Author: VINCERO

This is the first article of OP Research in 2023. I would like to tell some stories, share some insights and thoughts, and make a small contribution. Thank you everyone.

  • How did I get into Crypto?

In 2017, I was in Bali. I was considered a Nomad, but I didn’t know what Crypto was. It seemed that I had stepped half a foot into the door of Crypto Nomad.

I lived in a small villa in Bali. Because I liked to meet friends from all over the world and was interested in different languages ​​and cultures, I also worked as a host for CouchSurfing. It originated from providing a place for backpackers to stay. It can be a sofa, a floor bed, or a bed. Whatever can sleep is fine. It is popular among young people and students in Europe and the United States. It is mainly to make friends from all over the world, to deeply understand the local lifestyle and culture, and to save travel expenses. Since I was a host for CouchSurfing, I also joined the local community. There are some activities every week, about travel sharing, cultural exchange, drinking and dancing, etc. They are all young people from all over the world. They are very energetic and very fun.

So how did I get into Crypto? Was it by chance, or maybe destiny?

One night, I went to participate in CouchSurfing's "serious activities" - drinking and dancing (different from the local style of dancing in China, drinking champagne and scratching fingers in the booth, and vomiting all day the next day after drinking fake wine in the nightclub) in a very unique place called Jungle, which is in the rice fields of Bali Canggu. This place is invitation-only and only the local nomads know about it. There are some cool people who are very good-looking and very tall! (I am 186cm tall and I feel weak and helpless in the crowd). They are all artists, hippies, yoga practitioners, backpackers, surfers, and all kinds of people, dressed in strange clothes (people with good figures usually don't wear clothes). Anyway, being cool is the whole thing.

An Indian friend took me there that day and I was her host. She is a fashion designer living in Milan, Italy.

When I first arrived, I was quite socially anxious. It was the first time that I felt weak and helpless. Fortunately, my friend took me along. After a lot of awkward conversations and three rounds of drinks, she said she would introduce me to a friend who was also Chinese and had been her host before. I said what a coincidence, I hadn't met anyone from my hometown this time. Then she took me to the DJ booth, and it turned out to be the DJ who was playing just now - he had long flowing hair, a beard, and well-developed muscles. It was hard to see clearly in the dark, but when I got closer, I thought it was Steve Aoki, my long-lost half-brother.

Then we chatted for a while, what's up homie? What am I doing here, what are you doing here, then the elder brother treated us to a few Tequila shots, and then the feeling came up, and the elder brother began to tell me a story: It turns out that he is Chinese American, not Chinese, and used to work in a Wall Street investment bank. Later, he felt that work was boring, so he returned to Asia and started to be a nomad. DJ is just a hobby. His usual job is to teach others how to make money online (original words: Teach people how to become rich). Does it sound like a scammer? He said he also invests and trades, and then the key point came - he said: "Bro, you know, crypto is the future", I didn't know what Crypto was at that time, I had only heard of Bitcoin, and the media reports at that time were all negative, such as scams and viruses. But I wrote down this sentence, and later I went back to study it myself, and thus opened the door to a new world.

At the beginning, I had no idea what to do. I didn’t major in computer science or finance, so I didn’t know much about the basics and background knowledge. But I majored in natural science, so I had the foundation of mathematics and physics, so it wasn’t difficult for me to learn new things. So I think if you want to work in Crypto, your professional background is not that important. It doesn’t have to be computer science or finance. It’s better to study the most fundamental majors and have a knowledge of scientific thinking. Logical thinking ability, exploration of the essence of the laws of the world, and curiosity to break the rules are more important.

Then I read the Bitcoin white paper. At that time, I didn’t understand the technology and the difficult name of Blockchain, but I was deeply attracted by the story that Bitcoin told: the power, supervision, and centralized institutions of the old world have become corrupt and decadent. The financial crisis of 2008 caused innocent people to lose all their money. People have lost trust in it. The emergence of Bitcoin has brought hope for a new world, and the decentralized future has brought people confidence.

