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Most valuable users are rewarded. We need to become 'valuable' to whatever we are farming but we don't know the exact definitions of each project, however based on the data of past airdrops we can get a good rough estimate of what we need to do.

Most importantly, we don't want to be labeled as a 'sybil' - when one person or entity creates many fake identities to gain undue influencer or rewards. The easy way to replicate the activity would be through running automated services aka bots yet that would be an unfair way to other participants. That is why there are different criteria that applied to filter those out.

Once you are labeled as a 'sybil', you might be disqualified from most, if not any, future airdrops.

1. Wallet History

Accounts with a rich onchain history are more likely not to be excluded from airdrops and sometimes are even just rewarded because of their past airdrops and because of their history.

It's preferable to use those accounts as long as they are safe (aka you haven't been hacked, drained, etc on those) rather than creating a completely fresh account.

2. Account Age (Months/Weeks/Days)

The cheapest metric to hit and all it requires bridging as early as you can to get it going.

Ideally, you'd wanna have 9-12 distinct months on all accounts. Distinct weeks and days are up to you, ofc the more the better. Try to aim for multiple.

You want your activity to be spread out and not all done within 48hours after bridging or just in any other slot, while it's blank in other days.

3. Bridge Volume

I personally use main bridges (in), just in case but also 3rd party ones. The criteria has been mostly around the volume bridged rather than amount of times.

I'd advise to have a total bridged at least over $1k. It doesn't mean you have to keep it all there, more on that later.

4. Transactions Count

Transactions reflect our activity. The onchain history all put together creates some sorta passport. The more information there's on someone, the easier it is to put a picture.

Usually, there's a very low bound threshold of 4-5 transactions.

More activity based on interactions => more data => more legitimacy => a better chance of guarantied rewards & a chance of higher rewards

We can usually expect tiers of sub 10, 10-25 or 50, 25/50+ and up to 100, afterwards it's 100+.

Make sure to conduct them on distinct months and weeks and it helps us with our account age (#2). You can do multiple on some days as a real user would do but the bulk of them should be spread out.

5. Contracts Count

Contracts count is similar to transaction count yet it is a more challenging variation. It is harder to achieve having lots of unique contracts. It also works as a way to sort out through users that have lots of transactions but lack diversity (more on that in #6).

While they might not be a specified criteria of contracts, we do want to have a variety of contracts. The number is going to be lower than transactions count by the default.

Still, mentally prepare yourself for tiers of sub 5, 10-25, 25-50 and 50+.

6. Diversity

While we can get hundreds of transactions through one contract, it does not create much diversity. The user with onchain rich history is going to be more legitimate and is going to be rewarded way more. That is why it's important to do different yet legitimate activities. And while we are increasing our interactions we might as well do it in the most efficient way possible - by farming the ecosystem protocols that might reward us in the future either through their own airdrops or part of the airdrops that they receive from the chain themselves.

More uniqueness => better diversity

This is where we have to be also mindful of different sectors such as DeFi, NFTs, Gaming, Infra, Bridges, etcetera.

Check out the bonus point at the end that targets the chain diversity aspect perfectly.

7. Volume

Volume is one of those criteria that makes the project looks better. People feel more secure when there is more money tied up and it gives them a feeling of legitimacy. That is why we can understand while protocols reward that, on top of, of course, our usual fight for looking like a legitimate user in protocol's eyes.

Remember, volume is not a static of money amount that you have. You can easily create volume equal to magnitudes of your capital.

8. Identity

The identity part in the decentralized world hasn't really been solved and accessible in an easy way, however there are already some promising options or just options that projects have utilized to distinguish the real users from bots.

Ethereum Name Service aka ENS would be one of those. Owning and ENS name and then having it set as a primary to a wallet can be a decent indicator.

Gitcoin passport is also another solution that tries to identify real users in the space. Owning a passport with above 20 score would be preferably.

Gitcoin donors, mostly on L1, rarely on L2s, can be a good way to

Unique NFT collections by the project themselves such as Libertas Omnibus on zksync or other ones that are also earned and non-transferrable can be used.

Protocol aligned users such as stakers have a good record of receiving airdrops too.

Multisig signers (Gnosis SAFE or just SAFE now) and voters of main big DAOs have been passing the criteria too as it is more likely the holders participate in the governance processes.

There is way more other potential options but those are the most important.

9. Washy Activities

Low cost and low risk repeatable interactions can be and will be voided. Some of those are approvals when it asks for funds to be accessed.

10. Balance

Your balance at the time of the snapshot matters. We know some airdrops have been choosing a particular minimum and filter wallets out.

$50 seems like the minimum to keep on chains, I'd recommend to go for $100+ at all times.

Bonus: Extra Chains

Arbitrum had Arbitrum Nova. Zksync has zksync lite. Polygon has polygon zkEVM right now but it might be reversed in their case.

Those projects focused on a variety of Ethereum scaling solutions and they even went ahead with their mainnet versions but pivoted. Yet we saw that using arbitrum nova gave some exta points for arbitrum airdrop. Thus, it might be valuable to do the same with zksync lite.

You do the same but on 1/10th or 1/100th scale. Quantity and quality of interactions.

Extra bonus: Strategies

There are different strategies: going for quality, quantity, both or other nuanced options. You are the one who has to pick the best strategy for yourself.

