"Interview Date: October 18, 2023"
1. You can briefly introduce yourself
Hello everyone, I am Leo, 3P Labs Co-founder, Hope money ambassador, early SHIB holder, active player of friend.tech, currently focusing on the Bitcoin ecosystem.
2. Can you share your opportunity to join the circle?
Before joining the industry, I worked at Web2 Company and had a certain technical background. My first cryptocurrency transaction happened in January of 2018. I clearly remember investing 10,000 yuan in a project called Elastos (ELA). In just one week, the investment doubled. At that time, I often discussed the blockchain industry with several alumni, and together we investigated whether there was an opportunity to enter this industry to start a business.
As mentioned before, I have a certain technical background, so I tend to understand and view digital currency and blockchain from a technical perspective at the beginning. In May 2018, several alumni decided to enter this field to start a business. However, the team did not understand the industry thoroughly enough at the time. Although it had entered the so-called bear market, we were unaware of it. The whole team was too idealistic and tried to apply Web2 thinking to Web3 products. The market hyped various ICO tokens more than really promoting industry development and product landing. Although we successfully developed products with excellent user experience, we lacked real users, which made it impossible to obtain continuous operating funds. Therefore, in early 2019, we decided to close several projects under our hands. Since then, I have been in a semi-retired state, but I have always kept my attention on digital currency and blockchain.
After quitting the industry in 2019, I chose to transform into a product manager and return to work at Web2. Until 2020 when I was working in Shenzhen and experienced 312, the sharp drop in the price of Bitcoin brought me to the brink of bankruptcy. At that time, like many people, I felt very hopeless and believed that the industry was coming to an end. 312 After that, on the one hand, I decided to work at Web2 company, but on the other hand, I was unwilling to give in. I thought I had to get up from where I fell. As the market picked up after 312, they gradually participated in the secondary market. At the end of August 2020, I and several old currency friends began to participate in Tron’s DeFi project, and then transferred to the BSC chain in September. Since the market was very good at the time, I also devoted most of my time and energy to Web3.
I finally made it to the Year of the Ox in 2021, which is also a year of transformation in the field of digital currency, because I met SHIB. From the initial investment of US$30,000 to the final cash-out of US$2.6 million, this is the currency with the largest return on a single investment in the entire industry. What I gained from this process was not only wealth, but also a summary of my thoughts on investment, such as how to better seize Alpha opportunities and how to find similar potential projects in the future.
2022 was the year in which I suffered the most losses. I did not fully understand the macroeconomic cycle, especially the impact of the US interest rate hike policy on the market. In this year, in addition to the losses, I also worked hard to learn a lot about the macroeconomic cycle and try to eliminate the blind spots in my knowledge.
After entering 2023, I gradually adjusted my mindset and reviewed my previous investment experiences, trying to summarize my own set of logical systems. In particular, in July, I decided to try to operate Twitter and output valuable content to meet the challenges in the field of digital currency again.
Core content: In early 2018, I doubled my profit through the first digital currency transaction (Elastos (ELA)). Later, I tried to start a business in the Web3 field with my classmates, but due to the immaturity of the market and the misunderstanding of the industry, it was difficult to start a business, and the project was eventually closed. In 2019, I returned to work at Web2 Company. After experiencing the dark 312 in 2020, he became heavily involved in Defi mining during the Defi Summer market. 2021 is the year of my own turnaround because I met SHIB. Due to the lack of understanding of the macroeconomic cycle, there will be a serious profit retracement in 2022. In 2023, I gradually adjusted my mentality and decided to operate Twitter and output valuable content to meet the challenges in the digital currency field.
3. What is your most memorable experience in Web3?
The first unforgettable experience happened in 2018. At that time, the Fomo3D game was very popular and attracted a large number of players. I was one of the first players who thought of using scripts to compete for the prize pool. The reason for using scripts was that many people waited for the last minute to buy manually, but they always missed the prize pool due to problems such as network congestion and manual operation delays. Scripts can avoid these problems because they are not affected by factors such as network congestion or operation errors.