Simply saying，Bitcoin——to make a better world！

Share the TED talks I watched when I first started, how Bitcoin is changing the world and helping ordinary people’s lives, and the most basic understanding of Bitcoin: https://www.ted.com/talks/neha_narula_the_future_of_money

https://www.ted.com/talks/don_tapscott_how_the_blockchain_is_changing_money_and_business

https://www.ted.com/talks/rachel_botsman_we_ve_stopped_trusting_institutions_and_started_trusting_strangers

https://www.ted.com/talks/bettina_warburg_how_the_blockchain_will_radically_transform_the_economy

  • 2017

In the summer of 2017, the first violent bull market started my career as a leek - speculating in cryptocurrencies. I remember that I didn't know anything about it at the time. I just bought whatever I liked based on the name, such as BTC, ETH, NEO, QTUM, BTM, etc. I bought whatever had a sci-fi and cool name. They were all public chains anyway, and I didn't know which one would succeed. I made a lot of moves. I knew nothing about the industry, finance, trading, and the market, so whether I made a profit or a loss was all luck. The money I made by luck, I would lose it by my own ability sooner or later.

It was December. I went to Palau, an island in the Pacific Ocean, to learn free diving. My coach at the time was a world record holder who could dive more than 100 meters freely (I think he already looked like a fish - Aquaman). I lived in a guesthouse by the sea, on the first floor, and then a "very magical thing" happened: one night, the window was not locked, and a dark shadow jumped in and stole my computer bag. I woke up in a daze, but I couldn't catch up, so I had to call the police. The police came but couldn't find anyone. There was no surveillance on the island, and there was no news after a few days. Since the stolen goods could not be found, the matter was left unresolved. The computer was lost, and the wallet was also in it, so the ID card, bank card and cash were all lost. Fortunately, the passport was not lost in the backpack, which was also considered good luck. Thank God, it is impossible to reissue it on such a small island, and it would be very troublesome if it was lost.

Well, I was penniless. This was the first time I encountered such a thing. As a Nomad, I usually pay attention to these safety issues. In fact, the host reminded me to remember to lock the windows. I felt that this island was very safe, so I took a chance. As expected, something went wrong. I also understood a truth: Murphy's Law should be true. If something is likely to happen, it will definitely happen in the end. It's just a matter of probability. Black swan events are inevitable, and the slightest negligence will lead to big mistakes.

When this happened, I had no choice but to return to China. It was almost the Spring Festival at that time. I was grateful to my coach for asking a friend to buy me a $100 ticket (the normal price is $500+) back to Hong Kong. Then I went home to celebrate the New Year. I had nothing left and could only lie down.

So why is this a "magical thing"? At the time, I felt that I was unlucky, but looking back, it was also a good thing, a turning point in my life. If I hadn't been robbed at that time, I might still be wandering around various islands and would not have the opportunity to really enter this industry. Of course, I would have missed the market opportunities later. So, a blessing in disguise? As an optimistic person, think positively about everything. What doesn't kill you will make you stronger.

I’d also like to share a quote here. It’s a bit childish but very passionate. It’s a classic line from Zoro in One Piece:

"Disasters always come one after another. This is the common sense of the world. Don't think that as long as you explain, someone will come to save you. If I die here, it only means that I am just a man of this level."

Life and death are determined by fate, wealth and honor are determined by God.

  • 2018

After the Spring Festival in 2018, I figured it out and decided to enter the Blockchain & Crypto industry. My logic at the time was simple - I believed Bitcoin could change the world, and I wanted to participate in the wave of this era. Moreover, this industry is in its early stages, and once you get on board, you will get bonuses. For those born in the 1990s, this industry may be the only opportunity for our generation. I have started businesses in other industries before, but most of them had no chance in the second half. It was all about resources, relationships, and background, which was meaningless.

It was a coincidence. I saw a job posting on WeChat Moments and a friend recommended me to a startup company. I didn’t think much about it at the time and decided to go all in after talking to the boss once! When I joined, there were only 5 people in the company including me. I didn’t know what the future would be like. There are many startups that have spent all their budgets before the start of their business. So you have to have a good attitude and learn while working hard. If you work hard, you will be defeated. If you hesitate, you will fail!

But I was lucky. It turned out that the bosses were big guys OG. The company became a well-known second-tier institution in the industry within half a year. It was not an exaggeration to say that it was in the top 3 that year. After all, SBF approached us to raise funds in early 2019, and I received him.

Therefore, it is important to have a good company and platform to enter the industry and avoid detours. However, the master can only lead you to the door, but the practice depends on the individual. You must have a strong subjective initiative to continue to learn and progress in the industry. I would also like to thank my previous boss and colleagues for their help. I have benefited a lot from what I have learned from you. Thank you!

