The crypto market is on red-hot mode right now.

There are so many influencers in all social media channels right now. They are promoting shit-coins and really, really good coins. Users need to understand and figure out what the motivation is behind those promotions. If you have Tik-tok and you accidently click on one profile that talks about crypto, you are sure to get thousands of videos on crypto. Some of them are good as they try to educate newcomers to the risk and opportunity that exist. Most of the crypto profiles on YT and Tik-tok are promoting coins that they get money from or the coins that they have a huge bag.

I find it infuriating to receive all these videos on my for you page but I can't do anything about it. TBH, I get to know about new coins and chains through these sponsored videos. DYOR has changed its shape and premise in the wake of social media domination.

I know that I am writing this on Leofinance but the easiest way to know about crypto projects is to join a reputed platform like Leofinance that exists on Discord, Reddit, Twitter or any other platforms. I am happy that I am a regular Leofinance user as I get to know about most of the crypto projects pretty early. But, this is not enough. We need more people writing about new projects with potential.

How do I research for a new project?

It is not unidimensional. Most important, I follow my interest. It is always easy to find coins or projects that have potential when you follow what you like. I love to write and read and that's how I found Hive, Scorum, Publish0x and many other social blogging platforms. I was interested in Ethereum and through that I got to know about all the second layer coins that are doing amazingly good such as $matic, $loopring and $celer. I am glad I followed what I like.

I regret my decisions to not researching NFT coins. I knew that these projects would explode but I could not buy coins coz I am not super interested. That's not true- I was interested but I did not have enough technical background to grasp their potential and application. I regret not buying $chilliz as I knew about the project during it early beta. I knew the project would be good but never fully understood the application.

Similarly, I regret not exploring all the other smart contract capable chains. I never thought I needed to explore chains other than ETH, Binance and Solana. I underestimated, of course.

Podcasts are also a great source of information. These platforms are used by project owners and developers to promote their product. You get to the early glimpse of all projects that are launching. The level of confidence the project team demonstrates on high profile podcasts is one sign that the project is good. I remember listening to the KLIMA DAO team on #bankless podcast in August/September 2020. The Unchained podcast featured MATIC and SOLANA team in early 2020 as the next big projects. I follow these podcasts as well.

Finally, the most important of aspect of any project is the continuous development. You know that a project is good when developers are investing time to work in that open source platform. Why is SOLANA so popular? It is popular because there are many developers investing their time and energy in that blockchain instead of other chains. If these smart brains are spending their time in a specific chain, then that chain must be good. Look at the number of updates and development activities happening with the @leofinance team and @hive. Yes, the number of ongoing activity that is happening in any project is the true indicator of a good project. Nobody works for a shit project.