I have long wanted to write an article about how to learn about the crypto industry at different stages from novice to OG, but I have never found the time to write it.
It just so happens that there is nothing much to talk about the current market situation. At the same time, there are quite a few newcomers in BRC20\MEME and the market due to BTCETF, so we can talk about it.
Most of the new friends have no idea about finance or the industry, so it is very easy for them to fall into various traps. At the same time, many friends want to learn about the industry, but they suffer from the lack of learning channels or reliable "tutorials".
Given that Akong has been engaged in traditional VC for the past seven or eight years, and has been engaged in crypto investment for five or six years, and has achieved certain results in investing in the crypto industry, (for my experience, please refer to this article "Summary of a 10,000-word long article: Disclosing my experience in traditional and... in the past six years")
I think I should be able to write a relatively complete and correct article for everyone to learn about and invest in the entire industry.
This article is for beginners, that is, friends who have been in the industry for 0-1 years, how to improve themselves.
The crypto market is somewhat different from the stock market. Behind the stock market are companies that are more or less related to life, while the various projects in the crypto industry have almost no intersection with past work and life.
So when newcomers enter the crypto market, there are two things they need to understand: one is the crypto trading market, and the other is the crypto industry itself.
The first thing we need to learn is to read the K-line. The K-line will show the opening price, closing price, highest price and lowest price of the day.
Connecting the K-line of each day in the past will form a K-line chart, which can help us understand the price changes of the project. Remember, don't use it to speculate on coins!
Therefore, it is enough to read one book, namely "Japanese Candlestick Chart Technology". You don't need to read too deeply, otherwise you will get stuck. After reading this book, you will understand the principle of K-line technical analysis: that is, all technical indicators are actually based on the summary of past K-line changes.
Secondly, everyone needs to read "The Intelligent Investor" and Buffett's "Letters to Shareholders". If you have a certain reading ability, you can also read Max Weber's "The New Religious Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism".
The author of "The Intelligent Investor" is Buffett's teacher. It is used to understand the outline of the capital market and basic investment knowledge.
"Letters to Shareholders" can help you understand more about how Buffett views the value of a company and his detailed investment ideas.
"The New Religious Ethics and the Spirit of Capitalism" explores the origins of capitalism and investment.
Of course, if you lack reading ability, I recommend watching various interview videos of Peter Lynch. These things will tell you that the essence of investment is to take out a little money to invest in a certain opportunity and wait for a while.
At the same time, you will also understand that the capital market is a market with ups and downs and full of violent fluctuations.
Watch less stuff that teaches you how to get rich overnight, and look for more videos of people going bankrupt due to failed gambling and investments, and going bankrupt.
In short, in the first year, you should establish relatively correct investment concepts and awe, and have a comprehensive (not necessarily in-depth) understanding of finance, economics, and capital markets.
The second thing is understanding the tools.
The first is the trading platform and exchange outside the blockchain.
The crypto market does not fall under the securities market as defined by law and cannot be traded directly with money. Instead, it needs to be converted into stablecoins and then traded on an exchange.
In view of the instability of the industry and the numerous frauds, we must use the NO1 exchange and complete all transactions within the exchange.
Exchanges all have built-in candlestick chart displays. When you first enter the market, you only need to pay attention to BTC and ETH. Because the total market value of the entire crypto market, they account for more than half, and their movements are almost equivalent to the movements of the crypto industry.
You need to learn how to use the exchange, including how to trade, how to transfer, how to withdraw coins and other key functions. Don't try to understand all financial derivatives such as contracts and options. I won't go into details about this, you can find an assistant if you need it.
Once you are familiar with the functions of the exchange, you will start to learn how to use the various tools in the blockchain. But before that, you need to have a general understanding of the blockchain.
At this point, we need to start to seriously understand the industry.
There are a lot of "technical terms" in the crypto industry, many of which are useless. We need to simply understand the principles of blockchain.
First of all, the principle of Bitcoin. The most direct way is of course to read the Bitcoin white paper. Some people cannot understand it, so you can watch Li Yongle’s video explanation, which is about 30 minutes. After watching it, you will have a general idea.
