Hi y'all, it's your HackerNoon Podcaster, Amy.
Ahhh - I don't know about you, but I personally love it when Utsav takes over the podcast. 😂 Not only did I kick back and relax this week, but of course, I learned a lot about crypto from the HackerNoon crypto guru himself - Utsav Jaiswal.
Around the 34-minute mark, I got a kick out of Josh talking about the dopamine rush that traders (and everyone) are constantly chasing. Last week, I made my first eth purchase and I cannot stop Slacking Utsav about my gains. It's QUITE exciting.
I also very much appreciated Josh's humbleness about wrapping his mind around NFTs. Because damn, I mean, aren't they just JPEGs tho?
So, on this episode of The HackerNoon Podcast, I hope you learn as much as I did from Utsav and Josh about what it takes for a crypto project to succeed. Don't forget to follow Josh on Twitter! @BlocksNThoughts
The HackerNoon Podcast: Exploring Crypto Fundamentals with Josh Swigart
Utsav Jaiswal chats with Crypto Analyst and Twitter Influencer Josh Swigart (aka Crypto Fundamentals @BlocksNThoughts) about all things crypto. Utsav digs deep into Josh’s thoughts on Bitcoin, NFTs, DeFi, stablecoins, and more.
On this episode of The HackerNoon Podcast, Utsav asks:
- What red flags should a new crypto project look out for? 🚩 (09:05)
- Is Bitcoin the principal cryptocurrency (over all the others)? 🏆 (11:10)
- What happens when a blockchain goes down due to server issues? 👎 (17:35)
- Do you have the ability to predict a project’s success or failure? 😨 (24:25)
- What is your thought on NFTs? 😜 (29:28)
- What is your take on stable coins? 🤔 (52:38)
- Coming from Crypto, Defi & NFTs, what next? 👀 (34:26)
- Does social media contribute to the stable coin woes? 📲 (57:19)
Follow @BlocksNThoughts on Twitter at https://twitter.com/BlocksNThoughts
Podcast Transcript: Conversation with Josh Swigart
User-generated, please excuse the errors!
[00:00:00] Utsav: Well, hello and welcome to the hacker noon podcast. This is your host. And today on the crypto episodes, we have somebody from Brita is known mostly as crypto fundamentals, but friends know him as Josh Swigart.
[00:00:22] Utsav: He grew up in a tiny village. Which has had about 6,000 people went to eight years of college, learned psychiatry, likes working with inmates, which is probably why he enjoys cryptocurrency a lot.
He has a wife. Three kids. And with that, I'd like to pass the mic to Josh and allow him to tell us what drives him to help people in crypto navigate these choppy waters.
[00:00:47] Josh: It's a broad question. So I'll try and I'll leave stuff out for sure. Um, when I first started in cryptocurrency, I think we all have this story.
The people who have blasted have this story, you have to have it, you get destroyed, you get, you know, multiple times. Um, and I listened to the wrong people. When I first came on the scene in 20 17, 20 18. I wasn't even on CT. I didn't know what the hell CT was. So about a year and a half ago. Um, yeah, I was listening to YouTube and I don't want to name any names.
Cause some of these people, they probably don't even mean badly. Terrible at their jobs. And somehow they get promoted to represent cryptocurrencies, but I've followed a YouTube a lot and, um, you know, bought, uh, certain things that were advertised there. You know, I think I wrote, I was in graduate school at the time.
So I wrote like maybe $2,000 up to, I don't know, 40 or $50,000. And I wrote it all the way down to, you know, a thousand maybe, but I didn't learn anything, you know, I mean, I learned how to lose money, but if that's something. You know, I think time brings, uh, all the experience and the things you need that to.
You have to have time for them all to come together, but helping people, I just enjoy it. I don't know why I do it. I don't really like tooting my own horn either. Cause it feels like I'm bragging. I can't stand it. So it's okay. It's beneficial to me. Like, I feel good when I help people. I feel good when people are doing well.
So it is there, there is some selfishness and that's the same with everybody. I think, I think we do things for selfish reasons. We can do the psychology of that. We don't have to, but that's why I do it.
I don't like to see people suffer. My wife used to yell at me for giving homeless people, $20 bills. You know, I had to stop cause uh, yeah, yeah. We have kids to feed. Right.
You know, but I really enjoy breaking down things in layman's terms because I didn't understand anything. And it took so long. It took so long to get to understand the basic things that you need to understand that no one even mentioned to liquidity, right. Farming, coconut.
I mean, these are basic things actually, but that no one will tell you about and no one will go out of their way to tell you, period. If you don't know them, you're just like, oh, you know, everyone is invested in, you know, a while back and they're getting dumped on they're like, why is the price going down?
And, you know, and they think that, you know, it's a bad project, but in reality, they don't even know what VCs are, you know, there's token unlocks and things like that. So what drives me is just, I really have a good time. I enjoy putting together information and making it look and sound a certain way and a way people understand when I'm breaking something down.
I typically will look at it because I grew up really poor. Um, and then I went to school. So I know the difference between, you know, my uncles who, you know, have a, you know, a farming third grade education, as opposed to someone with a college education. So I asked myself, this is a little bit off topic.
Well, do I understand what my uncle understand this? Right? And if the answer is no, I'll rewrite it and paraphrase and, you know, do what I have to do to make, put it in terms where people are understand. And that's kind of why my threads are built, like a story. Um, Yeah, right. It pulls people in and makes them understand it, paints it in a bigger picture, more on a global scale than a minuscule scale.
But those are the kinds of things that drive me, I guess, just trying to do, I'm trying to do it the right way is difficult. No one to, I'd never intended on becoming an influencer educator. What are you going to call it? I, you know, that's why my handle isn't fancy. It's it's the JLS 12 Olsen. That's the default handle.
It's what just gave me that.
Um, And I, about a year ago, I put on a small thread and people liked it. And I was like, well, people are kind of respond to this and, and I just kept doing it and I made them more visual and I made them length here and I made them more detailed. You know, it kinda just happened. Right. Um, but no one ever told you about the, you don't really understand how dirty the space is until you get to have followers.
