From Investing Lessons to the Pooly Lawyer NFT
PoolTogether Community Interview #29 Illpo
Hello,
Welcome to the latest edition of the PoolTogether Community Interview.
Today we feature Illpo - a very deep thinker who is also a POOL Hodler and Pooly Laywer NFT holder.
Let’s get to his story.
Tell us a bit about yourself. Describe yourself in a few words/facts:
I’m a happily married 40-something with 5 kids, so I’m probably a bit older than the average crypto enthusiast. I love to garden and grow rare and semi-exotic fruits, ride my mountain bike to try and stay in shape, and read/listen to podcasts about macroeconomics, geopolitics, crypto, and any other interesting topics.
How long have you been into crypto?
I first heard about BTC in 2009 on a blog I read occasionally. Sounded interesting, but I had zero technical ability and quickly stopped looking into it after I hit a wall with trying to figure out how to mine BTC. I came across BTC again later when Mt. Gox was in its heyday, but wasn’t comfortable wiring money to buy BTC (which is probably good since Mt. Gox got hacked).
Forgot about BTC again until an orange-pilled cousin was talking about it over Thanksgiving in 2017. I looked at the recent parabolic price movement on the chart then and was certain it was a bubble ready to pop, so I passed on purchasing again. I eventually purchased BTC after the COVID crash around July or August of 2020. I really went down the crypto rabbit hole then and started learning about everything I could, playing around with DeFi, and learning first-hand how many scams there are in the space (unfortunately for me - but I’m much wiser now!).
Do you want to tell us the main lessons you have learned since then?
First, avoid leverage like the plague. Leverage is like opioids. It will give you a “gains high” if you hit it right, but you are eventually going to hit some bad leverage laced with fentanyl and get killed. Just say no, friends.
Second, NEVER invest anything you can’t afford to lose. In fact, when you invest in crypto, just pretend it’s gone already. That way, whatever gains you harvest or whatever losses you suffer don’t upend your life or overall well-being.
Third, it’s a scam. What’s a scam, you ask? Whatever you are wondering about. If you have that nagging question in the back of your mind, don’t suppress it. Listen to it. I’ve been rug-pulled, tricked/scammed into sending crypto to a scammer, successfully phished, and lost crypto in just about every other way possible.
If you start out just believing whatever random thing or Discord DM you get is a scam, you’ll be right 99% of the time. Trust me here: having the default mental setting of “It’s a scam” turned on is one of the best safety mechanisms you can have until crypto goes full mainstream and you get better built-in protections.
Fourth, don’t give your crypto to anyone else. This is also known as “Not your Keys, Not your Crypto.” Ask anyone who has had their funds frozen by Voyager, Celsius, Babel, or a host of the other centralized players in the space if they believe whatever yield they were getting was worth the risk. Ask people who have had their crypto “disappeared” by dodgy exchanges over the years if they would have left their crypto on exchanges if they had it to do over again.
The answer will be a resounding “NO!” Learn from those who have gone before. There’s never a problem until there is. Remember a month or two ago when Coinbase changed or published their disclosure that users’ deposited funds could be used to pay off their debts (or something like that)? There’s never a problem…until there is. If you haven’t already, GET YOUR CRYPTO OFF OF EXCHANGES OR CENTRALIZED DEPOSIT INSTITUTIONS. If someone else can mess with your stuff (or someone other than you is responsible for your stuff), you are at greater risk than you know.
Fifth, develop the discipline to take profits and cut losses and stick to a plan. Almost no one without some sort of insider knowledge will be able to time the exact tops and bottoms. So, develop a best-case and worst-case scenario for your investments, work out a plan you are comfortable with within those parameters, and stick to it. Sell at regular intervals as your investments go up to build up a supply of dry powder to redeploy when there are big market moves downward. And, as part of this, learn about macroeconomics and how central banks work to give you an overarching directional compass to steer your investments in the right general direction (more on this in the last point).
What was your best crypto moment?
My best crypto “moment” happened over the course of a few days back in 2021. Iron Finance and the TITAN token were launched. I looked at it and was like, “That’s a Ponzi.” But I came across it really soon after it launched. So, I decided to play the Ponzi game. I put a fairly sizable chunk into the pool and checked it every time I had a spare minute for over two days. Somewhere around day three, I saw the chart tick downward by a bit, pulled everything out, and breathed a sign of relief. I’d tripled up!
The TITAN token didn’t crash right then, but the pressure was off of me since I was out. TITAN kept going up for a day or two after that, but then the peg broke and it was straight down to zero. I don’t recommend this type of degen recklessness unless you know it is reckless and are following point 3.2 above. But, if I had to pick one “best crypto moment”, correctly identifying a Ponzi, riding the wave up, and getting out in time when the candles were still green bigly – that’s definitely been a highlight so far for me.
And your biggest fail?
Not heeding my own advice in 3.4 above. Almost all the gains I had accrued in the massive bull run from early 2020 through 2021 were safely squirreled away…in Celsius. So, while I am basically at break-even at the moment and not counting on getting any of that back, I’m not broken either because I’ve avoided leverage and not invested anything I couldn’t afford to lose.
Fortunately, I have had a lot of my taken-profits in USDC in PoolTogether, otherwise I would be underwater like the Titanic. Speaking of PT…
How did you find out about PoolTogether?
I first heard of PoolTogether either when Bankless published a newsletter article about the best places to earn yield on stablecoins or when Leighton was first on the Podcast (whichever one was first).
What made you stick around?
