Hi everyone and welcome to another episode of Living on Blockchain. Today we are speaking to Neel. Neel is a crypto content creative and he basically goes by the name Crypto Jargon on Twitter or YouTube and he’s a trader who has actually now moved into content creation and you know this particular conversation was absolutely insightful when it comes to content creators especially aspiring content creators and aspiring traders.
I can’t wait for you guys to hear this. Let’s deep dive right in. Hi Neel, how are you? Hey Tarusha, fine, thank you for inviting.
I’m really glad that you know you would take out the time to do this. So for our listeners, would you like to tell a little bit about yourself and you know how you got into the Web3 space? Hey everyone, I’m Neel also known as Crypto Jargon on social media platforms. So I am a content creator that makes educational content around Web3 and crypto trading.
I am mostly a trader that turned into a content creator and I started my journey into Web3 at the end of 2019 and like got serious about it in 2021. All right and how did you you know get into the trading aspect in Web3? Yeah, so I was earlier trading in stock markets and I took a very big loss there and after that I you know gave up on trading and started my own startup. Then my startup was sort of an agency that do work from US and Europe based clients.
So those guys had a lot of trouble sending money to us. So at that time we used to take payments in crypto and since we started you know getting extra money that we didn’t need at that time. So I started trading because I also knew how to trade and it was relatively easier for me to trade in crypto space and compared to the stock market space because I knew the tech, what was going on, what the narrative was.
So in that way I started getting into crypto a little bit more. Then around 2021 Feb it was when I saw that on YouTube there is not much content for Indians to watch in Hindi that educates about Web3. A lot of content was there but it was not good quality content and most of it was scams.
So I thought like this is the area that we can make content on since I know that making content on anything gives you far better reach and results. So I started making content on Web3 on the site and then it clicked and then I got full time into this. Alright, awesome.
So it’s been quite a journey. So you would have a lot of good tidbits to give aspiring content creators or people who want to create actual content that is assimilable by the users and potential users of Web3. So what would be your top five suggestions for aspiring content creators? So for content creation in the Web3 space it’s very very different than any traditional space because in the Web3 space the user is very confused because we don’t know how to use the wallets and a lot of people don’t know how wallets, crypto wallets work, what is decentralized wallets, what are centralized exchanges, these kind of things.
So you need to be very peculiar about the details. You need to explain everything every time. So you just assume that the audience right now knows nothing about the Web3 before every video.
So in that case you need to build block by block. Also in Web3 whenever people are watching content most of them are people who want to invest some money or trade something. So it’s better to avoid giving suggestions on trading and investing money in things that you are not sure of, things that can be risky.
Like if you suggest someone to invest in a meme coin or something like that, that is a little bit risky and that’s not fair for the person who is watching because he’s very new, he doesn’t know, he just saw the headlines and came to check out the video. And if you are also pursuing GameGeek like you invest 100 rupees and make, you know, 1 lakh rupees. So that kind of content you need to avoid that content will get a lot of views.
It will get you a lot of subscribers and a lot of growth, but that will, you know, negatively affect the ecosystem. Also, if you get subscribers by that method, it will not be sustainable. So you need to, you know, educate your audience.
If you, you know, keep providing value to the audience education to the audience and, you know, keep teaching them new things, they will automatically come back and you will grow slowly. But even in the bear market, you will get a lot of good views right now. People who relied on the first method are, you know, almost not getting any views, but people who in the audience educated people, they, they see that viewers are coming back again and again, because they know that how to make money in any kind of market, because they are, you know, educated now.
So try to focus on education. Don’t focus on numbers. A lot of people are avoiding web3, avoiding crypto right now.
So you will not get that growth that you are seeking. You will not get viral, but you can slowly, you can build, you know, something that will be sustainable. Right.
Okay. That makes a lot of sense. I think what would be your recommendation for the aspiring content creators? Like which platform should they begin with? So I think YouTube is best for this and YouTube plus Twitter is something you should start with and, you know, upload almost like every two day, you should be putting out a video because there is a lot of things to cover and assume that people know nothing.
