KOL's - Shaping the Cryptoverse - AdLunam: Diving into Crypto

Artwork for podcast AdLunam: Diving into Crypto

KOL's - Shaping the Cryptoverse

Episode 15 • 12th July 2023 • AdLunam: Diving into Crypto • AdLunam Inc.

KOL’S - SHAPING THE CRYPTOVERSE

Participants:

JP( Host)

Expert Crypto ( Dynamic KOL and YouTuber)

00:22

Well, ladies and gentlemen, welcome welcome welcome to our next episode of Diving Into Crypto. This week we have a dynamic KOL who is going to share with us his thoughts about shaping the crypto verse. We all see a lot of KOLs, we listen to their opinions and what do we do once we listen to them? He's going to share with us some of the insights that lead to becoming a KOL. Also what some of the good KOLs do and how you can identify what good KOLs responsible KOLs do in the industry. So, ladies and gentlemen, this is JP from AdLunam, Inc. Speaking to you about Web3. Today's speaker has a community of about 75,000 people across YouTube, Twitter and Telegram. Most of the community is based in Turkey, but the rest of them are across Europe. He lives in Switzerland, a fantastic country of Switzerland, and his focus is on ICOs, IDOs, IEOs, the Metaverse and NFTs.

01:28

Ladies and gentlemen, I know we can't hear you on the other side, but I sending you some vibes. Put your hands together and let's welcome the KOL known as Expert Crypto Expert, welcome to the show.

01:43

Expert Kripto

Thank you JP, for inviting and glad to be here. Hello everyone whomever is listening, good morning and good afternoon. So its pleasure to be here. So it's a pleasure to be here. Maybe I can quickly tell about myself. Thank you for the great intro, JP. It was complete. Thank you for your kind words. So I started to do to be KOL about 2 years ago. It was my hobby and then when I got the good returns, good feedback from my community, that I shaped my area into more pre to the market projects like ICO, IDO, IEO stage because I am also working as an executive in one of TVC's accelerators, not on blockchain, but more new tech in Switzerland. So there I had chance to review the projects, talking to the founders, coaching the teams, as well as judging where to invest the VC funds, basically budgets.

02:46

Expert Kripto

So when I started two years ago, I started the YouTube and then I got very good feedback. Then I expanded to Twitter and telegram. I am mostly doing the content in Turkish, but I try to put different languages subtitles like English, Portuguese, Spanish. So feel free to take a look at the channel. So it's all I started. It was coincidence that it was a gift. They set up technical setup, microphone, everything from one of my friends. So I started like that. And so far I really enjoy being interaction with people, also teaching people, coaching them and also showing what is good, what is not, one of the topic that JP touch base in his intro. So maybe JP, back to you. I can have the questions. Maybe later on we can have some questions from the audience if we have time.

03:44

Most certainly, most certainly. We're going to do just that. We're going to do just that Expert. So I know that you've shared a bit about what got you started. Right. But I'd really like to understand what drew your attention to the Web3 space. I mean, most people have an idea, have an interest, but there's always something that edges you on to get into the Web3 space. So what was it for you personally Expert?

04:09

Expert Kripto

That's a great question. So basically I would say I am a very curious person. So I think curiosity is one of the point of differences that I have versus other people. Because I was curious, I would like to learn the things that people don't know much. So when I entered both Web3 and blockchain aspects, areas that was the thing that dragged me. I think the curiosity that not many people are knowing, it's tempting that I would like to learn more. That was thing. And also after doing some angel investing in the early stage of the projects, of course I get some good returns in terms of financially, both financial and curiosity, I would say, dragged me into blockchain and Web3 space.

04:56

Wow, okay. So it seems like you've stumbled right into it, but mainly you led from the fact that you wanted to learn more and that's how you got into how long back was that?

05:08

Expert Kripto

I would say it was: 2019

05:41

Okay, so you also have seen the startup era when it was at its prime. Okay, excellent.

