We all wish we could have gotten in on Bitcoin at $1, $100, or even $10,000. After all, Bitcoin is now hovering around $40,000, and it’s sure to climb far higher in the long run.
If you’re not an early bird in the crypto space, but still want to get in on the action, this article is for you.
There are literally thousands of crypto projects out there, and many projects are worth your time and attention if you want to participate in the next big thing in tech: decentralized applications (DApps), which could be used for everything from fairer voting systems to issuing shares.
This guide will show you how to join crypto projects at their early stages. It’s not easy, but it is possible.
Initial Selection
The first step is to find a project that interests you. There are thousands of projects out there, so the best way to do this is to go through a list of DApps and pick one that looks interesting.
There are several great platforms dedicated to sharing DApp projects, including the aptly-named Dapp Radar and State of the Dapps. CoinTelegraph also offers the Dapplist, which highlights trending Dapps.
You can filter by broad categories like exchanges, gambling, marketplaces, and games, or by the metrics of the Dapps themselves, such as the number of daily users or volume of transactions.
That said, these lists and radars won’t pick up everything, and media outlets are another great source to find rising stars. For example, Cryptopolitan recently published about Next Earth, a virtual world powered by blockchain NFTs.
Information Gathering
Once you have a project picked out, read up on their whitepaper and try to understand what they want to do. You should be able to figure out whether the project seems like something you would be interested in by asking yourself questions like: Why did they build it? What problem does it solve? Would I use it?
If you still aren’t sure after reading through the white paper, then look at social media accounts for people working on the project or ask them directly on platforms like Twitter or Reddit. It might take some time before you know if this is something you want to get involved with, so don’t rush into anything too quickly.
In most cases, though, if you follow these steps and still aren’t sure about backing a particular project early on, then don’t worry too much about it. Just wait until later when more information becomes available about how well their idea works in practice.
Research the team
This is perhaps the most important thing when looking at any new technology venture — especially one that involves money and potentially risky investments.
When researching teams behind different coins or projects online, look for evidence of past successes as well as failures (and learn from both). Look at who invested in their last startup (if any) and whether they were successful or not; check out their LinkedIn profiles; look at their publicly available codebase; and so forth.
Beyond these objective measures, consider if there’s a cultural fit as well, and ask yourself if it’s a team you’d get along with by providing feedback, asking for suggestions, and engaging in their community channels.
Don’t invest more than you can afford to lose
The best advice for anyone who wants to get into investing is simply not to invest more than you can afford to lose. In other words, don’t invest money that you’d need for other things if your investment went south.
Further, instead of putting all your eggs into one basket by investing all your funds right away into one promising project, you should try to find many projects that you’re interested in, both within the crypto space and outside of it.
Be patient
Most early-stage companies won’t succeed overnight, since building a product takes years, even if everything goes perfectly according to plan.
So don’t expect overnight success stories after investing your capital. It’s important to remember that joining a crypto project should be based on passion, rather than a belief that your investment will bring you to the moon or a new Lamborghini.
Execute
Once you’ve selected a project and done your due diligence, it’s time to execute and join the project, whether it’s by staking tokens, investing in a DeFi pool, creating an NFT collectible, or something else entirely.
There are generally two main ways to go about this: by contributing to the project yourself (many projects give free tokens to contributors), or by buying tokens. You’ll need to have a wallet that can store tokens (which depends on what blockchain network the project is using) and carry out transactions.
If you don’t have one, there are many wallets available online, such as MyEtherWallet or Coinbase Wallet. Keep in mind that most exchanges require KYC (know your customer) verification before allowing users access to their platforms and trading capabilities. You may also need to submit documents such as proof of address and identity for some of them (e. g. in case of Coinbase).
After joining a crypto project, stay involved with the community and stay updated, as you should be in it for the long run.
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