The Crypto Crusader: A Tale of Scams, Learning, and Self-Discovery

Once upon a time, there was a girl, a curious girl; let's name her Zero. It's not me at all 😛

Zero is a techie woman; she likes to configure servers and networks; in fact, her career spins around the computers, the IT department indeed… So, it was only a matter of time before she entered the web3 hollow.

A few years ago she heard about something called Bitcoin, which caught her attention but not enough to get involved. She had heard that there were people making a lot of money with it, but since the price was high, she didn't think it was something she could participate in.

But the call was there; little by little, she was finding ways to get closer to Bitcoin, like faucets and PTC, these activities that gave away small amounts of satoshis for giving clicks.

That somehow brought her closer to cryptos, but she felt it was too slow; she spent months clicking, and the money didn't even reach 5 dollars, so she gave it up. A few months later she decided to exchange some fiat to Bitcoin through a very popular website in her country. Excited to see that it was her first investment, she put it away and forgot about it for years. That returned an 5x.

Alpha calls

After that she went deep into the trading and the crypto market, but guess with what? with signal groups, memecoins, and shitcoins (not a good place for starters), she bought every call the group shared, sometimes with luck, others not so much.

One time she discovered a group of alpha calls; when a new launch was announced, she prepared her packets to enter early. The day came; she believed that this token would skyrocket to the moon, making her a millionaire in a short time. Little did she know, she was walking into a den of scammers and rug pullers.

She saw how her investment went up and up, and when she felt really comfortable with it, she went to sell; the happiness in her face was glowing. She tried to sell... oh, oh, something is wrong; an error appeared. She tried again; oh no, same mistake. She was entering in desperation, attempt after attempt, and nothing happened.

She was lowering her hopes; reviewing the transaction history, she realized that there were no sales, only purchases; the red flags went up. The group closed the comments. She realized that she had entered a scam, where she could not sell by contract. She said goodbye to her 4-figure earnings and her investment. Sad experience.

NFT season

Zero was devastated; she took time to reflect on the bad decisions she had made because it wasn't just that; she had already bought memecoins that didn't return her investment, and the NFTs... ah, the NFTs, that's another story.

Once she wanted to join a community of NFTs to feel part of something cool, so she found an early release, inquired about the team, their background, and everything looked good; they were well known around and the purpose of the collection was interesting.

Zero buys her first NFT on launch day, living the whole experience together with the community in Discord, all happy showing off which art everyone got. Weeks after the hype had passed, there was little communication from the team.

The first delivery of the roadmap was fulfilled, but then there it was, silence. After a few months, there is not pleasant news; it turned out that the funds were lost by a bad move of the developer, trading with all the capital. Another bad decision by Zero.

Zero fell victim to one scam after another. She invested in coins that promised the world but delivered nothing but empty promises in her pockets. But it wasn't just bad experiences; Zero has been lucky enough to win crypto prizes, hit some x2's, and win an NFT from a Zcash collection.

Education time

Zero wasn't one to give up easily. She decided to educate herself, hoping to avoid the same pitfalls she had fallen into. She took courses in blockchain, cryptocurrencies, and trading. She spent hours watching YouTube videos, attending webinars, doing live streams on crypto Twitter, and joining online communities.

She joined a special community of Web3 enthusiasts called 100 dias de research to learn from someone she had been following for some time, a reference in this industry.

Wanting to start learning about blockchain projects and protocols, she started attending classes and, most importantly, taking notes of the tips. She came up with a notion as a summary of her notes but scaled it to a shared document for the community. It received good reviews, and the page became the community's library.

After a few weeks, the founder of the community gives her the opportunity to be part of the team, to continue teaching. She was honored and excited to accept.

At first she felt very nervous because it was the first time that she was fulfilling this role of managing a community and even more to create educational activities for them, but little by little she was gaining confidence and preparing herself and her partner to create entertaining dynamics that would keep the interest of those who decided to stay.

She began to share her newfound wisdom with others, offering guidance and advice to those who were also lost in the crypto wilderness. Soon, Zero was invited to join other spaces as a guest to share her passion for this web3 portal. Yes, a portal, because once you cross it, there is no turning back.

She felt confortable with the mission of this community which is to provide a safe, friendly, and educational space where we can learn from what is being built in the web3 ecosystem, putting into practice protocols and platforms from different chains because we believe in a multichain future where we can all be part of it and leave our grain of sand.

Building a road

Zero's journey from a naive investor to a respected leader was not without its challenges. She faced a rollercoaster of emotions, but she persevered, using her experiences to fuel her determination to make a difference.

Today, Zero is the proud leader of this Latam crypto educational community, where she continues to inspire and empower others to take control of their Blockchain and Web3 education. Her road is still long and bumpy, but she is increasingly confident that she has arrived at the right place.

Her story serves as a reminder that even in the face of failure and adversity, one can rise from the ashes and become a force for good in the world of cryptocurrency. The end.