The blockchain Space is so vast and enormous with information. keeping up with information is an herculean tasks.  It means literally spending a lot of time on screen , searching for opportunities with new projects springing up every minute. Over the years, the meta (trend/value proposition) changes. This leaves gaps of knowledge to catch up both by the builders and the users. 

The advent of Ethereum, a technology for building apps and organizations, holding assets, transacting and communicating without being controlled by a central authority. Basically, ethereum became the basis of the blockchain ecosystem, a language for building composable web and Decentralized Apps. it emergence spurn the development in the crypto space we see today. it inspired a lot of builders, researcher and enthusiast in the new magical ways of doing things. 

Positioning oneself means getting early information and being one of the early testers/users before a project goes mainstream. the early adopters are rewarded with airdrops. The image below is the technology adoption curve. People adopters are in the red zone as depicted on the image below.

To position yourself in the blockchain ecosystem, you have to keep the following tabs checked. In the past, it used to forums. Satoshi Nakamoto published the first forum post on the  

The list is in-exhaustive. There will be more ways to get early information i have not talked about. The blockchain is full of opportunities and its the only space you are rewarded even as newbie trying a project. You are incentivized for being early user/testers of a project

letra

 Positioning In Web 3

No ones likes to be used as exit liquidity for projects. Developing basic skills into smart contract reading can keep you from getting rugged, while better security practices can help you avoid being hacked/exploited. At a very high level, smart contracts work like legal contracts  except they provide a way to 

 complex transactions when certain predetermined conditions are met on the blockchain via code. The very basic smart contract methods you are all likely used to (on the user front-end) are 

Before I dive in here, I think one of the most important “functions” that people need to be very careful with on user interfaces when dealing with on-chain crypto funds, is the 

 function. If you are an on-chain degen, you have clicked this numerous times on a DEX like Uniswap for example (below are examples from Curve).

To check projects you must have set approvals for, goto 

 Connect your wallet and scroll down to the next menu. You will three of them namely, ERC-20, ERC-721, ERC-1155.

If you are checking tokens you have set approval, click on ERC-20

scroll to the right, you will see revoke button for each asset. click in it and approve.

Note, Its classified as transaction, so gas fees will be deducted.

Etherscan is an invaluable tools used on the ethereum Ecosystem. Infact, etherscan shows you every thing about any smart on the ethereum network. You can do basic contract reading through etherscan (or similar chain’s block explorers), which can tell you the nuts and bolts of the code of a project. Various data can be retried such as maximum supply.  You can retrieve max supply, number of holders and current holder base data (good for finding wallets, and watching what is going on with key project wallets). We will start with less technicalities on to very technical on. we can start digging through high level information about the project.You can see the transaction that created the project (and the creator’s wallet). If you are doing diligence on a project, you can see what the dev has done prior, and if they deployed or were involved in any prior rugs (massive red flag).

There are two main ways to get rugged on a project (outside of just approving your funds away).

When you look at your block explorer (ex etherscan) and look at contract, it will have a green check-mark and say “verified” if the code is verified. 

 Usually this implies the code is unreadable, and has a high probability of being malicious. If the code is not verified, its not worth aping.

This can give the contract owner the ability to drain all funds from the contract at any time (search the code for “migrate”). And is there a time-lock (search for “timestamp” or “time-lock”). If not, this combination leads to plenty of rugs, as no time-lock allows the contract owners to migrate funds immediately in certain situations

Upgradeable proxy allows a project to upgrade its contract to whatever it wants, including a malicious upgrade. In normal circumstances, a proxy should be constant and never changes its address even during maintenance. Users should be able to point to the same address every time.

 If the project has this in its code base, you will see it. 

A function that creates new tokens. This can be fine, but if there is a way to mint outside of a standard liquidity pool reward contract, then it can lead to massive problems (search “function mint”).

Understanding smart contract and how to check important functions in the code is key to avoiding rug-pulls by contracts. Especially in DeFi, lots of bad actors hide behind projects to lure unsuspecting users. 

This should serve as a starting point for your smart contract literacy journey, as understanding contract logic flaws, time-locks, mints, migrates, and the likes can be quite complicated.

Etherscan is the most trusted tool for navigating through all the public data on the

Ethereum blockchain and is sometimes called 

By familiarizing yourself with these functions, you are already doing more research than 90% of crypto apes. You can also paste the contract into tools like TokenSniffer, RugDoc or HoneyPot checker to get a view on the safety of the project’s code.

How to Identify Red Flags in Smart Contracts

Few people pay attention to wallet security. Securing your wallets needs more than dedication, you have to be pro active. As humans we only learn in distress. The basic op-sec rules for security are being published and shared on social media and every other means of publications yet we keep hearing stories of  wallets being drained. Wallets are non custodial meaning you take charge of its security, No one does that for you. Take charge today with these basic op-secs. 

Obviously , there will be instances of forgetfulness of our basic op-secs because we are only humans , a rational one, not a bot. We interact with a lot of projects, chains etc and the more time we spend in the web 3 world, the more wallet approvals we have likely granted. A lot of good people on the web 3 has created tools to help in keeping our wallets safe. we will showcase some below and explain how they work. ERC20 allowances are integral to the functioning of many smart contracts, it is not an option to stop approving allowances all together but where possible, we should try to avoid unlimited allowances

On the browser you have your wallet, visit 

URL. Once the page loads, you will notice a toggle switch that allows you to view approvals for tokens or NFTs. on your mobile device, go to your wallet's browser, type the URL 

With these methods, your wallets are safe but it should reiterated that bad actors/scammers device new exploits every now and then. Always update your knowledge on securing your wallets. 