Final thoughts:
I hope this gives you a meta framework to navigate the farming aspect and adjust it to your own needs. While farming would be a little bit different when it comes to categories such as NFTs, DeFi, Bridges & more or doing it on a range of multiple accounts, it all still is pretty straightforward at its core.

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p.s. 9 collectibles of this article are up for grabs

You might have gotten a first come first serve (FCFS) or any other not guaranteed whitelist spot.

How are you going to make sure you are a winner and not a loser in the gas wars?

In the next 5 minutes,

you will learn how to set up custom gas settings in the Metamask wallet and then add a better private RPC instead of the default one.

All of that to guarantee the win in the mint process.

Before we dive in, make sure to join the Discord community and subscribe to my newsletter

1. Open up your metamask and click on 'send'.

2. Pick any of your accounts.

3. Click 'next'.

4. Click on the 'Advanced' or whatever setting you have there. Metamask uses the latest version so you might see 'Market', 'Slow', or 'Aggressive' button there instead.

5. Another menu opens up where we click on the 'advanced' again.

6. Now this is where we set the gas settings. After you are done, make sure to click the checkmark below to save them.

And it's done

A few words about the fees.

Imagine that blockchain is a freeway and blocks are buses.

The base fee is like a bus ticket. Mint spots are limited and we want to board the first bus, so we are going to increase the fee. Since Ethereum upgrade EIP-1559, we can set the fee as high as we’re willing to pay, but we'll only end up paying the maximum amount needed at the time of a transaction.

For example, you set your base fee to 500 gwei and gas is at 50 gwei when the mint opens. You send the transaction but gas jumps up to 150 gwei—you’ll only end up paying 150 even though your base fee is 500. If you set your base fee at 100 you would have missed the first block (bus) since only transactions at 150 and above are included.

So what about priority fee then?

Our high base fee gives us a ticket to the first bus, however there are more people getting on the bus than there are spaces. So we need to ensure we have a seat. To do this, we are going to give the driver an anonymous tip—that's our priority fee. Unlike the base fee, we pay the full priority fee no matter the outcome. The hard part? We don't know how much everyone else is paying until after the bus is gone. This is where experience comes in handy to know how much to tip. I would set 200 priority for the very hyped mints. Many people put in increments of 50 (i.e. 50, 100, 150, etc). Meme numbers are common too, like 69, 169, etc. Just make sure to always add a bit more (i.e. 100.69 instead of 100, or even better, 102) The goal is to make sure we are in the bus but not tip more than we need to. However, coming from my personal experience, it is always better to overpay than miss your spot because you end up losing the gas fee and there are no refunds.

Gas option: this is set by the smart contract you're interacting with and won't affect how quickly you mint.

The best site to check for the current recent gas prices - Blocknative. They also have a handy extension.

Bonus part: setting up a private RPC (remote procedure call)

But first, why do we need a private RPC?

• Faster performance

• More consistent

• Lower latency

• MEV Protection Services (use MEV Blocker RPC for that)

• Avoids congestion (yes it has happened before where Metamask's default RPC went down)

• Advanced features (if needed)

Good RPCs that you can add in one click.

MEV blocker - I would recommend this one, especially for token trades so you are not being front run by bots.

Flashbots - is a good one to use for all other things.

Alchemy - my personal favorite for all other things too but requires a set up as it's private.

1. Go to the website.

2. Click on the 'Get Your API Key'

   

3. Sign up or Sign in.

4. Click on the 'Apps' on the left side, then proceed to click on 'Create new app'.

5. Make sure both Chain and Network are set to 'Ethereum' as shown in the image below. Fill in the Name and Description. Click on the 'Create app' button.

Click on the 'API key'

Having that window open, open up your metamask.

Click on the top left symbol

'Add Network'.

It is going to open up another window.

Click on the 'Add a network manually' at the bottom.

Now fill out the form.

1. Network Name: Anything you want

2. New RPC URL: You get buy copying the HTTPS field from the other window that you have open.

3. Chain ID: 1

4. Currency symbol: ETH

5. Block explorer URL: https://etherscan.io

If you lost the open window, go back to the Alchemy dashboard. Login. Click on the 'API key' to find the HTTPS for your New RPC URL.

You are all set now. Just make sure that you are using the RPC by hovering over the ETH symbol in the top left and it should show you the name of the RPC you just created.

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I've been catching up on some most active dailies in the past week so it made me wanna reflect back on past, especially crypto bull runs and lessons learned.

Unfortunately, I don't have the links to the exact comments but if you read the dailies you'll remember.

1. It takes 3 crypto cycles to become wise and know how to play.

After reading that one I actually realized I made the moves for the first cycle selling and it was a pretty good decision.

• I tried getting curious about why I did that. In hindsight, it seems it was easier to sell, at least a lil bit, when an investment goes x40-x100.

• When blowoff top happens, most gains happen within days if not hours. I remember selling btc at 10k and thinking it was stupid, only for it to go to 20k the next day and then back to 10k in a few more days. I didn't sell any significant amounts so it didn't affect me much but small profits were also nice to have and realized that I could get real money for crypto, especially back then.

• So you can miss out on unreal exponential gains just by hours. What's even worse, you can tap out from the whole thing in months. I had met people who had insane amounts of btc coins at that time and who were selling. Fast forward 6-8 months later, the price is x20-x30 and those people completely missed out on the profits while they held for years and bear markets before.

