A few days ago I joined the group of analysts who are getting paid for their insights and dashboards related to Web3 projects.
A total of 0.63 LUNA will be sent to my wallet as a reward for a visualization where people can see the price of the LUNA token vs the staking yield in Terra Station.
It felt amazing. Not because of the money but because I now see myself as an active contributor to the Web3 space. With this post I would like to share what I have learned so that any data analyst can start delivering insights to on-chain projects.
Onboarding guide
If I had to restart my journey this is how I would do it:
- Learn SQL - Mode and SQLBolt are two great (and free) resources.
- Explore data providers - the heroes making it possible for any analyst to do blockchain research. These projects have transformed the raw data stored in the blockchain into into human-readable relational databases and then offer the tools to visualize the information.
- Dune Analytics: running on PostgreSQL.
- Flipside Crypto: running on Snowflake.
- Take the OurNetwork course- a course that focuses on how to analyze data in Web3 and communicate your work publicly.
- Do some work - my recommendation is to start working on some beginner level bounties in Flipside. Join their Discord where you will find other analysts who are working on the same challenge, the community is super helpful! You can also find bounties in Dune’s Discord but my experience is that those are for more experienced analysts who already have a portfolio of projects.
- Keep learning - as more people join the movement you will start to see more resources to strengthen your analytical skills: workshops, tutorials, video series, etc.
More resources
Is very hard to keep up to date with everything that is happening on this space. The following resources have helped me to have a better understanding of specific blockchains and their inner workings which becomes very valuable when you are trying to generate insights for a specific project.
- MetricsDAO - a must for all the analytical minds in this space. One of the projects I’m most excited about since there is a lot of work to do and anyone is welcome to participate.
- RabbitHole - earn by learning! Get exposed to multiple projects in an easy to follow way.
- Cryptozombies.io - yes, learn the basics of Solidity. It will help a lot when thinking about how contracts and dapps work.
- Codeless Conduct - a Web3 hackathon for people with no coding skills/experience.
- WhiteboardCrypto - breaking down the complexity of many projects/protocols by explaining them into simpler terms.
Wrap up
As in any other ecosystem, data will play a key role in the growth and development of the Web3.
Analytics and metrics are the lifeblood of blockchain ecosystems. Protocols are evolving in real time. In order to best understand, to share ideas, to know fundamental truths, the data must be available. - MetricsDAO
We are still in a very early stage where almost all of the analytics requests are descriptive. How is it going to look like when we start to incorporate advanced analytics (i.e. predictive and prescriptive models)? It will sure be exciting. This is only the beginning of crypto analytics.
As always, feedback and ideas are more than welcome! DMs are open @alejandrocanomx