch?
• If backers have a track record (like many VC funds do), what other projects have they invested in? How have they been doing overall?
• Would you buy it in seed/private/public rounds or the open market with your own money? Why?
• What is the narrative in the market they are likely to fit into? What would need to happen outside of their control for the project to really do well (i.e. they are launching on a blockchain that would need to successfully launch their mainnet)

EXAMPLE REPORT

Below is an example report that was done for Maki Swap prelaunch that follows roughly the outline given above

Snapshot

Project name: Makiswap

Cashtag: $MAKI

Website: Makiswap Desktop

Whitepaper / Lightpaper: TBC

Genre: AMM and Yield farming

Blockchain: Huobi Eco Chain

Github: UNPKG — makiswap-core

Twitter: https://twitter.com/MakiSwap

Telegram: https://t.me/makiswapfinance

Market Cap at launch: TBC

Fully Diluted Market Cap at launch: TBC

Launch date: May 5th 2021

Launch platform: DAOMaker and Airdrop

Overview

Makiswap is the first Automated Market Maker and Yield Farming protocol on Huobi Eco Chain. This chain may be unfamiliar to some. If you have used Binance Smart Chain before and set up Metamask to access it, then you will need to do a similar thing to access your HECO wallet and Makiswap airdrop tokens.

Here is a guide for how to do this:

https://medium.com/stakingbits/setting-up-metamask-for-huobi-eco-chain-heco-8a08d919f7f8

Makiswap isn’t fully functional yet so I wasn’t able to use it. But there is noticeably similar branding to Sushiswap and an identical layout to Pancakeswap. We’ll also have to await more details regarding the yield farming opportunities. Other advanced features such as limit order and order books have been detailed, but there is nothing like a whitepaper released yet, only a series of medium posts.

Token and Tokenomics

The $MAKI token will be airdropped to everybody who holds at least 500 LAYER tokens on May 2nd in an ETH or BSC self-custody wallet at a ratio of 4:1.

A snapshot will be taken and for every 500 LAYER you will receive 125 MAKI in the same wallet address but on Huobi Eco Chain. Remember this must be a self-custody wallet which you hold the private keys for, not an Exchange wallet.

DAOMaker will also hold an SHO- Strong Holder Offering

The Tokenomics have been released today here https://makiswap.medium.com/makiswap-tokenomics-announcement-ffa13ff48f2e

It doesn’t give details of the token price, allocation (i.e. for airdrop, team, private sale, Dao Maker SHO) or the vesting terms — it is really just a basic breakdown of the inflation schedule.

Team and Community

The team who built Unilayer are building Makiswap. Unilayer is a DEX built on top of Uniswap with advanced features such as limit orders and charts. Unilayer launched about 8 months ago and has gradually grown in volume. The team behind Unilayer has chosen to remain anonymous but are known to work closely with Venture Capitalist firms.

Makiswap is a Venture Capital backed project which means there is likely to be a lot of money spent on marketing the project, rather than just letting it grow organically. Firms such as AU21 Capital, who were early backers of Binance and Huobi exchanges, are involved. This indicates there will be an effort to persuade users of larger chains with more LP and TVL such as Ethereum and possibly Binance Smart Chain, to transfer their value to HECO.

The Makiswap Telegram community is at 15.5k and Twitter followers at 12.4k. It can be expected these will grow rapidly between now and the much publicized airdrop.

Outlook

Having an easy to use and cost-effective AMM like Pancakeswap has been one of the success stories of Bianance Smart Chain. Pancake was a code fork of Uniswap but rebranded and offered a smoother experience with a few extra features such as Yield Farming and Lotteries. This was made possible by the efficiency of the BSC network which allowed smaller traders to transact and experiment with permissionless defi at an affordable cost. For example it became affordable to trade and yield farm with amounts much less than $100. For many people this was an attractive proposition.

It appears the Makiswap team are taking a similar approach here. The underlying code of the original Uniswap is very functional. The ‘If it’s not broken, don’t fix it’ approach has propelled BSC to consistently new highs of users and transaction throughput thanks in a big way to the volume on Pancake Swap. The airdrop is going to further publicize Makiswap with a big marketing campaign. It has a great narrative because the Uniswap airdrop has been so successful for those who held their UNI and even for those who didn’t it was still a very nice surprise.

The indicators are Makiswap is a key component of what will bring HECO chain into the spotlight. Huobi Exchange is also in a prime position to benefit from the development of Defi here. An AMM is one of the key building blocks of any Defi ecosystem to allow users to exchange value.

Previous research several months ago suggested that HECO was not offering anywhere near the same user experience or ‘customer care’ that Binance was before it rose to prominence. For example a lack of chat help, implementation of minimum transfers and long delays were the feedback at the time. I’m unaware if that is still the case but it is probable now the VC’s are entering the next stage of launch they will have improved upon this if they indeed want to replicate the same experience as Binance/BSC where Huobi Exchange is the main on/off ramp for permissionless defi on HECO.

The timing of the Makiswap airdrop is 3 days before the launch of Uniswap v3. There is likely to be competition between the 2 platforms. This might not impact the potential of Makiswap in too large a way because the value proposition is slightly different. Some traders/yield farmers just want cheap transactions and don’t mind much about the security/decentralization of the network, whereas larger traders or those who want to lock larger sums in defi might prefer the security of Ethereum regardless of the headline rates available on new, possibly vulnerable Dapps.

For other examples, take a look through the various articles I have written on Medium, especially as a guide to the narratives that projects are aiming to slot into in the market

Conclusion

Now you have all the tools you need to start building out your network while at the same time practicing and honing your skills as a fundamental analyst

Both of these will help you on your path towards success

One last tip I will give you — have initiative and be nice

So much of what I see and receive myself on Twitter is “Sir, please explain this”

Something that would be easier and better explained by a quick Twitter, Google or Youtube search

Don’t be that guy

Be the guy who replies to other’s questions with thoughtful answers

Reply to messages asking for help with “Of course, what do you need?”

Make a note of things you don’t understand and research them fully. If you’re going to ask a question make it an insightful one, not a basic one

Be the kind of person that people want to come to with interesting information and feel kindly disposed towards offering things to

So now, get off your ass and get to the grind