2. Sell strategy.

• The best one that I personally found after tinkering with things is the Log curve. While laddering would be more linear, log allows you to set your min price, your max price, and what you wanna get in totals for your amount, you plot the graph and see how much % at whatever you need to sell while accounting that you might be inaccurate with the max price as it never reaches that peak amount.

3. Your sell strategy is not a guarantee.

• So last bull market I had my strategy, I plotted different graphs and made sure that if the price doesn't hit insane targets I would still sell enough for it to play out. Well, my strategy didn't work out at all. I don't think I had any insane targets, I didn't wanna sell too early but also wanted to get at least something decent for myself. Targets of 300k btc weren't that crazy, altho on the way crazier side. 180k seemed like a reasonable price. What about 100k? That shit was guaranteed as a day. When btc was at 50k I heard so many people saying 100k is inevitable and they'd rather get a btc than a Tesla or smth. Btc didn't even hit 70k.

• This also kinda goes back to some points of the 1 topic. It's different being in the first bull market compared to the next ones WHEN you didn't sell the tops before. Last bull, btc hit a mere x3ish compared to the previous top. Doesn't make you feel like it's going parabolic yet when before it would do x17 from the previous top.

• I'm nowhere a pro in markets nor do I claim to be but I guess it's been clear that markets have been changing and 'this time it is different' actually makes more sense. Things are different. Bear and bull markets are different. This is the first bear we went below ATHs of past bull runs. There are many more factors including tradfi players entering more. And at the end of the day, the sample size is too small to base it on. And since we are here understanding the value of Ether compared to Bitcoin and other alts, I feel like it only makes it clearer that things are still different and markets are more irrational than they are.

Community can be a strong point of an NFT collection.

Yet that's not the case with the ENS digit clubs.

There's the ENS community which is probably the biggest one due to the supply of the collection but that's different than ENS digit clubs.

It's def way easier to see that with the 999 due to supply.

1. There's no founder.

It has both benefits and disadvantages.

The easier way to view it as a DAO.

It is hard for a strong community to exist since there's no leader, no promises, no roadmap, nothing.

On the good site, it makes it unruggable.

Luckily, there's the ENS team and DAO that deliver things to the whole ENS, thus still delivering value to the 999 & 10k cause those happen to be ENS too.

2. Members are spread out.

Whatever communities exist. They are spread out across multiple socials: discord, twitter, wechat, etc.

So not only it's decentralized as a DAO it's also way too separated.

3. No alpha.

Any unique type of value ranging from any information to strong opportunities through relationships does not really exist.

When I joined in mid-May last year, discord was so empty compared to other places and it went nearly dead after that.

10kclub was a bit more active but nothing substantial, just noise.

Value can exist outside of financial alpha: connections, networking, relationships, experiences and so on.

4. Unique value proposition is non-existant.

it does not really matter whether you rock a 3, 4 digit. As long as you rock ENS, you are part of the ENS community and that's the best bang for your buck as 5char+ renewal is only $5/y.

Joining digits club is cool but nothing spectacular.

------------------

There are definitely exist reasons why 3 and 4 digit ENS are valuable and will potentially be even more valuable in the future.

However, do not fool yourself into thinking that there's any specific community value. Sure there was some occasional clout when digits had their pump but it still wasn't worth the investment if you were going to buy just for that.

But what about the ENS digit members who are still active, visit and host 10k and other spaces and so on?

Well it should tell you more about those individuals and how much time, energy and resources they put out.

In other words, it raises the bar of those people because of their actions, but that does not mean it raises the bar of the club, altho they can influence it a bit.

Personally, it shows me that those people are more respectable, committed, passionate and mean business when it comes to digits. It tells me about them, not the digits club.

I'm lucky to have found my core community before getting into NFTs and I hope others would be able to find the same within the space whether it's a specific NFT community or a group of friends within the space.

There are great people to connect and be friends!

And I'm asking you to evaluate and maybe even raise your standards for communities you are a part of cause from my experience most communities are shallow, again except for some people there who try to carry them.

And, well, it makes me think that maybe I should write another post outlining what makes a good community good and why the majority of communities just happen to have types of people in quantities that are not a recipe for great communities.

What makes a community good in your opinion?

I listened through it all so you do not have to,

Here are the most important things that happened there:

1. Unstoppable Domains (UD) had a presentation about web3 domains.

It was followed by a long Q&A.

2. Web2 domainers emphasized that renewals are an important part of domaining.

3. Centralization (& willingness to have some control) has been brought up many times in different shapes and forms.

4. The next ICANN auction is in 2026 which is quite far in the future given the speed of the development in the web3 space.

There was another presentation that just covered the basics of name services and what they call alternative name services that provide the same utility yet do not rely on DNS.

1. ENS was mentioned there more and looked into some stats.

2. Their general conclusion was that blockchain technology is useful to DNS.

3. One person proposed to use the terminology of 'wallet names' instead of 'domain names' so there's less confusion for the masses.

Source: https://icann.zoom.us/rec/play/d2ntifXvwORMeiJIsMPMGLezdq0SeAcNciR2zeEsOivKcB9ZHM87R4excrtoiVf5o9MRyEuoZEtkhIFM.-gBygoB8M6bHAnS3

Day 403

One of the coolest experiments I've been and am part of!