My job when I first started was to do BD. I am good at socializing, and I feel that this job is suitable for me. BD work allows me to quickly get in touch with resources and connections in all aspects of the industry, and to have a preliminary understanding of the industry. It is very important to have a macro understanding of its basic operating rules at the beginning. Then it is about how to cash out, quickly accumulate the first pot of gold, and complete the process from 0 to 1. Therefore, it is very important to achieve a stable cash flow. In addition to wages (wages are designed by the economic model of society, and it is impossible to turn over a new leaf by relying on wages), there must be other sources of cash flow, and they must be continuously improved, because cash flow is the realization of a person's productivity, and the law of productivity development must be linear growth, so at least a balance of income and expenditure must be achieved to meet the individual's comfortable living standards.

So the question is, how can we have cash flow other than salary? It is in the industry where we work, not the so-called side job (the so-called side job to make money is completely bullshit. If you work in an industry, you must delve deeply into it to find opportunities. If you just dabble in everything, you will end up with nothing). To put it bluntly and simply, it is - pimping, doing middleman business, which does not require any cost and makes money from information asymmetry, but doing this, personal reputation is very important, and you must abide by the rules. If you mess up once, you may not be able to do it in the future. For example, uneven distribution of spoils, skipping orders, cheating, etc., anyone who does this will sooner or later fall. Therefore, pimping is actually to use industry connections and resources to cash in on information asymmetry. In the process from 0 to 1, it is a process of rapidly accumulating cash flow. With the first pot of gold, there will be enough capital to make money recognized by the market - Beta income and Alpha income. And you will also have the ability to resist risks. Even if you lose money in the market, you can still rely on cash flow to recover, so as not to affect your life, or even bankruptcy and debt.

For me, I actually did this in 2018, because I learned a lesson from the profit and loss of cryptocurrency trading in 2017, and I was robbed and penniless. At that time, I had just started working, and my mother lent me some money to rent a house. So in 2018, the overall market was in a bear market, I hardly traded, so I didn’t lose money or have a drawdown. I achieved personal net asset income by cash flow. By the Spring Festival in early 2019, I saved about $10k. Because I like to play more, I don’t save money. I eat and drink when I should, and travel around the world. My core logic is to continuously improve productivity. Money is earned, not saved, and you spend it on yourself, which is an investment in self-growth, a business that will never lose money.

Now that you have a stable cash flow and a little capital, you can start earning Beta and Alpha returns in the market. Game just started!

  • 2019

This is 2019. After the first round of 🐮🐻, the market began to rebound. Since there were not too many transactions in the bear market 🐻 of 2018, there was almost no retracement, and the confidence in the industry was not hit. Instead, I was full of hope for the future of the industry. (It may also be related to my stable and growing cash flow.) In January, there was an event that left a deep impression on me. A friend introduced an investor from Silicon Valley in the United States. They came to China to visit some institutions. That night I invited them to dinner and talked about the industry and business. When talking about the future expectations of the market, he said: "I think you are different from the friends I met recently. You are quite optimistic. Recently, everyone is more worried about the bear market 🐻 and the future of the market." I thought to myself at the time: "Maybe you OG have lost more in this bear market 🐻. I am the kind of person who is barefoot but not afraid of wearing shoes. Before entering the industry, I had no money to eat, but now I can still chat and laugh with you big guys. There may be problems in the industry, but they are all human problems."

Regarding Beta returns, I did one thing right in 2019, long BTC & ETH, and hodl! Since the unit prices of BTC ($3,000-4,000) and ETH ($100-200) were not high at the time, and ETH was also popular for fundraising, many of the fees received from the business were denominated in BTC and ETH. I was lucky because of this reason, and I hoarded some BTC and ETH with very low average prices. I remember the lowest transaction was when ETH fell to around $90, which was a great bargain.