You can like make a one week’s content from just using MetaMask, how to use MetaMask, how to import keys, how to add different kinds of chains on it, how to use the MetaMask bridge, all of these things you can make content on just on the MetaMask wallet. Then you can, you know, switch it up to on phone, like use trust wallet or something like that. So try to make a lot of content that will give you, you know, the audience, a lot of things to watch out for, and that will give you a better chance to get, you know, hit with the search because audience will find you through search only at the beginning.
They will not find you on the Explorer page because we are trying to avoid FOMO thumbnails, because if you want to build a good base, you need to make searchable content then. Yeah. So that’s, that’s where I think you should start through YouTube and on Twitter, you can, you know, start commenting on the market and following bigger accounts.
Then whatever they’re talking about, you can break that down into your own explanation, into your own videos, because everybody’s talking about the current market. So that gives the people who are watching you or following you a better perspective in the market. And since the market is 24 hours, there is a lot of content, a lot of talks happening all the time.
Right. Okay. So, you know, when it comes to content creation, there must be some tools that, you know, you use for your videos that you create.
What are like the top five or three tools that, you know, you almost use daily? So tools like hardware or like software? Whichever tools you think that, you know, you really would highly recommend for the aspiring content creators. Okay. So anybody starting with the content creation journey, I will recommend, first of all, before anything, get a microphone because the audio quality is something that people cannot negotiate on.
And then after that, a lot of people make content using mobile phones. So for them, I’ll suggest to get a laptop or a PC because in crypto, you cannot sustain too much. If you just keep making content on your mobile phone, you can start with that.
A lot of people started with that, like screen-sharing their mobile screen, but now you should move to laptop and you know, or even you can do that for using your phone camera. You can just, you know, make educational content directly. So a phone, a microphone, and if it really a bonus, if you can get a laptop, these are the things, minimum three things that you need.
And just, if you want to invest in something first, invest in a microphone. All right. Okay.
That’s a good recommendation. I think even that is how, you know, I started off as well with my podcast. I got like one of the snowflake microphones initially just to make sure that the audio is getting right.
This is a good recommendation for all our listeners who are perhaps looking to create content in the Web3 space. Definitely very important because you know, it’s easily noticeable. Yeah, absolutely.
You know, unless either you should have like a machine that has a good microphone, good speakers. And in case, you know, you, as you said, if you’re, you know, mobile first and you’re creating using your mobile, then definitely you should be moving in a microphone because otherwise the audio would be garbled and it’s difficult to hold attention of people any which way. And with the bad audio, that would be almost impossible.
So are you planning to perhaps, right now, you’re creating content in Hindi and, you know, in English. So do you intend to perhaps move to other regional languages as well? Is that something on the radar? I’m not going to move to regional languages because I do not know any regional languages actually. Like I am from Uttarakhand, so I know little bit of Garhwali, but I know there is no audience for that.
And so moving into other languages, we are, we have a English channel that we have just started. And that is not about like our usual content. It’s not about trading.
It’s about, you know, general things like I told you that tutorials. So we are starting with that. So that’s a completely English channel and we are trying to target audience outside of India with it.
Besides that, Hindi is something I think that gets me the best audience. Yeah. There are only very few, a handful of creators who are creating content in Hindi in Web3.
Do you think that there is scope for content creators who are creating content for Web3 in regional languages as well? Yes, definitely. They also have a very good advantage because see a lot of people that live in South India, they don’t know Hindi. So there is, there’s a very big content creator called Crypto Telugu that makes content in Telugu and there is Tamil also, there’s a Tamil channel also, there is a Punjabi channel also.
So these kind of, these people are trying to target the audience. But if you are thinking of making content in regional language, you need to, you know, take a few things in account, whether the regional language that you are choosing, for example, if you are making content for people who are in South, they usually don’t know Hindi, so they don’t have much option. Either it’s English or, you know, it’s only English.