My first scripted game, Fomo3D, made me about $30,000. This experience is unforgettable because in other industries, you have to work very hard to get equal pay. This experience made me realize the wonder of cryptocurrency. As long as you have enough sense to detect arbitrage opportunities in advance, you will have the opportunity to make money.
The second unforgettable experience was 312. That morning, the market had been falling, from about $7,000 to about $6,000, but everyone felt it was acceptable and thought the market would rebound. However, on the morning of 313, BTC suddenly crashed to below $3,000. This sudden drop made people feel that the entire industry had collapsed.
The third unforgettable experience for me is related to SHIB. Through SHIB's investment, I not only made money, but also gained a deeper understanding and growth of my own investment system. I bought SHIB on March 14th, and the last sale was on May 8th. In a total of about 50 days, I made more than 80 times the profit.
This return multiple is relatively high, and SHIB can accommodate large funds, and its excellent liquidity has allowed many early holders to reap huge profits. In the field of cryptocurrency, SHIB has many legendary stories, and it has learned the logic of many investment projects through it. For example, at that time, we would regularly observe the growth in the number of SHIB currency-holding addresses and the activity of the community. These indicators can help me judge the development status of the project, whether it is in rapid growth, and whether it has reached the cash-out stage.
Core content: I had three of the most unforgettable experiences in the industry. First of all, it was the Fomo3D game in 2018. I used the script to successfully grab the bonus and earned 30,000 US dollars, which made me feel the opportunities in the cryptocurrency field. Secondly, there was the black swan plunge on March 12, 2020, which forced investors to cut their flesh when the market collapsed. Finally, in 2021, I made more than 80 times the income by investing in SHIB. This experience taught me a lot of investment logic, such as observing the number of currency holding addresses and community activity, and cashing out at the appropriate time.
4. When did you start paying attention to FT?
I decided to register friend.tech because of the Paradigm investment news it published. Before that, although I had heard of it, I didn’t pay much attention to it. After all, there are many new projects emerging in the cryptocurrency field every day, so I don’t pay much attention to them.
After I first signed up, I didn’t fully understand how the project worked. I just bought Keys from each other with a few old friends, chatted for a few words on the platform, and then quit. My first impression of FT is that the interaction design is simple and there is nothing outstanding about the UI. Therefore, I didn’t have much expectations at first. I just registered an account and put it there without studying it in depth.
At the end of August and the beginning of September, I found that more and more old currency friends around me started to register for FT and had a great time playing it. So I asked them what is the charm of FT? One of my friends shared with me that he bought a certain big brother's Key at a price of 0.01e. Within three days, the price rose to 0.1e, making 10 times the profit. This shocked me a little, how could I still play like this? I didn't realize that Key could have such a big increase before. In addition, a friend also shared that he met several high-ranking bosses in the FT room and had in-depth exchanges. This also made me feel quite interesting. After communicating with several old currency friends, I also decided to re-enter FT and try to operate it. .
Core content: I registered for the FT project because of Paradigm’s investment news, but I didn’t have high expectations for the project at the time. I just bought keys from each other with a few friends, and I was not satisfied with the UI and interaction design of the project. Until the end of August, when I saw more and more old currency friends settling in FT, I began to re-examine the project and re-settled in to try to operate it.
5. What do you think of FT
On FT, I spent a lot of time exploring its core gameplay and operating mechanisms. In the beginning, I also encountered many questions that new players often ask. Some people think of FT as a social application, similar to WeChat, but in fact it is different. FT is called a SocialFi product because it combines Social and Fi very well. Social is easy to understand, and the crudest way to understand Fi is to recharge and consume (buy Key).
In FT, you need to recharge and spend money to buy other people's services and enter their rooms. This deep interaction and value exchange will help you better understand how the platform works. You need to spend money to experience the true value of FT. Some people are very successful on the platform, such as being excellent at analyzing market trends. Their candlestick charts may rise, but there is a ceiling. If you want to be a top player, even if others actively buy your services, you should repurchase, which helps to establish your image on the platform. The core operating mechanism of FT is to maintain activity, recharge consumption and continuous operation.
