In the battlefield of money and dreams in the cryptocurrency world, paid knowledge has become a hot topic. Some people spend thousands of dollars on courses to learn trading, airdrop harvesting, and DeFi, dreaming of becoming rich overnight; while others scoff, calling it an 'IQ tax', isn't free candlestick charts and white papers attractive? In the era of information explosion, artificial intelligence brings waves of cryptocurrency knowledge, while paid courses claim to 'lead you to buy low and sell high'. Is this truly a shortcut to investment wisdom, or a new trick for capital to harvest retail investors?
Paid faction: Knowledge is the stepping stone to wealth.
Supporters say that the cryptocurrency world is too deep, and paid knowledge is a lifeline. Free information is abundant, but 90% of it is noise - either outdated tutorials or smokescreens spread by big players. Paid content is like 'concentrated dry goods': some people spend millions on trial and error, falling into traps, summarizing the BTC halving rules and on-chain data analysis methods, and you can copy their homework for just a few hundred dollars. For example, during the 2020 DeFi boom, those who understood YFI mining logic easily made dozens of times their investment, while novices struggled to even set up their wallets correctly. Knowledge has compounding effects; the earlier you understand trends, the better you can seize the window of opportunity. Missing one round of the bull market could mean a lifetime of wealth disparity.
More importantly, paying supports quality content. Influencers and analysts in the cryptocurrency world rely on courses to make a living, allowing them to continuously provide in-depth tutorials and real-time strategies. Money is a ballot; by investing in reliable teachers, not only do you save time from aimless searching, but you may also transform from a 'loser' to a 'whale'. As (Optimal Solution Life) says, money is a means, the goal is experience - spending a little money to buy knowledge can lead to the experience of financial freedom, which is worth it!
Free faction: Spending money on courses is not as good as researching on your own.
Opponents scoff: paid knowledge in the cryptocurrency world is mostly 'second-hand goods'. Candlestick charts, technical analysis, project white papers - free tutorials abound online, and paying for them is merely paying an IQ tax. The ones truly making big money are not the retail investors attending the courses, but the 'teachers' selling the courses - they have already achieved financial freedom by collecting course fees. Look at those 'miracle courses': either they teach you to chase highs and get stuck, or they lead you to harvest airdrops at the cost of transaction fees. Even worse, in paid groups, the retail investors take the bait while the big players run away, losing everything.
They also say that the essence of the cryptocurrency world is practice; knowing does not equal doing. No matter how many strategies you learn through paid courses, if you don't engage in practical trial and error or understand risk control, you will still be a retail investor. For example, how many people bought the '100x Coin Secrets' but never learned to set stop losses and ultimately went bankrupt? True investment knowledge is hidden in free lessons from failure; spending money merely provides psychological comfort.
Integrating knowledge and action is the true path.
In fact, paid knowledge is neither a magic pill nor purely a trap. It is a tool, and its effectiveness depends on the individual. The peaks of wealth in the cryptocurrency world are towering, and only a few can reach the top - they not only pay to learn trends and strategies but also dare to engage in practical operations, weather bear markets, and seize bull markets. Teacher Xiao Lai said in (The Truth of Focus) that both knowledge and action have their peaks; there is an ocean between knowing and doing. Those who buy courses without practice are essentially spending money on a 'get rich quick dream'; while those who integrate knowledge and action see courses as just the starting point, with practice being the accelerator to wealth.
Think about those legends in the cryptocurrency world: Vitalik Buterin taught himself to write the Ethereum white paper, and Justin Sun reaped the benefits through marketing and execution. They may not have all purchased courses, but they all understand the importance of investing in their own minds. The significance of paid knowledge is not to make you dependent on teachers, but to help you avoid detours and spend time on trial and error and compounding. Just like trading, buying low and selling high relies not on a single course, but on long-term cognitive accumulation and courage.
Your choice determines whether you are a retail investor or a whale.
There are no free lunches in the cryptocurrency world, but there are also no guaranteed winning strategies. Spending money on courses could be a shortcut or a trap. Are you brave enough to invest money in your brain and then prove its value through action? When the next bull market arrives, will you continue to be a retail investor or stand atop the wealth peak? Let me know: would you pay for cryptocurrency knowledge? Why?