They don’t, they can’t, you know, come watch Hindi content. So in that case, if you target the audience with regional language, then you can get success. But if you are say a and Punjabi makes content in Punjabi language, and we know that a lot of people in North India speak Hindi.
So he will not get that much reach because better content will be available in Hindi as the guy is just starting out. Right? So that’s how I think the differentiation happens that you need to target the people where demand is there. If there is no, no demand, you’re thinking that I’ll make content in regional language.
And that’s why I didn’t make content in my regional language. That’s because I know there will be no demand. So there is no point.
Okay. So obviously, you know, if you’re going to be creating content, you need to understand whether the market requires, or if you have any kind of listenership or viewership in that particular language, that that comes down to common sense. So moving on from, you know, what you’re doing and your journey as a content creator, I have always been a firm believer that, you know, stakeholders in web three have this onus where they need to create the right kind of content, disseminate the right kind of information so that there is more adoption in web three.
And you know, kudos to you that you know, you are doing this. And now you’re you’re launching your English channel as well. With tutorials, that’s going to be wonderful.
Apart from your own channels, are there any other recommendations of, you know, content creators whose content you think is very well made, and it’s very relatable for you know, for our users and listeners? So in web three only? Yes. Ideally, but if you want to like put in other content creator recommendation, that’s fine as well. But ideally, web three.
All right. So in web three, I don’t usually watch too much content ironically, because, you know, it, you know, it creates a bias in my mind, if I, you know, watch some YouTubers saying that the market is going to go up or down. So that creates a bias in my mind.
So I usually avoid the content. But there are a few people that I watched initially, when I was starting up, and they are still doing amazing job like Addy from Crypto India. And we have Shivam from Shivam Chuneja’s channel and Crypto Point Hindi.
Then outside of India, we have Coin Bureau that I think everybody knows, Benjamin Coven. These people are like making amazing content and like they are, you know, raising the bar every day that we are trying to reach. So these people are mostly what I used to follow.
And even now, sometimes I, you know, check out their videos, like, what are they doing? What are their thoughts? Okay. So moving on from content creation, what are your, what is your take right now on this, this bear cycle that, you know, we are all going through? How long do you think it’s going to last? And what is your take, your general opinion? So this bear cycle is a lot different than the earlier bear cycles. So that’s why I’m not real.
So see, in the previous bear cycles, you know, that Bitcoin is not that old. And 2010 to 2020 decade has been bullish on the, you know, economy side, like the stock market side. So now the stock markets are cooling off.
We are seeing that the interest rates are rising. The money in the market is drying up. People are not able to borrow.
It used to be like the borrowing money will was almost free for people that live in us. So there was a lot of capital in the market. And we saw a lot of scams also happening, a lot of random startups getting funded.
So there was a lot of money in the market and that ultimately resulted in inflation after COVID. So now the interest rates are rising, money is drying up and people are, you know, getting a little bit nervous, investing in Bitcoin and other kinds of risky assets. So this bear market, I think there is a part that says that, you know, at the halving after the halving, we will see another bull market, but it could be earlier also.
It could be before the halving, I think, but it will ultimately depend on how the Fed responds to the market, how they, you know, manage the interest rates. They cannot lower it right now. Like yesterday, they raised it by 25 BPS and they said that they will raise it again in March.
I think till they stop, till they stop, you know, raising the rates market will not move to those heights that were, that it was in, in 2021, because there is no money in the market. Right. So we need to focus on that and it will entirely, I think, depend on how the Fed reacts.
Even this rally that people are happy about, like Bitcoin just does 25,000, 24,000 this morning. So this is also not that great of a rally. If you consider that the 70,000 dollars almost at the top.
So we’ll have to wait and watch what Fed does. If they, you know, start easing up on the interest rates, I think then we can, you know, start seeing a bull cycle happening till then these small bounces is what all we can see. All right.
Okay. And that makes sense. I think that’s very sound advice and sound insights, basically.
Tell me a little about how somebody who’s perhaps trying to become a trader can look into getting into this space, especially in the bear market. All right. So I think bear market is one of the best time to get into trading because in bull market, it’s very, very easy.