Um, and this and that drives me too, because I see, like, I know of something, people shouldn't buy something just based on who else is promoting it because. Oh shit. Right. But things like that. Uh, and this probably, no one's going to be a problem after this video comes out, guarantee you that
[00:04:58] Utsav: tailgate promotions. Cause
[00:05:02] Josh: I tried to do one, one. Um, I really did, but what I found was just like, I'd never been able to fake anything in real life. I can't kiss, but I can't force myself to do things like that. I don't know what it is. I couldn't fake doing the work. There was no energy and I just sat there.
I was like, this is when I put it off and put it off and violate it. So, no, I don't want to really do this. And it was a good practice. It was fine. Um, but anyways, I think that's. Following your path, right? If you don't, if you're not listening to yourself, like there's plenty of influences out. There are driven by money, but they're not really listening to themselves internally.
Well, in my view, at some point that road's going to come to an end because you're not doing what you love. You're forcing yourself to do things, you know, you're in a rush. That's the biggest. Right. Yeah. I guess those things drive me. Money drives me too, to a certain extent. Of course it does. It drives everybody.
And I hate it when people say I don't do this for the money. Of course I, I, to get rich, of course I want to be. And it isn't even being rich. It's being worry free. Like I don't need it, you know, I want, you know, having resources. So like, okay, well, I don't have to worry about this this month because I grew up with parents who live paycheck to paycheck and right.
I, uh, I don't obviously now, but at the time, You know, it was very stressful. And even in college, eating ramen, you know, in dorm rooms and as a medical aid, I made $12 an hour and I didn't ever, you know, on my fridge was had two things in it. So money is a driver, of course. And it always will be, but if I can help people benefit along the way, it certainly actually is one of those things where I kind of enjoy it.
And I, and I don't like people being trampled on it, pisses me off a little. But like in the space you see more and more of it. It just it's getting worse. So depending on who you follow, and that's the thing about following too, like every followers goal should be in the end to follow just themselves, maybe a select group of people.
I mean, they should be like, you know, working on their craft, that degree where, you know, on two or three.
It's just them making decisions and maybe checking in with a few people to help validate a decision, make sure there's no holes in their plan or their research or project or looking at those things. So that drives me to help people get to a point where they can stop wondering these complex questions like farming those things.
Uh, what else drives me the detail. I like that. Um, yeah, I don't know what else. Really say, I'm sure there's more, I'm just missing stuff. I
[00:07:27] Utsav: get it. It makes sense.
Cause like there would be a lot of, let's say economists or finance people who could always, like, let's say explain liquidity better using all of their deltas and that alpha is, and they'll beat us. But what is the application side of things for people who are not finance people? Um, from my personal experience, I see that like you fill that gap.
Like you use real world examples. You have. Check out this particular, like you don't like say checkout desk joking, but you are always like, okay, so these are the things that I do. And like, these are the fundamentals and so on and so forth. So if I were a cryptocurrency project or like to be precise, if I were to build a cryptocurrency project, what are some of the red flags that I showed?
I'd like, what are some of the things that flag you on it?
[00:08:16] Josh: If a project flies as red flags and on as climbing the ranks. And I don't mean to lead with that, cause it's certainly not the first issue, but it's only that way because regulations are coming and I don't want. Right, but they are, and there's nothing I can do or say about it.
So if we invest into long-term projects that are now going to be regulated in a year and a year and a half, well, what becomes a thing? We need to start asking ourselves questions. Right? Do I want to put my money someone a year and a half? I'm not sure what's going to happen because they failed to regulate.
Whereas, and I'm not going to mention projects on the podcast cause everyone knows, but the ones who are compliant well, we know what's going to happen. They're going to be fine. Right. And that's not saying that the devs aren't better. I'm sure they are. I'm sure there there's there's, you know, there's, there's great ones on both sides.
So the, the Ana thing, I like it, I think privacy is important. It's a real, it's a real big thing. But when we're talking strictly financial, no politics involved, right. Where our money is going, how to make money, how to multiply that money, how to compound that money. You know, it's a question we really need to start asking, do we want to participate?
It means they're fine. Cause they last, but like, you know, Yeah,
[00:09:27] Utsav: yeah.
[00:09:29] Josh: Excluded. But if you were talking about stairs, probably X we're attempting to be serious. That aren't, that aren't that veteran docs and aren't KYC. Well there's problems, you know, and there's nothing I can do about it. And, but I'm not gonna, you know, I'm not going to risk my capital and neither will other people, people will be way ahead of.
Um, no,
[00:09:46] Utsav: besides me, but there's always this question that Bitcoin was also anonymous. So is Bitcoin the exception that proves the rule or they say that like Bitcoin is Bitcoin everything? No,
[00:09:58] Josh: I don't think so. I just think the government doesn't care. Wait,
[00:10:00] Utsav: it doesn't get, because like the people now are not, are not in on maybe like Satoshi.
[00:10:08] Josh: It doesn't even matter because Bitcoin's been co-opted by so many institutions. Now, you know what part of the 4% of the supply is owned by institutions where they can just, you know, kind of push it, whatever direction they want in comparison to retail. And I'm not sure I don't have numbers in front of me, but I'm just saying like, would it matter if he's Anton on, if you control the.
Oh, yeah.
[00:10:27] Utsav: They'll have taught like, if even a single Bitcoin from initial wallet, it has like hundreds and thousands of like Bitcoin that moves probably the entire market. What crash, because now people would know that that amount of money is going to move. I'm not sure, but like where I found it, but like yeah.
If he is not in on, it's going to be a problem because he's in.
[00:10:48] Josh: Right. So, yeah. And I, and I respect privacy and your, your. I just, I just don't know another way around what you know, around it. You know, I get it, I get it. It makes sense. And other red flags for team for projects, token omics is a big one. If I see a team that's allocating a huge portion of the supply to themselves and there's too many.
Frequently, you know, we've all been over this, uh, you know, marketing wallets 20% or something like that, like, uh, or the distribution to, so oftentimes people, new people in crypto don't look at distribution. Well, get to know ether scan, go through the wallets. If you see the top 20 wallets, all holding 4%, you need to get out because that means too many Wells on too big of a supply.
And if the liquidity is low, I mean, there's only one direction. Right? And so that's another, that's another point, right? When it comes to red flag. So the distribution of the wallets, the token Nomics, and there's plenty of tutorials. And before I jump in and I want to curve off into somebody far for again, if you're a new or moderate or novice or whatever, and you don't understand crypto fully, you don't need to understand things like an economist.
