Lately I've been seeing innumerable new crypto projects spring up, each crappier and more low effort than the last. In an effort to curb some potentially broken hearts, I want to share what I think are the most glaring signs that you should wait before giving a project your hard-earned money.

Before We Begin

The WAX blockchain has made it incredibly easy for anyone to create NFTs and sell them in a secure way. We're also at a time when NFTs have seen tremendous growth, reached moon levels of hype, and caused FOMO worse than a Black Friday tech deal. While this is great for blockchain democratization and the general adoption of NFTs, it also means that it's opened the doors to irresponsible people trying to make a quick buck. The question you should always be asking yourself is, "Can I trust this project and the people behind it?" Let's go over some red flags that you should be aware of.

1. The project's website is low-quality

You're going to see me say "low-quality" a lot in this article so it's important I define what this means first. Low-quality means that the project owner has invested little to no effort (time) or money into their project. If the owner can't be bothered to put in the effort or money, why should you? When you show up to an interview in professional attire, it shows that you respect the interviewer AND yourself. It costs $5 and takes 15 minutes to set up a website. For $30 extra, you can buy a theme that makes your website look like it was designed by a team of professionals. Simply having a website is not enough anymore. At the very least you need content on the website. Tell me about the project, tell me about the team, show me what you're working on, convince me to give you my money. If there's a single page with a few poorly-written sentences barely explaining anything but they're already eager to sell you NFTs, then you've found yourself red flag number 1.

2. The art is low quality

As a game developer, you very quickly realize one important thing: good art can be expensive. Luckily for us, there are a ton of resources available to help mitigate the costs. Fiverr is a great way to get high-quality but affordable custom art designed for your game. There are some truly fantastic artists on there. Since art is so subjective, it can be hard to define what exactly is low-quality but here are a few indicators:

- The art is blurry or out of focus
- There's no visual cohesion between elements
- The colors do not work well together
- The art looks like it was Photoshopped by a 6 year old

One important thing to note is that low-quality does not mean fewer pixels. Minecraft is low poly but does not have low-quality art! Everything in the game is designed with a purpose in mind and comes together in an aesthetically pleasing way. If the art of a project looks like it was outsourced to the owner's grade school nephew, you've just found another red flag.

3. They have sketchy promos

This one is my favorite. The project is clearly in its infancy, completely lacking any actual development, but the project owner is already trying to hustle you with their brilliant scheme of doubling your money. Here's how the pitch usually goes:

Bro, listen. I'm going to be selling my extra super special NFTs for $5 for ONE week only. In one month I'm going to sell the same NFTs for $10. If you buy them now, you can sell them for 2x more in a month and double your money!!!!

I lost brain cells just writing that out. If anyone is hinting in anyway that you can double your money, you've found a third red flag.

4. There's no white paper or in-depth explanation of the project

You know what an overwhelming number of NFT projects have? Packs of NFTs of different rarities. This isn't a differentiating feature of a project and is actually provided to you for free by AtomicHub. What about NFT burning/upgrading? Nope. Also a free feature provided by NeftyBlocks. Differentiating features are important because it shows that the project owner has put in the effort to actually create something new. If the project relies completely on a few basic features of NFTs that are available to literally anyone and promises a vague idea of a game 1 year down the line, you've found a fourth red flag. Double red flag if there are typos everywhere. Oh, English isn't your first language? Pay someone to proofread your work.

5. They have numbered Telegram accounts (TrashProject3, TrashProject4, etc.)

This one is particularly bad. Telegram is pretty heavy-handed with handing out bans, so if the main account has a sneaky"4" at the end, it means accounts 1-3 were banned. Often this means the account was caught spamming and ultimately banned so they had to create a new account. If the project owner is encouraging you to spread their sketchy promos in other Telegram groups or in Discord, then you've been hit by another red flag.   

6. The team is private

There's a common saying in the world of startups that investors invest in the team, rather than the idea. Having a team with the right skills that can actually execute and follow through with their vision is infinitely more valuable than the idea itself. Who is the person/team behind the project? Do they have the right skills? Do they have a history of failed projects or scamming people? How do I know they won't run away with my money? If a project has no information about the team behind it, it's probably a red flag. Double red flag if the project owner plans to "hire a developer" to make the game. Hint: It costs up to $150/hour to contract out a solidity developer.

7. The website uses Comic Sans

Can't believe I'm writing this but I actually saw a crypto project, in 2021, using Comic Sans unironically. There is no excuse for this transgression.

There we have it, folks. Do your due diligence before investing in anything. Good luck and stay safe.