NextAlphaDAO founder Beyond: From a 985 finance undergraduate to a Web3 OG with a community of thousands of people

1. Can you introduce yourself? Hello everyone, I am Beyond, a post-00s, the founder of NextAlphaDAO, and I am now operating my own Twitter account and community. I have been officially in this circle for two and a half years, with a maximum income of 4 million RMB, and my personal assets have achieved a 15-fold increase so far. 2. Can you share your past experiences? I majored in finance at a 985 university in China. Before officially entering the circle, I was always a person with a relatively unconventional mindset and had done many jobs unrelated to my major. During university, I worked as a part-time host, hosting many large-scale events, and was reported by media such as CCTV. I also volunteered and received a letter of appreciation from the South African Embassy. In addition, I was also named one of the top 10 singers in the school. As I grew older, I gradually turned to my own profession in the financial industry. In order to find opportunities in the financial industry, I interned in the research departments of many securities firms, but later found that I did not like the constrained and mechanically repetitive work, so I started looking for opportunities in other fields. My earliest in-depth contact with the crypto circle was at the end of 2022, when I participated in some work related to DAO organizations. An important opportunity for me to enter the crypto circle was when I had an exchange with the founder of a US-listed company. In other circles, it is almost impossible to communicate with such a successful person, but in this circle it is possible. I personally experienced the flatness of this circle and saw more development opportunities. So I decided to enter the Web3 industry. After entering the circle, I began to constantly explore the path that suits me, trying many things, including community operations, hosting Chinese and English Spaces, engaging in OTC asset trading, doing asset management to help some big shots manage funds, and even trying to farm and research DeFi. Finally, I also successfully found the path that suits me, becoming an investment research blogger and operating my own community. In the process of constant exploration, I have done some meaningful things. First, in early 2023, when the Bitcoin ecosystem was not yet booming, I, as an early participant, did some promotion and popularization work, helping foreign projects translate white papers and organizing Chinese communities. Secondly, I was once a member of a BTC technical team, participating in the airdrop of about a dozen NFT projects, totaling more than 400,000 engravings. Among them, by cooperating with a leading mining pool, I engraved the largest engraving in history on the immutable and indestructible eternal ledger, leaving a little mark of my own, which is very commemorative for me. After the engraving craze, I turned to the construction of the MEME track and achieved varying degrees of returns, with the asset scale returning to the level of the peak. Now, I am still waiting for the emergence of a new narrative. Core content: I majored in finance at a 985 university in China. After university, I found that I did not like the mechanical work in the research departments of many securities firms, so I started looking for opportunities in other fields. At the end of 2022, through communication with the founder of a US-listed company, I experienced the flatness of the industry and decided to enter the Web3 field, and began to explore the path that suits me, eventually becoming an investment research blogger and operating my own community. I participated in the airdrop of multiple NFT projects and engraved the largest engraving in history. 3. Can you introduce what you are currently doing? Currently, I have a small team of my own, and together with my partners, we have established NextAlphaDAO. Our goal is to provide more valuable content through in-depth research to help more people gain profits in the investment process. I have also established a large community and my own paid small group, hoping to lead everyone to gain profits in this uncertain market. So far, the achievements are not bad. For example, in the two larger declines at the beginning of this year, we issued risk warnings in advance and did a good job of hedging and offsetting, not only did my personal assets not shrink, but also helped the members in the community avoid risks and contributed some value. On social platforms, I am also building my own IP to increase social leverage. By outputting valuable content, I attract more like-minded people to communicate and exchange information with me, and establish cooperation with other project parties or institutions to obtain more cooperation and contact opportunities. Core content: I and the team have established NextAlphaDAO, through in-depth research and sharing valuable content, to help everyone profit in the uncertain market. At the same time, I am also building my own IP on social platforms to attract more people to communicate and expand cooperation opportunities. 4. What are the most unforgettable experiences you have had in web3? At the end of 2023, as an OG of the engraving community, I had a certain understanding and belief in engravings and related technologies. At that time, the market sentiment reached its peak, and my assets reached 4 million RMB. Although this may not be much for people in this circle, it was a great sense of achievement for me as a senior student at the time. However, due to the fact that I was preparing my graduation thesis and internship at the time, and I did not have too much consumption desire and economic pressure, I did not cash out in time, and the diamond hands almost returned to zero, which was a painful lesson for me. I understand that this is mainly due to the gap between my personal cognition and the market, and I can accept this lesson and avoid similar mistakes in the future. In addition, I want to share an even more painful experience. The incident happened on August 10, 2024. I remember this day very clearly. I was attacked by hackers, resulting in the depletion of all my on-chain assets, including tens of thousands of engravings, more than 700 farming accounts, and various tokens. What hurt me the most was that the engravings I held were directly transferred as ordinary BTCs, which was a complete waste. Next, I will describe the details of this incident in the hope of giving everyone a warning and avoiding the same mistakes. At that time, I was deceived by a social engineering attack scammer. The scammer disguised himself as a member of a well-known VC team in the circle and started communicating with me through private messages. He found through investigation that RootData and various third-party platforms did not have functions directly pointing to Twitter links, which provided him with the opportunity to commit the crime. The scammer created an extremely realistic Twitter account and also deceived the attention of more than 20 senior practitioners in the industry, so I was not particularly vigilant at the time. After communicating with him, I was guided to join a TG group, where the dozens of members were all actors, and I was the only real one. The scammer was also unhurried, taking more than half a month to fabricate a seemingly normal internship training scenario in a fully English environment. Finally, on the night of August 10th, I was tricked into downloading an installation package, which resulted in my device being infected with a hacker virus. After reviewing, I found that this kind of social engineering attack is not new, and this incident has also brought me a lot of enlightenment: First, although you should not have the heart to harm others, you should not be without the heart to guard against others. Always maintain vigilance and ensure that you verify the other party's identity through multiple channels. Secondly, although you have not experienced asset theft now, you may not have encountered a customized attack script for yourself, so you should have a sense of crisis, do a good job of risk isolation and anti-theft measures, and always pay attention to asset security. Finally, keep a low profile, do not expose too much personal information, and do a good job of identity isolation on Web2 and Web3 platforms to reduce the risk of social engineering attacks, because the cost of being attacked will be extremely painful.

