Everyone has their own personal reasons for jumping into web3, but the overarching theme for many who fall down the rabbit hole and ultimately become a degen stems from a demand for ownership, growth, and opportunity. What separates a degen from your regular HODLer is that they’re actively placing a bet on a new normal for the 21st century that they believe is and will contine to be better than what we know today. No matter what niche you find yourself jumping into like, DeFi, NFTs, and/or DAOs you’ll notice that there are some things that every degen has.
What do they have?
The first and most important is their trusty tool: a wallet. In some cases more than one wallet. You’ll want a hardware wallet, also known as a cold wallet, like a ledger, or trezor, for your super longterm holds, and a software wallet, also known as a hot wallet, like metamask, rainbow, and trust wallet for your more liquid crypto assets. Armed with your wallet(s) the next step is to get on twitter. Crypto twitter is the source for a lot of the news and updates in the web3 space. If you don’t know how to break into crypto twitter this is a pretty simple starter pack.
If you do have a twitter account, or just created one after reading that tweet, I recommend reading my last piece to see who are the folks worth following!
Along with the news, you’ll also find great informational threads like this web3 guide below.
So a degen has a wallet to buy their NFTs and currencies, a twitter profile to stay up to date and connect with projects, but how do they really make the life changing plays? It largely involves DYOR (Doing Your Own Research), sharing alpha (positive findings you got from a project) with others and building community with folks that share similar values. All of that usually takes place on apps like discord and telegram where you can really do the deep dive and connect with the communities that these projects are beginning to develop. We can go into my criticism of using a lot of these web2 platforms to break into web3, but that’s a post for another day! For now just know that those apps are where you go to connect with the projects and enjoy some quality alpha and end up staying for memes like this one
As you find your niche, don’t be surprised that you end up joining 2 or 3 DAOs that you find interesting, it’s all a part of the lifestyle. The final step of being a degen is to get paid in crypto, because earning crypto > investing in crypto. If you’re curious on how to do that you can also check out the post below!
Just remember you don't have to learn a new skill to come into web3, just bring what you're good at on over. What’s realy important is that you expand and transform your perception of value beyond just monetary value. If you focus on the dollars you'll miss the opportunity to get in on really amazing opportunities and growth. I have personal stories and ones I’ve heard from friends where we got left holding the bag on projects that we were chasing the money on, but when we found a project we really loved and invested in, when it started to moon (go up in price) we actually found it hard to let go! It’s counter intuitive I know, but degens aren’t in it to be logical.