Of course, when reading the Bitcoin white paper, watching the movie "The Big Short" will be of great help to your understanding of decentralization and centralization. You can also refer to my article: "Bitcoin is entering an unprecedented cycle"
The second is the Ethereum white paper. The Ethereum white paper is very long. Focus on three points: what problems it explains in the industry, what vision it wants to achieve, and how to achieve it. "My view on Ethereum: 5 years, 100 million, 30X."
The key points are: private key, public key, cold wallet, hot wallet, token. These are the most basic things that must be understood. Once you understand the principles of these things, you will avoid many pitfalls in the future.
Private key & public key: The public key and private key are two corresponding password pairs. You don’t need to understand the public key, but you must remember the private key. It is your password, and it is a password that anyone who knows the private key can take away your wallet. The mnemonic is equal to the private key. In the entire blockchain, the most important link is how to protect your private key.
Cold wallet & hot wallet: An online wallet that stores various digital currencies. A hot wallet is one whose private key contacts the network, while a cold wallet is one whose private key does not contact the network.
Token: A tradable token issued by a project, similar to stocks issued by a listed company. However, holding shares is equivalent to being a shareholder of a company, while holding coins is not equivalent to being a shareholder of a crypto project.
As for other things, such as public chains, DeFi, NFT, etc., which are different sub-segments in the crypto industry, you don’t need to understand them for the time being.
After understanding the principles of these tools, you should start to use them. Here are two wallets recommended: imtoken and metamask.
imtoken is the most convenient Ethereum wallet (multi-chain wallet) on mobile phones, and metamask is the most convenient Ethereum wallet (multi-chain wallet) on the web. You must learn how to use them.
Note: The tools mentioned above must be downloaded from the official website. Because these are the tools for storing your token assets, you must ensure their safety to the greatest extent possible.
I recommend a very comprehensive blockchain anti-fraud manual, compiled by Yuxian's SlowMist team and published on github. It is called **"Blockchain Dark Forest Self-Rescue Manual"** and you can find it by searching on Baidu.
My evaluation of him is that it is extremely comprehensive and a must-read for everyone.
Finally, and what I think is most important, is understanding of the industry and knowledge of investment and speculation.
What does it mean? Investing means being optimistic about the industry. Because it can change life, or will change life in the future, it can bring huge market growth and huge wealth effect, so we can earn this part of the value-added space.
If you don’t even understand what the future of blockchain or Bitcoin will be like, then you won’t be able to make any investment decisions.
Therefore, in addition to understanding the basic knowledge in the first year, we also need to do a few things:
Establish a philosophical understanding of investment. Here is a recommended reading: "Ten Thousand Words Summary: Disclosing My Experience in Traditional and...
Establish an overall understanding of the crypto capital market. Here is a recommended article: "Crypto Survival Rules: Game Winning Rate and Project Fundamentals Research"
Establish a basic understanding of the development of industry trends. "Leading the next era of crypto investment model: "Thin protocol, fat user"".
In the first year of participating in the market, it is definitely enough to complete the learning of the above content.
Here, I specifically did not make any suggestions about buying tokens.
Because when I decided to understand the industry, it was only after I had learned the above content that I decided to start building a long-term position in BTC.
There are too many opportunities in this industry. What determines the final victory or failure is not how early you buy, but what you buy and how good it is.
When you join the market blindly without basic knowledge, you will probably be thrilled by the drastic price fluctuations and become addicted to them, ultimately embarking on a path that is farthest from success.
The above are some suggestions I would like to give to new friends. Finally, I would like to share some very subjective but I think it may be the right experience:
Find a goal and act > act aimlessly.
Having skills but no principles will only lead to skills.
Without a global perspective, you will never be able to make the right judgment.
Instead of looking for insider information, it is better to improve your judgment of the information.
This market is a cannibalistic market.
The first year of being a rookie ends here.
Next time I have time, I will update the advanced section and talk about how to improve myself for those friends who have been working in the industry for many years but have not achieved any results.