1/32 multisig

what does it mean? anyone from 32 people can grab that sweet 1.16 WETH whenever they want!

the best part? our buy-in was whatever we wanted above 0 (most did 0.01 ETH).

the tricky part? you promised to never sell the NFT for any price.

why? well it shows you those who can keep their word, for how long but, most importantly, for how much.

and the most legitimate part? all of that is onchain!

So far 32 of us have lasted more than a year proving that our word is worth something, more than money. at least more than 1.1616 WETH, and that's at the peak of a bear market, with everyone facing their own difficulties.

And yet, no one has decided to sell out for... just 1 ether (which can be a lot in certain circumstances and we wouldn't shame the person who decides to do so)

While I've never been tempted to claim that free 1.1ETH, I'm still curious to see how long we'll end up lasting all - 32 - together.

All it takes is 1 person and yet here we are

Would you play this game?

Here's a great option - mullvad VPN for 1 month - $5.24

Become a Norway tourist!

Go to genesis. celestia. org

Click on check TIA eligibility

Pick an option to do so - I'm doing it manually.

Once eligible connect your metamask and sign in.

Sign into a metamask.

Sign a signature.

Claim TIA

Install Leap

Import from Wallet (Leap)

Claim tia!

They have a video and are doing a 4-article series.

The first one - The Big Shift - was released back in 2022.

Let's see what they understand.

New web - new rules.

New verification methods that are more secure, trustworthy and easier to use.

Prior to the blockchain and even so far, the digital online world has been copying the physical world leading to many issues around identity pieces:

• unsecured communication

• inefficient and dangerous practices

• stolen identities

• much more

Web3 - introduces new possibilities.

They clearly understand how web1 changed the world through e-commerce and how web2 sparked innovation through the rise of social networks and user-generated content.

What about web3? It brings the pieces of:

Decentralized system:

• Digital ownership of your data

• Ownership of your assets

• Flips the relationship between companies and users

• Adds more cross-platform utility

• Adds provenance

• Adds immutability

That means web3 can bring another magnitude of innovation:

• Streamlining online business models (less friction for users)

• Saving time (reduce verification times)

• Making proving easier, more secure and private

• Reducing costs and unlocking more liquidity (faster and transparent public services)

For all of that to work we need to Update our Digital Identity.

That's where Decentralized Digital Identity comes with a range of benefits:

• Sovereignty (you have control and choice of your data)

• Security (no points of failure)

• Immutable and irrefutable (highly trustworthy information

While all of that sounds good, it's a very complex challenge to bring all the pieces together.

This leads us to their second article - Assessing Web3's Identity Building Blocks - was published sometime in 2023.

First of all, they are reiterating their points from the first article.

But now they are getting a bit more specific and tangible.

Starting with an overview of the digital identity landscape and highlighting 4 essential building blocks.

1. Identifiers aka everyday tags:

• Names

• Email addresses

• Accounts numbers

• Social handles

• & many more

Web3 ones are:

--- Ethereum Naming Service (ENS)

• Turns 42-character Ethereum public address into a human-readable name

• Represents multifaceted identity

• Includes a variety of blockchains

• Utilizes offchain information

• Includes website URLs (domains)

• All other identifiers

All of that is in one name!

--- Lens handle

• A user profile on the social graph of Lenster, Lenstube, etc

--- Other naming services as identifiers (Unstoppable Domains and others)

DIDs (Decentralized identifiers) are fundamental blocks of the self-sovereign identity (SSI):

• uniqueness (no confusion)

• provability (proof of ownership)

• portability (owned by an owner and cannot be deleted, cross-platform usage)

It's just a sneak peek and more is coming in the next article!

2. Identity attributes (attestations of facts or data points):

Examples:

Proof of Humanity (PoH) - Ethereum-based social identity verification system

Soulbound tokens (SBT) - public, permanent, non-transferable NFTs that can represent a person's digital identity attributes onchain.

Verifiable Credentials (VCs) - A W3C data model for sharing and verifying identity credentials that can be stored offchain allowing for privacy and scalability.

3. Reputation

It is a key part of one's identity and makes us who we are.

POAP (Proof of Attendance Protocol) is a notable example of this.

4. Digital collectibles and assets

NFTs contributing to one's identity:

• profile pictures (PFPs)

• digital art

• in-game items

• membership NFTs

• & more

Digital Identity can bring all the pieces together.

To gain scale and mass adoption, it's crucial for wallets to enable a seamless building of one's digital identity.

Account Abstraction (AA) solves some of those challenges.

Combining 4 of the essential blocks (Identifiers, Identity attributes, Reputation, and Digital collectibles & assets) with one another, can form a holistic identity.

Onyx's experience with Decentralized Digital Identity:

• observing the DID space from 2017

• identified use cases

• built concept solutions

• explored digital identity for institutions on public blockchains and experimented with VC and DID technology through a collaboration with the Monetary Authority of Singapore and SBI Digital Asset Holdings

• remain open-minded and continue exploring other methodologies for a variety of use cases

The conclusion of this article leads back to their digital identity part of the site.

They have a range of documents on other web3 and crypto-related topics.

It is obvious, that they are not thinking about Digital Identity in isolation as they are aware of nuance niches within web3 such as metaverse, DeFi, and even real-world assets.

They clearly articulate how it can be helpful for:

• online interactions (ownership, portability, security)

• creators (by moving platforms)

• gamers (asset-interoperability)

• real-world applications

In navigating the rich space of Web3, JP Morgan Onyx lays a strong emphasis on the transformative power of Decentralized Digital Identity. Their explorations highlight the potential that comes with blending digital identity with emerging tech realms like metaverse, DeFi, GameFi, SocialFi and the tangible world itself.