Like you just say that the market, you just long, like if you just bet that this thing will go up, even if it goes down, it’s a bull market, it will eventually go up. So everybody is right. If they say the market is going to go up, but when it comes to bear market, we don’t know what’s happening because everywhere there is negative news and like the rally just, that just happened.
Even I, I was not able to predict that it will, it is going to happen. So a lot of people are still in denial that the rally is happening. So these kinds of things that teach you a lot, like in bear market, you become like in bull market, everybody starts becoming a trader in bear market.
They graduate as a trader. That’s what I think, because it teaches you a lot of things like control your emotions, how to, you know, portion size your trade. A lot of people used to like have a hundred dollars in their portfolio and used to take a trade with a hundred dollars.
Now they, you know, cut it back. They take small amount of trade. They start learning about stop losses.
They learn how to hedge a trade, you know, all of these things they learn in the bear market because in bull market, you don’t need to learn it, right? You can just buy something, hold it for one or two months and sell it at a 3x, 4x profit. So in, if you are looking to become a serious trader, I think bear market is where you need to start learning, learn from every mistake, every trade, don’t invest real money, start with paper trading. You don’t need to start with crypto.
You can start with anything. You can start with Forex, you can start with stock, just you know, get used to drawing support and resistances, trend lines, start learning about the patterns. Like everybody has a different trading style.
So find your own trading style, read a lot of books, you know, and follow people who are trading for a long time and how they develop their own strategy, try to implement that. So it’s not easy to become a trader because main thing is that a lot of people, you know, once you learn about trading, you start trading and you see like three, four positive results, right? So that gets into your head and you start taking bigger and bigger bets. So that will ultimately lead you to a bigger loss than all the five, six profits that you made.
So those kinds of things will happen. It’s better to, it’s better that they happen when the capital is small and at the early stage of your career, then when you are overconfident and over-leveraged, right? So in bear market, that is one thing that will help you that will, uh, that bear market will teach you. I also faced such loss and I started my trading journey.
And from that, I have learned a lot. I did, I did repeat the mistakes a couple of times, but like mostly, uh, we are, you know, able to get ahead. Okay.
This is just very sound advice though, you know, because you’re coming from experience, what would be some resources that you can recommend for people who want to start trading? Like maybe one or two books or, uh, you know, some courses, what would you recommend? So, uh, like there are, there are a few books in, uh, about trading psychology that you can check out, but if you just want to learn the crux of it, you can pick up almost any book. And most of them have like, they explain about resistance and support. So if you’d want to learn through book, you can do that.
You can also go through it using investopedia, but if you want to, you know, advance, if you want to, you know, learn how to get into the mind, right? So there’s a book, uh, by Mark, by Mark miner, his name is very difficult to pronounce Mark Minervini. Okay. So it’s how to make a profit in bull and bear market.
So that is one book that, uh, in which he, like, he, he will not give you a stencil, like follow this and you’ll always make money. He will explain his own trading strategy, how we came to that trading strategy, how it works for him, how it doesn’t work for him. So from that, I did not copy paste his strategy.
I, you know, uh, checked out my own strategy, did some tweaks. Then I read another book. He also explained something about his own strategy.
Then I, you know, implemented that also. So in this way, the, uh, the strategy that you have is your own and you will, it will depend on what you learn from where you learn everything. And one more thing is that do not just go watch a YouTube video about trading and thinking that, you know, everything you don’t, you will not know everything until you read a book because in video we are, uh, if, if a YouTuber is making a video, he’s aiming for retention, right.
He’s aiming for entertainment. He’s not aiming for, you know, someone who will come and, you know, learn everything like three, four hours of a video. And, you know, uh, will, will be a boring video because trading is not fun if you, when you are learning it.
But, uh, if you’re reading a book, the guy knows that you have already paid five, 600 rupees for the book. So you will complete it. Even if you don’t, it doesn’t matter to him.
