We spend a lot of time discussing the importance of community when it comes to investing in crypto. In fact, if a coin doesn’t have a strong community, we won’t invest in it. And we think you shouldn’t either.
We also know that for many of you, figuring out whether a coin has a strong community seems like a daunting challenge. After all, you’re visiting parts of the internet you probably don’t spend a lot of time in and trying to understand a language that probably seems like code.
But the truth is you do this all the time in real life. When you get a new job, you’re joining a group that has its own way of thinking and speaking. That’s a community. And it’s really not so different from the communities you find online.
Often times, you’re joining a community without even realizing it. That happened to me last weekend, when I ran my very first race.
It was a hilly 10K in Baltimore. And I finished in less than an hour. But that’s not the important part of this story. What I didn’t know when I entered this race is I was joining a community I knew nothing about.
My first encounter with this racing community came the day before the 10K. I went to a running store to pick up my bib (that’s the piece of paper with a number printed on it that you attach to your shirt) and race shirt.
I didn’t own a tank top, so I was excited to get the official race shirt to run in. When I mentioned that to race organizers, they looked at me in horror.
“You can’t wear that to race in,” said one organizer. “That’s bad luck. Nobody does that.”
I had no idea. It was my first day in this community, and I didn’t know what I was doing.
The next morning, I arrived at the race early and decided to hang back and just observe. In computer terms, I was lurking. Lurking is when you hang out in an online community or forum and don’t participate.
And boy, did I learn a lot. I learned how to get the timing chip onto my sneakers, the different ways runners warmed up for the race, that some people ran as part of group, that some people ran with belts filled with water or Gatorade and that some people had run several miles that morning before showing up for the race.
I also learned that the racing community is one I want to be part of. There was an easy camaraderie between the racers before the race. And during the race, runners encouraged each other as the steep hills sapped our strength.
Most importantly, I learned that I could pick out the winners just by watching them warm up.
That is exactly what you want to do when you evaluate a cryptocurrency.
Spend some time lurking. It’s not a bad thing. And you don’t have to figure out everything right away. But you will learn. You’ll learn to spot which communities are strong and believe in their projects. You’ll learn whether a project is worth investing in. And you’ll learn whether you want to become part of that community.
You do this all the time in real life. You can do it here too. And if you have any questions, we’re here to help. Just email us at mailbag@earlyinvesting.com.
Good investing,
Vin Narayanan
Senior Managing Editor, Early Investing