My First Rugpull & The Evolution of Us
Welcome to the dot com bubble of blockchain! We have no regulations, most people have zero standards, every coin is a winner if you know when to buy and sell (selling is the most important step in this two part secret to winning everytime) and everyone is making money, including the bad guys.
Now I spend most of my time on Binance Smart Chain and hadn’t really used Polygon, so when I read that Mark Cuban had bought Iron Finance’s $TITAN, I FOMO-ed in with a small position. This was also my first de-fi (decentralized finance) experience on Polygon and while it wasn’t as smooth as BSC, it was an upgrade from Ethereum.
While I *thought* I had bought the dip, the price continued to fall into the next day. I went into the telegram group to read the comments, as expected, I wasn’t the only person noticing the steep and very quick decline in price. People were nervous, and naturally, the *FUD was beginning to spread. After the group admins in telegram repeatedly brushed off concerns, saying it was normal and assuring us the mechanics were designed to correct these drops, I sold my position, accepting a 30% loss.
$TITAN fell from around $60 to less than a cent in under 24 hours. While most coins don’t have mechanics as complex as $TITANs, the end result is the same as any other rugpull. Unless you were able to get out, you’ve lost most, if not all, of your money.
Now, in retrospect, I neverrrr should’ve put my money in $TITAN. I knew very little about it, I didn’t know what the team was trying to do (or how difficult it is) and if I’d even checked the telegram, I wouldn’t have purchased because it took only minutes before I realized I didn’t like the way the chat was moderated (yes, I’m that petty), and while all this information made it easy to sell when the price started tanking, it would’ve been invaluable to know before I purchased.
Experiences like these are the ones journalists like to regurgitate over and over again, perpetuating the all too common notion that crypto is a fad, every one of us is a degenerate gambler and none of these coins actually do anything, while also silent about all the ways blockchain, smart contracts and NFT’s will revolutionize basically every industry in existence.
But then again, here I am tossing money into something I don’t understand, hoping it goes up. Ha.
I remember how crazy everyone was about Shiba Inu ($SHIB) and it barely had a website and a whitepaper. After the market tanked back in May, I sold my position. I recall there was also a delay on the much anticipated swap and while I take a peek at the price every now and again, even though the market has been up for over a week now, the $SHIB price continues to decline.
As a community, our standards are gradually evolving, as the criteria for what qualifies as a “good” project continues to be defined, even more so as we learn to organize and apply the information provided to us. Rugdoc.io has proven to be an invaluable source for me, as I can’t read code and security is one of the most important things I consider when reviewing a project.
And as we get smarter, the coins get smarter. Whereas traditionally, and up until only a few months ago, the best way to profit in a trade was to buy low and sell high, whereas now, almost every meme coin now incentivizes holding, whether it’s with airdrops, staking, redistribution of fees to holders, etc. This is innovation, and it is necessary to stay relevant. Even the most sus meme coins are stepping up their game, with smart mechanics, and even security audits. (Wolf Safe Poor People ($WSPP)
I’ve come to the realization that most people don’t understand what blockchain is or fully comprehend the implications of smart contracts, a trustless system, game-fi (is gonna be huge), or how NFT’s are giving ownership back to creators, it’s hard enough trying to explain these technologies to someone when you do understand them.
It wasn’t until a few months ago that I fully began to understand the implications of smart contracts and NFT’s, the endless use cases, even though I had been actively trading for months.
One day, it just clicked. I was reading a Mark Cuban interview and and it just made sense. I legitimately jumped up and down in my livingroom in excitement because I finally understood how revolutionary this is for humanity as a whole. Smart contracts are just as relevant to the future as automation and A.I. technology, and as a techie, I am so excited about the direction we’re heading.
Invest in innovative projects that bring value to the crypto space. There are so many great things happening and I’m hoping that by sharing my findings here (and maybe on YouTube, I’ll know more about that soon), I can help others find quality projects they believe in and can be passionate about.
The beauty of the current de-fi space is the abundance of knowledge available to those who seek it, and the opportunity to discover and explore what is one of the most exciting technologies of my lifetime, before most people even know it exists.
I think that’s pretty neat. :)
