You’re always told to do your own research (DYOR), but hardly anyone mentions “how” to go about it.
But don’t worry, because that’s exactly what I’m about to share with you in this post.
After reading this article, you should be able:
- Discover new and interesting crypto projects by yourself.
- Gather relevant and current information about any project that interests you.
- Process the information you have gathered and draw out the important details.
- Make your own informed and independent investment decision.
So without wasting time, let’s dive in.
How to do your own research (DYOR)
The first step to doing your own research successfully is to understand these two basic facts (rules) which you must remember at all times:
- You alone are responsible for the information you accept, your decision, actions, and all outcomes. The safety of your money and the profitability or otherwise of your investment is 100% your responsibility.
- Don’t “trust” anything that cannot be verified.
With that out of the way let’s discuss the steps involved in doing your own research.
I will assume that you’re a total novice that’s just been dropped into the crypto jungle and not sure where to turn or what to do.
1. Go see all the available cryptocurrencies in the market
Visit CoinMarketCap (CMC) and CoinGecko to see all currently available cryptocurrencies in the market.
There are many other crypto market data aggregators but the above two are the most popular.
As you can see from the CoinMarketCap website, there are over 13,000 different cryptocurrencies currently in the market.
You can safely assume that 90% of them are shitcoins (useless) that will most likely not survive the next 2 to 5 years.
Don’t be intimidated, you’re not under any obligation to learn about all of them. I don’t even know more than a few hundred, and that’s with many years of being actively involved in the space.
So, relax, take your time to scroll through all the listed cryptocurrencies, looking at their names and prices.
You’ll be spending a lot of time there every day, so no rush.
When you come across a name that catches your attention, click on it to open its exclusive page read all available information about it.
If you’re not sure which one to click, pick the first one, and then the second, third until you feel like stopping. The cryptocurrencies on top of the list, are the most valuable and less risky.
There are many ways and places you can discover a new cryptocurrency to learn about. It could be on crypto data aggregator websites discussed above, one-on-one conversations with friends and family members, social media, ads, Google, wherever.
If you come across one that catches your attention, you should try and learn as much as you can about it to determine whether it would be a good investment for you or not.
2. Gathering relevant information about a cryptocurrency project
To make an informed and independent decision on whether or not to invest in a particular cryptocurrency you need accurate information.
Remember, at this stage, you’re looking for any useful information about the project that you can find, and that includes other people’s opinions of it.
When you’re done, you will form your own opinion and own whatever decision you arrive at. Then evolve your strategy accordingly as you gain experience and discover new information.
Below, I will share with you the 5 sources I use to find information about any cryptocurrency that I am interested in learning more about.
5 places to look for information about any cryptocurrency
- Cryptocurrency market data aggregator websites
- Project’s website
- Project’s social media channels
- Social media
1. Cryptocurrency market data aggregator websites
Crypto market data aggregators don’t only display a list of cryptocurrencies and their current prices, they provide you with a lot more information that would be useful for your research.
In fact, they have evolved to become a very comprehensive and reliable source of information about every cryptocurrency that they list on their website.
Some important information you can expect to get from crypto data aggregator websites include:
- Current and historical price of the coin with sophisticated charts.
- Marketcap and trading volume for today.
- Maximum, total, and circulating supply data.
- Links to the project’s website, social media accounts, blog, source code, whitepaper.
- What category of cryptocurrencies the coin or token belongs to.
- List of exchanges where you can buy or sell the coin and the available trading pairs.
- Detailed project explainer to give you an overview.
- The latest news, and social media mentions of the cryptocurrency.
- How others feel about the coin today.
…etc.
With all this information, you can easily form a first opinion of the project and decide whether it’s worth further research or not.
There’s so much information you can mine from these data aggregator websites with a few browsing around.
Please note that it’s possible for a cryptocurrency to exist but not yet listed on any crypto data aggregator.
If you have an interest in researching such projects, you will have to start either from their Telegram group, or official website.
2. Project website
After learning everything I can about a cryptocurrency on CMC and CoinGecko, the next place I usually go is their website.
And the first thing that I will notice is the design and layout. How they present their website can give you a lot of information even before you read a single word on the page.
- Are they organized or lousy?
- Do they have taste for quality and beauty?