At that time, due to the conservative investment strategy (because I was poor at the time, and at the same time I didn’t have enough knowledge of the secondary market and transactions, I didn’t dare to make rash operations for fear of losing money), the trading frequency was very low, and I mainly traded BTC and ETH (local dog and altcoins were almost all in one wave at the time, and the peak was at the opening, and the liquidity depth was very poor. If there was news that was slow to get out, it would be 🈹️), and I didn’t touch contracts at all (at that time, the contract systems of various exchanges were not perfect, and there were many problems. It was completely a slaughterhouse for gamblers 🐶), so later, because I guessed the general direction correctly, I made fewer operations and fewer mistakes, and I reaped the Beta benefits of the entire market. In 2019, the market recovered, and BTC rebounded from $3000+ to a high of $13,000, a return of about 3x.

Regarding Alpha returns, in 2019, I mainly played with BSV and LTC. BSV was violently pulled up at that time. With the news, it would suddenly and violently pull up a large wave every time. It was OK if you ran fast. The market as a whole pulled up 9x that year, and the total gain was about 5x; LTC was a big cycle, halving market, the market as a whole rebounded about 7x in half a year, and the gain was about 4x at that time. But these positions were not heavy. At that time, I just had the mentality of playing around, and the focus was on participation, just as a practice. Of course, I still rushed through some copycat dogs, but it didn’t have much impact on the overall situation. Later, it was proved that my prediction was correct-a wave of flow, cold.

However, in 2019, in addition to the linear growth of cash flow and market returns, I think there are more important gains, that is, the accumulation of industry resources, connections and the improvement of cognition. In those days, I also ran meetings and participated in activities all over the world. One reason was that I liked traveling, and the other was that it was fun to meet colleagues from all over the world. At that time, because the Chinese market still accounted for half of the industry, many large institutions and high-quality Startups originated from China, so many overseas colleagues came to China to find resources. Sometimes they were invited to attend overseas conferences as guests. It was much easier to obtain industry resources and connections than it is now. Now it is completely the opposite. Being led by American institutions, Chinese entrepreneurs can only call themselves "Chinese" and anonymously package themselves as overseas projects. I hope that this year's China 🇨🇳Hong Kong 🇭🇰 narrative can make a comeback.

  • 2020

It’s 2020 now. I had about $150k in assets during the Chinese New Year, which is almost one million RMB (I spent about the same amount in 2019 because I traveled all over the world). I was quite happy at the time because I achieved a small goal and gave my family a big red envelope. Compared with 2018, my personal assets grew by about 15x in 2019. After a relatively stable rise in 2019, my expectations for 2020 were still very high. As a result, the beginning of the year was hit hard by the Coivd19 epidemic and the 312 crash. Since my position was not heavy at the time, I was not affected by the crash. There were some pullbacks. I had faith in the industry and Bitcoin, so it was not a big problem. However, I think the impact of the epidemic is serious and far-reaching, affecting all aspects of our lives.

When the domestic epidemic first broke out, I was on vacation in Thailand for the New Year. Later, the epidemic began to break out abroad. I felt that things were not going well, so I hurried back to China. I was lucky enough not to be quarantined. I was quarantined at home for a week, but as a person who can't stay at home, I felt autistic. Shopping malls and restaurants were closed. I couldn't do anything and couldn't go anywhere. It was very boring. However, after a period of adjustment, I slowly began to adapt to this new environment. At the same time, after calming down, I thought more and tried to find inner peace.

First of all, I reviewed the experience of the past two years, what problems I had, and what changes I needed to make. An incident in early 2019 taught me a profound lesson. Because I didn’t stick to fitness in winter and my physical condition was not good, I thought I had always loved sports since I was a child. When I went skiing, I was blindly confident. As a result, I accidentally fell several times and fell badly. I thought it was nothing that day, just normal muscle soreness, and I went swimming the next day. As a result, I couldn’t lift my arm when I got home. Then I went to the hospital for a check-up. After taking the film, I saw that it was broken - the rotator cuff was torn and needed surgery. At that time, my head was confused. It was the first time I suffered such a serious injury and the first time I needed surgery. I was worried that I would be disabled or unable to exercise normally in the future. But fortunately, the bones were not injured. Maybe I am a hard bone 🦴. I am also grateful for the development of medical technology and the surgery performed by the experts. After the surgery, I slowly returned to normal after exercise.

This incident also made me understand a few things:

  1. • Stay sober, rational and cautious at all times. Don’t be blindly confident. Risks are everywhere. If you are not careful, it will cause serious consequences. Otherwise, you will have to pay a higher price to make up for it.

