Hello there, I am a Crypto Noob

How I stumbled across crypto and got swayed in. It feels like an exciting new world I do not know much about. Will I survive crypto and the future it promises? I do not know. I will try. Thanks.

A couple of months ago I barely knew anything about crypto. 

Now I am doing it for a living. Crypto journalist. The world is trying to figure out crypto. I will join the serendipitous celebration. Do I know enough now? Probably not. Maybe more than two months ago but still not enough. Not enough to make me feel comfortable. But then, comfort and being comfortable has not been my thing in life. Not as yet anyway. 

I live in India. No clear laws. Taxed like hell. Who does crypto here? The country's largest exchange got hacked for a quarter million dollars of treasury funds. Money lying with them for safekeeping was hacked.

In crypto you get hacked, just like the banks get robbed. The WazirX hack and the fallout have been a pickle and have done nothing but further dent the retail confidence in crypto.

@coindesk

Still, I am excited. I am nervous. I never thought I would be here. Not much chance. So, how on earth did I get here? C'est la vie.

I first heard about crypto almost a decade ago from a friend.

It was a buzzword in India back then. Even to both of us pursuing finance and accountancy. She told me her plans to invest a small chunk in Bitcoin then. I had nothing but caution for her, “It is probably nothing. A bubble waiting to burst.” I didn’t know anything about crypto. Nothing on blockchain. No clue about decentralisation. An expert in suspicion. Ain’t that what friends do? Give unsolicited advice. 

If you'd told me back in 2015 that I'd be diving headfirst into the crypto world one day, I'd have laughed it off. Like, seriously laughed. Then, it also isn’t the first time I have ended up doing what I didn’t think I would do or didn’t know much about. Journalism happened to me like that. It wasn’t an orchestrated career plan. 

Six years ago, I qualified as a Chartered Accountant (CA) in India. It is just like being a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) in the US. Right now, there are only about 400,000 CAs in a country of almost one and a half billion. And each year, only about 1 in 10 crack the final test to qualify as a CA.

In 2023, only 5,251 out of the 58,748 who took the test made the cut. And how does it pay? About $14,000 to $20,000 each year on average. Is that a lot? Enough to put you in the top 5% earners in a country like India.

I cracked the test and did not pursue that career. Finance and accounts didn’t have the same allure as arts and literature. I chose not to take the Morgan Stanley job offer as a financial product control analyst. I could not make peace with the fact that my life could end up in corporate glass offices analysing the daily profit/loss that traders make at the bourses. I had interned there for a year. I knew what to expect.

A year later, I also knew what I did not want. Spreadsheets and numbers weren’t cutting it for me. Not that I knew what I wanted, but elimination can be a good route in making choices. 

I like the media. No particular reason. Perhaps the socialist in me made me lean towards the idea of journalism. The fourth pillar in the world’s largest democracy. Holding those in power accountable seemed like a noble cause. This is India. Ranked 159 in the World Press Freedom Index. It’s a list of 180 countries. India has seen a decline in its ranking in recent years. We weren’t so bad not too long ago. 

China ranks 172. Two most populous countries on the planet, sat in the bottom quarter. Journalism wasn’t exactly as I had imagined. Perhaps an idea that was distant from reality. 

I was sold to the idea that journalism would get you to travel. Meet people. The job will demand that. It stuck with me. So, if not the crusader, I could probably give travel writing a shot. So it was decided. A couple of years of Masters in Multimedia Journalism. 

So 2020 I am out to take on the world armed with my media degree. Covid happens. The world goes into shutdown. Two years pass by as blur. Random short-term gigs, and am back into the world of business and finance. This time as a journalist. 

For the last few years, I have been churning stories about mobility, startups and the new-age internet economy. Think automobiles, electric vehicles, fintech, e-commerce and everything that runs with and around money.

Then crypto came along. Serendipitously.

I seem to like the word a lot. Life feels like that at times. With the choices and chances I have taken. 

A couple of months ago, a stranger sent me a connection request on LinkedIn. It had a message. I had no reason to act on it. The person seemed dubious. But I did. Multiple mutual connections. It had an offer to work. I opted for why not. 

Few calls. Meeting in person. A whole lot of ‘work, life and what the hell are we doing with our lives’ conversation. I was sold. This stranger, a strange fellow, had me cross the bridge.

From the legacy media merry-go-round to the dash car thrill of the crypto world. Convinced me on the idea of the new internet. Decentralisation, blockchain and building the rails for the new internet. Web3 is just like the internet days back in the 1990s.

We agree on a lot of things about the state of journalism. We disagree on a lot more. He tells me about the role. We are building a crypto media platform. I had to leave behind the idea of journalism that I knew.

