(Please. The post shared on Notion shows that this was supposed to run from 20th August - 9th September. I'm just noticing that it's deadline on the post shared on t2 is 2nd September).
Cryptocurrency, Web3, and the Blockchain tech as a whole are obviously not a new word to a lot of digitally active people. There are still some people who are completely unaware of the existence of those terms, and it's fairly reasonable to say that some are familiar with these without a fairly decent knowledge of what it's about.
In this post, I will be sharing a personal story of how I got introduced to the fast-paced world of cryptocurrency and Web3 through a platform that was tokenized with 1Up, a cryptocurrency that was built on Ethereum.
My Crypto journey started in the second half of 2020 when the lockdown that was initiated due to COVID-19 was still at its climax. I was working in the Banking sector but the lockdown forced everyone to stay away from work. I had so many expenses, but my income wasn't enough to foot my bills anymore.
I tried to get remote Jobs so I could earn from them in anticipation of when the lockdown would be eased. However, the concept of working remotely wasn't a standard practice in Nigeria back then. This forced my hands to go hunting for more earning opportunities. Thankfully, a friend told me about Uptrennd, a platform where I could earn cryptocurrency for creating content.
It was too good to believe that anything like that existed. I also didn't have knowledge of cryptocurrency back then. I had to get into research to know more about the platform. The outcome of that research gave me the nudge to sign up, explore the platform, and get interesting earnings from my content.
That's exactly what I did and it worked.
I got an opportunity to earn the token, connect with a community of like-minded players in the Crypto space, and learn a lot more about being a digital Content Creator.
This would have been a perfect grass-to-grace story. However, after spending a couple of months on the platform, the founder decided to shut down the platform in the first quarter of 2021. At that point, the tokens were already dumped to a worthless price.
For the record, I held every unit of the token I earned by creating content on the platform and engaging in the community. I didn't get an opportunity to make a real penny by selling any unit of the token.
Losing money in crypto is never a good experience. However, losing everything from your first crypto experience is one of the worst entry experience anyone could have as a newbie in Crypto.
Here's what everyone needs to learn from that sad experience I had in my first encounter with Crypto;
- It's very important to take profit. This is especially the case when you are trading Crypto tokens, especially when you are messing around with memecoins.
- It's important to do a proper study of the team behind a project before diving into that project.
- I learned the importance of Community in all Web3 projects.
These were the lessons I had at my fingertips after my first crypto experience. Basically, that rug pull opened my eyes to a lot of things that I only got to know because I availed myself to take a deeper dive into Crypto.
Some others who had an uninspiring experience in their first experience with Crypto didn't have the courage or conviction to try again. I know some people who still haven't thought of giving Crypto a second try after one uninspiring experience. Now, imagine the number of people who would call it quits if their first-ever encounter with Crypto ended with a huge loss.
That's exactly where an effective onboarding strategy for newbies plays a crucial role. It also begs the question "What's the best onboarding strategy to adopt for newbies?"
I will highlight a few strategies that can be adopted;
1. Projection of Blockchain-powered projects that offer future-proof utility and solve real-world problems. I have nothing against meme coins which rugs within a few hours of launch. We see a lot of those on Solana. However, a project that offers solid utility will always offer a more solid onboarding leverage.
2. AI is on the rise, and they can churn out lots of content. However, a Newbie who's trying to get into Crypto would most likely prefer to read genuine crypto experiences shared by Crypto Enthusiasts from different parts of the world than generic contents that are AI-generated. So, those who are capable of creating content should be encouraged to put up content about their experience with Ethereum, other Cryptos, and Web3 as a whole.
3. Education is very important. If I had been well educated about Cryptocurrency when I first got in, I probably wouldn't have experienced a huge loss in my first Crypto involvement. Additionally, people need to be enlightened about the level of security needed to protect their portfolio in their space.
4. I know that Ethereum and Cryptocurrency as a whole promote faceless transactions. However, I believe that real-life events can also be explored to onboard people into Cryptocurrency. Imagine placing an ad about Ethereum in a UCL football game. What if Ethereum sponsors events across the world and uses that as an opportunity to teach people about Crypto? That will also serve as a good onboarding opportunity.
I particularly have experience as an onboarder and I do well to teach people about Cryptocurrency. I also run a Web3 X space series on my main X account. I do that every Tuesday and Friday, 2:30pm UTC+1.
The world of crypto is complex, fast-paced, and completely different from what's obtainable in Web2. When you talk about Cryptocurrency, a whole lot of buzzwords come alongside it. We already know what we enjoy in Web3, and we know the future-proof utility that's attached to Ethereum. That's exactly why we need to work hard on getting more people on board.
Take a moment to think about all that.
Thanks For Not Missing Any Full-stop or Comma.
