"Interview Date: November 4, 2023"
1. You can briefly introduce yourself
Hello everyone, I am Bird Brother, a veteran of Web2 Internet, CEO of Picking Bottle Capital, Alpha Hunter, and the owner of Airdrop Studio. I am good at one-fish-to-many interactions, leading hundreds of people into the wool-pulling industry. I currently have a software company that develops browsers and an airdrop studio.
2. Can you share your opportunity to join the circle?
This is my second time to enter the cryptocurrency circle. There was a gap of two or three years in between. At that time, I didn’t care much about digital currency. I was mainly busy with trading and other projects. The first time I came into contact with Bitcoin was around 2018, when the price of Bitcoin was only a few thousand US dollars. I stayed in North America for a few months and did an e-commerce project related to Lego purchasing. Because foreign exchange was not used much at that time, we needed to pay with Bitcoin, and the price was about more than 3,000 US dollars. Although I had been paying attention to Bitcoin before, the first time I really started was around 2018. At that time, because I was not familiar with the concept of digital currency, I always used RMB to calculate. When I bought it, I spent less than 30,000 RMB per coin and held several Bitcoins. But because I mainly focused on the Lego purchasing business, I didn’t hold it for too long. So when the price of Bitcoin rose to more than 30,000 RMB, I used it to pay for Lego.
The second time I entered the circle was because of a browser product of our company, which some users used to make money. This started in the second half of 2021, and we had some contact with the currency circle through this product. I began to pay attention to this industry and met some friends who had experience in the currency circle, some of whom specialized in airdrops. They made a lot of money in the currency circle, which made me very interested in this field. In the second half of 2021, I decided to devote myself to this field full-time, set up a team, and participate in the interaction of various projects in batches. We got a lot of airdrops, and the most impressive one was a project. At that time, we participated in their test network and got a large number of APT tokens. This was the first time we got a large number of airdrops, about 5,000 coins, worth about 50,000 U. Later, we also participated in the airdrops of some other projects, including the secondary airdrop of OP and the most airdrop of ARB this year. Excluding the accounts of witches, there were about 200 accounts, totaling about 150,000 U. In addition, there are some local dog projects, such as Aidoge, and we also successfully received airdrops and sold tens of thousands of U.
This year we participated in SUI’s ICO. The rules are very simple. You only need to add your Discord account to the official account before the designated time and pass the verification to be eligible for purchase. At that time, the unit price was 0.01, and each account could purchase up to 1,500 SUi. We got a lot of accounts and sold some off-site. Because purchasing tokens requires an exchange account, we had about a dozen accounts at that time, with a total of less than 20,000 SUIs. At that time, I exchanged about 20,000 U. In the past six months, we have participated in the Inscription track, including Bitcoin BRC20 Inscription and Ethereum ETHS Inscription. At that time, we thought that we had cashed out these investments at a high level, but now I think we have sold them out.
What I regret most is that we bought Eths at that time. That night, we also bought dozens of them off the market, about forty or fifty. The purchase price was 30 to 35 U each, and later we sold it for more than 200 U, making a total profit of more than 10,000 U. However, the peak value of Eths has risen to 6,000 U. At this price, we may have an income of about hundreds of thousands of U. At that time, if I tried to close the deal, I could still receive about 200 tickets outside the venue. According to the current price, for 4000U per piece, we still have considerable income. Unfortunately, we did not seize this opportunity in time. In the past two years, we have participated in the airdrops of many local dog projects and received a lot of income of hundreds of thousands of U. Currently, these revenues sustain the daily operations of our team.
Core content: When purchasing Lego in North America in 2018, Bitcoin was used to pay for the goods. The second time I entered the currency circle was because of the company's browser product. In the second half of 2021, I started to devote myself to the currency circle full-time. Through the team's batch participation in the interaction of various projects, we received many airdrops, including testnet APT tokens, OP's secondary airdrop, and ARB's airdrop, totaling around hundreds of thousands of U. He successfully participated in SUI's ICO and other projects. In the past six months, he participated in the new activities of Inscription and BRC20, and finally sold these assets. What I regret most is that I bought dozens of Eths and sold them for more than 200 U, making a total profit of more than 10,000 U. However, the shipment was early and I made a lot less.
