Table of Contents
What is the meaning of DYOR?
DYOR is an acronym for ‘Do Your Own Research’. It’s a word of caution especially if you’re thinking of investing in a certain coin or project. This is simply said because not being informed enough can potentially lead to a great loss.
Commonly used among crypto communities because of how fast and easily fake news spreads, it emphasizes the need to have credible information before believing in something or going a step ahead and investing in a coin.
Even though DYOR has existed and been used around the internet in a non-crypto context for a long time, in the crypto space it became highly popular during the ICOs (Initial Coin Offerings) of different cryptocurrencies between 2016 to 2018.
During this time many investors entering the market were scammed. So as a way to warn others from getting scammed, people started to use the term.
What can happen if you don’t DYOR?
In a race where everyone is a bull, invests like a degen, and is able to get hefty returns on their investments, only DYOR and a pinch of luck can save you.
As the crypto market is expanding, more and more dark horses are emerging and they are really good at what they do.
While risk-taking is integral to getting good investment returns, it is not the only requirement for strategic investments.
What is a strategic investment? Strategically investing means having complete knowledge of the past, present, and future of the asset you are acquiring.
In today’s day of advertisements, media, followers, and likes, a phenomenon called shilling has picked up pace. It is when a certain group of people or certain celebrities are paid to or willing to market a project because they see their own profits in it.
There is another tactic called the Sybill attack in which people create multiple fake accounts to post and trick potential investors into purchasing a cryptocurrency because of the staged ‘fanfare’ around it. This could also be very dangerous.
Shilling and the Sybill attacks can be quite convincing. However, with the right knowledge, the set accountability mechanism, and having DYOR, you can tell whether the project is worth investing in.
In simpler terms, you can be scammed, lose your savings, and get minimum to no returns on your investments if you end up investing without DYOR. Thus, with this thought in mind, DYOR.
Example sentence: “There are scams everywhere so DYOR before investing in any project”.
Before investing in a crypto project, DYOR on some things that include ?
- Using websites like Coingecko to get first impressions about a crypto project
- Going through crypto projects being widely discussed on different social media, especially Twitter and Discord. There is always someone spreading a word of caution, so better to search the hashtag associated with the project and see what you come up with
- Reading the project’s whitepaper to easily determine whether a project has a strong base or not
So far the learning here is, DYOR is never a bad thing.
How can you DYOR in crypto?
Great question. This primarily depends on what you want to do. Is it investing or is it just choosing the right course to get the right knowledge and get into BUIDLing a crypto project?
If you are into developing dApps and smart contracts, DYOR would mean looking for high-value courses.
For courses
By following the steps below, you can DYOR in a nice fashion as far as courses are concerned.
- The number one step is to know and determine your objectives. No matter how stupid they are, enlist them. Your objectives could be something like by doing this course, you want to be one step closer to getting into Web 3 development space. This will also help you gauge whether you want to go for something advanced, basic, or medium-level. As a result, your end goal will become more specific.
- The next step would be researching course providers. Metaschool provides a bunch of acclaimed, free and highly-reviewed courses that you can enroll in today to up your knowledge game. From developing a whole decentralized Twitter application to creating an entire NFT marketplace, Metaschool has it all with no costs at all. Talk about a fairer deal.
- The third step would be checking for course content. Usually, courses have full-length syllabi uploaded in their course description. This shall give you a better idea. If you are a newbie, we would recommend enrolling in free courses to get surface-level knowledge of things before you jump into paid courses.
- The fourth step is a rather crucial one. Check for how the course is being taught. Is it live, asynchronous, or synchronous? This is important because if you are someone who loves to do courses at their own pace, live and synchronous may not be for you. Metaschool courses are all asynchronous.
For investing
As far as crypto investments are concerned, the following steps can come in handy when you DYOR.
- Investing is not something that you can master overnight. It requires time and understanding. In a crypto market, each coin has different tokenomics which you can refer to as fundamentals. It is important for a coin to be more investor-centric than developer-centric.
- Market analysis is yet another important point. Investors may bluff but if there is something fishy in the market, especially about a certain crypto asset, know that it is a red flag. This you can understand only by gauging the overall market sentiment.
- Always keep a check on what the people belonging to a cryptocurrency are talking about. You can tell a lot about a currency by the overall outlook and environment people associated with the currency create in online spaces.
- Perhaps the most important part about a currency is to know who they partner with and how they have managed to reach you. Thus, it is important to read up on the partnerships the currency has been in and whether they are legit.
Do Your Own Research Quotes
Here are three quotes coming from different thinkers, founders and crypto investors to motivate you to DYOR.
“Crypto is not a get-rich-quick scheme. It’s an invest-in-knowledge-first scheme.”
Naval Ravikant
“DYOR, or you will become DOA (dead on arrival).”
Roger Ver
“Do your own research, don’t get blinded by hype, and always keep learning.
CZ, CEO of Binance
There is no particular alternative approach to DYOR. Research is something that you do in pretty much every filed. DYOR, thus, is the only available method.
The way DYOR minimizes risks and helps you make informed decisions is that it actually removes the knowledge gap. Even if you have not mastered a topic, DYOR will ensure that you have some surface level knowledge and understanding which you can use to read up on something extensively and then make a decision that is good for you.
To differentiate between reliable and unreliable sources in DYOR, you must always refer to news sites with an authority like CoinTelegraph, Coingape, CoinDesk, CryptoDaily, CoinMarketCap, etc. Moreover, you can refer to peer-reviewed sources like journal articles to further strengthen your DYOR skills. Just because a site has a correct information does not mean that it is reliable. Thus, ensure that a site covers wide topics and has in-depth, detailed reports and has been serving people for some time.
Some terms related to DYOR are HODL, NGMI, GMI, WAGMI, Degen, etc.