This episode explores how to choose an NFT project to invest in, introduces Discord and gives you tips on how to stay safe from scammers and hackers.

Episode Nine - Choosing what NFT projects to invest in and how to keep your assets safe.

Welcome back. Hopefully by now you have started exploring the NFT marketplaces and the popular projects that I have listed in the Meet The Metaverse Guide. And I'm sure you have concluded that there are just so many artworks and collections that making a choice of what to invest in is totally overwhelming. I urge you not to rush.

Here is what I did when I first started exploring NFTs. I joined the discord channels of the artists or projects I was interested in to see if I vibe with their personalities and values. And also to suss out if other collectors in the community who were in the Discord channel were the kinds of people that I wanted to interact with.

Let's unpack what I have just said. I spent three solid months on NFT marketplaces, Twitter and Instagram following creators I liked. I looked at who the people I admire were following and mentioning to lead me towards these new NFT projects. I then joined their Discord channels.

Discord is an app where Metaverse communities gather. These channels are set up by the creators, and Discord allows these creators to integrate bots that let the channel, verify new members and keep the community safe.

A small project or an individual artist will welcome you themselves to the channel, make announcements and keep things flowing. Or with a larger project, where there could be up to 10,000 collectors, the team of creators may split the tasks in managing the community. In the general chat these people will be the moderators or mods for short. Sometimes a very large and successful project will hire people to be community leaders and moderators on this channel and they then form part of the team as well.

Discord has a more techy feel in its design. But don't let that intimidate you. You can always ask questions in the chat if there is something that you're confused about. As I have said before, we are all very new to this there are no stupid questions. Once you're part of some Discord channels, you'll get a feel of where you are most comfortable. I have left Discord channels because the energy or conversation didn't gel with me. It is through Discord channels that projects will announce their vision and roadmaps on how they will roll out and build value into their projects and engage with community you should be looking for projects that outline a clear annual roadmap with some key milestones.

Remember, the NFT creator economy is evolving by the minute - so look for projects where the creators mentioned that they want to collaborate with and leverage other projects to bring you and enhance community experience. As I mentioned in previous episodes, if you really want to get into this, it will require not only your money to invest in these projects, but your time. Think of how much you are already spending chatting on social media and now you are adding discord to it. Community, collaboration and co-creation will be embedded in any project that wants longevity and wants to make an impact whether that be financially to you as a collector, or in pursuit of more important social and environmental causes. You have a lot of choice.

It is really important now to cover off safety. As I've mentioned previously, the success of Cryptopunks, Bored Apes, Veefriends and World of Women, to mention a few, means that 1000s of other hopefuls have entered the space to create their own large collections. The money involved means that there will always be scammers who want to hoodwink you. The term for these people are "rug pullers" - creators who hype up a project, sell it and then disappear with your cryptocurrency. There are also people who create duplicate accounts of famous projects and try to sell you fakes. So you have to be very careful when you are on NFT marketplaces to make sure that the accounts are verified. And then there are hackers which will try and break into your digital wallets.

The golden rule is never never click on any message or email purporting to be from an NFT marketplace or a well known artist unless you are 100% certain the email address is correct. There is a standard practice on Discord to turn off direct messages through your settings.

The same way that there are people in the Web 2 world sending your phishing emails or texts pretending to be your bank or asking for your account details. Never, ever answer any messages that ask you for your confidential information. In the Web 3 world, the most confidential information you have will be the seed phrase to your digital wallet.

If a Discord channel wishes to gather information from you to say add you to your mailing list or drop your token as a gift the most they will ask you for is your name, email address and your public wallet address. Again, if you are joining my podcasts for the first time at this episode, please go back to episode number one so that you are caught up on everything to do with digital wallets and cryptocurrency and the different types of NFTs

This is all a learning process, so take action. Download Discord on your phone and desktop and start joining some channels. You will find the Discord icon now as you would other social icons on the websites, Twitter accounts of artists or collectives you wish to join.So take your time and start exploring communities on Discord.