Welcome! If this is your first article from The Guardian Academy (TGA) then brace yourself for something a bit different than what you might be expecting to learn about if you came in solely looking for content on “crypto.”
Crypto Is More Than Just About Choosing The “Right” Project
Within TGA we don’t just educate about crypto & DeFi.
Does this come as a surprise?
Many of our higher tiered members can tell you that the benefits they’ve received from the proximity with Nic (the founder) & the guests that have been brought into TGA is never about…
Where do I put my money?
Crypto is interesting because it really highlights the qualities of a person, which can be seen based on how they respond to certain events.
Things like presales, new tools/developments, red candles, green candles, UI errors, “lost” funds, etc.
A common theme that runs in the crypto communities — people want the upside that can only be found in decentralized platforms, yet expect the safety, security, & customer service of centralized platforms.
Centralized versus Decentralized
If you want an idea of centralized, picture Amazon- free shipping, same day delivery.
Ordered the wrong thing?
“No problem send it back for free, we will refund you”.
Decentralized — DEX
You can get 850% APR on your money.
Didn’t read the documents of a token and made LP and lost 15% due to tax?
“Give my money back that your platform stole from me”.
These are issues that will probably run through all investors participating in the DeFi space at some point because we’re human after all.
However, it’s the people that decide to stay in this frame of mind and defer the responsibility to others that become dangerous.
“Most people don’t think they’re most people”.
Dissonance
I love the decentralized world and do my own research.
Then proceeds to go to a CENTRALIZED location to “do research”.
These are great areas to start for sure.
However, if this is the only source of information you are using for research, it’s kinda like only using Wikipedia to do your research project.
DeFi has many tools & sources
Here is an example of another source besides CMC and CG, checking DexTools for $GUARD.
You can see that there are many options to choose from in terms of DEX’s to buy $GUARD.
So if we look at KnightSwap versus PCS we can see there is a difference in price as well as the pairing offered is different.
There is also a difference in liquidity and volume.
This is what decentralized is, each platform can have different values and in relation to the price someone or a bot can arbitrage the price until it becomes close enough to not make a profit.
If you ONLY use a CENTRALIZED platform to do your research, which doesn’t have the biggest DEX hosting the trades and liquidity for $GUARD (KNIGHT SWAP) you will probably run into some issues with the accuracy of your data.
Another Example
I am so frustrated with FTM being “slow” .
Translation — I am bullish on this thing and want to be early but I am so frustrated that it’s not as convenient as something with wider adoption.
Dissonance– It is not about right or wrong
There is a reason why early adopters when they win, they win big, it’s because they put up with the bugs and issues of being an early adopter.
At one point FTM overtook BSC for the amount of TVL it had (and more recently had a drop off because of FUD from 2 developers leaving). It also had more transactions than ETH did (even if it was short lived).
Yet ETH was created in 2015, BNB — 2017, Solana — 2017, FTM — 2018, AVAX — 2020.
Windows and Mirrors
You do not get the credibility of “research” if your research is not bound by the rules of science — let’s not forget that the reputation you are seeking is a byproduct of the rules of the method.
As an investor it would be important to understand the concept of windows versus mirrors.
Have you heard this in your crypto journey?
“Everyone’s out to scam me”
“I keep getting rugged pulled by these shady devs.”
This is for the person who is constantly blaming others for the misfortunes that happen to them.
They’re looking out thinking that it’s a window when most likely it’s a mirror.
Rigor, Safety, & Competence Credibility
As investors we will have our own biases and if we only believe in our biases and do not have a system to follow we will most likely end up a danger to ourselves and others. If we had some rigor in trying to disprove our own opinions and biases this would make us significantly better investors and humans.
Early adopters bias Competence Credibility. They don’t need to know how everything works. They will buy based on the competence of the person.
Example
Some of the early adopters into TGA were clients of Nic or who have seen his track record from other real world projects. Some people just buy anything that Elon Musk puts out.
Over time as the ideas diffuse more adopters can get in.
How can you be sure that this will work?
How does this happen?
What about the risks?
These are questions that will highlight that a person is not an early adopter.
These investors are biasing Safety Credibility.
Below will be how ideas start to diffuse.
Early Adopter → Thought Leaders
Once thought leaders (influencers) see early adopters at events or interact with them now they are able to adopt because they have received safety credibility from the early adopters.
Early Adopter → Thought Leaders → Early Majority
Now once thought leaders start to push their narrative onto things like podcasts, youtube, twitter, IG, FB, tiktok, etc. Now the early majority gets safety credibility.
Early Adopter → Thought Leaders → Early Majority → Late Majority → Laggards (they may never get in)
So looking onto yourself where do you think you’d fall? Also be aware that you can be an early adopter in one field, but a late majority in another.
Historically if you’ve been involved in the stock market and if you got into a IPO (thinking you were an early adopter) this would still be late as by the time a company goes public it has had years of historical data and a balance sheet of 10 years +. Contrast this to crypto you can buy a token right as it is conceived.
Trying to be early & wanting to understand EVERYTHING do not go hand in hand. This is what will create dissonance.
The degree of diffusion is directly correlated to the amount of reinvention allowed.
Example
Viagra was not initially created for sexy time for men.
It was invented to treat cardiovascular issues. Somewhere along the line the idea diffused and people found out that you could make more money using it for another purpose.
Projects that have a strict “ROADMAP” will not allow for the diffusion of innovation to pass through successfully. Time and randomness not on their team and we know how that typically ends up.
Warning this is not going to be an “easy” read but if you’d like to learn more
https://www.amazon.com/Diffusion-Innovations-5th-Everett-Rogers/dp/0743222091
You might be reading this and going but I’ve had success investing already and I didn’t know about any of this. Great! It’s not about making money, it’s about how you can live a life with less dissonance. If you’re a high fact finder type and you go into an early project (let’s say under 100 million marketcap) and you need all your questions answered before you invest, you’re creating significantly more work, dissonance, & using more energy than needed.
You might become a billionaire, but what if you’re a billionaire that still isn’t happy in life and you don’t understand why?
The Rocky Road From Action to Intention
A dissertation written by a Stanford student,Elizabeth Louise Newton, June 1990. The experiment was run thousands of times and replicated over time, but the original consisted of this situation.
What if I sat you across a desk from your significant other and had you tap your favorite song on the table. What would the probability that your significant other would be able to guess the song?
People thought 60% chance of getting it right before they did the experiment. Then they were asked what the probability was after doing it & they got to see the reactions of the significant other- 40%.
Actual- Just under 2%
What does this mean?
Probability before — We grossly overestimate our ability to communicate
Probability after — We grossly overestimate how efficiently we have already communicated
There are accompaniments that people assume other people have… Except they don’t.
Example
“You know what I mean… It’s obvious.”
No… What does that mean? It’s only obvious to you because you have all the accompaniments in your head.
Here’s where the problem with this lies.
Investor asks a question → you assume what they mean (we know now that at least 98% of the time we will be wrong with this assumption) → answer the wrong question.
Now we have given the investor certainty about something completely different.
Hope you can see that as an investor, a project owner, business owner, as a parent, spouse, friend, etc that this is more than crypto. It just so happens that people are failing at crypto because they aren’t succeeding at the human stuff.
6WU- “Live to learn, share/give to earn”
Leave your six word update takeaway and read through what others have wrote to see what gems you can pick up.
https://twitter.com/TheGuardianAcad/status/1585720236296310784?s=20&t=_QbUsJPQ4-wLnYMBDKXO7g