In terms of functionality, I once wrote a tweet analysis: "Why is friend.tech designed in a one-way "encrypted call" mode? 》: Why can roommates only have one-way conversations with the landlord? Why does the host need to quote the message so that everyone can see it? My understanding is this: use WeChat groups for comparison. Have you ever had this experience? After joining a paid group, as the communication with the group members becomes more and more in-depth, you will find that some group members are better than the group owner, and they share for free and are active. Then you think, why should I pay the group owner? Wouldn't it be better to join the free group of group friends directly? As this situation worsens, toll group owners will no longer be able to operate. It can be seen from this that FT's one-way call is equivalent to the communication between roommates needing to be transmitted through the homeowner. Homeowners can filter the information of roommates, and only quote it to everyone if it is OK. If the information is not suitable for disclosure, it can be ignored directly. This layer of filtering function for homeowners prevents them from being "robbed of business" (undermining the value of KEY), and protects homeowners to a certain extent.
[Excerpted from: https://x.com/0xleo0x/status/1705844322397307196?s=20 ]
Core content: The core mechanism of FT combines Social and Fi. New players need to understand that they can only deeply understand its core gameplay by spending money on the platform. In addition, the one-way call design helps the host filter information, ensure the quality and security of information, and avoid being "robbed of business", which protects the host to a certain extent.
6. How do you run FT?
It's critical to stay active on FT first. From the end of September to mid-October, I have maintained active operations. If inactive, other players may think you abandoned FT. In addition, we also try our best to share valuable information in the room, including Alpha projects, first-hand market information and on-chain monitoring. This helps attract more group members to participate in discussions and increase room activity.
The second is that I introduced the Fomo3D gameplay based on the simple lottery, and this small game was welcomed by everyone. In fact, I was very worried at the beginning that this gameplay would bring about drastic fluctuations in the Key price and affect the experience of Holders, so I chose to observe first. It happened that my Taiwanese friend @iamdoublewan introduced the most basic Fomo3D gameplay the next day and received positive feedback. So, I decided to follow up and try and optimize the mechanism. In the end, the gameplay of the Fomo3D game was a huge success. In the first one or two days of the game, many players bought my Key. The transaction volume and room activity increased rapidly. At that time, the community was discussing many interesting ideas every day and looking forward to creating some derivative games or tools based on FT.
The third way is to keep in communication with some of my favorite FT players. During the communication process, they found that each other's information was very valuable and recognized each other, and then bought each other's Key. In this way, our respective Key prices are increased, and although there is a certain cost, I think the investment is worth it.
The fourth way is to continue to participate in SocialFi projects on other public chains, such as StarsArena on AVAX, TOMO on LINEA, and NewBitcoinCiry, which has invested the most time in the past two weeks. Met a lot of new friends through these SocialFi projects. Although we initially met on other projects, as our relationship deepened we returned to FT Key. The above are the four methods I currently use to operate FT.
Core content: It is important to stay active on FT and attract more people to participate by sharing valuable information and introducing Fomo3D gameplay. Communicate with FT value players and hold keys with each other to stay active. In addition, I also participate in other public chain SocialFi projects, such as StarsArena, Tomo and NBC. Through these projects, I can meet new friends, convert to FT and continue to operate my FT room.
7. Are there any benefits to holding your FT?
In addition to sharing lottery draws and Alpha information, in the future I will invite FT players as the first batch of users to use the on-chain market monitoring tool developed by 3P Labs as a thank you for their continued support. Second, I will continue to research new projects and tracks, look for high-certainty money-making opportunities, and share this information with FT players.
Core content: I plan to invite FT players to use 3P Labs’ on-chain market monitoring tools, continue to research new tracks and projects, and share high-certainty money-making opportunities.