What else do you already see that JP Morgan Onyx still doesn't?

Original source

In the years prior we had:

✅2017 ICOs

✅2019 Defi & Yield Farming

✅2021 NFTs

What can we see emerging in 2024-2025?

NFTs can still be paving the way.

But it doesn't mean it has to be PFPs.

It can still be tied to the NFT tech.

Something like a Decentralized Identity fits perfectly!

How so?

• Onchain identity is needed and applicable to everyone

• Ownership

• There's a stigma around NFTs yet it doesn't need to be mentioned and we are talking about identity

• SocialFi is starting to take off

• Identifier is helpful for future applications

But what about GameFi❓

Many people think it would be the next hot thing!

The tech isn't quite ready yet.

2027-2028 looks better for that when Ethereum is more scaled and we have privacy options with zero-knowledge proofs

Additionally,

RWAs (Real World Assets) would be also a great fit to gain traction sometime after 2025 till 2028.

Where do you see the biggest potential in the crypto space?

Share your thoughts & predictions below👇

✅Listened to different spaces with polarized perspectives.

✅Checked out different communities with and without bags to see their perspectives.

✅Read through a few different articles.

✅Made my own opinion.

Money vs Values:

-Unless Walmart pulls off the deal, they are gonna be fine

-Bag bias is strong and people can't think critically

-Those who can, don't really care about Values and just playing the financial game

-Given the history within the space, it's clear people don't care about rugs and it doesn't affect the price long-term

-Luca obviously isn't clean

-The defense is 'common knowledge and basically as long as you are not hiding your grifts post-fact when someone calls you out then there's nothing wrong with it

-He's the face of Pudgy Penguins so promoting Pugies with PFPs and content is supporting him too

So if they are gonna be ok financially, what is the issue then?

Personally,

Values > money.

Involvement & association with Pudgy Penguins:

Think of it as a reputation too and, honestly, this is the hardest part for me.

Because in terms of the NFTs themselves, I can just wait for more info and trade it like tokens with pictures.

But I know I don't wanna be associated with or support them.

I had so much info for really great Pudgy Penguins threads that I have yet to post cause I've been procrastinating but now they wouldn't see the light of day.

I got the pudgy literally above the floor and the one that I wanted to specifically create a great friendly presence, especially for normies who are going to be coming in in the next bull market and to share some educational content.

There's a lot more I could write but maybe another part later.

Make your own opinions even if that does not align with much of the space.

People having more power, followers, money, etc does not mean they are better or even just good people. And especially in this space, it seems to be the contrary.

Let me know if I'm wrong somewhere on the Values & Involvement parts and I'd like to argue about that.

But I'm pretty sure my opinions with others still align on the financial part.

Again, it's just to me,

Values > Money

Y'all talk about Authenticity in the space.

Barely anyone walks the talk tho.

3 months from now!

The best time to reevaluate the projects.

So many projects say they are going to deliver. Some even create roadmaps.

Hold them accountable for their promises and what they actually deliver.

3 months is a whole quarter. Some projects might only have these 3 months as they recently released an update, others might have been working on delivering for many months now so take that into account.

Right now is the best time to take notes of where they are at and what they are promising to deliver.

Come back in 3 months to check what they have actually delivered.

You can be bullish af and even have a longer timeline and that's okay.

However, don't be blindsided by the facts when the time comes.

Question things too! Especially if you are already noticing by taking notes of your assets and projects that the crucial pieces and clarity of what they are planning to deliver are missing.

it is okay to take L's and let your Winners run.

If you do it slightly before 3 months then you can Tax loss harvest for this year.

If they are not delivering right now, why would you trust them to do the same in the future?

There's always an opportunity cost.

So reevaluate.

Take whatever L's needed in 3 months.

Turn them into W's!

Keep stacking the W's!

Wait but no one asked???!

That's true!

Keep reading if you wanna learn from my mistakes for free

or

if you'd rather waste thousands of $$$ in the future yourself then, sure, skip it.

So I love the art.

Although mine specifically didn't feel good to rock as a PFP as it looked somewhat bland.

And I'm still bullish on that move to Ethereum, it'd bring more liquidity to them. But the comms from the team give no clarity or info on when is that even gonna happen.

I got in a month before szn3 as I was hoping for the team to show that they can build.

I didn't expect anything crazy.

I just wanted them to show that they knew what they were doing and they could keep building.

Delivering another version of art for Degods wasn't the move.

Nothing has been delivered for y00ts.

While I love the move from Polygon to Ethereum, ultimately, it cost them $3M I think.

Again, not the best financial decision.

But my main issue was the lack of delivery.

Points Parlor seems like a disappointment from the outside.

I can get access to better raffles with projects that have entries of 0.02e.

Vibes have changed a lot as certain strong community members started leaving or stepping out of their positions.

The last point is - too much hype‼️

There was sooo much much on top of delayed and all for...nothing

At least they were aware and acknowledged it so that was a positive IMO.

Going forward hopefully, they'll do less hype and overdeliver but I have not trust in that.

Now if you are holding you are basically betting on them being aware that they shouldn't hype w/o anything, which I think they can do.

What I'm not sure they can do is deliver something meaningful that justifies the price of the assets.