You just need to understand basics well, and you will do well, but even that's it, it's very simple. Keep it simple. Keep it. You know, keep moving, keep pivoting with the, with the changes in a trends, but you don't have to know every single thing in the world. Like, you know, I mean, if you're a technical analysis or trader that's, that's a little bit different, but, um, as far as I know, do I know basic liquidity or no basic farming?
Do I have money on every single chain and every single wallet? Do I have my security wire tie tight with VPNs and know multiple wallets and ledgers? Or what, how are you going to do it? Right. Um, so I know token Nomics very well. So I know red flies don't know distribution. Do I, you know, it goes on. The list.
Is this project viable in comparison to others? Are we just riding hype for the next two weeks? Is a regulation coming for this type of project? Is there a need an infrastructure? And I think another long-term thing people don't think about, and I, I know I'm rambling. Um,
[00:12:49] Utsav: They're so
[00:12:49] Josh: focused on what the best is. Okay. There's the best and what's selected and this, and I can't get that sort of people enough. What is the best doesn't matter all the time, because if you have a, like a supply chain logistics chain, blockchain that, you know, has scales, infinity and, you know, make efficiency.
You know, possible everywhere in the world. It's not going to matter, not going to get the implemented, then you're going to put 30% of the global war immediately might get adoption, but it's not going to get adopted this year. Right. We're not doing that this year. So we're talking long, longterm that until we get everybody situated and where they need to be before we can implement something like this.
So the best doesn't always matter. Same as some privacy points are really like, and I hope they make it. I'm not sure how they're going to get around things. And obviously their privacy. I don't have to go anywhere, but you know what I mean? Like there's still. That will need to be solved. Um, the best thing doesn't matter, the best tech doesn't matter, what's selected matters.
Network effect matters, community matters, you know, so I guarantee you, there were companies that were better than Microsoft and Amazon before they made it big. I guarantee it always is. And so that's an important. Um, that I'd like to drive through. I don't care if it's the best ride, the hype, you know, take profits on the way up, leave some in there in case it does really well, but make no mistake about vigilant and watching where your, where your projects are going, because some of them have such high ambitions.
They're like in a ten-year project when regulations are coming in a year and a half. Right. And they don't have the lawyers on board yet for that either.
[00:14:21] Utsav: Yeah. I guess what I was going to say was that if somebody from like, and pardon me for using a meme. So if like somebody from Solano, Meg, if somebody from Solano was like watching this take or take that part, which you just said and use that asset asset Edward he's made material, it does not matter who is the best it matters who gets selected.
It's
[00:14:45] Josh: why do you think I'm like the infrastructure of the globe sucks so badly? There's way better stuff
comes into it for us, but I don't want to get like too detailed, which is. No the over generalized statement. Um, but, um, I'm sorry, like go find it. I know. I want you to talk to them too. Sorry, go ahead. Uh, usually
[00:15:06] Utsav: like, like you have, I guess like half the plan thing, so, but anyways, thank you for letting me speak on this.
So I have this question. There are all these DFI protocols or whatnot. They say that they are decentralized. Recently, we saw an exchange go down or like layer one blockchain scores go down because of problems will be AWS servers or whatnot. If that happens on a place like Twitter, that's understandable.
We go and like talk about it somewhere else. But what do we do when it happens on something like our blockchain already centralized application, where there is no backing teams that are know? And what happens if that infrastructure goes down? Like, what are your thoughts around.
[00:15:48] Josh: It goes down in what way?
Like every way, like there's no access to it. The chains on operable,
[00:15:52] Utsav: it happened for 72 hours. Like the chain that I won't name again. And like,
[00:15:59] Josh: what do you do with your investment? Or what do you do to
[00:16:01] Utsav: fix it? Like how do you call yourself? De-centralized the next day I was talking about this exchange called bye-bye.
[00:16:09] Josh: Yeah, well, they're not essentially decentralized and some are hybrid format. And I think that's a shortcut that's been taken because it's taken, it's not taking long, it's taking long and human years. Right. Like our time. Cause we're so we want things now. Right. It's taken a long time in crypto and crypto.
Yeah. To get things scaled like Ethereum, get the Oracles, you know, get the Oracles linked up the way they should be, because that kind of work just takes time. And so people, you know, people like salon and you can't blame it from a business model. Well, they just, Hey, they're taking forever. Let's, let's put this hybrid model in as part of this part that, and we'll make some money.
Right. And we'll see if we can, we can, again, back to the thing. It doesn't matter if it's the best. And so, and so that's kind of what. People have just taken, taken that route instead. It was. That's why I probably had people get so irritated with my talent. Cause he just, you know, he's like a, he just Ganders right.
Like, oh man in the garden with his time and
[00:17:02] Utsav: you know, and
[00:17:03] Josh: uh, and he doesn't care. Right. Cause it's going to work when it's going to work. And that's why people always like this is going to take this over and I never get into these arguments. And I know, but I, I have no, I have no. I have no reservations about saying that nothing is close to taking over theorem.
And I don't like the gas prices either, but it isn't, everything's built on it. No one wants to break. I mean, I can't even get people to bridge to other chains for a 10 X. You think that they think something else is going to take over. So, but, uh, other red flags for teams. You know, there isn't community building.
They need to have an active community. So if I see them not act, it depends if they're really good at their jobs, they don't need to be so active. And I don't know one of those people who needs handholding, but because the majority of conversations about the project happen in a telegram. If I see bad sentiment in a telegram, you already know the price is going to go bad, at least in any initial interim, but so many people in crypto, they need those reassurance.
To keep their money where it is, especially in short-term investments, that teams have to be active in order for that to work. Um, other red flags more and more red flags are becoming there's more of them now because we see these things with docs, docs, people running off with, uh, running off with money.
Um, right. So it doesn't even matter. So there's this guy on Twitter, really smart guy. I think he's going to have a lot more followers soon, but he was telling me he was, we were talking about, does a math or docs. He's like, no, it doesn't. And he made it like. The point, but it was a really, really good something to the tune of, you know, they're going to do what they want to do anyways, but he had it.
