My background
First some background about me to give the readers some context about my perspective. I am a software engineer by profession with 5 years of experience. I have a Computer Science degree, always had an itch for having my own startup, but never got around working towards that goal.
So whenever I come to know about anything, be it a new technology or an emerging innovation space, I try to think how to enter into it with the view of having my own startup.
Being pseudonymous
I’ll be pseudonymous on public platforms as I have realized I might have social anxiety.
2017 Crypto Boom
The only thing I knew about Bitcoin was that it is a “cryptocurrency” built on top of a “blockchain” conceptualized by an anonymous “Satoshi Nakamoto”. That’s it. The quoted terms were just that, some terms that I didn’t understand. I never paid more attention to it than that.
Then the crypto boom happened in 2017 where due to FOMO, I put in a little money in a few popular currencies. Then the market crashed, and I decided that I won’t invest in something I don’t understand, to avoid stress. I never really paid attention to the cryptocurrencies after that.
2020-2021 Crypto Boom
My social media feed was buzzing with terms like “blockchain”, “Bitcoin”, “crypto”, “NFT” again. Due to my past failure, I didn’t put my money in any crypto. Instead, this time I began my learning.
I started looking for resources to learn, and by searching on various platforms like YouTube, Twitter, and Reddit, I stumbled upon material.
First was this video from the YouTube channel: 3blue1brown, which gives a good basic understanding of Bitcoin. Then, this coindesk article, which showed me the potential of blockchains.
Some more reading convinced me that this tech is here to stay and I then made my first investment in Bitcoin.
Fun fact: I came to know that Ethereum is not a cryptocurrency, rather it is a blockchain with Ether (ETH) as its native currency.
More learning
Here is the list of resources I went through. I don’t remember how I discovered them, though.
- MIT’s course on Blockchain and Money.
- Dapp University YouTube channel, introduced me to the blockchain development.
- Austin Griffith’s scaffold-eth github repository and YouTube channel, which introduced me to NFTs.
- Some twitter threads helped with more resources like The Complete Guide to Full Stack Ethereum Development.
- A series of challenges to hack smart contracts via a Solidity based wargame called Ethernaut.
- CryptoZombies, a gamified tutorial to code smart contracts.
- Balajis.com twitter profile, which gave me motivation and ideas.
Through these resources, I am now able to code basic smart contracts and understand some popular security hacks.
Investment
Now, I am able to make more informed decisions about investing in cryptocurrencies. I started watching YouTube videos which went into a deep analysis of these currencies and then following up with my own reading about those. (I still made speculative/FOMO investments like DOGE).
What am I doing now?
I am pretty comfortable with the basic crypto trading on centralized and decentralized exchanges, and things like staking. I am now learning about Decentralized Finance (DeFi), Automated Market Makers (AMMs), yield farming, protocols like Compound which can give me more returns on my investments.
What does the future hold?
I plan to continue my foray in this space, build my network, and hopefully it leads me to what I always want to do, however childish it may seem to others — a startup.
