I began research in 2017, after suffering 2years of a friend rattle on about Bitcoin, and made my first purchase in early 2019. No exaggeration- I read for 2-3 hours daily from late 2018 to early 2020 about blockchain, public ledgers, cryptography, etc.
I found multiple articles discussing this new disruptive tech, a transformative technology that will be the next big thing.
This was late 2018 ish so it discussed Bitcoin, Ethereum, Tron, Cardano, and Chainlink. I researched their whitepapers, the teams, their roadmap, and started to note the goals, the obstacles, and the possibilities.
I've been very lucky to have never been scammed, rug pulled, or hacked (knocking on all wooden things).
I never buy because of an influencer. I use them for daily news.
I follow and communicate with devs on discord and X, even the tokens I don't own. It gives me a good idea of the landscape. I speak to people within the space that have experience, are apart of projects, or are wanting to get into the space. It gives me a solid idea of what people ha e thought and are thinking. It makes easier to weed out bad actors and to truly see what is a pipe dream versus what is likely.
I have a couple of friends in my circle that do these things, as they are into coding and programming, and can give me their thoughts.
They agree with me on most things but they also own a few that I do not. XRP, Aave, ETH (I owned it for 2+ years but couldn't rationalize keeping it, too expensive, not scalable, no fixed supply, holes in the foundational architecture, etc.)
Do your own research from multiple sources. Read what the fans say and what the naysayers say to help assess if it's an agenda or a technological reason they don't like something.
