One of the biggest mistakes you can make in your crypto investment journey is -not doing your own (thorough) research and getting caught up in the hype.

"Never invest in a business you cannot understand"

Warren Buffet

is a golden investment advice.

To keep this post as concise as possible let's look into what you need to do and know about a project before committing your hard earned money.

Educate Yourself

Cryptocurrency and the blockchain that powers it are both nascent technologies and things are happening very fast almost on a monthly basis; so if you plan making any form of investment (and you definitely should) in this space, you need to "constantly" educate yourself through research and and diligent study of the basic building blocks of the blockchain and cryptocurrency technology, the businesses and solutions being developed on these technologies, basic safety measures, news and other external factors and how these affects and shapes the future of this innovative and disrupting technology that's growing like wild fire.

According to Billionaire Investor -Warren Buffett; he missed a huge opportunity by not investing in Amazon and Google. His (genuine) excuse for not investing in these early internet startups was because he didn't understand these businesses or the technology that powers them.

"I had plenty of ways to ask questions or anything of the sort and educate myself, but I blew it," Buffett said of Google.

Because he was uneducated and unfamiliar with the technology business, Buffet simply avoids it all together and missed out on a few big winners like Google and Amazon; He was wise and smart not to expose himself to the (huge) risks associated with investing in something he doesn't fully understand or appreciate. So learn to learn and be voracious in seeking and consuming information regarding the crypto industry. Be familiar with all the industry terms and terminologies; Twitter and Projects Telegram Groups are great places plus of course our brand new beloved Publish0x. Follow great authors and influencers writing quality and valuable contents and build your knowledge and confidence in crypto investing.

More so, be practical. They say "experience is the best teacher" and that's absolutely true. You can decide to play around the market using a very small amount (that you can afford to lose easily) to get a feel of the markets and build your confidence. No amount of reading will replace the knowledge and experience gained through hands-on learning.

The Team

"If we are a good team and know what we want to do, one of us can defeat ten of them." Jack Ma

• Who is (are) the project founder(s), especially the CEO and top management members?
• Who are those behind the project, developer, advisors, investors (if any)?
• What's their background, reputation and experience?
• How relevant are these to the project they are handling?
• Are the team members known and "visible" or anonymous?

A great Team will fly even with a mediocre idea than a brilliant project in the hands of a poor team. Such is the power and importance of the the quality of the team to the success of any project. A great team can easily turn things around and make the best outcome of every situation.

Now the worst project to invest in is one who's founders are neither disclosed nor visible. If you can't identify who the founders are or those behind the project, then it is best you stay away as they have left themselves a backdoor for potential exit-scam.

The Problem Being Solved

No project or business has any right to be in the market if it doesn't solve any important problem of humanity. But in cryptocurrency, most times that's not the case. Many projects are launched every month just to "be the next Bitcoin", the next "Binance" or the next biggest thing already in the space and many gullible, uninformed "investors" are falling for these scams and losing their money. A random token or coin merely based on the blockchain doesn’t necessarily have to hold value or be the next bitcoin. Except you're in this space to purely speculate, in which case I would advise you rather go gambling.

Don't try to buy or invest in the next big thing or the next bitcoin or the "next big anything" for that matter. Invest in projects that solve real life problems. Ask yourself:

• What problem is this project solving?
• Is this a "major recurring problem" to make the business sustainable and profitable for the long-term?

If your answer is NO to any of these questions or worse still you don't have an answer then you should just walk away and move on to some other project(s).

The Solution and Technology

There's no point seeking to know the solution or value being proposed or offered by a project or Company if you have no idea, what problem they're trying to solve.

Once identified and determined that the project is solving, or trying to offer solution to a "genuine" global or local social, economic, or technological problem; the next step is to ask yourself:

• How valuable and relevant is their solution or technology to the identified problem?
• What other project or Company is offering similar solutions?
• Is this one better or superior to existing ones?
• What competitive advantage do they have to be profitable and sustainable?
• Would their solution or technology still be relevant in the next one (1) or more years?

Ethereum is a decentralized software platform that enables Smart Contracts and Decentralized Applications (DApps) to be built and run without any downtime, fraud, control, or interference from a third party; Basic Attention Token -BAT (one of the coins they tip us with here) aims to help users earn advertising revenue share for their attention, Hydro enables new and existing private systems to seamlessly integrate and leverae the blockchain technology to enhance applications and documents security, identity management and payment transactions etc.

You need to be able to point to the value the project brings to the table and what that solution is worth by evaluating other business factors as demand, competition, and use-case applications.

Community Strength

The community backing the project is an important part of any project's development. Does the project have a functional and loyal community? This can tell of the value as a large and loyal community is a sign that the project is valuable and will serve as a driving force to mass adoption and ultimately the project's success.

However, you must know that many scam projects have large and hyper-active communities who are only attracted and encouraged by high commissions and get-rich quick opportunities. These sort of community usually never lasts long as soon the project leaves them high and dry and they, of course moves onto another scheme. You will easily know these group when you see them as all they talk about huge earnings, payouts and other financially induced energy.

That doesn't mean talking about price and other monetary issues regarding a project is not standard or welcome; rather a good community is mostly interested in the development works and progress being made in achieving the road map of the project and reaching new and higher milestones. These developments should be what drives the value (price) of the project or Company and not some marketing hype backed by a lusy community which dies as quickly as it rises and some projects are very good at fanning their hypes through pump and dump schemes. You are not the gullible investor that will fall for those. 

Also to be considered is the partnerships, and other collaborative and synergistic relationships the project or Company has developed which contributes to it's growth, market reach and improved use-case. These valuable relationships goes to tell the potential future success of the project. The "quality" as well as the size of their community are equally important and should be considered together.

Invest in the technology; study, understand and follow the market; money goes wherever "value" is. Invest in projects that -solves real life problems; offers sustainable value; and backed by a solid, visible and transparent team.

Cheers!