- What aspect of the project do they consider important? You will know from the pages they choose to display on their navigation.
- Are they professional or casual?
Yes, looking at their website design and layout alone can give you all this information and in under a few minutes.
Once I’m done looking around for aesthetic details, I will proceed to look for the most important information I believe their website should provide me.
These include:
- Information about the founders and team (if they’re not anonymous). If the team is anonymous, I note it and continue my research.
- The project’s products and features. What solutions or services do they provide and what are their characteristics? How are they similar or different from their competitor(s).
- Coin or token use cases. What are the tokens used for on the platform that makes them valuable? I want to see as many good use cases as possible because this is what drives the demand and value of the coin up.
- Roadmap. I want to see a clear and well-articulated vision and plans.
- Tokenomics. How many tokens are there? How are they distributed? Any vesting periods? I personally prefer to invest in cryptocurrencies with a fixed and limited supply.
- Whitepaper and project documentation where I can find their problem, mission, and vision statements; technical details, etc.
- Links to their social media channels and Apps (if they have).
At this stage, you will already know whether this project is legit and have a good reason to exist or not.
Furthermore, if it’s a shitcoin, Ponzi scheme, or outright scam, you will also know (assuming your greed or something else isn’t blocking your senses).
If the project is legit I will proceed to learn more about it, and evaluate the community sentiment on their various social media channels.
3. Project’s social media channels group
The project’s social media channels exist for you to use in interacting with the team and admins, other users or investors, and evaluate the community size, overall sentiment morale, etc.
Some key things to focus on here include:
- How big or small is the community size? More is better. More community members, means more (potential) users, investors, supporters, etc.
- What are the popular users’ complaints and overall spirit within the community? Is it positive or negative? We’re looking for more positivity and less negativity. If almost everyone is complaining about the same or multiple genuine problems, it means something is wrong with the product or the team.
- How are the team and admins responding to issues? You’re looking for the team’s responsiveness, responsibility, and commitment to the project. Since the team is probably anonymous, their actions and communication are all you have to evaluate their motives and ability to make the project successful.
- This is the place you can interact directly with the project’s team or admins. Ask questions, share your observations or any ideas you have that might benefit the project, etc.
The first project’s social media channel I visit is their Telegram group.
Once there, first I read through current messages, pinned messages, search for a keyword about a question I have which I suspect has been discussed previously or I just read up to see what’s been discussed in the recent past.
If I’m still unsatisfied, then I will start asking questions and sometimes even passing time and shitposting around.
4. Social media
You have heard from the project’s team or admins and community members from their own social media channels.
It’s time to hear from outsiders such as haters, observers, past users (or investors) who have switched to other projects, and random people on the internet with an opinion about the project.
Don’t worry, a quick search of the project’s name or coin ticker on Reddit, Quora, Twitter, noise.cash, etc will give you more information than you can read.
You can also ask your own questions on the above platforms and get responses from all kinds of users for you to see what the majority of people out there think about the project.
Every important piece of information you find here (whether positive or negative) should be verified before you consider them valid or useful.
This is because a lot of people on social media have no idea of what they’re talking about.
Furthermore, it’s good you join a community of like-minded and passionate crypto investors that you can share knowledge, experience, ideas, and opportunities.
You will be surprised how much you can learn within a short time from the group and social media discussions.
5. Search engines
Most of what you will read about a project on social media are posted by fanboys and paid shills, haters, trolls, and random internet users.
This makes filtering out the truth and facts difficult and even frustrating, especially if you’re totally new to crypto.
That’s why the last place you can do your own research about any cryptocurrency is on a search engine like Google or Presearch.
Search for reviews, fundamental and technical analysis articles of the cryptocurrency.
The articles from the search results are usually detailed, factual, and written by someone who’s very knowledgeable about the coin you’re researching.
This should give a lot more information upon which you can begin establishing your own opinion and basing your investment decision.
Conclusion
You are responsible for doing your own research so that you can make informed and independent crypto investment decisions.
However, to conduct successful research, you need accurate and sufficient information to work with.
In this article, we discussed the basics of doing your own research, and the various ways and sources of gathering the information you need to form an informed opinion of any cryptocurrency project you are interested in.
Never walk alone! Join us on noise.cash and Telegram where we talk crypto all day with other passionate and knowledgeable crypto investors.