  2. • Business and investment are like walking on thin ice. You must pay attention to risk control and consider the worst possible outcome. If you can accept it, then do it. If you can’t accept it, don’t be a gambler.

  3. • The development of human science and technology has saved my life, and made me more determined to do things that create value and make value investments. Our industry was still in its early stages, and there were all kinds of people in the industry, all kinds of unconventional ways, and people who made a lot of money by cheating others. It was meaningless for the "big guys" who made a lot of money by doing this. Sooner or later, they would have to pay for what they did.

In the first half of 2020, there was one thing that I figured out, and it was very important to me. After the 312 crash, coupled with the impact of the epidemic, the entire macro environment and industry confidence were very poor. I was confused at the time. Since the previous two years were relatively smooth, the business level was growing. This year, it began to stagnate under the influence of these factors. After being autistic at home for a while, I traveled around the country, talked with some friends in different industries, and considered whether to get involved in other industries. At that time, I had come into contact with mask factories, live streaming, cross-border e-commerce, etc., but after repeated consideration, I still did not participate. Maybe I felt that these traditional industries were too "earthy". They might be very profitable but boring and not cool enough. Most importantly, they did not conform to my underlying logic and core values.

Regarding Beta returns, in April 2020, I saw that many projects in the market began to transform into DeFi. To be honest, I didn’t understand which project was good at the time, but they all belonged to the ETH ecosystem. The market had also exhausted all the negative factors and the emotions were released. At that time, ETH also rebounded by more than double. We started to build positions at $200+. There was only one logic. The funds and assets were mainly concentrated on the ETH chain. Long ETH! In January-February 2021, it broke through $1000, and $2000 gradually reduced the position. This wave had an overall return of about 7x.

As for Alpha income, it is a happy DeFi Summer, Yield Farming is like a hard-working farmer 👨‍🌾. At the beginning, I mined whatever was newly launched and popular, mined, withdrawn and sold, and rushed for a short-term income, without too much in-depth research. Later, I looked at more projects and slowly found the feeling. Starting from Compound, Curve, Yearn, Synthetix, etc. 🐛, to Uni, Sushi, Cake, Yam and Bunny, etc. (these two were rugged in the end...) The free airdrops and mining, withdrawal and selling plus the secondary listings, minus the rugged ones, gradually reduced positions in January and February 2021, and this part has an overall income of about 8x.

  • 2021

Then it was the beginning of 2021, the Spring Festival again, and the beginning of the wild bull market 🐮. At this time, I had accumulated about $1.5m in assets (about $200k a year). This was also the happiest Spring Festival for the friends in the group. Everyone was sending red envelopes like crazy. Looking back on the choice and persistence in 2020, I made a very correct decision. For the industry and work, I must go deep into it.

2021 is a period of explosive growth in the industry, which is of course related to the macro market (epidemic + massive dollar printing). Hot spots emerge in endlessly, from DeFi, NFT, platform coins to new public chain Layer2, Web3, metaverse concept hype, Doge-ignited zoo carnival, Meme coin chaos, and the GameFi gold-making craze that lasted until the end of the year, X to Earn, SBF family bucket and other performances.

This is a year full of harvest, but it also planted the seeds of risk. I relied on "opening the pattern", "hodl", and "diamond hand" to hold on, but in the end I also swelled up, and blind confidence still overwhelmed the rationality of risk control awareness. Human nature, whoever can control it will laugh at the end and become the winner, Winner takes all…

Regarding Beta returns, ETH fell below $2,000 in February and then rebounded. It broke through $3,000 and $4,000 in March, and I gradually reduced my positions. This wave of returns was about 1.5x. In January, I happened to communicate with a friend of BSC, and after studying the fundamentals, I felt that it was going to take off, so I opened a position in BNB at a cost of about $40, and then gradually reduced my positions at $200 and $300. This part of the return was about 6x.