What does that even mean? Build a media platform that works more like guerrilla warfare than an expansive army. Fluid and overlapping roles. You are not just doing the business of writing or presenting but thinking about the business itself. What will work? Why will it work? Is this financially viable for the effort and investment we are making?

The nimble, sustainable ways of running a media business - not just survive but have a long run. Robust and manoeuvrable. The way they are shaping now is more about micro-media, niches and domain-specific ecosystems. 

Compare it with churning out stories in a corporate setup (mostly stretching beyond working hours) like a staff writer for publications run by century-old conventional media houses. Resistant to change. No clear quantifiable metrics to measure the impact. Dwindling readership. It seemed like a good time to opt out of the model whose destiny seemed fragile. 

I thought about what journalism meant to me. Maybe I was not really quitting journalism. The idea of journalism has changed quite a bit in the past few years. Maybe the old, conventional journalism is not quite dead. Is there space for a new and more relevant form of journalism? Surely looks like that.

Journalism looked appealing because it allowed holding those in power accountable. But with low revenue and readership, the destiny of mainstream conventional players seemed bleak. Those on the outside endlessly bash it. And those within? Well, we just like to think of ourselves as changemakers. Quite possible that we are a bit delusional.

I teach business reporting to college students, it all often feels futile. Fewer students aspire to be journalists each year. Traditional newsrooms are losing readers to social media and online news aggregators. Advertisers follow suit, shifting their budgets to digital channels. Some newsrooms adapt and reinvent themselves by creating more engaging content and building stronger digital presences. Most don't and perish.

This isn’t just me and my head.

Goldman Sachs feels the same. “Your 9-5 is dying. By 2029, more people will do THIS ONE job than teachers, doctors and bankers combined,” the most influential investment bank predicts. It talks about how the idea of what a job should be like is changing. 

The legacy media is more like large ships stuck in the shallow sea. The idea of working in an environment free from hierarchies seemed tempting. Building a media product ground up seemed the challenge I wanted to take up. Control your own destiny.

Do I feel I have good control over my life’s plans? I have no clue. History is not in my favour. 

Crypto is a new world. 

Is it going to be easy? Nope, I don’t think so. 

What makes me take the leap? There’s a first time for everything.

I wrote about businesses and the business of money. How was it different? For starters, decentralisation. The idea makes sense in every aspect of life. More so in the polarised world and growing disparity in world societies. Think of money and how it is controlled and regulated - money supply. Take Bitcoin on the other hand - ownership patterns and control by powerful stakeholders can have a big say, but no one can control the supply or change it.

An asset class that reads and functions similarly across the globe. 

I've always been drawn to stories that challenge the status quo. So, when I first heard about crypto, I was intrigued by its potential to disrupt traditional power structures and democratise access to financial services. Beyond the accountability aspect, there's so much to love about crypto. 

A playground for innovation, no questioning there–even US electoral candidates are pursuing it. And the community? It's a passionate bunch, united by a shared belief in the transformative power of this technology, and a lot of memes.

I have plenty of questions in my head. What is the crypto world going to be like? Will it become easy to understand with time? What if I don’t enjoy writing about it?

One of the things that really excites me is the potential for crypto to level the playing field. 

Traditional financial systems often exclude marginalised communities, but crypto can offer a more inclusive and accessible alternative.

Everyone is invited. So am I.

But perhaps what excites me most is the opportunity to be part of something that is so young. Think of it, Bitcoin is 15 years old. Ethereum around 10. These are the top two cryptocurrencies that are 3/4th of the two trillion market cap industry.

For an industry so young, nobody is really an expert. 

There's a real sense of being part of a movement that could change the world. If you want to feel crypto - you want to follow Mr Buterin. He embodies the spirit. Nobody knows who Satoshi Nakamoto is, the inventor of Bitcoin. Poetic.

What if it doesn’t turn out to be the way I expect it to? That question will not have an answer that I can justify. It will just have to be lived. 

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Buttercup Picks: The Good Reads

I’m a crypto journalist, just please don’t tell anyone - by Molly Jane Zuckerman, Blockworks June 14, 2023

Journalists Sense Turmoil in Their Industry Amid Continued Passion for Their Work - Jeffrey Gottfried , Amy Mitchell , Mark Jurkowitz and Jacob Liedke June 14, 2022

Five Things Everybody Needs to Know about the Future of Journalism - by Reuters Institute

Bitcoin Whitepaper by Satoshi Nakamoto

Ethereum Whitepaper by Vitalik Buterin

Why The World Needs Bitcoin - YouTube by Bitcoin University

Why Bitcoin Matters - By Marc Andressen The New York Times January 21, 2014

Bitcoin - The End of Money As We Know It - YouTube

But how does bitcoin actually work? - YouTube

What is Web3, and is it the future of the internet? - Youtube by CNBC International