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. lots of rewards planned for early reader

Remember, in web3, you are reward for your efforts

Assets Security; 2 Ways to Secure your Assets on a Wallet

Dune Analytics is an open-source, Ethereum-based crypto data analytics platform, that offers free on-chain data to anyone. Dune Analytics might be the best place to find real-time alpha for free. It’s home to thousands of free dashboards that display crypto data. Dune makes it easy for crypto users to turn blockchain data into actionable charts and metrics. It allows anyone to publish and access crypto trends in real-time. 

Here’s your guide to Dune Analytics.  Dune Analytics makes it easy to view and understand on-chain data. We will cover the following aspects
• Community dashboards
• Extracting data with queries
• Creating visualizations
• Creating your own dashboard

HOW TO USE DUNE ANALYTICS

 In blockchain, minting means, validating information, creating a new block, and recording that information into the blockchain. 

In this regard, Minting NFTs, is the process of taking a digital asset and converting the digital file into a digital asset stored on the blockchain. Making it officially a commodity that can be bought and sold. To break it down further, a digital asset refers to any file that is created electronically.

Minting an NFT can be equated to buying coins at ICO (initial coin offering) usually a fixed price (common prices are 0.05 - 0.1 eth) or a Dutch Auction before it increases in value on the secondary market. A Dutch Auction is one of several similar types of auctions for buying or selling goods. Most commonly, It means an auction in which the auctioneer begins with a high asking price in the case of selling, lower it until some participant accepts price or it reaches a predetermined reserve price.

Minting is usually done on a project's website or minted through the projects smart contract on the etherscan.

HOW TO MINT NFT FROM SMART CONTRACTS ON ETHEREUM

We will be focusing on the Ethereum chain using etherscan to spool the contracts of the NFT we are minting. NFT projects do abstract away the minting complexities from contract by creating a website for minting. In certain scenarios, these websites are heavily impacted during mints due to traffic surge leading timeouts and crashes. Most times it’s better to mint from contract as you have high chances of minting than going through the website. To do this, you will have to pull up the contract information and mint from the contract. 

How do you do this? We will explained to you like you are 5 in the following steps

Now, you can boast around and mint like a real Web3 User. You have an added advantage and can circumvent website crashes in the case of a very hyped project mint. Always double check you are on the right contract because there are so many copycats and fake contracts out there. make sure you searched the right project.  

 and always check our page on vertical for newer updates

10 Easy Steps On How To Mint NFts From Contracts 

An NFT is a digital asset that links ownership to unique physical or digital items, such as works of art, real estate, music, or videos. NFTs can be considered modern-day collectibles. This asset class has on-boarded a lot of new users, creating a form of inclusivity for all. For the first time in blockchain history , the meta shifted from finances.

NFTs are one of the newest ways with which creators are monetizing their work, and for the first time in history, they have a platform of supporters from around the world supporting and cheering them on. This asserted the point that blockchain can disrupt and help transform any sector. 

Trading NFTs is technical and a bit different from other asset classes. The laws and dynamics of economics wield so much power in this sector just as in any other assets. The laws of demand and supply, volume plays, technical analysis, fundamentals, all play important roles in you becoming a successful trader.  There are tools out there to ease the journey for you. You can use this tools to track smart money buys, influencer buys and also analyse the trading chart of any NFT.

There are tons of tools out there for but we will be elaborating on some of the tools below.

If you are looking for a TradingView for NFTs then this tool is your best bet. The chart is amazing. It has a Price Alert Tool feature which notifies you when the floor is below the buy price target you set. It also has a live trading features.

Buy and sell the hottest NFTs on Solana like Solana Monkey Business and DeGods. Shop the best deals across every marketplace. Find blue chips. You can simply use this marketplace to track volume and also do some quick floor sweeping without using a bot. You get to see upcoming launches.it has the following features

This is a free tool you can use to measure the social currency of any NFT. From the numbers of 

users to volume and how many influencers are presently in the project. All of these data are available to you free.

This is a free platform for research purposes most especially discovering new NFTs before they become mainstream. they also provide the mint detail and real-time data market trend.

Raritysniper is a search tool used to look for NFT with rare traits. it gives free access to deals on rare NFT pieces. it has an extensive features for its filters.

This is a free platform that provides information in new and upcoming projects before launch. They also provide rarity of some NFTs but majorly use it when scouting new projects that are yet to hit the spotlight.

Track on-chain activity for every token, program, wallet address, and prominent wallet address within the Solana ecosystem to gain an edge. HelloMoon offers NFT data analysis that is unique and accurate. It provides information on market volume, wash trading, prominent wallet / whale activity and floor prices. Before making smart investment decisions, enthusiasts and investors who are skilled at using Hello Moon data will make informed decisions.

Utilizing these tools will help you in your journey to profitability. Dedication and consistency is needed to achieve success and craftmanship status. You wont get there overnight but steadily, you become acquainted with a lot of knowledge to better position yourself in the market.