3. What do you think of the development of the hair-dressing track?
In fact, my hair-raising experience only lasts for a little more than two years. We have not participated in many related projects before, but through these two years of experience, I think airdrops are a major marketing tool for Web3, and its distribution method is also a key factor, so I think this track will definitely continue. However, these methods of obtaining airdrops or airdrop allocations will continue to be updated and iterated. Because the project team’s previous review of users was not strict enough, many hair-raising studios have obtained a large number of account and token distribution qualifications. In the future, it may be relatively stricter and more formal, using different methods for airdrops.
For coin flipping, I think cashing out in the bull market is a very good strategy. At least for early-stage investment, this is a relatively safe choice. So far, we have mainly focused on early alpha opportunities, including fixed investment in the secondary market, and do not touch high-risk things such as contracts. Because we cannot bear this risk, we can only control the risk within our cognitive scope and choose some tracks and projects with controllable risks. I think airdrops will still be a relatively considerable long-term investment strategy in the next three to five years. Compared with other cryptocurrency investment methods, airdrops have a higher rate of return and relatively lower risks.
Core content: I have been in the cryptocurrency circle for more than two years. I think airdrops are the main marketing method of Web3 and are sustainable. The airdrop distribution method will be updated and iterated, and may be more strict and formal in the future. Cashing out in a bull market is a relatively safe strategy. Focus on early alpha opportunities and fixed investments in the secondary market to avoid high-risk contracts. Choose tracks and projects with controllable risks. I believe that airdrops will still be a considerable long-term investment strategy in the next three to five years.
4. In the airdrop track, which project are you more optimistic about?
At present, the development of Web3 is mainly focused on infrastructure, such as public chains, storage, defi, etc. I pay more attention to these aspects, including the large number of accounts we currently hold and the projects we participate in. Most of them are in the infrastructure field. A lot of gas fees are mainly spent on these projects. Of course, some cross-chain protocols are occasionally involved, but they also belong to the category of infrastructure. In my opinion, the entire development of Web3 in the past two years is still in a very early stage, so at this early stage, we should focus on the development of infrastructure.
Core content: I personally pay more attention to the development of Web3 infrastructure. Currently, I hold a large number of accounts and participate in projects mainly in the infrastructure field. Although it occasionally dabbles in cross-chain protocols, etc., overall, the development of Web3 is still in its early stages. Therefore, I believe that progress in infrastructure should be focused on during this period.
5. Can you share an experience that impressed you?
Our activity of hair-raising was actually inspired by the cases of several friends. I have a friend in Shanxi. At that time, he was engaged in hairdressing alone without forming a team. I remember a case from the year before last, when this field was very popular. He participated in two projects, one was Moon Bird and the other was Takashi Murakami's "Village Flower" project. I remember that the floor price of these two projects was about ten ETH, and he held about ten or twenty ETH at that time. At that time, they were all obtained through community draws and filling in email addresses. So when I heard about his case, I thought it would be quite simple for us to participate in this way of community involvement. He only needs to fill in a large number of email addresses, and there is a certain probability that if he wins the lottery, he may get more than a dozen ETH in return, so the total value of what he had in hand at that time may have reached hundreds of ETH. Then he has been engaged in project interaction for the past two years. Before the airdrop, it was like picking up money. You know, just by adding a few email addresses, you may be included in the whitelist of a project. The cost is very low, and you may have an NFT with a floor price of more than ten ETH. Another friend is in Chengdu, and he is very famous in the industry. I have chatted with him several times on WeChat. His most successful case was that more than 500 accounts were whitelisted in a project, and each account had about 1500 to 3000U in return. In other words, more than 500 accounts participated in the test network, including some node and interactive test network accounts. This time it had a great impact on the entire airdrop circle, even the B circle.
So knowing the stories of these airdrops, many people have come all the way through FOmo and entered this circle, and I am one of them. At the beginning, I heard that they were hanging out in the community, and finally got the whitelist of NFT projects, and even many of the leading items were worth a few ETH or even dozens of ETH. Of course, I have also contacted many people, some of whom added me on WeChat or followed me on Twitter. Some of my friends lost a lot of money in contract trading and then hoped to make up for their losses by participating in airdrops. I have heard too many cases like this. Some people may lose dozens of dollars, and some may lose millions of dollars. I also have a student who I took with me to participate in the airdrop. He invested in several projects in 2017 and told me that his assets at that time were about 100 million yuan. Later, there was a correction, and in the end there was probably tens of millions of yuan left. I come across cases like this every day.
