No Wins and Losses, Just Learning and Opportunities: Interview with Noonies Nominee Andy

Hey HackerNoon Readers! I’m Andy and I’m the founder of a web3 course Crypto Like A Pro. I also create crypto and NFT-related content under the name CryptoBadger.

I want to thank the HackerNoon community and staff for their nomination in the Web 3 category, as well as BingX for sponsoring the Web 3 category of the 2022 Noonies awards.

I’ve been nominated for the following awards and if you like my writing, please do check out these award pages and vote for me:

1. HackerNoon Contributor of the Year - Bitcoin: VOTE HERE
2. HackerNoon Contributor of the Year - Ethereum: VOTE HERE
3. HackerNoon Contributor of the Year - Crypto-trading: VOTE HERE
4. HackerNoon Contributor of the Year - Cryptocurrency: VOTE HERE

Web 3 is one of the most exciting technologies in the current tech landscape because of the amazing opportunities it offers and constant development. Learn more about my thoughts and opinions on Web 3 and my journey in the tech industry via the interview below.

1. Please tell us your story. What do you currently do in the Web 3 landscape and how did you get started doing it?

I’ve literally just finished the beta launch of my course - Crypto Like A Pro and now I’m preparing for the next launch in November. I combined my background in teaching with my passion for everything web3 and crypto-related and created this course to help people get into web3.

But I originally started by creating crypto-related content on YouTube and HackerNoon. I’m trying to onboard as many people as possible now when the market is quiet and it’s the perfect time to learn about web3 but of course, the interest is relatively low, as always when the market dips - people are afraid that crypto is just a fad and this time it may all go down to zero.

2. Tell us more! What are the things you make / write / manage / build in the world of Web3?

Right now my main focus is my course - Crypto Like A Pro. Now that I’ve done my beta launch, I can gather feedback, tweak some things and do the first official launch in November. But I’m also planning to grow Crypto Like A Pro into something much bigger - a whole set of courses, web3 consulting services, etc. My ultimate goal is to create a web3 education hub in the metaverse but this is of course a bit of a longer-term goal ;-)

Other than this, I started a fresh Instagram account and post some web3 education content there and of course, I keep creating content for my YouTube channel and on HackerNoon. Given the overall bearish state of the market, my main focus right now is on creating as much evergreen educational content as possible, so it’s all available as soon as the market will start turning to the upside.

I have a couple of other things on my plate - my wife is thinking about launching an NFT collection so I’m helping her a bit, I keep flipping NFTs, etc. Definitely keeping myself busy ;-)

3. What is your inspiration for writing and what made you want to get published on HackerNoon?

My background is in teaching, and I enjoy creating educational or informative content. So many people are still sleeping on web3/blockchain tech and it’s a great shame because I really believe that there are more opportunities in this space than anywhere else at the moment.

I also often write about specific projects if I think that they’re doing something new or interesting or compare different projects - how they approach a specific subject/problem/etc. For example, a while ago a did a comparison of a number of different crypto launchpads.

4. What do you think is the most exciting development in Web3 right now? and on a personal level, what are you most excited or passionate about in this space?

Personally, I’m REALLY excited about Otherside. From everything I’ve seen and heard about this project and their partnership with Improbable, it looks like they have the biggest chance of creating the first successful metaverse. It’s a slow burner but if anything, this makes me even more bullish. It looks like they’re creating something really big and I look forward to seeing what will come out of it.

On a broader level, I’m looking for positives in this relatively gloomy market situation. To be more specific - in a bull market, projects are popping up left, right, and center but a lot of them don’t offer any real value. In a bear market, only solid projects have a chance of survival, so it’s a great opportunity to see who sticks around and continues building and who disappears the moment there are no prospects of making quick money. It’s a perfect time to research projects, learn, and prepare for the next bull run. And since web3 is developing so quickly, it will be really interesting to see what will be the next big trend - we had ICOs in 2017, DeFi summer in 2020, NFTs in 2021, so I’m really excited to see what will come next. Personally, I’m hoping it will be the narrative of AR/VR/gaming/metaverse.

5. What are your concerns about Web3 and why do they worry you?

Web3 is still very young. This means a lot of opportunities but also a lot of risks and unknowns. And I suppose that those unknowns are my biggest concern. My two biggest worries are:

1. AR and privacy - for AR technology to work, it has to keep scanning our field of vision. How this data will be stored and kept private? If we imagine a world where we all wear AR glasses almost all the time, this would mean that companies making those glasses would have almost constant access to our field of vision - where we are, what we do, who we meet, and even going as far as what passwords we type in, etc. We know how much of our data is already being harvested but this takes it to a completely new level.

   
   

2. Regulation of crypto, NFTs, and anything blockchain/web3 related - we won’t have mass adoption without some form of regulation, this is a given. It will be interesting to see what exactly this regulation will look like and how far it will extend. I’m sure that people and organizations in power will try to over-regulate it and have as much control as possible. I’m hoping that we will see some sort of a balanced approach but I’m certainly worried about how exactly it will look like.

6. If we gave you $10 million to invest in a web 3 project today, what would you invest in and why?

My own project or an existing one?

If an existing one, I think my biggest bet would be Otherside and Bored Ape Yacht Club. I think this brand and the whole ecosystem have a ton of potential. But I don’t like being deterministic when it comes to investing, and going ‘all-in’ on a single project doesn’t resonate with me. I think I would rather split it into a few projects but all focusing on metaverse, gaming, and AR/VR. My choices would be Otherside + ApeCoin, Verasity, Vulcan Forged, Seedify Fund, and perhaps NetVRk.

If it was seed money to start my own project, it would be a real-life and metaverse education hub for everything web3 and investing-related. My mission is to help 1 million people change their financial situation through education about crypto and web3 (so they can either invest or build in this space) and I think $10 million would go a long way towards meeting this objective.

7. What are you currently learning?

I tried to learn Solidity but eventually, I had to accept that programming is just not my thing ;-) Since I’m interested in investing and trading, I’ve been spending a lot of time recently reading about trading but not so much the technical or practical side of it but rather the psychological side. It’s really fascinating. I’ve been going through a lot of books but the two I found the most valuable so far is ‘Trading in the zone and ‘Market Wizards’.

8. What’s the best advice you’ve ever given someone?

There are no wins and losses, just wins and learning opportunities. Our society taught us that if you are not a winner, you’re a loser. Not passing an exam is a failure etc. There is not enough focus on the positive aspects of ‘losing’ - it’s a perfect opportunity to learn and improve but you need the right mindset and discipline to do it.

9. What’s the best advice you’ve ever received?

Losses in investing or trading are your ‘tuition fees. To be a doctor or a lawyer you have to spend years at a university and pay tens if not hundreds of thousands in fees. You can start trading crypto, NFTs, or stocks with no education and the only cost is the money you invest in it - essentially, you’re not paying to learn about it. The vast majority of people in this space will lose some money but if you see it as a learning opportunity (see the question above) then your losses simply become your tuition fees. It helps massively with keeping the right mindset about trading and that’s the key element in this game.

About HackerNoon’s 2022 Noonie Awards

The annual Noonies Awards celebrate the best and brightest of the tech industry, bringing together all who are making the Internet and the world of tech what it is today.

The 2022 Noonies Awards for the Web 3 category are sponsored by BingX.

A BIG thank you to the sponsor who is helping us celebrate the accomplishments of all our nominees!