Regarding Alpha returns, due to this round of violent bull market 🐮, 🐛 too many projects have been invested in, including value investments and various copycats. Here are some representative projects with good returns:

  1. • DeFi. Due to the drawbacks and regulatory issues of CEX, I am optimistic about the development of DEX in the long term. After the correction in February, I continued to invest in UNI and CAKE. I gradually reduced my positions in May, and this part has a return of about 3x;

  2. • Meme, after understanding that this is the native culture of crypto natives, this is a carnival for the community, and understanding the importance of narrative (of course, most of them are still one-wave 🈹️ leeks), from DOGE, SHIB (I didn’t understand it at the beginning, got on the train late, and the market was pulled up violently, so it ran faster, and this part had a return of about 10x) to PEOPLE at the end of the year (I donated 2 ETH to Juicebox at the beginning, and it became 100 ETH a week later);

  3. • GameFi. When I started researching it, I had already missed AXS (it has a high market value and is already at the top). After experiencing the DeFi Summer, I thought that GameFi at that time was actually DeFi 2.0. It takes some time and energy, and you need to move your mouse to play games. The essence is still Yield Farming - to obtain income. GALA is a game platform that I was optimistic about and heavily invested in early. I held it when the pattern opened, and it also jumped to the top, with a return of about 80x (but this may also be the reason why MBOX🈹️ was later acquired and the loss was not stopped in time. The pattern is unpredictable...), and MANA. According to the researcher, I think it can become the leader of the metaverse concept. I bought a little Metamask and forgot about it. I passively held it for more than half a year and the result was about 50x return;

  4. • There is also the SBF family bucket at the end of the year, SOL, FTT and FTM. I remember that I said at that time that I wanted to bet on SBF’s pattern, and he would surpass CZ in the future (everyone now knows the story that followed). This part has a return of about 5x; there are also some projects in different tracks that I participated in, such as MINA, AR, WOO, FET, etc. This part also has a return of about 5-10x.

2021 is a year full of harvest, and it may also be the happiest year for practitioners so far. I still remember that October, during the Wanxiang Web3 Conference, my friends were all in Shanghai, and we were reveling every night: you rode a horse 🐎, he walked a cow 🐂, opened a card in the club seven days a week, and spent hundreds of thousands of RMB a night... Maybe it was the inflation during that period that planted the seeds of risk for the subsequent losses and drawdowns. Everyone understands the truth, and only by going through it can you have a personal experience, so now I always remind myself: respect the market, career is like sailing against the current, and investment is even more like treading on thin ice, you must be rational and cautious, don't expand, pay attention to risk control, and survive...

I still remember the waterfall that started in mid-November. One night when I was partying with friends, the market started to plummet again. At that time, I was too arrogant and blindly confident that this wave was not over yet and BTC would go to $100k (maybe I was fooled by PlanB). I bet with my friends that the pattern was opening up, hodl! But they were slapped in the face later, and they all ran away... For the first time, I made a major mistake in judging the general direction, but I had to admit my mistakes and pay for my own cognition. Pullbacks and losses are inevitable. Victory and defeat are common in the military.

  • 2022

2022 is an important turning point, and many major events have occurred. Before Luna's death spiral, everyone was still immersed in the afterglow of last year's violent bull market. The deterioration of the macro environment accelerated the collapse of the market - inflation, US dollar interest rate hikes, Russia launched a war to invade Ukraine, and epidemic prevention went out of control, etc. Everyone's expectations for the future took a sharp turn for the worse. Except for the two hot spots StepN and APE at the beginning of the year, the rest were black swan events one after another.

Due to the misjudgment of the direction at the end of 2021, blind confidence expanded and no timely stop loss was made. Of course, the Beta return was negative, and there was a large overall retracement of more than -30%.

Alpha returns are only GMT and APE. I made a short-term operation with a small position and made about 5x of the profit. Since other hodls were trapped, it can only be regarded as a small recovery. When LUNA collapsed, because UST and USDT began to decouple, I started shorting at around $60, and opened a 5x short at $100k. I made $1m in half a day, but suddenly a needle exploded, and I didn’t have time to make up the margin... So trading is like a boxing match. You must concentrate. As long as you make a mistake in operation, you will be knocked down by your opponent (the market). Even in a bear market with an overall downward trend in the market, there is no shortage of opportunities in the market. It just depends on how you grasp it. The big shorts in 2022 will have the last laugh.

Although there were losses in investment and trading in 2022, there are still new insights and gains in personal growth. In fact, in October 2021, I wanted to be a professional research institution that outputs subjective opinions, provide valuable information in the industry through research reports, make contributions to the industry, and be a builder. Because I think the most important thing in our industry is cognition and information gap. If you run ahead of the market, you can get profits more easily, which is the so-called arbitrage thinking. At the same time, because I have been doing the secondary market, I have become a little tired of this pure market game. Profits and losses are all a mathematical game and meaningless.