Here is the English translation of the text, with the specified terms translated as requested:

Core content: At the end of 2023, as an OG of the Mingwen community, my Mingwen assets once reached 4 million RMB, which was a huge sense of achievement for me as a student at the time, but due to not cashing out in time, the assets eventually went to zero. Then, on August 10, 2024, I encountered a social engineering attack, which resulted in all my on-chain assets being wiped out. This experience made me deeply aware of the importance of maintaining vigilance, cross-verifying identity, and protecting personal information, as asset security can never be taken lightly.

5. Can you share what skills or areas you are particularly good at?

I am particularly good at project research and discovering early alpha opportunities, and presenting the final value results. For example, based on my undergraduate background in finance, I have a certain understanding of economic principles, so I will continuously output high-quality content on Twitter to provide valuable market insights for my followers. In addition, I also have my own team and relevant technical skills in some technical tracks, such as the Bitcoin track and the Mingwen track. While keeping up with the pace, I also ensure that my technology is in a leading position.

Core content: I am good at project research and discovering early alpha opportunities, and presenting the final value results. Leveraging my finance background, I provide valuable market insights to my followers on Twitter. At the same time, I also have my own team and technical reserves in tracks such as Bitcoin and Mingwen, ensuring that I maintain a leading position in both cognition and technology.

6. Do you have any tracks or tokens that you are optimistic about? Can you share the reasons why you are optimistic? Currently, I am more optimistic about stablecoins. By stablecoins, I do not mean stablecoin mining, but the common USDT and USDC. Because in my view, ensuring flexible liquidity is very necessary, and I have not yet seen a particularly clear and suitable track for 'buy the dips' at the moment.

I believe that in the current overall trend, traders have an advantage over holders. We need to find stability in the volatile market and conduct guerrilla-style arbitrage, without harboring unrealistic fantasies about any project. By holding stablecoins during the downward cycle, we can focus more on exploring early alpha opportunities.

Core content: I am more optimistic about stablecoins like USDT and USDC. In the current overall trend, we need to find stability in the volatile market, conduct guerrilla-style arbitrage, and better capture early alpha opportunities to obtain short-term high-multiple returns.

7. How do you view investment or what investment methods can you share?

First, the essence of investment is to establish a correct valuation model. I believe that 99% of the time we are waiting and looking for mispricing opportunities, and in the 1% of the time, we obtain returns through these opportunities. To do this, you need to watch more and trade less, understand what is reasonable pricing and what is mispricing, and establish a rough valuation model in your mind. For example, when you see that certain tokens have very high heat on Web2 social media, but the related Web3 token prices are very low, this is an opportunity for mispricing. Capturing these opportunities and entering early is very necessary.

