Based off of this thread here from earlier today.

There is legitimately no way of knowing if someone is pushing crypto for personal gain. They may be a shill for a big bank/scamcoin. They may have a lot of the coin and are pushing a pump and dump. It doesn't matter though.

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ANY Youtuber, frequent Reddit poster, influencer, etc... should be doubted first. They may be speaking truthfully and they may not have an ulterior motive. They really may not be shilling a coin at all... But you need to evaluate that first, before you give a project your hard-earned money.

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Here's my simplified evaluation process, and it isn't hard:

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Step 1: Take everything on reddit (all social media) with a grain of salt. It is really easy to get overhyped due to the echo-chamber that this subreddit has become.

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Step 2: Go to the Whitepaper for the coin first. This process alone should tell you how legitimate and savvy the dev team is. I've gone looking for whitepapers and have found completely unprofessional and poorly developed projects. I've immediately run away, and looking back, I've been happy that I did.

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Step 3: Articles are a touchy subject because right now there's a lot of spam out there from non-reputable websites, many of which are really just glorified blogs. Further, you don't know if they're pushing a coin for money (paid to influence) or because they truly believe in it. Take articles with a grain of salt except those from select few dependable websites. When push comes to shove: I tend to trust official twitter feeds more than articles at this point.

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Step 4: Go see the community for the individual coin. The most passionate members and the most up to date information can usually be found in recent posts. Don't trust hype and screenshot'd headlines. Google the title. Make sure it isn't from a blog. You're looking for substantive content, and it is usually clear when people take the coin seriously.

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Step 5: At this point, make sure that you actually give a shit about what the crypto intends to do or what problems it fixes. Don't pick a crypto just because someone told you it is good. If you truly believe in a project, you're going to endure crazy volatility much better.

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If you take anything away from this post:

Don't Trust Anyone Pushing Crypto

(See! I didn't push any crypto, so you can trust me!)