Young people leaving Web3: desire, illusion, sinking, reality
March 21st, 2023

Web3 is a field that was once synonymous with freedom across class and wealth for many young people. In the last round of rare bull market, DeFi was hot, NFT was soaring, airdrop was picking up money, "wealthy" and "freedom" lingered in the ears of all young people in the crypto circle, creating a lot of legendary stories, and the post-00s wealthy treasure book was born.

The legend of a certain media founder who gave young people $6,000 in BTC advice in 2011 and the legend of a certain second master who speculated on coins from a butcher to a rich man are still widely circulated in the industry as golden demonstration cases, attracting many young boys and girls who have dreams of entering the circle to dig gold.

The web3 field seems to have come to the end of its beautiful story in last year's bear market, with the collapse of Terra and FTX, the collapse of investment and financing, the layoffs of more than 2,000 people in well-known institutions, and the black swans, some young people are considering leaving the circle. In this regard, Gyro contacted several young people who have left the Web3 circle. Among them, some have made money to leave the field in style, some have lost money to endure, some have left of their own accord, some have reluctantly withdrawn from the field, some have squeaked out in the bull market, and some have dashed their hopes in the bear market.

From the stock market and the property market to cryptocurrencies, social mobility is decreasing in front of the grand narrative, and each generation also has its own ponzi exclusively, and even though there is some understanding of the high risks of cryptocurrencies, each one is actively entering under the lure of high profits. And after leaving, some picked up their old jobs and made up their minds to settle for life; some are still fighting in other risky markets, pinning their hopes on high returns; some left the market in spirit, but still can hardly hide their concerns; but surprisingly, almost all of them have not regretted this experience between their words.

As Web3 is maturing, under the guidance of the rules and the entrance of Wall Street, the moment of soldiering to absorb money for ordinary people has become less and less, but people come and go, the field is still crowded.

01 "luck to earn money and then lose it by cognition"

Muyu 27 High School Teacher

When I met Muyu, she was wearing a white shirt with a beige trench coat and light blue jeans underneath, neatly dressed, with a shy smile, and her words were far from the cryptocurrency world. But her experience is quite twisted and bizarre, before joining the Web3 speculation army, she used to work as a teacher in a county provincial key high school, drawing a key, prepared teacher, the following is her self-report.

I graduated from college in one of the six teacher training colleges directly under the Ministry of Education, and after graduating in 17 years, I followed the career plan to become a key high school math teacher. But personally, I didn't like teaching very much, and I always wanted to transition to teaching support. On the other hand, because the high school where I teach respects the Hengshui model, the main subject teachers have a heavy teaching task, and the pressure is also very high, basically we have to be on site after the students' morning study at 6 o'clock, and the teachers are off work only after the evening study at 10 o'clock. But in contrast to the intense workload, teachers' income is not high in the local area, and even the hourly rate can be considered meager, and then one day, I discovered BTC.

It was in April or May 19, when I joined a writing group in which someone recommended BTC and ETH to make money, and also paid to provide materials to learn. Initially I didn't believe it, but later I saw that other people in the group were also following it, probably because of survivor bias, and most people in the group followed the trend and said they made money. The first time I saw the BTC, I was able to get my hands on some of the BTC at a price of about 7,000 knives. 20 years later, I earned my first 200,000 in my life, and the money came much faster than I could teach. I also followed the latest news of major media and participated in some offline activities.

In November 20, I coincidentally saw a certain Web3 investment research in recruitment, and with my enthusiasm and optimism about the circle, I resolutely quit my job as a teacher and went to Shenzhen to become a bricklayer, despite my family's obstruction. It was at this point that I learned that the gift of fate to you has long been marked with a price, and the poisonous beating of society followed.

Initially everything was fine, 21 years was a big bull market, BTC once rushed to $68,000, before the animal coin market I did not catch, but airdrop this wave or catch up, but also made some money. In May 2021, the state launched a crackdown on bitcoin mining and trading, and the whole Chinese crypto circle was hit hard. In this context, a wave of layoffs broke out in domestic Web3 companies, and due to my lack of experience, I unfortunately became one of them, so I started to lose my job for the first time in less than half a year after quitting the establishment.

After losing my job, I was under great pressure in all aspects, because my family itself was very dissatisfied with my decision. But fortunately, I had a skill, and soon after I lost my job, I found a teaching job in a private middle school in Pingshan, Shenzhen, where the pressure was relatively low and the free time was long. I was too eager, and I basically just followed the hot spots, chain tour fire to play chain tour, NFT fire to play NFT, and soon I was educated by the market.