Another aspect is that because I have 18 years of experience in the Internet industry, I met Du Jun, the co-founder of Huobi, around 2007 and 2008. He was working as a product manager for a Discuz company. He later joined Tencent after being acquired by Tencent. In their early days, they mainly invested in digital assets that could not be seen or touched, such as investing in some QQ numbers or special email accounts and mobile phone numbers. They then turned to domain name investing and gained many successful experiences in squatting domain names. As far as I know, he may have made hundreds of millions of dollars in this area. He started looking into cryptocurrencies and I was influenced by him. Following this approach to digital assets, they have further extended into investing in Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies. Later, he and Li founded Huobi, which had a great influence on me. This made me determined to be deeply involved in encryption and the digital economy in the future.
Core content: I came into contact with the airdrop field and was inspired by the success stories of my friends. One of them was an individual in Shanxi who participated in projects such as Moon Bird and Village Flower and successfully obtained high returns. Another person got more than 500 account airdrops through the aptos test network in Chengdu, and each account returned 1500 to 3000U. These cases affected the entire airdrop circle and attracted me to enter. I hear many stories every day about people who have lost money in contract trading and want to make up for their losses through airdrops. My Internet experience also allowed me to meet Du Jun, the founder of Huobi. His digital asset investment experience had an impact on me and made me determined to participate deeply in encryption and the digital economy.
6. Can you share your investment experience?
To be honest, I have relatively little involvement in the secondary market. I often joke with some fans, including saying in my signature on Twitter that our family has an ancestral motto: "If you don’t pick up money when you go out, it will be lost." To me, in the currency circle, there are many low-cost arbitrage or money picking. Opportunities, especially with early-stage alpha projects and airdrops, that's been most of my personal experience. I mainly focus on the mining of early projects, airdrop strategies, and related interactions. Because people's time is limited, some people may be very knowledgeable about quantitative trading strategies, some are good at playing with contracts, and some are deeply involved in the media circle or project meetings, focusing on policy-level research.
I mainly focus on early stage investment, and I think there are many opportunities for Web3. I check many projects every day, and I will accumulate thousands of projects in a year. We have an internal channel to collect early alpha opportunities online and share some activities and interaction strategies. If you accumulate a few pieces of information every day, you will find that there are many opportunities. Over the past two years, it is not easy for me to feel FOMO because of missing a project. I think it’s okay to miss out on a project because the next opportunity is probably just around the corner. In a year, it is enough to seize one or two big opportunities. I have invested in some projects before, and generally speaking, the returns were roughly the same. I have participated in some local dog projects, which are basically at the same level. Because compared to secondary market investment, my risk appetite is relatively low, and I may not be able to obtain too high returns, and good projects may not be able to win the final prize.
Core content: I have less involvement in the secondary market and focus on early alpha projects and airdrops, as well as interactive strategies. Pay attention to Web3 opportunities, accumulate thousands of projects every year, stay calm, and don't FOMO easily. As long as you seize one or two opportunities every year, the investment experience will be roughly the same, and it will also be basically the same for local dog projects. Relatively conservative with low risk appetite.
7. Do you have anything you would like to share?
Through these two years of experience in the airdrop field, I have found that the alpha information on the chain is very important. Many popular projects usually only allow one night, so you need to participate in the project very early to have a chance to get high returns. Therefore, my focus is mainly on the collection of early alpha information. However, because we did not develop relevant on-chain monitoring systems before, we missed many opportunities. Therefore, one of our main tasks recently is to develop two sets of monitoring systems. One monitoring system is on-chain contract monitoring, which can track contract activities. The other is keyword monitoring, mainly used on social media, especially Twitter. Social media is often one of the main channels for obtaining alpha information. Although Twitter's information is relatively timely, since the KOL's information may not be timely enough, we need to verify the authenticity of the alpha information through Twitter to decide whether it is worth investing time and energy. These two monitoring systems assist each other and help us better grasp early alpha opportunities. This year’s task is to improve and complete these two monitoring systems before the bull market next year, so as to try not to miss any potential alpha information.
Core content: Through the experience of airdrops, it is crucial to discover the alpha information on the chain. Paying attention to early projects requires participation in a short period of time, so focus on the collection of early alpha information. Due to the lack of monitoring system before, many opportunities were missed. The current main task is to develop on-chain contract monitoring and keyword monitoring systems to better track early opportunities. This year’s goal is to perfect these two monitoring systems before the bull market to ensure that no potential alpha information is missed.
