When buying crypto, a rule: Actually use the product before buying!

This may seem painfully obvious, but I can’t tell you how many people I know that buy a token but have literally never actually used its blockchain. I mean this is a really low bar for basic due diligence. If people actually “used” the networks they are buying the gas and governance tokens for I can guarantee you the Top 25 would look drastically different than what it does now.

Newsflash: half the blockchains out there are little more than vaporware and are horrendous to use. People moan and complain about Solana, but what are you comparing it to? Besides an L2 on Ethereum, Solana is light years ahead of the crap that some of these other blockchains are pedaling.

Using Harmony One last cycle and seeing how atrocious the bridging experience and ecosystem was made me realize really quick that it wasn’t going places.

People often wonder how some crypto users tend to be able to pick the winners and it boils down to little more than actually using the product. I know as shocking as this sounds but probably like 90% of new crypto users never use the blockchain they are purchasing tokens for on a centralized exchange. They heard of number go up and that is the extent of their due diligence. It’s why they get used as exit liquidity each cycle.

So in short, get a self-custody wallet, load it up with a small amount of funds for the chain you wish to purchase tokens for. Play around on the chain and get a feel for it. How does it compare to more popular chains like Bitcoin, Ethereum and its L2s, Solana, and BNB? Is it better, on par, or worse? And if you haven’t used the top five chains then start there.

Simply doing that one step alone will put you ahead such a large percentage of crypto users it’s almost embarrassing. So use it before you buy it.