The second point is to use "narrative pollution" to counter "narrative hegemony". With the changes in the market, the current cycle is different from the past, the backing of project parties or VCs is no longer the only driving force, but rather some MEME that have gained greater success and higher gains through community consensus and through the dissemination of human consciousness. This concept is a bit difficult to understand, but through continuous practice, you will gradually master how to identify and utilize these opportunities.

The third point is about building personal IP. Whether as an investor, founder, or alpha hunter, building personal IP is very important. By building personal IP, you can cultivate your "network sense", and more easily identify what will attract attention and spread. In the blockchain environment, "attention is liquidity", the stronger the network sense of a project, the more likely its token will achieve a greater increase. By building personal IP, you can better cultivate this ability and capture market opportunities earlier. In addition, building personal IP can significantly improve your bargaining power and allow you to obtain more valuable information.

Finally, try to enter the core circle as much as possible to obtain earlier or more valuable information. In the Web3 world, the accumulation of wealth and the dissemination of information are like ripple-like diffusion, spreading layer by layer outward like water waves. Wealth, on the other hand, is funnel-shaped, converging from the outside to the inside. Therefore, the closer you are to the core circle, the higher the value of the information you can obtain, and the greater the returns you can gain.

Core content: The essence of investment is to establish a correct valuation model, and be good at discovering market mispricing; secondly, it is necessary to grasp the power of "narrative pollution", transcending the traditional endorsement model; at the same time, build a unique personal IP to enhance market acumen and industry influence; the most critical thing is to delve into the core circle to obtain high-value information. These elements are mutually reinforcing, requiring both patience to wait for opportunities and keen perception of market sentiment changes, to intervene in the early stage of information ripple diffusion, thereby maximizing investment returns.

8. Do you have any questions you would like to actively share?

Recently, "upward socialization" has become quite popular, and many friends have confused it with "flattery". In my view, the difference is that "flattery" only provides emotional value, while upward socialization also provides information entropy. Nowadays, while there are many talented people, there are few Bai Luo. The importance of upward socialization is self-evident. But how to grasp the boundary between upward socialization and "flattery" is very important. Proper upward socialization should be based on a self-fulfilled inner self and a solid foundation of technology and resources, and should be able to convey clearly in a few sentences what I do and what value I can bring to the other party, otherwise it is just fawning and flattery. Trying to gain sympathy by providing emotional value is a short-sighted and harmful behavior that may pre-consume future social capital.

Core content: In the current environment where talents are abundant but mentors are scarce, upward socialization is crucial, but care must be taken to avoid confusing it with "flattery". Proper upward socialization should be based on an inner self-fulfillment and a solid foundation of technology and resources, and relying on emotional value to seek sympathy is a short-sighted and harmful behavior that may pre-consume future social capital.

9. Do you have any advice for newcomers to the industry?

For newcomers who have just entered the industry, I have the following suggestions: First, do not use your own funds to verify other people's opinions. Compared to the traditional investment market, the Web3 market has higher freedom, and everyone can express their opinions, but the quality of these opinions varies greatly. Some are very valuable insights, but there are also many low-quality statements just to attract traffic. So, when making personal investment decisions, you must have clear goals and cognition, and cannot be easily influenced by others' statements. The second point is to learn to cut losses. This is a must-learn lesson and the most difficult one. Whether it's investment or social interaction, you need to learn to admit mistakes in a timely manner when facing decisions that may drag down your entire position.

The third point is that if you want to delve into Web3, actively communicating and socializing with others is very important. By exchanging cognition and opinions with more people, you can gain some information that you may have overlooked, which is very helpful for your career planning and obtaining high-quality information.

The fourth point is to keep the funds for Web3 and real life separate. Do not let investment losses affect the quality of real life, especially avoid causing huge debts due to losses. The fifth point is to cherish your own feathers and maintain a good reputation. It is not difficult to harvest the 'newcomers' in this circle, but once you lose credibility, you may lose the possibility of greater success. The last point is to learn to deconstruct. Decompose the obscure and abstruse concepts and mystifying statements, break them down one by one, distill and simplify complex things, and then internalize the essence as part of your own cognition.

Core content: For newcomers, I have a few suggestions. First, do not use your own funds to verify others' views, and have a clear understanding when investing. Second, learn to cut losses in time to avoid wrong decisions that drag down the entire position. Third, actively communicate with others to obtain more valuable information; fourth, separate Web3 and real-world funds and cherish your feathers. Finally, understand and learn to deconstruct.

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Disclaimer: [Web3 Persona Chronicles] disseminates content with a neutral attitude, and this article does not constitute any investment advice, it is for reference only.