05:50

Expert Kripto

Because some of my friends were founders of the startups. And then the first thing is you are founder, you go friends and family to get the funds and then you step away with it and then you go to angel investor and then it goes like this. So I had some friends coming to me as the friends piece to get some funding just to start up their idea. So at that stage I got exposed to-.

06:16

Excellent, So it seems to be a natural progression to you. And I'm glad that you're sharing that part with us. Expert because I'm certain a lot of us in the room are also looking to these leaders, they're looking to people to help them guide them through this new space. Right. What would you say if somebody asked you what's a good way to find to have KOLs first select the kind of projects to promote? Do you have a system. Do you have a metric that you'd like to share with us?

06:51

Expert Kripto

That's a good question. I would say there are some very well known rules but there are some also subjective point of view. So personally what I look at is if the idea is original or not, it can be on a startup, it can be on a blockchain project. I would like to meet the founders, that is really key if I have chance to meet them face to face, if not through zoom or skype that I can see their faces have some relationship to understand their purpose on the project, that's important. It is hard to quantify and also when you read the documents, take a look at their document, take a look at their assets, website, products, their purpose, then you understand in line with the experience, you understand 80 to 20 what their real purpose is. Are they really behind only financial gain or they have a vision and purpose and it is what motivates them.

07:48

Expert Kripto

So it's important because in the startup industry, not on especially on blockchain, but in the startup industry, the investors invest in the founders. They don't invest in the idea because they know that if they fail one idea, the same founders, if they believe in the founders, they will find another idea that will be successful. And it's very hard to be successful in the first try. So therefore they invest in the founders, they invest in people versus the idea itself. So therefore I would like to meet with people to understand their vision and the purpose. The other thing is apart from this first or if the idea is original second founders third I would say what is the problem that they are trying to solve in the industry? It can be hard to do, it can be technologically hard, it can be too early. But I would like to understand what is the problem that they are trying to solve?

08:40

Expert Kripto

What is the pain point that they are trying to improve? That is the other thing. And the last thing that I'm looking is how dedicated are the people on this project? If there is 15 people spending 2 hours per day then for this not enough, because the dedication and continuity brings success. So it's another point they're bringing. And last but not least, the thing keep in mind is currently it is a percentage is decreasing but out of 10 startups, ten new ideas coming to life. 5 of them dies within the first year, 4 of them stays constant, but they don't grow, only 1 of them grows, and this 1 in 10 is very hard. Therefore we need to place our bets, place our investment buckets, how you call it. Accordingly, knowing the 1 in 10 ratio and this ratio is getting less and less with increased competition.

09:36

Expert Kripto

It was a bit long answer but I wanted to capture all the perspectives.

09:41

No, I think that's extremely insightful. And I think you've also really narrowed it down in terms of focus because when you're looking at projects, of course you're going to start with a strong team, what is their background, what's the problem they're going to solve, how dedicated they are. And that's supremely important because one of the things that most people fear when it comes to investing, since now in Web3, everybody can invest in a manner of speaking, right? Everybody would want to know, of course, from that sense, what separates the good projects from the risky projects or the ones that could be potential rugpulls from your point of view, Expert.

10:23

Expert Kripto

Yeah, I think that's a great question. There is no simple answer. It would be great if there would be a simple answer because then everybody could detect, I would say it's in line with the experience. So I recommend people to read white papers, light papers, seeing the people's background, founders background, what they want to achieve, look at the historic progression of the project, what kind of projects, what kind of trends were hype in the past. So reviewing those to increase the experience, I think number one is the experience. If you ask me about expire crypto, have you ever still going to those traps of rugpull, et cetera? Yes, but the purpose is to minimize it. You cannot be 100%, right? The important thing is you should minimize your, I would say the mistakes that you do in this aspect. But if you look more or less if you meet with the team and the team is capable, you understand after you talk to the team, 5 minutes, 10 minutes, if you join the AMAs to see how they talk, how they phrase the sentences, what are the thinking behind, then you understand.

