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As simple as it may sound yet hold a crucial key to the success of every cryptonian. In reality, this common phrase draws the thin line between the protection of ones hard earned money and falling victim to hypes and scams. Ending up in losses in bad investments and so forth.
I have had my fair share of experiences as a result of not going through the right process before jumping unto a project which of course came with lots of regrets. And instances where proper research helped me avoid what could have been a drastic tragedy. That is why I believe “DYOR” is not just some fancy word but the survival skill in crypto, even in any investment. But wait, how about we delve deeper into what this #DYOR is all about? Yeah, lets check it out in the next few paragraphs..
What is DYOR???!!
“Do Your Own Research” is basically a call for the need to be careful of what you getting your hard-earned money into especially within the crypto world. Be it a token, an NFT, or a DeFi project. It’s best to verify the authenticity of any of this related project before further actions are taken. Personally study the fundamentals and evaluate the risk involve. Not that it’s not good to listen to friends, influencers, articles and so on, but at the end of it all decisions should be made base on one’s own understanding and knowledge of the level of risk you are about to get into, and not just following hype.
Why it matters to do DYOR
Trust me, there are lot of opportunities within the crypto space, but not all seems to be for our good. They are also hunting grounds for scammers!! We have seen countless rug pulls over the years, projects the promised us the moon to the sun and beyond but delivered absolutely nothing, not forgetting tokens created over night with absolutely no utility.
#DYOR helps;
- Avoid rug pulls and scams
- Understand what an investing is getting into and the risk level.
- Build confidence in ones decisions
- Take the responsibility for the investment portfolio
How to "DYOR" Effectively
We have seen the need for DYOR, but how do you “do your own research”? let us look at that too, it’s actually a very simple framework yet very effective in risk mitigations. They are;
1. Check Team behind the Project
Are they known in the first place and transparent to be trustworthy of our hard-earned money? And also, if whether they have any experience at all regarding what they calm to be doing. There should be a track record to look into regarding the developers and how this resonates with the industry.
2. Understand Tokenomics
Check total supply and how they plan allocation; Airdrops, Presales, ICOs, etc. The proportions for each allocation really matter. This will show how serious the team is with the project and we can determine either it’s a short team project (Shitcoin) or a long term. We should be able to also tell if it is just a mere speculative project or there is enough demand in the long run.
3. Examine the Use Case & Roadmap
Utility is to be considered at this point. We should look at the problems this project aims at solving. Which should be realistic and measurable. And to what extend will they be able to go.
4. Look at Community and Engagement
The project should at least have a social media handle with an active community; I see this to be the least requirement in DYOR because this is where the hype really starts from. And that is where the promotion starts from so if there aren’t any social media handle it’s a little fishy. I have seen projects without a social media handle that performed so well, so don’t get me one on this one, just that it’s a plus to actually consider jumping on a project with a community that is engaging.
5. Check Partnerships and Backers
We've got to check whether there are any credible companies or at least a prominent figure in support of the project. Note : A prominent figure not an influencer. And this should be someone who has been in the game for quit a reasonable duration.
6. Watch out for any Red Flag(s)
Something like 100x guarantee from #Dev is a big red flag. Also, no clear whitepaper or roadmap is something not to take slightly: there should be at least a guide to the onboarding member. Any Devs that is keeping things anonymous a big red flag and such projects don’t last most at time. There is no real credibility here hence not many people get onboard and most often it collapses easily.
https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2025/02/11/elon-musk-changes-profile-name-to-harry-bolz-sparks-127-surge-in-harrybolz-token
I remember jumping on a token name Harrybolz - listed on one of the popular exchanges. This token was created just some few hours after Elon Musk had made a change of name to Harrybolz on his twitter handle. That became a talk on twitter and was trending. I quickly jumped unto the token expecting a 100X or more. Without any research, just a mere assumption of it being Elon's token got me into a death trap. I lost everything and later the coin was delisted and everything gone.
And I quit remember #Squid-Game Tokens, launched on Binance Smart Chain and was all over the media and even over the national televisions of #USA and others, got involved in the airdrop and had a sizable amount. The project become the talk of the day, where people were talking about how promising it looks and the possibility that the hit-maker Squid-Game series producers had a hand in it. Until one very faithful day, we woke up to see a rug-pull of everything. The #Devs had drained liquidity of $1,000,000.00. Everyone got affected big time and that was the end. This happened after the producers of the series came on the media to deny the rumors of any involvement in this project. How sad it was for every investor. Dated way back to the year 2021. Check some related articles;
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/squid-game-cryptocurrency-rug-pull-scam
https://www.trmlabs.com/resources/blog/on-the-trail-of-the-squid-game-scammers
https://www.nasdaq.com/articles/squid-game-crypto-creators-steal-millions-in-rug-pull.-heres-how-to-avoid-scams-2021-11-03
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2021/11/02/squid-game-crypto-rug-pull/
#Remember these:
1. Never invest cause someone need so
2. Never rush in cause its trending
3. Does this make sense? A question to first considers
4. Relying on only hype is risk of becoming the exit liquidity for someone else!!!
The best weapon of every crypto investor is knowledge, not luck. DYOR doesn’t guarantee a hundred percent sure win, but it keeps the investor informed on the possible outcomes. And putting you on the edge of making better choices that would save anybody from unnecessary loses.
At the end of it all, it’s about minimizing loses and keeping the portfolio alive. DYOR is a survival!!
Feel free to share your checklist or tool for loss minimization with us in the comment section. We would love to learn from your experience too.
Thanks for reading!!!!