He said it well, I'm sorry. I'm not saying it well anyways. Um, that's all I can think of right now with teams, not doing things. Okay. Here's another thing. Devs make bad CEOs really bad CEO. If they don't, they think they can code. They, they, and then do HR and, you know, uh, you know, everything at the same time.
So they need to hire on some and there isn't a really, even there isn't really a big way to do this. It's very difficult because projects don't have all these options like fortune 500 companies do, but you know, they need to have more people that are pointed in several different directions to make things work typically.
So we have great projects that that teams have just been like, well, whatever, I'll get there when I get there. Well, you're not Vitalic. Stop. Like back to our prior point, you have to do something else to keep people's interests at this stage, but they don't care and the project dies, but it could have been great.
Right. You see that a lot. Um, so dad is who act entitled to data's who just want to put out a token for a cash grab, get dialogue. Um, I mean, I guess that's all I have to say. Red flag wise. It's just, there's I guess less, probably very long, but Intuit falls into it too. And isn't something that can't be taught.
I think it comes from being, you know, just getting a feeling for all the projects. Long period of time, but sometimes I'll almost buy something or I'll sit back and I'll think because I think about things for awhile and I won't buy it and the price will go down or I'll think that the market's going to take a turn and it usually does, but that didn't come right away and I'm not always right either, but my intuition always, usually leads me in the right direction towards projects and which ones I should invest in and which ones are going to be okay.
And it's, I think it's just a common culmination of experience, you know, from being hurt here. And having good things happen here that kind of makes this thing happen where I just get a feel for a project if it's going to do well or not. Right. Yeah. And I'm sure you can speak to that too,
[00:20:19] Utsav: right? I wouldn't say I have the best sense.
Like, what I learned is . FirstNet, like God says, do the opposite. That's what he was really works for me. I don't have that
[00:20:29] Josh: sense or though
[00:20:30] Utsav: it'll come to me, but I like that too. I have a serious question for you. Like you don't usually play that out, but you are an influencer for the community, right? Has there ever been.
In your opinion, very, you were not very optimistic about, let's say token or a coin or whatever, and you probably didn't have the best votes for them. They ended up like going down or falling or failing, and they probably Vern that back to begin with. What do you think, like when you think that you build such a power over the community or not,
[00:21:06] Josh: I'd like to say people don't listen to me.
I would say like 1%, I often have people that, you know, like we all, a lot of people like me do, I'll mention things and then they'll go up in price a lot before people will come onto them. And you're asking about whether I haven't liked things and it's dropped in price because I've said something. I don't think I've ever put out a public statement, funded anybody, to be honest, I call that
[00:21:28] Utsav: fine.
Okay. So you used the word far, right? The way I see it, I like, see that's it like you make a distinction that.
[00:21:39] Josh: Here's the thing, unless I have the evidence, there's no funny. The only thing I've ever fought a publicly is snowbank and snow dog, good times. And, but people jumped to these conclusions and I'm not going to name names, but their evidence is poor.
The journalism is that the investigative journalism and the evidence they've collected as. It's a very, very, very, very poor, especially when they're posting things and they don't link up a chain of events, they don't link up a timeline. They don't describe how the wallet transfers worked and where it went and how it got there.
Right. There's like, Red's picture, picture, picture posts. Right. I've never liked that. And it's not that I don't want people to do the right thing and not to be, and other people not to, in things not to in bad teams, not the call that I do. I don't want them to succeed at all, but if I don't have the evidence, the real evidence, there's no sense in giving it all to me because.
That's me, but doing hearsay, that's me starting rumors. And I almost, you know, there's been a time where I almost did once and I was wrong. This is early on. And I would have heard that. Right. And I got the information later on. Cause I was patient. I waited, I didn't want to do that. Even know my emotions were telling me to do it.
And there's been other times too. But, uh, you just, you know, you have a feeling, you hear these rumors, but what else are they? They're rumors. Where's the proof. See that. So often he don't bonus where's the proof their VCs are dumping. Where's the proof. Show me their wallets, linked to the token unlocked dates, you know, that's fine.
And I just get it's a little bit tiresome because people on crypto, they wonder why they're not taking seriously a little bit. Right? Well, we'd asked better questions. So you're promoting somebody to have a hundred thousand followers. Right. And you're listening to every word they say, but then again, you're not asking them to do better.
And I don't mean being rude or being mean, but like when someone's presenting something, they should have all the sources. They should have references. They should have documented evidence. If there's a rumor, you know, I mean, why aren't I going to that person? Hey, I heard this, I heard this. Can you respond to this?
Right. Those types of things. And I don't mean being a journalist per se, you know, altogether, but it's, there's so much bad information put out and misinformation, disinformation, and I see it. Good projects. And none of it's true at the same time. So we have to, as a community, start doing diligence on this.
And that's why I don't fund because I don't have the evidence. Right. And unless someone's going to give it to me, and I'm not an ether scan sleuth, right. Going through walls all damn day because people get caught up in this right. Where they, I caught him. Well, you know, you spend more of your day catching.
Somebody dumped on you and you're not getting your money back. When you could have been researching something to put your energy somewhere where it's going to benefit you. And I've never done that. I'd never went on my way to look at wallets like that, even though it can be beneficial in other ways, Just taking time away from me making money basically.
And, um, anyways, that's my kind of thought on, um, on that, so,
[00:24:20] Utsav: sorry. I love this tox, right? Beginning of late conditioned money, then it's like one thing that the crypto OGs allegedly don't like, but is the NFL. What's our take
[00:24:31] Josh: on that? Um, I've been getting more and more into enough FTS looking around, kind of collect in a few here and there.
Um, I don't have a lot of them. Um, and some, I wish I bought more of like, I'm like as one of your first, uh, get into crypto baby steps, I'll buy, like just to, just to have it to, you know, the floor has gone up a few weeks. I'm like, why we'll shut up more? But yeah, there's some things I like at first, I didn't understand them.
I remember I was having a conversation with a couple other influencers who are really into NFTs and they're nice guys, and they're funny. Right. And I was like, and they were talking about, um, the notorious from. And so the frogs and I was like, and at first I was like, well, what are they? I didn't understand.
Right. I didn't get it. You have to really do your research and it too, because they're going to be in a metaverse and they're going to go to 3d and they're going to come with land and all those, you know, not just those ones, but tons of them. And so I think there's a place for them. I think they assimilate ratio up with crypto.