At least right now they are at 33.3%.

We are in the bear market not the bull.

So, yes, the number just doesn't go up for the sake of going up.

Lesson learned to evaluate the team's decisions quicker as I would've been able to sell for a slight profit having done that instead of selling for 1E loss right now.

I still like the art and might buy back in later if they dip to really low levels (prob 0.2-0.3E but it's still a 15k supply w just art and y00ts are not even the #1 priority of the team)

or if the team changes the direction completely and starts building for long-term.

To make Ethereum accessible to more people.

We need a higher throughput and wayyy cheaper fees.

We need a scaling solution.

Here is where Taiko comes in.

But is Taiko?

Taiko is a ZK-EVM.

Key Advantages:

Open Source (anyone can contribute on GitHub)

Decentralized (open to anyone)

Type 1 ZK-EVM (Ethereum-equivalent and allows for maximum compatibility for smooth the building experience while solving blockchain trilemma)

Taiko's Core Principles:

🔒Secure

🔳Minimal

🥊Robust

🌎Decentralized

🥂Permissionless

👥Ethereum-Equivalent

Concerns:

Since it's currently on Testnets.

You are free to play with it however you want.

Once the mainnet rollout starts, important concerns can be highlighted to the corresponding level of development.

Generally speaking, be careful and patient with your funds.

What's next?

Taiko is currently in the Alpha-3 Testnet.

Here's the full roadmap shared.

Mainnet is expected in Early 2024!

Curious about more?

Follow @taikoxyz

Checkout:

https://taiko.xyz/

https://taiko.mirror.xyz/

Consistency

A lot of progress is about practice.

If you do something for a long period, eventually you'll be good at it.

Consistency adds a great challenge.

The reward is the habit that makes things easier as you go.

Some of my Personal Struggles with Thread Writing:

-Spending hours on writing a thread

-Chasing perfection

-Wanting to have a great flow

-Too much info that's left and prob sufficient for 2-3 more threads that are never done

-The opening

-Creating graphics that match

& much more

Change

• Pick 1 thing to improve on

• Be intentional

• Take action (this is where practice comes in)

• Revise

• Rinse & Repeat

Variety

Growth is exploring the unknown not known

Trying new:

-Topics

-Styles

-Formatting

-Storytelling

-Length

It can be:

-Small

-Big

-New

-Emotionally provocative

-Unordinary

-Outrageous

-Gentle

Failure

Most of us are not born being good at skills.

We have to be unskilful before being skillful.

This is when the practice comes in, again.

However, it's also letting suck while learning and letting fail.

Do.

Do more.

Bigger picture

Once in a while,

For me, it would be in 30 days.

It is important to step out and zoom out.

Observe the bigger picture.

See the changes.

Reflect on what has been and has not been working.

The beginning of exploration: identity in a world of social media and its' impact on mental health.

Starting the exploration of Anonymous - - - Public.

Anonymous:

• No personal information shared

• No identifiable characteristics

• Possibly using pseudonyms

No public information, real life identity completely hidden.

And then we have the complete opposite - Public:

• Full name and identity openly shared

• All content visible to anyone

• Associated openly with real-world identity

No extra hidden identity on top of Public. It's just an extra tool.

But is it all?

I don't think so. I view it more as a spectrum and I'm attempting to showcase it here.

We have at least:

Pseudo-Anonymous:

• Some identifiable traits (such as location or interests) but not full name

• Pseudonyms that may be tied to some public information

• Could be traced back to an individual with enough effort

I would consider my own identity to be pseudo-anonymous. And I consider someone like punk 6529, to be a pseudo-anonymous as well. While he's really unknown, including his voice, it's now a solid standalone identity.

Partially Identifiable:

• Profile picture or name that doesn't give full identity

• Limited personal information shared (like first name only)

• Connections with real-life friends or acquaintances

This would also be someone who uses nicknames yet is pretty open with their pictures and other identifiers.

Public but Restricted:

• Full name and possibly other identifying details

• Restricted audience (e.g., friends only on social media)

• Control over who sees content

Right now, we have ended up with this spectrum:

Anonymous -- Pseudo-Anonymous -- Partially Identifiable -- Public but Restricted -- Public

What can we derive from that?

The more you are on the right side, the higher the chance your Real Life and Online social identities are overlapping. They are probably more integrated too as it's more of an addition to your identity. However, I do see scenarios, in examples of famous people, where even with fully public profiles there's more of a divide, boundaries and maybe even compartmentalization between one's identities. There's certain information that stays private as not everything needs to nor fits into the place to be shared publicly.

Now, swinging to the opposite of the anonymous. There's a higher chance of cultivating a somewhat stronger identity. On one hand, it might feel like it's the most authentic version of one yet certain actions and things would not necessarily be done by those individuals if they were more or fully public. Being anonymous might create a higher degree of inner compartmentalization and lead to more of one's fragmentation.

Future exploration.

To explore the depth of the potential impact on mental health, I'd have to introduce other concepts and my experience as I continue practicing being more aware, observing and noting the differences. As I view people as complex and multiple human beings, there is enough room for gaps to exist and more extreme types of environments and additional identities, such as a completely anonymous online one, can create significant rifts in one's internal system.

That's something for the future as we might need to bring up some Systems view or thinking.