I initially bounced around as a yield mercenary. I deposited USDC & DAI into the early iteration pool to collect the yield in POOL tokens. I deposited USDT on Polygon when the MATIC rewards were flowing. When I found what seemed to be a better yield, I jumped ship. I came back for the CELO pools and jumped ship again. Then, I saw that you could get some pretty sweet POAPs by attending the weekly community calls (let’s be real here, alright? PoolTogether community call POAPs are pretty lit, amirite?!).
So, I started lurking in the community calls to pick up the POAPs. And, I quickly discovered that the POAPs aren’t the only thing en fuego with PoolTogether. The community itself is DIFFERENT. Don’t get me wrong, there are a lot of good communities with great vibes and ethos. But, PoolTogether carries a palpable current of compassionate community very consistently through every facet of the Discord. I have yet to come across a single person who doesn’t care. That’s crazy special. After seeing and experiencing this first hand, I wanted to be a part of it!
How are you involved in the community? Tell us about it.
I’m an extremely busy professional with a family that needs me and my time. They get it first. So, as much as I’d like to be more involved, I am pretty limited in this season of life. I do my best to show up for the community calls, catch as much of each one as I can, lend a helping hand whenever I can, and, of course, play the PoolStreaks game! I also think about any questions that are posed and provide feedback whenever I have any ideas or suggestions.
Would you recommend PoolTogether to others? How would you describe it to them?
Absolutely. In my opinion, it is the best, safest DeFi protocol out there. It also has the best community in the crypto world, so there’s that too!
Are you involved in any other projects or communities?
Yes. After PoolTogether, I lurk and occasionally contribute in the Bankless DAO community. I am also interested in the Alchemix protocol enough to also try and keep up with the goings-on there and lurk a bit.
Why did you decide to become a Pooly Lawyer NFT Holder?
I decided to become a Pooly Lawyer NFT holder for two main reasons. First, by participating in and benefiting from the PoolTogether community, I have developed a deep appreciation for not only what the protocol is doing, but also what the community is doing. While the lawsuit against PoolTogether Inc. is prima facie frivolous and is attacking the founding individual/company, ultimately an attack on PT Inc. is an indirect attack on the community.
And, since I care about the community, I wanted to support the defense to the degree that I was able to do so. Second, if it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, it's probably a duck. This lawsuit is ridiculous on its stated merits. I don't know what probability to attach to it, but this suit is almost certainly a proxy suit for either someone looking to unjustly hurt others or bigger interests working behind the scenes to maintain the status quo and set a negative legal precedent for an emerging market that threatens the entrenched powers-that-be. I'm personally opposed to that kind of tactics, so I supported the defense by getting a Lawyer Pooly! (And, third, the little bird is pretty cool, eh?!)
Do you have any other thoughts and comments you would like to make?
Yes. The older I get the more important I believe having a grasp of the big-picture currents and hidden forces shaping our world is to being able to be a good investor and steering your ship through the choppy waters ahead. We are truly at a pivotal point in history. There are many significant changes that are happening right now and that will shake things up significantly over the next couple of decades. Demographic changes are going to shake things up in the United States (see the book The Fourth Turning by Strauss & Howe), China, Russia, and most of Europe. Ideological and political divides are dividing people. The long-term debt cycle is in trouble and will bring trouble (see The Changing World Order by Ray Dalio). Institutions are losing their legitimacy, and lawlessness and instability is on the rise in many places. Fear is turned up to 11.
Everyone believes their side is on the side of Truth and Reason even while dogma seems to be preeminent on all sides of every debate (or, more commonly, every shouting match). Deflationary technological advancements are dueling with increasing monetary supplies followed by the attempts of central banks to reign in the Frankenstein they have created.
On top of this, regardless of your perspectives on Climate Change and its importance, ESG narratives and policies of the Western hegemon are going to cause more upheaval and geopolitical reshuffling over the coming years. The United States (and by extension those countries allied to the United States) have benefited tremendously by having the world’s reserve currency. This has allowed the Western powers to flourish economically, sometimes at the expense of others around the globe. The West is moving away from fossil fuels. Concurrently, there are a significant number of countries whose national security (and even continued sovereignty) is dependent on the continued use of fossil fuels.
As the West attempts to phase out the use of fossil fuels, that will necessitate a number of oil-producing states to change alliances and allegiances as a matter of national security for continued sovereignty. We are witnessing this shift as the Eastern powers are rising without fealty to the narratives or agenda of the Climate Change models. When the Middle Eastern countries eventually deem it in their best interests to shift their cooperative stance in favor of the rising Eastern alliance, the West will be further stressed economically as the great advantage the United States and the West has had for generations will start to erode more quickly over the coming years.
Couple this reality with the unfathomable amount of debt in the global financial system, demographic changes, technological changes, ideological changes, and unforeseeable changes that will manifest at unpredictable moments, and you have a recipe for disaster unless a new financial system and new technology can also arise that can rapidly iterate until an alternative to chaos emerges.
Crypto has the potential to be a stabilizing force for good in the world, especially when the world becomes more uncertain and volatile by the day. If crypto realizes any or all of it’s potential in that regard, the culture and zeitgeist found in the PoolTogether community is the type of altruistic, welcoming, and kind-hearted community that I hope spreads throughout the entire cryptoverse.
That would truly be a win for humanity.
Wow. That was an incredibly deep dive and we would like to thank Illpo once more for his time in sharing some of his thoughts and experiences with the Community.
If you would like to do an interview or would like to suggest someone to be interviewed please fill in this form: https://tally.so/r/nGxLGj
In the meantime, to find out more about PoolTogether and how to deposit, please visit: https://pooltogether.com/ and please join our weekly Discord Community Call every Friday at 1.45pm EST on the PoolTogether Stage Channel: https://pooltogether.com/discord