In a game similar to Axie's hatching favor, I played gold mining invested 100,000 capital, after a month has basically returned to the capital, and later began to continue to make money, but in the earnings of 150% when I did not bag for peace, but additional coins to hold, the result is just less than a week, profit retraction close to 100%, I was upset, the project side at this time is also still working, I think this time retraction is equal to not earned. So I held firmly, and started to yell in various groups myself, hoping that more people would find this game, but it obviously failed, and then the project side ran away directly, and the coins basically went to zero.

After learning a lesson, I resolved not to touch the circle for the time being and returned to the present life to focus on life, but the career also turned on the red light at this time. As the student population of Pingshan School was too poor, I left once again. After that I was idle at home for about 2 months, losing money in the cryptocurrency circle, still without a job, and very anxious. I couldn't help but start chasing after some dirt dog projects, hoping to make a profit and then close up and go home.

The fact should prove that the money earned by luck will really be lost from the perception, I kept exchanging ETH and BTC for aircoins, and hit the wall again and again. After that I bounced around Guangzhou and Shenzhen, in the middle of which I also went through two schools, and every time I moved, I felt as if I was a vagabond, no sense of belonging, I left home for thousands of miles and quit my job to come to Shenzhen, but in the end it was this kind of ending.

22 years is also the extreme market, Terra, FTX collapsed one after another, the market value of the first few are hanging, I also really dead to this circle, before the money earned are lost, so the nature of their own principal is nothing. The first time, I landed a teacher's preparation in a city in the Pearl River Delta, after which I probably won't touch the cryptocurrency circle much, my wallet still has a few pig's feet meal money, so I'll keep it, maybe I can send it again in a few years, as I see fit.

02 "Spirit" leaving the field

Tom 27 content practitioner

I joined a cryptocurrency media company after graduating from university in 17 years, and I was pushed by my friends. Before that, I didn't know anything about the cryptocurrency industry, and I wasn't interested in it. However, the company issued a coin in the innovation section of Firecoin at that time, and considering that it was my own company after all, the information difference was small, I started with 700 yuan to try it out. As a result, in less than a week, the 700 yuan had doubled, and this was my first taste of the crypto circle.

After the conversion, out of incentive, the company gave each regular employee a total value of about 10,000 tokens. At that time, the company also pulled the disk and the token value continued to rise, but I personally did not have enough trust in the coin and the company, so I pocketed it at 16,000, and the value of the coin rose all the way to more than 20,000 later. After earning this first gold, I cashed out half of it and left about $8,000 on the floor to continue to fight.

The first reaction at that time was that the money was too good to be true, and I even doubted the necessity of going to work, since I could make money so quickly. In this regard, the market soon gave me an answer.

Later, my friend recommended a cottage coin, which was rumored to have big money underwriting and close ties with traditional communication agencies, and with all the benefits, I bought almost all the positions. The coin also lived up to the expectations and has been in a leading upward trend. As a token of appreciation, I invited my friend to dinner and a foot massage. I was particularly impressed by the fact that it was about 8:00 p.m., and we were lying in the foot spa enjoying ourselves, talking about the wealth code, and then my phone received a push alert. I took a look, the cottage coin fell 60% in seconds, directly to me out of a cold sweat. The company's main goal is to provide a comprehensive range of products and services to the market. But the good thing is that the stop loss in time, the coin after January nearly to zero.

This incident gave me a great shock and was the first time I was educated by the crypto market, which I attributed to the lack of personal investment research ability. at the end of 18, after the bear market came, I left my job and came to a content platform, but I also continued to pay attention to the news related to the cryptocurrency circle and tasted the sweetness of earning a small profit many times. in June 20, I found that the price of BTC was at 10,000 USD, before that, 10,000 could be considered as the iron top, and in this context I did not know enough to hang a single 20 times contract to short BTC, and in the oscillation period, BTC was also once below $9,800, I was more convinced of my judgment, but after July, driven by the institutions, BTC went all the way up, thus opening a big bull market never seen before, and I finally ended up with a burst position.

Since then, I have never touched cottage coins and contracts again, and I no longer believe in stories about getting rich in the cryptocurrency world, but at most watch a hilarious story. Other people's stories are other people's stories, I still work hard and live well. At the moment, I'm not completely leaving Web3, but I only put a very small position in BTC and won't look at the floating line anymore, so I'm "mentally" leaving the market.