11:34

Expert Kripto

Second, you can look at the partners and if the partners are real, the partners or just they are putting the logos there. For example, if they put Binance smart chain as a partner in the website, you understand, probably Binance Marching cannot be a partnership. It can be a blockchain that they can be compatible for their tokens to work on or other NFTs to work on. The other thing, you can look at the founders backgrounds. If the founders have like solid backgrounds that they can find on LinkedIn or on open Internet, on Google, I would look on that. The second is there a hype and they are trying to jump on the train like the play to earn hype that we had 95% of the projects currently is maybe one fifth, one fourth of the value of the investment. So those are the things I look at.

12:28

Expert Kripto

But of course there can be some outsiders, but 80 to 20, these are the things that people can do. First, read, learn, experience, which is usually the people, especially in Eastern Europe, including Turkey, Russia, Poland, they don't like to do because people want to get easy money without because reading a light paper is five pages and takes around 15-20 minutes. When I started this, it was so hard, I wasn't understanding 90% of it. But then you learn with the curiosity, you improve yourself and then you learn. First is the experience, second is the team. Third, I would look at the project assets, how credible they are and the fourth I would see if the quality and the background of the team is sufficient to deliver this kind of project.

13:17

Okay, well, yes, I think that does make a lot of sense and you've encapsulated what we should do when we do our own research in that sense, crypto. So thank you for that. I do want to pick your brain a little more. So, for example, a risky project, right? What for you would stand out as this is all the alarms screaming, this is the beacons, this is a risky project, what screams to you that this is a risky project in your opinion?

13:50

Expert Kripto

Yeah, I would say the first thing is if the project team is not declaring themselves explicitly. So if the team is anonymous, I would say that is number one. That should create a question mark. I'm not saying all the anonymous projects are bad, rugpulls, et cetera, but that is one of the things that I would put as a question mark. The second thing is if the project is offering something extreme, so let's say it can be on a commission based system, let's say JP, this is your referral ring and if you recommend other friends to buy this NFT or token, I will give you 15% 20% return. Then it can be a Ponzi scheme or not, but it can create another question mark in my mind. And also if I see the website is some written like the UI and UX is developed as a ready I would say like ready templates from WordPress shopify, that kind of website.

14:54

Expert Kripto

Then I would say then it's another question. Mark showing like the team didn't want to spend enough effort. And they have urgency. They created something cheap just to get the financial gains that they want. So those are three things at first glance that the people can understand. It is quite easy. I can go into more details on other aspects, but if those three things giving signals, then I would be tempted. For example, in Play to Earn projects, when they started, I would say they were shoving short video clips like 20 seconds, 25 seconds. It was easy to understand in the beginning which one is quality, which one is not, because the quality ones dedicating, I don't know, $30,000 or $5,000 to create a good UX UI. On the other hand, the less good projects were not spending that time and you were understanding because we are all playing games or we played games when were young.

15:50

Expert Kripto

But later on they figured out the project that is less good. So they start spending the same amount of money, so good project and less good project. They were having the same graphics, same quality. Therefore, I'm giving this example because the industry is evolving and the money and the financial setup here is too huge. Therefore, people will not be standing back on improving themselves on how they can get more share of this pie.

16:23

Right? Wow. Ladies and gentlemen, I know that what you've heard right now is extremely insightful, so please give us a reaction to what you've heard. You can see the buttons right there. This is already an education for me. Expert, thank you for that because these are some of the things that really should let the alarm bells go off, but not enough of us are looking at these signs when we see these projects come up. This is, of course, absolutely fantastically insightful. Thank you for that.

17:01

Expert Kripto

Thank you.

17:03

Okay, we've moved from understanding what are the basics of a good project to looking at projects that just potentially scream that they're going to be rugpulls. Can you tell us of all the projects that you've invested in, the ones that you are associated with, which one for you stands out as some of the best projects that you've done some work with? It doesn't have to be financially fantastic, just the ones that stand out most. In your mind. Expert, what are your thoughts?