So they are, they are more, they go more into the crux of it. Right. And also I will recommend a YouTube channel.
If you want to see the biographies of traders, right. How the biggest trader, Paul tutor Jones is extra make their trade. What is, how did they grow up? Like these people, you know, took money from friends and family, took $50,000, a hundred thousand dollars may made it into a billion dollar hedge fund.
How did they beat the market at 40% year over year return for 22 years. Right. So these kinds of stories will help you, uh, focus on what is important, what you are missing and, you know, how to take risk.
Even they, even the biggest traders lose everything once in their lifetime. Some, some are able to bounce back. They become legends.
Some are not able to bounce back and they fade away. So you need to be very, very certain you are not, you cannot beat the market. You need to outsmart it and survive in the market.
So read books and do not just watch YouTube videos. All right. Okay.
That’s good advice. That’s always good advice. I think reading more books by people who have experienced and been there, done that, uh, that’s the best way to go forward and learn.
What is your take, Neil, considering you study the market so much, what is your trend this latest wave of, uh, DeFi, uh, you know, platforms and platforms that are perhaps, uh, not obviously, you know, as, as you’ve talked about the money has, uh, dried up in the market. So not a lot of tokens are getting launched, but there are still, uh, platforms that are getting built and, you know, builders are building, uh, what would be your take on this new DeFi wave and perhaps, you know, uh, which ones are very promising according to you, which platforms or which solutions you feel, uh, you know, are really going to survive this bear market and be there in the next bull run. So predicting which solution will survive the market is very, very hard, but I’ll tell you the narrative around DeFi that I’m seeing right now.
A lot of banks are, you know, realizing the potential of DeFi right now, because you know, transferring money is very, very easy and the fees is not there. So they know that the public will eventually demand that, why are you not integrating it? So a lot of banks are not trying it out. And in DeFi, I think the best thing that we are doing, we are seeing is that Ethereum is the most reliable network right now.
It’s more secure. That’s what people that are going to, you know, invest a lot in DeFi are looking for. So Ethereum layer tools are something that I’m focusing on.
Uh, the platforms come and go. We don’t know about the platform, but if you are investing in layer tools like Matic, so those are the things that I’m mainly focusing on. So Matic is my biggest holding after like it’s my fourth biggest holding after, you know, a few layer ones and Bitcoin.
So that’s what I’m seeing. A specific platform commenting on a specific platform is very difficult because, you know, I saw a lot of them that were very promising, like went up, went, went away in three days. So can’t comment on that.
Yeah. So Luna was like one of the favorite coins in 2021. We bought it at around $6, sold it at around $80, $90.
And even when the market came down, we made profit on that. But in three days, the, this big Luna crash that is that, uh, that eventually led to FTX crashing, like who could have predicted one year ago that FTX will crash. Right.
So that’s why I’m not focusing on a platform, uh, in crypto, you don’t know, but we’ll survive no matter how good it looks. Maybe even Binance is going, going to, you know, next, uh, next week it will shut down. Who and, uh, don’t, uh, buy something predicting that it will, uh, you know, in 10, in three, four years, it will make you like a millionaire or something.
So, uh, the, I’m tracking the platforms in the DeFi space. A lot of innovations are happening, but I think the main leader will be banks that integrate good Ethereum layer two solutions. And we’ll have to see about that.
That makes sense. I think, uh, you know, Ben, once the financial world, the traditional financial world, uh, is, is looking to perhaps integrate web three at its very core. That is when, uh, you know, there, there would be more adoption.
Yeah, it will help. It will happen slowly. Like we saw that internet banking adoption took, I think 15 years.
I was, I was very little, but it took around 15 years. And right now, even right now, people don’t, uh, fully adopted in India. It’s very accelerated because of UPI, but, uh, in the general world, I, I think a lot of people still go to the back.
So it will take time. I think at least 15 years, it should be again. Okay.