Because the regulation is not going to be viable. The majority of means are not going to be viable. And the majority of there might even be more NFTs that are viable. Then this may or may not happen. There may or may not be more NFT companies that succeed than, than the other ones, because they're so well-connected with athletes and sports teams and, you know, people love.
Uh, you know, corporations and so, you know, in the metaverse too, so you may have a situation in the future where not all of them, cause there's tons of NFTs too. Um, well you have quite a few NFTs that are, long-term holds that, you know, may do very well, but I don't know much about them yet. And some people are helping me kind of navigate.
I'm like, oh, what's this is any good. But, uh, yeah, I recently did my first thread on an NFC a couple of weeks ago, a month ago, or so. Um, I just stumbled on the guy. They're kind of cool. So I posted about it. No one cared until I think yesterday
I brought it. Yeah, it does. Go ahead. What were you saying?
[00:26:21] Utsav: Patterns, right. Their money is all in FIAR audit, like savings or checking account. When they look at us that like, where's your money? And I'm like, it's on a wallet. They're like, what does that even mean? You see your money. I know it is the generation after us, but just like now when we asked him, okay, at least your money isn't isn't like crypto.
No. Yeah,
I guess, I guess like life as a meme, but yeah.
[00:26:53] Josh: Yeah, it is. And it's a very difficult concept for them to grasp. Um, you can't explain it to you that
[00:26:59] Utsav: you don't, I don't get NFTs at all. Like how would you explain why you do me? I call it like layer two long.
[00:27:08] Josh: And historically speaking, that's how a lot of people launders through art.
Right? I don't understand it fully at either. I just feel like, you know, I saw a few cool things in the markets that go nowhere. So I'll look into it. And, uh, some things are interesting, especially when you have these ones that are associated with them, they're associated with bigger, like companies that are, that are, that are in crypto, bigger crypto companies and metaphors companies that are going to be in their operating system or whatever that.
Uh, that they're putting out and be able to venture in there and be avatars. And how many advertisers are you going to have though? Eventually, because, right. And that's, that's the thing I worry about. Like, um, like I've come to understand too, like why is everybody do 10,000 limit on NFTs? Why w 10,000 is kind of a lot to me, isn't it?
Or is it not? I dunno, I guess it depends on,
[00:27:54] Utsav: I guess somebody wrote a piece of code, which you could try to get 10,000 FTEs and all of these, like script kiddies. Coffee face take that same code and they cannot change that 10,000 audit might be like limit. I'm not an expert over there, but that is why everybody has 10,000 are like 8, 8, 8, 8, something like that.
[00:28:13] Josh: Right. Okay. I got it. That makes sense. See some, you know, someone didn't know, but yeah, I don't, it's hard to understand that, but even right. The, uh, yeah, I can't explain it monetarily to people and I won't try.
[00:28:27] Utsav: Like, if you were to look into the future, like, what do you think is next? And if our generation was, let's say defined by defy and cryptocurrencies and the next one that's defined what is the next one? And FDS and X
[00:28:42] Josh: what's X. What do you mean by like the next. Yeah, I honestly think, um, they're going to have to bridge, uh, the financial system with blockchain, eventually traditional kinds of systems and the blockchain eventually.
Um, and it's already there. The groundwork's already been laid essentially. Or are you asking what the next trend is?
[00:29:01] Utsav: Like you speaking about adoption, which tells me that there is. all like ties down to the finance side of things. I was looking more from a utilitarian standpoint or like maybe even like monetarily, like Vera people going to chase the next pumps.
Is that still gonna be defy NFTs artists? They're going to be something.
[00:29:26] Josh: Something else. Um, there'll always be something else because other things, something else makes money and it'll at least it's what drives innovation. You see these things and I have this theory and it may or may not be right, but like the defy 2.0 and 3.0 and these things, I'm not sure if they're defined or not, we don't have a standard textbook definition.
Right. It's whatever it is. It's different. It's different gimmicks. It's way it works. We're seeing if it works, it's all experimental. Yeah. Um, but I have a theory that government agencies, they they've let us, what always happens there in tech revolutions is government agencies will let, and they'll let you innovate.
Why would they close things down right away when they can let, like all these brilliant people innovate for years on end, and then there's cherry pick out what they want in the end, cost them nothing. Right? So it's still, the innovation factor is always going to be there because one person wants to one up the other and code gets spliced and code gets altered.
And then, you know, that someone thinks of something better. It didn't add to it. So I think we'll always see things like that. I do like privacy aspect. That's upcoming with our current world, the privacy coins and the new features that some of them have not going to mention them because I don't want anyone to go buy things.
Right.
[00:30:32] Utsav: This is not fun. Yeah.
[00:30:36] Josh: So I do like privacy coins. Some of them that are, that are defiant and privacy. That again, that are converting assets into synthetic assets and, and back and forth without being traced. I think there is a need for privacy in this market, in the world. Because I think regulations are coming and it's not, not for bad reasons.
I just think part of human existence to have some things private in your life.
[00:31:00] Utsav: I'm ready on that. And like that there are doctors that always going to be there. So yeah, professors pay taxes. I haven't India. So my like country just had the budget announcement and there was. If you like half crypto, you pay 30% back on the income that you generate from crypto.
Pretty. It's pretty progressive. If I hold it, I'm not paying any taxes.
[00:31:26] Josh: Okay. Yeah, no, that's great. And it means that you can see the younger generations, they right. And then the people, that's all they're doing. I mean, I don't know, probably people, I don't know, 15 to 25, definitely are. I would say a higher percentage are in crypto than anything else.
Especially traditional assets. No one wants to get on Charles Schwab for, you know, half. A day.
[00:31:46] Utsav: I mean, there's no fun in it, right? It's interesting that people 15 or 25, they have access to sorts of capital that we didn't have to. Oh, it's nice. Nice. Like at least the world is progressing.
[00:31:58] Josh: It is, I was talking to my dad too.
And I have a, have a young brother he's only, she's just under 10 and he plays video games and all that. And I was reminded me of the play to earn video games that are going to be very big in the future, right. Where people will just be earning money through playing the games. That's definitely a, will be a thing in the future.