17:38

Expert Kripto

That's a great question. So there are so many projects I can mention, but maybe I can give one example on financial, one example on even a project that is not listed, but I can give an example of a team that has a good passion and vision, and another one maybe on. It was very risky at that time, but I believed in the team, and it turned out good. Maybe I can bucket under three. The first one that I would say financially, that I believed in the team was Step App, which was a recent project from this year. I was just talking to the team before this AMA that the team told me that they signed with Hussein Bolt, one of the top athletes. Yeah. So when the team started, team was very robust, but they want to go very fast, super fast to the market to develop their move, turn, app, et cetera.

18:30

Expert Kripto

They were the second doctor step in app, so they don't have the first mover advantage in the space, but they want to be as fast, and they want to do robust. And when they listed in top five exchanges in one day. That was pretty good. They listed, if I'm not mistaken, Huawei, KuCoin, Bybit, Bitkit, all of them in one day. So that was pretty good in terms of the team. And team was knowing what they knowing, and they were not hesitating to get the best people by paying more premium versus their competition in the industry. So I think Step App is the project, and it increased. I think up to 150x versus the ideal price. So financially, Step App was really incredible. The second project that is not listed yet was SharkRace. This is basically the shark design in NFT collection. And then I met with the team, I met with the CEO.

19:36

Expert Kripto

When I talk about the tokens, when are they going to list how is their strategy to increase the price of token? The management team was not so much into the token price. I said it's pretty interesting because it's not something that we are used to. And they said, our purpose is to develop NFTS, to develop beautiful NFTs, that if we develop these good NFTs with the lending defy structure, the token price anyway, naturally will go up. I said, who designed the NFTs? And they said they paid the premium and they got a Cannes Lions awarded artist to design their NFTs and all they care was the NFT. So they were not caring about token price. Of course they care, but I'm a bit exhilarating. But they were focusing how they can elevate the NFT series versus let me pump my token and get my financial gains from that.

20:30

Expert Kripto

So they were not caring about that. They were caring about the NFT. So that is the project also influenced me positively on how I see the industry. The last one was a few years back, I think it's three to four years back. Enjin is one of the biggest coins now tokens now in the top hundred. But at that time, I think Enjin was one of the coins that is connecting gaming and blockchain. And when I was investing in the team, all my friends and some people that I know, they were saying it's very risky, why are you doing this? Even though crypto is very risky, blockchain is very risky. But I believe in the team. And later on they made agreements with Samsung and then people start to know them. So there were the three, I would say, examples that I work with. I trust the team I invested.

21:22

Expert Kripto

I also worked on increasing the awareness of the project, which turned out good in terms of self awareness, but also financially.

21:33

Fair enough. Thank you again for sharing these thoughts. I mean, we've heard of these projects in some ways, but it's always interesting to find out the background stories about how the team really put things forward, how they were able to achieve that success. And I think that's learning whether ladies and gentlemen, whether you're in Web3 or not, these are certainly lessons to learn from. Right? Okay, Expert, let's move this part forward because the KOL plays a very responsible role in the industry, right? You're looking at KOLs as you're looking at KOLs as leaders, as people who are guides, who make recommendations and influence that recommendation, right? When it comes to yeah. So it's a pretty responsible position. What is your take on the type of the responsibility that sets a good KOL apart what are some of the things that a good KOL should feel the responsibility of?

22:45

What do you think?

22:46

Expert Kripto

That's a very good question and I think it's important too for the social responsibility as well. Because in the sector that we are in, we liked or not we are in the finance sector and we are like influencing people's investment decisions in one way or another. And I know that if I tell the people or recommend people to buy a project, if I say I buy this project, there can be up to few millions of dollars. Investment can go in that project. So imagine I am in Europe, close to 100,000 community. But imagine the communities that has few millions. Imagine the risk, the potential risk and how careful people should be. Of course there are. Many people manipulating it. But even when I invest in the projects, I'm not putting on my socials as a video tweet or telegram messages. The projects. That I'm not sure.