So, um, again, you know, we, we are running a little out of time, but I would love to understand from you. Like if somebody is trying to move in from a web tool to web three, what would be your advice to them? Uh, move in what sense? Like, uh, investing perhaps, uh, in investing basically, uh, and making, like saving a part of their, uh, journey. What would you think would be your, you know, your advice to them? Let’s say if you’re moving from web two into web three, and like, if you’re, you were investing in web two companies, and now you’re moving to web three, uh, for the first advice is always that make a portfolio outline, right.
And make sure that at least 60 to 70% of that portfolio is in Bitcoin and Ethereum, uh, major holdings in Bitcoin, always keep major holdings in Bitcoin. It will not make sense in a bull market, but when the bear market comes, you will thank yourself. Right.
After that, uh, do not invest more than five to 7% of your portfolio in any one token, because in web three, anything can happen within three days. The token can go from a hundred dollars to $0.001, right? So if you, uh, get stuck in that kind of token, even if it is very resource, it has a very good team. It’s very nice.
It can still happen. We saw it with FTX also. So better to not invest more than 7% in any kind of token, because if you invest 7%, you get a good return, but your risk needs to be minimized in web three.
You can make insane result, uh, insane returns, even in Bitcoin, like people who invested in Bitcoin at $5,000 in the last bear market made, I think, roughly 14 X their money, right? That is a very good return in three years. So people who bought at that price on Bitcoin, that is a like relatively more stable cryptocurrency, right? Relatively risk-free asset. So, so, so you keep majorly on Bitcoin and catch other trends and narratives with five to 7%.
So you don’t risk at all and always have at least 15% in cash that, that helps you tremendously. Like even, even if you are leveraged or you are not able to cover your short position, long position. So those kind of, at those places you get, uh, that cash in handy.
And also you miss a lot of opportunities. If you are fully invested, like I saw people who bought a lot of crypto when Bitcoin was $30,000 and they ran out of cash. Then Bitcoin took a nosedive after the lunar crash to $18,000, right? Then a lot of people ran out of cash there.
Then it took a nosedive to $15,000 after the FTX crash. Okay. So always have some cash and try to invest in Bitcoin and Ethereum.
If you’re investing, try to do it in SIPs. Don’t invest in lump sum. You don’t know how low it will go, but if you invest in SIP, I think you will eventually win.
That’s at least that’s what I do. Uh, not financial advice. Okay.
Awesome. That’s good advice. I think a very sound advice.
Thank you so much, Neil, for taking out the time to speak to me, to our listeners. I’m sure this, you know, this is going to be a very insightful and, uh, amazing conversation for them to listen in as well. Especially people who are either starting off as content creators or traders in this space.
Uh, any parting thoughts before we wrap this up? Yeah. So, uh, for content creation, I’ll, uh, I’ll give you some parting thoughts that if you are thinking about getting into Web3 content creation, try to, uh, not sell out your audience because a lot of Web3 content creators will do that. 90% of them will do that.
So if you want to survive, you need to be very, very careful, but with what you, what companies you partner with, what coins you advertise, right? If you, it’s your own thought, it doesn’t matter. But if you like start advertising shit coins, because you get a lot of offers, even if you’re small, you’ll get a lot of offers. So better to avoid that.
Think about the longer time period. You will see a lot of respected content creators, big content creators in crypto Web3 space, shilling shit coins. They get paid a lot of money, but you don’t need to follow that path.
Stay true to your audience. Then only you will survive in this game. Also it helps your conscience.
And another thing is that once you start predicting where the market will go, it will eventually bite you back. Once you, once you grow, because once a lot of people start watching you and they take your advice and you don’t, you know, teach your audience to how to do their own research, it will eventually bite you back because you cannot be right all the time. And then once you’re wrong, you need to accept your mistakes, right? You don’t, you don’t expect the audience to be foolish, right? So keep these things in mind, treat them with respect and do not exploit people.
I guess that will be my parting thoughts because we need a lot more good content creator in the Web3 space. Wonderful. Thank you so much.
Yeah. That’s in general, very good advice. Thank you so much for taking out the time.
It has been a wonderful conversation. Thank you. Thank you for having me.