I used the first edition of this publication to walk you through the life I was living before I found out about the opportunities that are available in Web3. I also shared the experience I had and the things I got exposed to when I took my first step into Web3. Feel free to get more details about that from This Embedded Link . If you are already up-to-date with that, feel free to dive into this second part of the post.



My Experience With Scams And Shady Projects/People.

For someone like myself who was pretty new to the Crypto world, I started off with a project that later got rugged by the founder and the team behind the project. Like I said in the first edition of this piece, most of the international friends I made in that project had to quit Crypto completely because the loss was too much to bear. It also wasn't easy for me, but I didn't have any job to get back to. So, I continued exploring all other opportunities I could find in the Crypto Space.

Everywhere I looked, I was very careful to be sure I wouldn't fall into shady projects or scams. After digging around for a while, I found another project that deals with microblogging. They rewarded the community with Bitcoin Cash (BCH) and their reward is often based on activity level. I decided to give that a try and I was able to earn a few bucks from there. This time around, I didn't accumulate my earnings for half a year like I did in the previous project which got rugged.

Just because I didn't want to lose everything like in the previous project, I decided to cash out my earning from the website after a few weeks. At that moment, I had $36 in my Wallet and the exchange rate of my country back then was below #400 (Four Hundred Naira) per dollar. That's pretty much all I knew. I didn't know anything about how to sell my crypto for Fiat. But, I also didn't have any reason to be worried because I had a friend who was into crypto trading.

"He's someone I know. What could ever go wrong?"

That's exactly what I thought when I reached out to him for help. I believed he's a friend who's already well-blessed with Crypto. So, I never imagined he would pull a scam against me. Yeah! The lad really capitalized on my naivety about Crypto trading and used that as an opportunity to literally scam me in the transaction. He started by telling me stuff about the gas fee which I needed to pay for the transaction. Truth be told, transferring crypto from wallet to wallet usually costs a fee. However, it's quite different in the BCH network.

BCH transactions are almost free and even the fee cents they charge are usually deducted from the BCH to be transferred. However, what "my friend" told me was completely different. He said the gas fee has to be Ethereum and he charged about $10 for that. I was naive and also desperate to get fiat for the money. So, I agreed to the deal, and by the time I got the Fiat, what I received for the $36 worth of BCH I sent was just 40% of what I was supposed to receive.

I was actually excited that I got to receive Fiat from what I earned online. That was my first time experiencing that. However, when I became more settled and started to do research about crypto trading, I realized that I was completely fooled by someone I called a friend. I didn't even blame him for making a fool of me. Instead, I blamed myself for not taking steps to learn how to do crypto trading. That was when I decided to never be fooled like that again.


I Decided To Learn About Crypto Trading.

When I made this decision, I didn't have anyone around me who I could learn about Crypto trading from. I probably didn't trust anyone enough to teach me the way I would understand. I also didn't have the money to pay someone for the tutorial. Thankfully, there were a lot of "how to" videos on YouTube. I decided to look into those and practice through trial and error.

That was when I decided to download Probit, Binance, LUNO, and Roqque Apps. These Apps, at that point, had sections where people could buy or sell Crypto with Naira (Nigeria's local currency). I followed the audio-visual guide on a couple of YouTube videos and I was able to do my first solo crypto trading after a few trial and error. It wasn't even that hard. I just traded the bare minimum back then and it felt good to be able to do these transactions from start to finish.

I remember writing a post about "how to exchange Crypto for Naira and vice versa". I published the post on places where I believe it would help enlighten more people, especially Africans, about how to buy and sell crypto. At the moment, I make myself available to also help folks sell their Crypto for Naira and I assist them in buying Crypto with Naira. I do that to help them do secure transactions, especially now that the Nigerian government is attacking Crypto Exchanges and shutting down the P2P section for our local currency in these exchanges.


A Tip About How To Avoid Scams And Shams in Web3.

People are quick to say that "there is a lot of shady stuff in Crypto" and I know that the centralized world is selling news about the usage of Blockchain for fraudulent activities. Many have been burnt in this Web3 adventure and in Cryptocurrency as a whole. Many will still get burnt as they chase Airdrop, flip coins, buy into NFT projects, and whatnot. Yeah! There are naive folks who will always be used as exit liquidity in overhyped shitcoins and memecoins.

The truth is, most of the scams and rug pulls are initiated by people and they usually target folks who are naive, less informed, and reactionary. Now, think about these;

- What if you try to get as informed as possible?

- What if you try to do your research before rushing to get into any Web3 project?

- What if you do your due diligence while connecting with folks on Web3?

The concept of "Do Your Own Research (DYOR)", seems like an overused one in the Web3 world. That's how it felt when I came across it at several points during my early days in Web3. However, the fact remains that it's really hard to thrive or succeed in Web3 if you are not willing to commit to doing your research. That's also a good way to save yourself from getting burnt by the series of scams and shams in the Web3 space.

There will be more to share about my experience as an African in Web3. Look forward to the next part of this post.

Thanks For Not Missing Any Full-stop Or Comma.