As it was said, this is just the beginning of the exploration. And what I'm noticing is that it is going to require me to be more subjective and authentic in terms of bringing my own experiences or the learnings of others that I have experienced or received.

In no shape or form am I going to be turning it into more of a scientific endeavor, at least for now, so even if I end up bringing up more nuanced approaches and understanding of one's own psyche, I'm not going to be referencing any articles and probably no outside resources. It would be more of a 'trust me bro' moment but this is where my personal subjective perspective would come in more handy.

p.s. it is one of the first times I've used chatGPT to help me with writing, more in terms of charting the initial spectrum, that is where it's been more involved. Usually I ask it to help me to proofread, help find the right words and format the structure but this time it also generated the vision spectrum that I envisioned in my head pretty well, I still had to make sure it worked out though.

On Goblintown (May 2022):

My first time fading NFT generational wealth. I was busy doing a good deed during the mint, didn't wanna buy for 0.05e. bought it back in later at 3E when it was bleeding and ended up getting out at 2E. The current FP is like 0.3e.

On degening:

It's fun but also draining, and at some point you've gotta call it quits or balance it better with life. In a way, it's like people who gamble, and all of them, or at least 99%, are going to lose, but they are gambling for entertainment, not for money. Those who are doing it for money are really skilled and serious, and to them, it's a job. Also, degening with friends has been really fun and connecting. A web3 shared activity that keeps on providing a vast and surprising amount of experiences!

On PnDs:

So many people are involved, not just the influencers that are pumping, but all other people that are wanting to make a small amount of money. The most disappointing are the people who already made it long time ago. This kind of thing makes me lose hope in the space, but I'm just choosing to focus my attention on projects that are fundamentally solid, on people and communities that value some things beyond money.

On metaverse:

I used mostly Oncyber, though I have tried out a few other ones, like Decentraland and a few others. Whatever we have right now is not the future, and yet it's a cool way to connect with people. It can give you more than just words, and it's easier to create experiences and memories. Impressive job by oncyber team with all the new functions and improvements. I'm curious to see how things progress.

On registering negatives ENS:

That was probably one of my best calls. I did a long write up for EVMavericks. What I like the most is not just the call itself to do XYZ but the explanation of how to do it technically and how to do it so that it's a value play. I explained EV (estimated value), R/R (risk/reward), and EG (estimated growth) to give more perspective on some money and risk management and how all of that, with a combination of call, can make for a great play.

On The Merge, EIPandas:

That went so smoothly. Also, the party vibe in EVMavericks' voice chat was a blast! Also, EIPandas ended up being a success, and it was such a cool experience. So many great things have been done.

On the FTX fiasco:

I always had a gut feeling about not liking Sam, but there wasn't anything specific that I had a proof proof of nor I cared so much. I chose to avoid all the related things and not endorse whatever things they were doing. It sucks that so many people got rugged.

On Taxes:

Doing taxes sucks a lot. The whole system is just a whole other post. I haven't found any tools that I'm confident will make my job easy next year.

On USDC depeg:

I read it pretty well about people overpanicking and that the peg would be restored, but ended up with an L because I wanted 2-3% more instead of securing an easy 10% within a day. Lesson learned: review the most unexpected outcomes. It's not like Ether going up was thaaat unexpected, but I thought I would offload first thing in the morning on Monday so it wouldn't mooon by that much.

On Withdrowls:

I'm really impressed and proud of Etheraider and NaeNaeBaby for stepping up and just creating such a hit. It is really inspiring to me when people are not only creating but also doing it for the right reasons. I'm so happy to see how the funds are being used to fund public goods right now, too.

On Art - Wavy Ride:

That was a drop for Ethfinance, and although it was not up to my perfectionistic standard, I'm glad I went for it and it's better than not doing it at all. The idea that I got actually ended up being solid; it's more the execution piece that I wish went better.

Well, after I got my neat lion, I started questioning my perspective. It meant something to me and had value. If I was wrong before, I might be wrong about other NFTs too, so I started questioning my beliefs. Now, when it comes to value, most NFT degens will give you this set of answers when you ask them why NFTs are worth something. This list includes:

Art

Lots of people say they buy some specific NFTs for art. But it's clearly not the case when they are planning to resell them. And some of that art is so subpar that it's so questionable. While no one is bound to get NFTs only for art, there's only a few people that I have noticed that do get nice NFTs for art. Most other people who get NFTs for art do so to support friends or because they enjoy more of that personal art work. But you ain't fooling me if you are paying $100k for some ugly monkey, imo, and saying it's just for the art.

Utility

Usually, there are lots of things mixed into this category. Basically, anything that will add a checkmark to XYZ project offering something extra. Some examples: alpha calls, news, some extra picture NFT, some shitty web games, etc.

Community

This is such a valid reason, and I still feel like it's vastly undervalued. Through my experiences, I've only found a handful of communities that are really worth having an NFT just for the community, and that's wayyy more than enough. Unfortunately, many projects, whether consciously or unconsciously, mix utility into them, like promising some events or creating some perks to create a community, but they do not seem as strong.

Investment - speculation

This is where passive income and staking, and all other utilities technically fall into too. However, when it comes to art, some expensive collections might be good investments, but that does not mean that everyone is getting into them to make a profit. Unfortunately, lots of actually valuable NFTs are going to suffer from the vastness of pump and dumps and a variety of cashgrabs.