I think Metta versus will be a big thing, although. That's so long term as well. I don't think we're anywhere near ready, um, to actually have them be operational, you know, as far as avatars are concerned. I mean, so I think a lot of people confuse metaverse with video games, right. It's not a game. And so while it kind of is, I guess it's, you know, it's an integration that's for sure.
And so. But yeah, the next thing it's hard to say, uh, current markets, you know, it could go, I have my thoughts on, on the market, but depending on where the market goes, like, see, I just don't think that's going to happen with the market. If we entered a long-term bear market, most projects would be, you know, wiping the map capital to do the research, you know?
So yeah, no, no, no, I get it. I laughed. What else can. I mean, we have no control over it.
[00:33:11] Utsav: We'd like it to last time. Right. I think because we are used to it. So like, if it happens, it's like, okay,
[00:33:17] Josh: it happened. Yeah. You get to that. You get to those points quicker. Like the death, uh, five stages of death and the grief, and then the acceptance, it's kind of the same thing.
Crypto's going down for new people, but what your third or fourth rodeo? You're like, you're writing, acceptance just like that. Well,
[00:33:35] Utsav: It's like class, let me go back to sleep.
[00:33:38] Josh: Right. And I, the way I've been doing it too, is I spend more time doing other things that I have been neglecting because they're in a bull market. You can't leave the computer, you can't go to sleep. So, you know, there is benefit and you've got to get back into it.
And at the same time, you don't think that well, like, so for people who. You know, I'm guilty too, but if you're staying up all night and you're, you know, you got that dopamine pumping constantly from all the trades you're in and you're making money. I mean, your brain's not working that well, you're not making the best decisions, this cause your fatigue.
So, you know, it's got to take a break, but anyway, sorry. No, it makes
[00:34:12] Utsav: sense. Like, because you have this background in psychiatry. So like you understand these things right? When you get a lot of these dopamine pumps, you obviously are not thinking straight. You're thinking, even if you are like not fatigue is like, let's say you are going to make mistakes because you think that you will practically add on patchable.
If you get that graph, that's like makes you more rash and stuff.
[00:34:36] Josh: Yeah. They get the euphoria. It really is a. With most people and the dopamine, right. It's addictive. Number one. So you can be addicted to anything. I don't care what it is, um, to come down. It's really hard to, so people chasing what they'll do essentially is I have this fear about when crypto regulations come in and memes, you know, I don't know when it's gonna happen 10 years, whatever, maybe it doesn't, but if it all did go away, you know, the a hundred percent gains, 50% gains, whatever.
I mean, a lot of people that have made all their money that way are going to lose it all in a casino, because they're going to be chasing something. There's going to be a void that needs to be filled on a hormonal level. Right. A newly neurotransmitter change has occurred if you've been doing this long enough, that's something we don't have to get into, but absolutely it has just like cell phones change the neurochemistry of your, of your, of your brain.
When you use them for awhile. So I worry about that a little bit, but as far as people, as far as the people with their, the dopamine and a bull market, you know, they just, you get addicted to it. It's like this constant thing, but you run out eventually your body gets fatigued. You can't produce, it's like a kinda like being an addict.
You know, the addict doesn't get the same feeling twice and I have to keep doing. Yeah. To the, to feel the same. It's the same thing. That's why people, even during the bull market fatigue, even when they're making money, they're like kind of apathetic after like a year later, 20 grand or whatever. Right.
[00:36:03] Utsav: Let me leverage it.
[00:36:05] Josh: Oh, I'll do that later. When I get too lazy to take trades, if they're no they're going to two or three X, right. That's bull market fatigue. And that's, that's a response from the body say I'm not excited anymore because you know, I've been making so much, you know, it's not that the money doesn't matter.
It's just that all the dopamine that hit new constantly. You don't care. Right. You're kind of episodic. And that makes sense.
[00:36:24] Utsav: So anyways, yeah. Yeah. So as we like come to the close of this, like podcast, I want you to like, take some names, but these are the ones that you would, that you would be happy taking, right?
Oh yeah. Sure. So tell us some of the tools that you, that you like using the space. There are so many, I just found out about Zipify started using it, but what are the ones that you like, what are the ones that you want people to be. To be more aware and informed and so on and so forth.
[00:36:54] Josh: Um, quant metrics is a good one.
Um, no quant. Craig's got ya, but meshes is a good one. If you're looking for, you know, market sentiment and, you know, information, you're not going to get anywhere else, especially when it comes to kind of looking at indicators. Trading view, don't check your prices on coin gecko or coin market cap, pull up a chart because those aren't in real time and they often have glitches.
So I, I don't recommend anyone ever uses anything. That's not real time, especially if you're watching a main trade. Yeah.
[00:37:22] Utsav: Speak more on that, please. I have no idea.
[00:37:27] Josh: And Quinn market cap pull their data from somewhere, right. They pull up from the exchanges or they pull it from, I don't know where they pull it from to be honest, but I never enterprise them and not have the chart up.
I don't even care if you know how to read TA you can at least tell where the buys and sells are at where the dumpster have. Right. And you can drag wallets that way and everything else, if you need to and see what's going on with the team and the distribution, um, like I always do, but the coin market cabin coin gecko thing, you're getting a price, but like it's not, it's lagging.
It's a lagging indicator that can go wrong. You're not getting if it relies on something else. So anytime you're dealing with your money, you should not be using an application. I mean, if you're just scrolling through looking for new projects, Overall total market tab, seeing what's ranked. Right. That's great.
But for price check, I mean, I've had this conversation with movers last week where they were just using Coinbase. They didn't know that I do what I do, but all they were doing to invest was Coinbase. I was like, Hey, these people have these hopes and dreams. See, you feel bad. You're like, no, one's told you about a Dex.
They had no idea what a Dex was, but they'd been claimed based for a year. And I'm like, what is going on? Yeah, because there's a YouTube they're on the damn YouTube
anyways. What was I saying?
[00:38:37] Utsav: Sorry. You were telling us about.
[00:38:43] Josh: Yeah, I go with charts, uh, deck screener, decks tools, whatever, and you can put up several tabs open you can. I kind of like, I'm not going to give an endorsement here, but the ones you can set an alarm on. If you're watching a trade title, you can put a top and a bottom on it. So if it falls below a certain invalidation point, well, we might want to get out.
