It's been quite a journey for me over the past few months.

This isn't really one of my normal threads. No alpha leaks, no thoughts on hacks.

This is just a thread on my story - how a wide-eyed kid confused about his future got thrust into the future of finance/DeFi.

Bitcoin has existed for the majority of my life. And for the majority of Bitcoin's life, I've been following it.

It began as a way for me to make a bit of money online. Back in the day, I'd "farm" faucets and/or trade my video game items for bitcoin.

I found Bitcoin to be quite novel: I could transact online without a PayPal account for ~free

So I asked my dad if I could buy bitcoin with my "savings." Well, he said no. He said it was a scam and I should forget it.

So forget it I did. Who knows where that ~0.2 BTC is today?

Fast forward a few years and I start to see bitcoin moving up in price.

By then I had a bit better understanding of finance and tech, so it caught my eye.

I remember spending *all* my free time, even when my family took a vacation, reading Reddit, blogs, et al. about crypto.

I was obsessed, so obsessed that I would spend six hours a day on my phone, squinting at the lines of whitepaper text on my phones.

Anyway, by then, I had a bit of personal capital. My job running instant ramen at school had done me good. So I could invest...

But, I didn't really do a good job.

The first $200 that I put in did well for the first few months—BTC, ETH, and some random coins (Cryptopia LOL).

Yet by the time I had added to my position, the market had peaked. I didn't know it, but I was shoveling money into a fire.

So my positions—mostly ETH and the random altcoins (MKR included)—were freefalling.

It sucked. I had faith things would recover, but they never did.

So I became a bagholder, and I asked myself what I could do in the time being.

This led me to writing and analysis.

Remember those hours I spent reading whitepapers, Reddit, and more?

Well, I realized I knew a bit more about crypto than the average normie. That time I spent on my phone instead of staying tuned into the family vacation paid off.

Writing was great.

Also had the chance to attend conferences and meet interesting founders.

If anyone remembers a young, wide-eyed Asian kid that looked out of place at Token2049 2019 in Hong Kong, that was me. (god @lawmaster is tall).

Speaking of writing, sometimes, I would get paid in stablecoins.

I didn't really want to sell them. Because BTC was volatile at times too, I wanted the dollars.

What could I do?

Eventually, I found I could use protocols like Nuo, DyDx, Staked/RAY, to earn a yield.

So that I did.

I remember Nuo had pretty bomb yields. The APY was never consistent or 100% accurate, though I remember getting some annualized rates in the double-digits. Yield farming, right?

Looking back at my transactions, what strikes me the fees (literal cents lol).

That set me down the path of DeFi.

I was never really big on the tokens, cuz I didn't understand value accrual mechanisms, but finding these yield opportunities was fascinating.

How could I make my money make money? There began my interest in yield farming and generation.

And that went on for a year... I learned what I could about Compound, Nuo, etc., and was early in on the Aave launch.

Then, of course, March 2020 hit.

It was shocking, to say the least. The price action, volatility around the pandemic, and more had me down in the dumps.

But once things stabilized in April, I began to look at what happened.

DAI and the fallout around Maker caught my eye.

For those that remember, multiple Vaults were improperly liquidated due to extreme network congestion, which disabled the oracles and some Keepers.

Having invested in MKR and having played around with CDPs in the past, I kind of got what happened.

But for work, I had to breakdown what had happened and write about it.

So that set me down a path of how Maker really, really works.

Being at home, locked down, the weeks I spent nerding over this stuff turned to mnths. Ethereum finally found meaningful PMF.

Compound launched, YFI launched, Yam launched, and so on and so forth.

But I was watching this all alone. So I decided to make a (new) Twitter.

I made this account in July as a way to share my thoughts about DeFi.

@n1ckchong, where I used to live, was not the right medium for DeFi content I thought.

I slowly began to break out of my shell, asking questions, posting threads about things I found interesting.

And luckily, some of them stuck. And my following grew from there as I was sometimes (for better or for worse) the first to tweet about weird farms, events, and hacks.

At the same time, I began to reach out to many in DeFi.

I wanted to ask questions, learn more about how they think about investing, and more.

Surprisingly, many responded. How open this community is truly is awesome.

It became a cycle: I'd post online, reach out to someone or someone would reach out to me, and make a new friend(s).

My following had begun to pick up and I was having a lot of fun bouncing ideas around to a group I am now happy enough to call friends—my Tribe.

After months of this, something unexpected happened: @santiagoroel reached out to me:

"Hey Nick - really enjoy your CT takes. We’re looking to hire a research analyst at ParaFi. Would you be interested?"

What? A fund whose work I love reached out through Twitter?

Apparently so.

So we began to discuss how could be of help, and I just officially joined the team earlier this week.

The power of Twitter.

(If there's anything cool you're working on, feel free to reach out.) https://twitter.com/n2ckchong/status/1350937337014996992

That being said, I just finished my first week at @paraficapital. It's been an eventful week—that's for sure. Pretty proud of what I got done, though there's much more to do.

Thanks again to @santiagoroel for reaching out and giving me a shot.

Along with those mentioned in my FF, have to give big shoutouts to:

@coIecp
@iamjosephyoung
@ethan_vera
@samchepal
@santiagoroel
@AmeerRosic
@mrjasonchoi
@CryptoNekoZ
@fillbeforeshill
@MapleLeafCap
@JacobPPhillips https://twitter.com/n2ckchong/status/1344903766089187330

There are so many others that have supported me. So blessed.

Also, big up to @Darrenlautf, whose pinned thread inspired this little rant and reflection of my own.

Still have to catch up to this chad and the other Lau Twin tho. https://twitter.com/Darrenlautf/status/1300089717904433152

To conclude:

- Share your thoughts online
- Don't feel afraid to reach out to people
- Use Twitter more
- By far the most important: *find your Tribe*

There's a lot of shitposting here but I genuinely don't know a group of nice & passionate individuals.

There's still a lot I don't know, so I'm really excited to grow and learn with you all in the coming years.

Until next time.