Overall, the majority of the space is still immature. And if you read my reflection on Attention, you'd probably guess that some crucial points apply to NFTs and their value. Fundamentals?? Never heard of them!! Whatever attention is on, it's your current flava of the week, and it's pumping! The more you try to use logic - the more likely you are to fail to make sense of that!

I'm looking for the next wave of NFTs:

Where great art is more noticed and rewarded.

Where friends' art is more accessible through solid Layer 2's.

Where utilities are actually useful and not so 'placeholder empty promises," while in reality no one cares about those

Where communities are built and fostered before being mixed with a financial component.

And investments. Well, I'm just hoping there are better UIs, more tools, safeguards for new users, and more people who are in the space for something more than just pump and dump projects.

To answer that, I have to go back a lil over a year. That was my pre-EVMavericks, thus pre-NFT, and pre-Web3 era. When I held bitcoin, I did not need to interact with the community; I did not know if there even was a community, just a few forums discussing prices, and that was it. You could learn a few basic things, like decentralization, and start questioning the intrinsic value of everything. Maybe you'd like to make a few friends if you are a non-lurker. I personally haven't really made any friends in those spaces. I was in touch with some online friends who happened to either know or have bitcoin or some other crypto. Although I have seen a decent number of people never come back into bitcoin once they were out at a price below the current one. In retrospect, it tells me it was just about the money, which is a bit sad that it is all that technology was for. I had even discussed some intricacies of faster payments, and my friends from Europe said their systems were sooo much faster than bitcoin that there was just no need for it unless you were into it for investing purposes.

Long story short, while I was staying in touch with a few of those people, I started lurking on r/ethfinance for a few years. I did not meet anyone nor connect with anyone due to me treating subreddit like a lecture and not interacting a lot. Also, the platform itself—Reddit—played a significant role in that too. The only people that I connected with through Reddit were from healing or some therapy related subreddits.

Well, what's happened since I got my Maverick?

I've made sooooo many connections with a variety of people. It would be a loooong list to name all of them. I don't have a deep connection with everyone, and relationships vary. But I'm appreciative of everyone with whom I've interacted and learned something. And I do believe that strong online relationships can translate into real-life relationships too, especially when you are an adult. Moreover, I think that some of those connections are stronger than some of my IRL relationships. The L0 game has given me more insight into trust and a relational approach between people.

696.ᵉᵗʰ (🌸, 🌿)🛸

@696_eth

HOW MUCH is your WORD worth?

All you need to know about Layer Zero (L0) NFT
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25

8:27 PM • Jan 3, 2023

Isn't it amazing how much trust can exist in a trustless world?

I have also become part of a few other communities. Bcard, ENS, to name a few.

I have also experimented with and learned soooo many new things. It's hard to notice them all as navigating the space has become easier and it feels more natural, but I think it will be clearer in the years to come when more people get onboarded, and while I hope that the interface and experience would be better, there would be certain skills, tricks, and, most importantly, valuable lessons and experiences that will stand out to me.

It's been a blast connecting with people, and going forward, I hope to strengthen some bonds, get to know more people, and, eventually, meet some people IRL and share some experiences!

So how would I feel about my experiences if all my bags went to 0?

Well, there are things you cannot buy in this world, they are priceless to me, and community, relationships, connections, and shared experiences fall into that 'priceless' bucket. I would cherish all of those, and I think at the end of my life I would look back and have no regrets and be happy that I realized it relatively early on in life - while I'm still going through the journey.

"A journey is best measured in friends, rather than miles." – Tim Cahill

There's nothing wrong with scrolling through social media, watching stooopid but fun videos, and all of the things in that vein. It can feel really good in the moment too, sometimes not so good, but, most importantly, not fulfilling in the long term.

How the heck does it tie to crypto?

Well, you know how we have cycles. Some of the assets' prices are driven by attention. No one cares that it's not even a meme coin with no utility. But meme coins do better. The same even happened in Tradfi markets with Gamestop's stock a few years ago. It certainly has been more clear with NFTs as they go through the same cycles. Okay, so attention plays a part, but it can't be the sole reason, right?!

Sure! But in the short term, it plays a huge role, thus overshadowing the fundamentals. You can see it with different cryptocurrencies, different NFTs, different communities, and so on and so on.

Now, in terms of personal attention, people are utilizing tools to attract that too since you can monetize your content in some ways. I've been observing and notice that it leads to many folks just spitballing inaccurate information, clickbaity stuff, so to speak. And there's so much focus on providing value, I guess that's the 'ethical' way of farming attention. Maybe it's a little bit better than just engagement farming without putting any thought into things. Additionally, all the attention hits their brains good with some dopamine too! What's not to like about that?! And it can create a loop too. You produce some engagement farming content; it gets your attention and rewards you, thus making you want to produce more of the same. But it can also crumble back down the same way since it's not built on any foundations. But at the end of the day, if you are entering that loop and trying to play that game - you are probably not even aware that you are not actually in control and that you are just another piece of that puzzle that's stuck in that closed, stuck loop. And this type of attention is definitely different from the type of attention that I mentioned at the beginning of the article. Honestly, I digress, folks.

This whole topic makes me think about value, one's own values, legitimacy, and trust. Maybe after going through those, we'll loop back to attention again. For now, though, please be mindful of where and how you spend your attention, you don't have to change anything but be aware. At the end of the day, your attention is a valuable resource. You only have so much time, and where you put your attention can define the quality of your time.