23:47

Expert Kripto

But of course, sure is not 100%, but I always give the discrimination, always give a disclaimer on. You should do your own research, not a financial advice. The important thing is it's very hard to as investors or as followers, it's important to see whom to trust and whom not to trust. Therefore, I recommend people to read the reviews on forums, on Twitter, search about the previous videos, tweets how the person behaved, and you can also understand if the person is telling something. The same message. Five times a week. Either that person is paid or that person has a different benefit. And even, for example, when I got paid, of course, I do sponsored content. But when I do sponsored contents, I put it in Turkish. Sponsored so people can understand that I am paid. I am always telling if I get paid I put this hashtag or I tell in the video if I am not it means I invest in this project but it doesn't mean if I invest in this project, that you should invest as well.

24:57

Expert Kripto

Therefore, it's important to, I think, to read, see what other people are thinking. There are many forums across the world on the influencers, so I would do that. I would do the due diligence. Of course. I'm not saying don't follow people. Follow, take different advice. But in the end, collect all and make your own decision. Because none of us know which projects to invest 100%. If we would know, we wouldn't be here. We would invest in the project that we know and then we basically live and we live a very happy, healthy life. And even same in the investment bankers. I have many friends in London, in Switzerland, many investment bankers I'm telling them, they are telling me Guy, if we know that, what would happen? We would invest and go. We wouldn't have this stressful life all our lives until the age of 45-50.

25:51

Fair enough. Fair enough. I think, yeah, you're right on that front. You can never really know as a responsible leader in the industry, there are certain steps that you take and I appreciate the fact that you put it out there what is sponsored and what you're investing in. So hats off to you. I really wish more KOLs would do that.

26:13

Expert Kripto

Thank you.

26:15

Cool. So in this position, in this public position that you have the persona that you have and I'm certain, exactly like you said, right, that there may be situations where you've made a call, all the signals are green, but the project doesn't take off like it should have. And in some manner, way or form, you can't please everybody. So somebody's going to be upset about it. I'm not certain. I've not seen this on any of your channels. But I'm certain that you may still get people that don't appreciate what you do or in other words, haters. Right. How do you as a public figure deal with haters? I'm very curious to find out that Crypto Expert.

26:58

Expert Kripto

That's a very good question. Of course, in the beginning when I started, you don't know how to manage these kind of situations. I wouldn't say I had a lot. Maybe I had 15-20 people and I realized some of them are people who shouldn't invest in any kind of mediums because they are thinking this like a gambling and they want to put the money and get it double in one or two days. And there are some people also I see from other influencers, fan groups that they try to attack things like this. But I think the solution to this is having a solid community. Because if you have a solid community, when they see this kind of comments without you seeing, without you knowing, they respond and they oxidize. I would say that comment and the person is not anymore continuing because there are like ten people for every comment answering him in a positive way.

27:56

Expert Kripto

The other thing is, I think being honest and transparent. When you're honest and transparent, if you give the facts on the table before and even after, if you say, guys, you lost money. I invested more than you, but I lost as well. So having this, I think open channel, open talk, honesty and transparency is also a way that I would say dealing with haters. I never had haters, but there were people, I said 15-20 people that were not they were disliking through the different terms. But as I see, as I proceed in this journey, I gain more experience, confidence, as well as people saw in my past portfolio what are the investment decisions that I made, and people who increase their knowledge, awareness on the sector, also their financial wealth, I think I see less and less this kind of people.

28:56

Okay, so keep forging forward and appreciate the fact that you're open and you're honest about it because that, of course, is what people may not understand that fully at a moment. I'm certain that they respect that over the long term.

29:13

Expert Kripto

Right, exactly as you said, JP.

29:19

Super. Okay, so, Expert Crypto, here's what we're going to do. Ladies and gentlemen, I'm certain that you may also have questions that you may want to ask. So we're going to take two questions from the audience. If there are any, you can raise a hand using the reaction buttons, and our host will allow you to come on as the speaker. How this will work is you can ask your question and then we will pause that while our guest today, Expert Crypto, gives you answer. And then we can take the next person. All right, so, Expert Crypto, are you ready for that?