If it goes above that you know where your teepees are at, and I'm not a trader, I know I'm a novice at TA, but I'm good enough to know where resistance. And how a retest works and where we need to get for us to, for me to make a purchase, right. Entries and exits. So you're so for people, if your, um, your investment should wrap around three things, research is the number one.
That's the first thing you should do. Uh, the next one's entries and exits. And if you can't enter an exit, it doesn't matter how good your research. And I'm not saying don't hold for years because I have things that hold for years. But if you see sentiment turning the team's not meeting deadlines, you need to get out.
That's all there is to it. And I heard this from an influencer who was really large when I was really small and I was getting dumped on all the time and I was like, oh, what's going on? Can we push a project this way? We do it that way. He's like, you know, the bottom line. And I'm not saying we had to do this, but if something's going wrong with a project, if you don't sell someone else is going to that's the bottom line.
So if there's like T like with, uh, the recent project who won't speak of scams or people like lying or corruption or these things, people just need to realize that no, one's going to trust. It will get hurt real bad in the space. Um, so quant metrics, decks tools or indicators I use, I use trading view too.
Um, I use, um, what else do I use? Oh God, what's it called? I haven't looked at it in a while. Um, oh, for my, uh, for, I use April. Is that right for tracking portfolios. But as far as research goes, I don't go through anybody, but myself. I go to the websites I read through the white papers. I'll Google them. I'll Google the team members.
I'll tie in about everything I can with who they are and what they do. I like to look at histories, backgrounds. Sometimes you can't find them, which is a little bit odd this day and age, but she can't. Well, it is, but I'm going to look at application to, um, is there an application? Is there a need, this is fantasy.
This is great. This is wonderful. It's exciting. Is there a need, will there be adoption people never ask that question. They don't care. They want to make money right away. That's great. But then at least give yourself some limitations and say, I'm not going to research that aspect of this, but I know it's going to make me money right now.
So I'm gonna give myself a timeline to get out in a month or a year or, you know, a week if it's a meme, whatever. And, uh, and so these things are important. Um, There's different criteria. There'd be different tiers depending on what kind of investor you are. And knowing limitations is one of them. If you're not someone who's going to research anything while you better know why it's important, why it's being height and when height dies.
Right. And how long things last, it's a basic component. And you can look at about every meme chart that's ever existed. There's an initial pump phase for the first 2 48 to 70 and even 24 to 72 hours, and then usually a rapid sell off. And then if it's any good, it'll go back up. 10 times the original all-time high, but as far as metrics goes, you know, I D I really get my hands dirty.
I just go to the source. I don't rely on too many, too many databases or indicators or an editor. There isn't any, any, there isn't many. Anyways, there was this one though that showed good. Um, I like quantum odd, but there was this one. God, I can't think of it. Because I use it all the time, but it read it. It told you where, who was selling and Wells are selling how often they sold.
They kept track of a lot of data and it's not a glass stone. It's a different, we, what is called
[00:42:14] Utsav: call into the block?
[00:42:16] Josh: Maybe that's it. Maybe that's it. Yeah, that's a good one. But like, I hate to disappoint people, but I don't use indicators that much. I really just dig through like, and even on. Like, if you want data to go to CT, like what a mistake I realized I was making early on was I would go through just scroll through random stuff.
And then I would see things that people were talking about very small people usually, and I ignored them. Right. And then it was a 10 X, like two days later or five and X or whatever. And now what I do is if I have time to research CT, I won't pay attention to what people are saying. I'll go through what people are talking about and I'll write down every ticker.
I'll spend an hour, write down every ticker. Then I'll go back and I'll research each ticker and see what they're talking about. And if it's worth kind of digging into right. A little bit further, and that works very well, actually, especially when you're scouring for young accounts that are really good because there's some people out there that are amazing at what they do.
They have like thousand subs or 2000 subs. So I do that quite often. And that's oftentimes CT is where I find new things that I haven't heard of before, even coin gecko search, like page Southern page eight. Oh. And things like that. What's
[00:43:17] Utsav: that? Yeah.
[00:43:20] Josh: New listings too. I mean, you get on live pears decks tools and sometimes I'll sit there and I'll look through those or when liquidity is added the overall I'm sorry, but I don't use a lot of indicators.
I just kind of use my stuff. I really dig into a project that tie pieces together. But for TA wise, I'm always watching that to like support and resistance and straight out those levels. If I'm just trading there, swing trading, large caps are so. Well, I'm not traded right now. Cause it's just no good.
[00:43:47] Utsav: I'd like to end with like this note, which I like when I read your tweet, I was like, I want him, both of us are the hiking on park.
It was when the market had cracked for the first time this month, or like what had been January. And you were like, fuck those guys who talk about stable coins. Right. So. Yeah. I was like, okay. That is a very interesting take. I want to talk more about that. Like, this is somebody who believes in crypto and knows that stable quite as test for yacht and definitely.
[00:44:15] Josh: Yeah. And are you talking about them? Like the braggart nature of it? The majority of guys who do this already have made it, they already have a lot of money and they want to rub shit in people's faces. And I'm sorry for swearing, but that shit pisses me off you even. I mean, how the Halloween. Inside of someone like that.
I psychologically I can tell you is very fast if they don't have, they have that much money and they have so few things to do then to come on, CT it's are talking about how they were, right. I mean, things are grim and internally, right? No substance whatsoever. They human being. And so it drives. And so, yeah, when you're talking about, I told you to stable this, I told you to say, well that, well, obviously they know they're like crap, right?
And that's how you learn lessons, the hard way you don't need to lean on them or kick them when they're down. People really don't respond to that. Anyways. They don't, people learn the best through buying, you know, kicking their own bud. That's how we all learn by kicking our own sense. And so when these people do this, I see it all the time, but it just drives me crazy.
I call it it's okay. If you, if you called something and you want to take cloud for. Amazing. Especially when you put hard work into it. When people have lost a ton of money, because I think few influencers, they forget, they don't leave their house. They're in Puerto Rico, they're in Dubai, they're here and there.
They don't drive down the streets and see all the homeless people in the homeless camps. And everybody else's, some people, the majority of people in crypto have a hundred dollars to put in. Now you tell me like, how are they going to, and this isn't to put anybody down as only invest in much, of course you can do well with it, but do you have to be vigilant?
