Surrounding Yourself With Crypto

An effective way to continually learn about a topic is to surround yourself with it. You are consistently exposed to new information, people, and ideas. To surround yourself with crypto information, you need to know where the crypto community hangs out.

*Side note: it helps to understand the slang of those communities.

Twitter

Twitter is where many crypto enthusiasts share their thoughts. Many argue it is the hands down the best place to be in crypto. It is where you can learn about on-the-rise projects, interact with industry leaders, & find opportunities.

To do that, you need to use Twitter in the right way. It is vital to follow the right people. Otherwise, your feed will be filled with fluff.

*If you want to use your Twitter for more than just crypto, we suggest creating a crypto Twitter “list” and adding all of your crypto accounts there. That way you can have a feed that is tailored to learning about crypto.

To get you started, here is a list of our favorite crypto Twitter accounts:

A Twitter List to make it easier here.

More crypto accounts here & here.

*If you want to show the creators of these onboarding docs (Danny & Luke) some love, click on our names to give us a follow 😘

Resource Pools

These links are filled with blogs, videos, & articles on crypto.

Immersion Den - curated & organized list of articles for everything web3

a16z Crypto Canon - a list of crypto readings and resources (2018-2019)

a16z NFT Canon - a curated list of readings and resources on all things NFTs

a16z DAO Canon - a curated list of readings and resources on all things DAOs

Gaby Goldberg’s Web3 Reading List - organized list of her favorite crypto articles

Gemini Cryptopedia - annotated document with links to crypto articles

These resources can fuel a loooong rabbit hole ;)

Newsletters

Newsletters are great for passively learning about crypto. You get someone else to find all of the good info for you and receive the info right to your inbox...pretty dope.

Here are our favorites:

Milk Road - short & easy-to-read about all things web3

Coinbase Bytes - provides you the week’s biggest crypto news

Not Boring - very entertaining (but long) newsletter about web3 & startup strategy

Discord

Discord was originally created for gamers. Eventually, its communication features found its way into the crypto and blockchain space.

There are discords for: trading, NFT projects, DAOs, web3 companies, & a lot more.

Discord is where many people crypto people hangout - especially developers. You can join learn more about the inner-workings of a crypto community or NFT project. It is a good way to peel back the curtain & interact with crypto enthusiasts.

You can find discords from many of the above resources. But, here are two to get you started:

Join the Illini Blockchain Discord Server!

Check out the Illini Blockchain community on Discord - hang out with 162 other members and enjoy free voice and text chat.

discord.gg

Join the @NFT (Verified) Discord Server!

Check out the @NFT (Verified) community on Discord - hang out with 63,051 other members and enjoy free voice and text chat.

discord.com

Check out all of these resources for quality crypto opinions. With that being said, do not treat anyone as an all-knowing resource. The industry evolves fast and somewhat unpredictably. Nobody can predict exactly what will happen. So, it’s important to do your own research. Let’s talk about how to go about doing that.

How To Do Your Own Research (DYOR)

As with most things, you don’t just want to read someone else’s thoughts. You want to create your own. By making predictions and tangibly seeing the flaws in your logic, you learn faster.

So, how do you DYOR?

This Whiteboard Crypto video does a great job explaining how to DYOR for crypto investing.

That video covers that basics of researching a token/project.

As a general rule of thumb, the closer you get to the original source the more reliable your info is. But, those original sources can often be technically focused. We ran into the same problem while researching at Illini Blockchain and tried to solve it.

How Illini Blockchain Researches:

At Illini Blockchain, we use blogs & videos (from quality sources) to “prime” us on a crypto topic. Once we have a high-level understanding, we research original sources for that topic/dApp/chain (ex: the company’s website, docs, or whitepaper). Then, we try to explain what it is & why it matters in our own words.

That method works well for us & may work for you.

In addition to doing your research, it is vital to learn by doing. Let’s talk about how to break into web3.

How To Get Involved

Skin In The Game

The easiest way to get involved (and stay involved) is to get some skin in the game. When you have money invested, it’s a lot more motivating to be educated. So, DYOR and put your money where your mouth is. But, make sure you do not need that money! Crypto is volatile and unpredictable. Only invest as much as you are comfortable with not using ever again. But, you can also make money working in crypto. How?

Join Discords/DAOs/Bounty Boards

To meet other people and see a little more under the hood, join the discord of an interesting project.

You can also join DAOs, follow web3 companies, & view bounty boards to compete for available bounties. Bounties are ways for companies/projects to outsource work. It also gives other people a chance to gain web3 experience while getting paid. These projects can range from simple marketing to software development.

Here are some bounty boards to get you started:

Bounty0x Beta - Rewarding the Token Economy

beta.bounty0x.io

Gitcoin - Build and Fund the Open Web Together

Connect with the community developing digital public goods, creating financial freedom, and defining the future of the open web. Earn while building open source public goods projects that matter. Find ways to earn Team up with a community of builders to take on exciting open source projects.

gitcoin.co

Check out this page for resources & job boards for getting a job/internship in web3:

Recap

Surround yourself with people who learn & know about crypto and you will inevitably learn.

The best way to learn is to jump in! Be cognizant of what you are getting into, but learn by doing.

Baaang, baaaang!

You are officially onboarded onto web3. Let’s goooooooooooo!!!!!!!

This is one of the coolest technologies of this generation. Welcome! #WAGMI

If you want to be a part of the Illini Blockchain community, join our Discord & follow us on Twitter.

Join the Illini Blockchain Discord Server!

Check out the Illini Blockchain community on Discord - hang out with 64 other members and enjoy free voice and text chat.

discord.gg

DM us on Twitter if you think we made a mistake somewhere! These docs can always improve & will be ever-evolving!!

We are all gonna make it,

Luke & Danny