29:54

Expert Kripto

I'm waiting for the first question.

29:56

Okay. All right. Do we have questions? I believe we may have some coming in from the audience. Some of them may have sent in a request, but sometimes this does work a little slowly based on where you are. If you can't, please feel free, ladies and gentlemen, to send us a message on our Twitter handle and we'll pick that up for you at this point. Okay, I see one question that's come in. I don't know who this is from. How do you build communities across different languages? Okay, how do you build communities across the collection?

30:40

Expert Kripto

That's a good question. Actually, I tried once because my language is in Turkish, so all the community speak in Turkish. I wanted to open a global channel in English, but I couldn't find time to do it. Therefore, to answer that question, I didn't try. But even if I would try, I would need more time because it is not easy. A copy paste from Turkish to English to French to Spanish. I think you need to put maybe not 100% of the same time, but at least 70, 80% of the time that you are putting in your community. Therefore, it's not easy to I would say it's not easy to copy and paste duplicate your community. Therefore, my community only speaks in Turkish for now. Maybe in the future I can create an English speaking community. Then I would be in a better position to answer this.

31:35

Expert Kripto

Good question.

31:37

All right. Okay, fair enough. Thank you. I think you've also given us a hint of something that most of us could do in terms of building community. Is that the fact that you use subtitles in different languages on the videos that you create. And I think that also becomes helpful to reach out to the audience.

31:56

Expert Kripto

Yeah, I agree.

31:59

Fair enough. Okay. Right. Okay, one last question, and I can't see who has sent this one in. It says, what are your thoughts about the industry at present? Which project will take off, in your opinion, this year?

32:19

Expert Kripto

That's a good question, but as a disclaimer, no one knows the. Answer of this question. My point of view is Moveturn is having a good hype now, because now they are creating the project's tokens. But the app development, the application development for their phone is arriving quite late due to several issues problems that they are having. I think if they catch up with the pace of the project launch together with the app development that you can utilize the Moveturn technology app in your phone, then I think this Moveturn will go another six to nine months as the hype, we see DAO Maker is very consistent on this step up and ambitious. And now it's coming MAZ both in Seedify and DAO Maker. So I think turn hype will go a bit more, I would say a few more quarters if they catch up good with the app development.

33:18

Okay, that's a good point. And I think that would also add more value to the adoption spaces as you can as more people get used to doing that, you'll be able to create more adoption with Crypto. So that's fantastic. Excellent. Okay, so ladies and gentlemen, those are all the questions that we have in from the audience. We usually just take two for the Q and A section. I do have one last question for you, Expert.

33:49

Expert Kripto

Sure.

33:51

What would your message to our audience be or to the industry at large that you would like to share?

33:59

Expert Kripto

That's a good one. I would say be curious, stay curious. Because when you have this, you do your due diligence. You can understand the new hype coming, new terms, what is hot, what is new, how the world is evolving. Don't focus only on blockchain, but learn about global markets. What's happening in Japan, Asia, US, Europe? Then open your mind. But what I would like to end with is stay curious and be curious.

34:27

Thank you for those thoughts. Expert Crypto, it's been fantastic having you on the show. Learned so much in such a small span of time. Thank you so much once again for being agreeing to be part of the show today.

34:39

Expert Kripto

Thank you for inviting, it was a pleasure to be here.

34:43

Glad to have thank you so much. Thank you so much. Okay, well, ladies and gentlemen, you've heard from Expert Crypto, a dynamic KOL with a lot of insight shared. If you've missed the program, please catch the recording as it comes out. We're also going to launch this on Spotify and stay tuned for more updates on the AdLunam Twitter handle. Ladies and gentlemen, this has been JP from AdLunam Inc. Speaking to you about Web3. Thank you so much for being here. Cheers.

35:17

Expert Kripto

Thank you. Bye bye, everyone.

Share Episode

Shownotes

Transcripts

Follow

Links

Chapters

Video

More from YouTube