Do you have to be diligent? You can't take a break. You know, the majority of people like that they're running on, they're hoping, right. Something that could change your life. A lot of them don't have the drive, not just intelligence has always a drive, definitely sit down and do the work that it takes to succeed.
And so these people have hope and these guys, you know, they're already, they just lost 50%. They lost everything. Right. And they don't understand how to handle this. They just take a big crap right on them afterwards. I told them to stay well. I told you to do this. What did you, I mean, I don't know, because if an influencer says, Hey, I'm stable in some money during a bull market, but always doping on us.
Well, I mean, you know, I'm not sure if they did or didn't, but it drives me crazy. It's just, I was, I dunno how else to put it. Like when I take profits, I take profits on the way up. I very rarely sell the top. I never sell the top. Actually. I always sell small increments when it's on a hill, we're in the middle of a bull market and it's really, really multiplying.
Right. And it's only a little bit at a time and it doesn't affect the chart. So responsible Wells, responsible influencers know how to do this very well. They know how to take out small amounts of profit that are going to make, you know, Long-term lead them to wealth, right. Without destroying the chart.
Right. And so, and that's another problem in crypto is we have these people that'll sell a twenty-five Eve on a, what are you doing? They would have made more had they promoted the project in old, in insult small amounts because when people see a chart accumulating right on top of an all time high, or maybe down to the next, the, the previous part, right.
Then they start buying it again. And these, these people don't understand that, um, You know, sell twenty-five feet at once, but that's the responsible, especially for influencer Wells. And I know some of these guys do it fill dump a hundred. I've seen, I've seen a well jump. I seen a guy on an influencer now dump 300 eith at once on a project.
And I was like, yeah,
[00:47:38] Utsav: part of the problem is the nature of social media. Like hide it, be duly, be centralized, or like, let's say web today. Like if you say. Nine people send stable, bro. And your volunteers like linked to it. So I can see how many times you got Greg. You wouldn't be blacking after that.
[00:47:55] Josh: No, no.
And I'm going to have the same problem influences. You're not even influencers. People who are really good at this. Get wrecked all the time. I do all the time. You know, you know, the key is though to know what, which ones will do really well. Take risks, calculated risks, but less than the calculated risks, you'll probably lose annual might 10 X on another thing.
That's that's how you make money along to. And that's the shortsightedness of the market too. Like there's no reason to be in such a rush. We are scamming people and dumping on people. Like the whole reason government intervention is coming is because of the scandals, but had we all worked kind of together and like, did it a little bit more responsible?
Well, regulations may be off of four years. But we haven't. Um, but so, you know, that kind of stuff, it irritates me a little bit and I just get tired of it. It's like, you know, cause a majority of influencers too, they put out a lot of like two sentence alphas, right? With not much else. People to TA are great people who do breakdowns, a great people who really keep people informed.
They're great. But you know, a lot of the influencers on CT at the same time, I'm not going to talk badly, but like if there was really hardworking content driven people that came on a CT, well, a lot of the. We'll have jobs because it's so easy and you have to don't, you have to be on top of things. So, you know, don't get me wrong.
You really have to work. But, um, but so many of them put in so little effort and they have so many followers,
[00:49:13] Utsav: it's the ecosystem, right? Because they have somebody to tell them about the latest NFS, somebody who tell them about the latest TFI. So like all this, they are going to be on top of everything.
That's like the
[00:49:23] Josh: Hollywood of crypto. It's always going to be that way. And I went back to that comment. I just, I was irritable that day too. Sorry.
[00:49:31] Utsav: It makes sense. I loved it. Like that was some of these things like that resonated with me. I was like that day and I was looking at people saying like I already stable.
I already stable. That was like, dude, it's not about stabling.
[00:49:46] Josh: It's about, and it wouldn't, it really is as a gauge for society, uh, negativity. And selfishness and not being selfish is fine, but, uh, rubbing things in people's faces, kick them when they're down. Really having to say, I told you, so like that little kid mentality, it shows you how grown up we are.
And I have to say, I don't have laws that certainly I lose. I lose my temper. I, I get a mature, you know, I, you know, I do stupid things when everybody
[00:50:12] Utsav: does. It's about trying to control what we can control. And some people get that high by like, let's say putting people down or stuff like that, but they claim I get it.
And over that, I'd like to call this a wrap. Thank you for being the hacker noon podcast. If you have any message for the readers, we'd love to share them
[00:50:34] Josh: like right now. Okay. Uh, I just hope anybody who wants to do well will do well. What I mean by that? And this is disappointing to a lot of people. Don't think you're going to do this overnight.
Just put your time into it. Be the new person don't think, you know, at all people, the most successful people here. I know they actually sit back and watch and observe and they ask intelligent questions and not too many. They can ask whatever they want and they just stayed. They're persistent and they show up every day and that's it.
They're not, braggers, they're very humble typically. And I know a few of them that are incredibly success. I mean, I'll never have to work again. Let's put it that way. And it's because networking too is also very important. Get to know people, make friends with smart people. You always have to have something to bring to the table.
So even if you don't know much about crypto, we'll say, Hey, I'm willing to do this. I'm willing to, you want me to go through this and see if I can find this data, you know, learn. Um, there's always something you can do, especially when it comes to networking and developing the, you know, getting involved in some research, um, you know, and don't be afraid to take chances.
Calculate your risk. One thing people have an issue with is they'll get lucky 500, you know, let's say your portfolio is $10,000 and you made money consistently putting $500 into each investment. Bull market starts, you know, they start going higher and higher. Let's do a thousand, let's do 2000, right? But they went away from their original plan.
They end up losing all their money because of that plan. You need capitalist spread out. You need to stay consistent. You needed to stick with your execution plan. You know, getting bigger is a problem because you're going to lose more. But those little wins that become 10 X's, let's say you let's say you get a hundred, it's not even uncommon to get a 50 X, a $500, but you put $500 in 10 different projects.
Oh, I mean, he made a lot of money. It doesn't matter about those nine other things. And, um, yeah, I guess that's the message. I don't know what else to really, I'm not, you know, it's my first podcast, so
[00:52:18] Utsav: thank you for blessing us for that. We'd be very happy to be apart of the icon family Valcom and what I like to call this at our pancake, Josh.