03 "High risk appetite is engraved in my genes"

Alex 29 Freelancer

Compared to the previous two, Alex is the one with the most privileged family of origin. Born in Wenzhou, his parents were both engaged in business, and he was deeply influenced by them during his growth. His self-description is as follows.

The cryptocurrency world is all a story from long ago. In fact, in my growing up career, there were relatively few monetary constraints, and my parents had a high tolerance for error. As my parents got business opportunities by virtue of their boldness at the beginning, I followed suit and always favored risky opportunities.

At the college level, I earned a good income part-time, even more than 10,000 yuan in some months, thanks to my previous golf referee license. Because I had the capital, I began to look for ways to bring in high returns with abandon and boldness. Before entering the coin world, I did private lending and invested in bed and breakfasts, and the end result was quite satisfactory, and I had a good income. By coincidence, I entered a coin speculation group and found that everyone was communicating about coin speculation. Looking at the short-period returns of up to 100 times or even 1000 times, I immediately chose to enter. I didn't think that BTC was a value coin at that time. I was looking for a surge and a fall, so I could have more room to operate in a limited time.

But apparently I was so confident in myself that I didn't make much money in the market and continued to lose money. Now I think I was greedy enough to open contracts, buy counterfeit coins, engage in pledging, and gain less than 300% will not stop, so much so that for a period of time, I set credit cards to live, and then my parents found out and helped me pay off the money. After this, I realized that my character in this circle is difficult to make money, I turned to think, it is better to analyze more themselves, to help others to make money. After a period of time as a market analyst, I was bored with myself and finally left the market.

After I left the cryptocurrency circle, I took over my family's business while I joined the stock market, and I am currently taking the CFA exam to try my hand at traditional finance. But the best thing about Web3 is that I have met a lot of like-minded friends, and we all get along very freely and have the same idea in mind, which is to make money. In terms of the current situation, I don't pay attention to Web3 myself, but occasionally I will be reminded by my previous friends, in 21 years when StepN is the hottest, friends also sent me several pairs of running shoes, the highest value also has 10,000 knife, after I changed hands to sell, did not participate again.

04 Make money with good luck and leave the market

Zhang Ming, a post-00s college student

The fourth young man is a post-00s student, and he is also the only one who left the game with money.

I joined Web3 purely by coincidence, in fact, even now, I am wondering what can be done with it. The opportunity for me to join is my good friend, who is a crazy fan of Web3 and has development experience himself, and now he is also in the process of starting a NFT project. During the previous Web3 boom, he kept reminding me to enter and buy some NFT and BTC, and talked to me about BYAC and Crypto Punks that turned hundreds of times. It is also under the stimulation of these stories, of course, I personally also love secondary yuan, usually cool to play games, so I myself also gradually into part of the NFT project, and try to play the chain game.

From my point of view, it was really just luck that I could make money. 21 years ago, I played a collection NFT chain game project, through SciFi to earn NFT and tokens, the model is actually very similar to other chain games, I remember about the late September entry, the token pre-sale price was about 0.5-1U, the result after November, it began to rise like crazy, by the end of November, the token has I didn't hold it, of course, and shipped it out at 100U, but I also earned almost 50,000 knives, which is the first time I earned that much money, and the token continued to rise later, and I wanted to increase my position again, but it happened to be the exam month, and I was in a hurry to prepare for the exam, so I was lucky that I didn't add it, and just 7 days later, the token fell 99%.

After this time, I lost myself for a while, in my daily life, I spent money more lavishly, spending more on daily food, clothing, housing and transportation, until my parents also noticed me, but they did not know what I was doing, and thought I was going astray, persuading me not to gamble, explicitly or implicitly, and controlling my living expenses more severely.

But for the inflated me at that time, the effect was not significant. 2022, in the general environment is not good, I plunged to buy a lot of NFT, also followed the wind at the bottom to buy Luna, but it is clear that all ended up with a loss. Especially the Luna moment, I put nearly 100,000 UST positions in Anchor, after finding out that it was not good, I grabbed the cash, and ended up losing a lot, but good to also get back part

Subscribe to water
Receive the latest updates directly to your inbox.
Nft graphic
Mint this entry as an NFT to add it to your collection.
Verification
This entry has been permanently stored onchain and signed by its creator.
More from water

Skeleton

Skeleton

Skeleton