  • OP Research founded

So I founded OP Research, OP for OnePiece (One Piece, my favorite anime). The meaning is very simple and direct, Research for finding your own OnePiece, which means that we hope that everyone can find the great treasure of their own life through continuous exploration through learning and research.

At the same time, if you want to be a builder, you must do projects and have works, which has to go back to the experience and cognition related to NFT. In fact, it was as early as 2018. I played Cryptokity that year, but because the infrastructure and ETH ecology were not perfect at the time, most of the Dapp projects did not survive the bear market 🐻, and there was no concept of NFT at the time, and market users had no knowledge of related content. By the end of 2020, I noticed that Cryptopunk suddenly became popular, but because I didn’t understand it at the time, I thought how could a broken picture avatar sell for money, can’t I just copy and paste it on the Internet? I didn’t have any relevant knowledge about art collections, etc. In addition, the underlying logic of the secondary is preferred for asset targets with good liquidity, so I didn’t get on the bus and missed the first wave of NFT blue-chip projects.

It was not until 2021 when memes became popular and I understood the significance of crypto native culture that I understood why punk could be hyped up to $1m for a small picture avatar. However, as a person who never buys "luxury goods" and a "country bumpkin" who does not follow fashion trends, my initial misunderstanding and subsequent refusal to pay for the social show-off attributes of NFTs (that is, Web3's famous watches and bags) are in line with my underlying logic. Money outside of my own cognition and values ​​cannot be earned. And it is important to have your own personality and aesthetics. For example, I think it is very unpersonal to use a similar avatar as others. I think punk is good-looking, but I think bayc is ugly, just like some people like to buy big logos, maybe not because they look good, but because they look expensive.

So in 2022, I made a small NFT avatar picture, inspired by Rick&Morty, one of my favorite anime. The theme of sci-fi rebellion is also in line with the native culture of Crypto Native, called romoverse.wtf. At the same time, I am also optimistic about the development and growth space of the entire NFT track in the long term. After all, compared with the FT market, there are more 100x opportunities, and it is more friendly to new users and traditional industries, easier to understand, with lower thresholds and relatively loose supervision.

At the same time, we are also optimistic about the long-term development and growth space of the entire NFT track. After all, compared with the FT market, there are 100x more opportunities, and it is more friendly to new users and traditional industries, easier to understand, with lower thresholds and relatively loose supervision.

  • Crypto Nomad

Of course, another important theme in 2022 is – How to become a crypto nomad!

I think this is the most interesting topic, and it is also a discussion about returning to the essence of human nature - how do we pursue freedom. The rise of the Digital Nomad group has actually been popular in Europe and the United States many years ago. The occurrence of various black swan events in 2022 may be a fuse, and practitioners have actively or passively become Cryptp Nomads.

After I started working at the beginning of last year, I traveled to more than a dozen countries in more than half a year, attended industry conferences and events, visited partners and customers, and explored local scenery, food, history and culture. I felt very fulfilled and gained a lot. It sounds tiring to travel around, but I think it might be more tiring to be autistic at home. So, what is the meaning of being a Crypto Nomad?

First of all, compared with traditional industries, our industry has a great advantage in terms of work freedom. Many companies now do not require clocking in at work. With the improvement of the entire Internet infrastructure, coupled with the catalysis and acceleration of this process due to the epidemic, everyone can work remotely at home or anywhere, as long as they have a computer and a mobile phone;

Secondly, Crypto or Web3 is a process of promoting decentralization and globalization. With the improvement and development of infrastructure, the cost and friction of collaboration among people around the world are constantly being reduced.

At the same time, the involution of society has made young people see no hope. Renting a house in a big city means working for the landlord or helping him pay his mortgage. Choosing to buy a house and taking on a mortgage means contributing the next 20 to 30 years of their life to the country, and officially being alienated from a free person into a social screw.

Therefore, when you understand these principles, you can choose to jump out of this cage and vicious circle and become a Crypto Nomad, which means participating in the wave of the revolution of the times, fighting against the parasites and vampires such as totalitarianism and vested interests, and saying goodbye to them - don't play the series of deceptive games designed by them.

Instead, we should pursue the most essential things in human nature - love and freedom.

“To explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no man has gone before.” —— Star Trek