PoolTogether, Zeta Markets and Crypto in Turkey
PoolTogether Community Interview #30 insidetrader
Hello,
Welcome to the latest edition of the PoolTogether Community Interview in these hot days. Hopefully you are able to enjoy some of the sunshine with your friends and family.
Today we have a special guest community member. You can also start to see the wide variety of people we have in our Community - from different countries, jobs, ages, technical capability, interests etc. All united with the passion for sharing, making the Community a better place and of course supporting PoolTogether in increasing financial health and education.
Tell us a bit about yourself. Describe yourself in a few words/facts:
Hey Poolers, my name is Eren and I’m using insidetrader as my nickname. I’m 22 and trying to help Turkish people find the most appropriate space to engage in the DeFi ecosystem, currently. In real life, I study at university but it’s neither related to tech nor to the blockchain.
But, it’s not an obstacle to finding the proper place you want to live! So, I decided to research first, and then contribute to the communities that I liked most. After the COVID-19 pandemic, I started to create written content for different networks and platforms. In such a way, I reached a blog with almost 1000 subs. Nowadays, I’m a PoolTogether contributor to engage with non-English speaking countries.
How long have you been into crypto?
Crypto asset knowledge is fairly new in Turkey. Most people have first heard the term ‘crypto’ after the 2017-18 period, and even some heard it through last year. Besides that, I’ve been in that space for about 5 years. I remember some of my friends talking about Bitcoin itself back in 2016, but in that period, I can’t find enough to research the tech behind it & ape into it.
It was 2017 when I first purchased Bitcoin. Good old times that we can execute multiple transactions with less than a dollar even in the most congested period of the Ethereum network…
Please tell us more about Turkey and cryptocurrency investing. What is the uptake in the country especially with inflation as high as 80%?
I remember some researches that tell us over 20%, 30% of the population in Turkey have cryptocurrency. It's hard to believe because even one-third of all people should know the basic terminology about Bitcoin, blockchain, or the tech behind it. Probably, one of the most accurate estimations is around 3% and constitutes the highest value within the Middle Eastern countries as you may see from the picture below.
Crypto's invention was due to overcoming the third parties including banks from P2P exchanges. You could say in some parts of the world, this idea is getting more and more popular, so people continue to grab more crypto assets. But in Turkey, the situation is quite different. People see the crypto space as another investment area. As you can check from the survey here, nearly 70% of crypto owners are in the space because crypto is an investment.
And as a result, more than 90% of people hold their bags within the exchanges. In my opinion, holding the vast majority of the portfolio within an exchange is a big mistake & I prefer to withdraw them to my wallet. Shortly, the crypto term and how people look at it can be summarized like that.
So, come to the point of living with high inflation. Firstly, I have to say that there is no escape from inflation, at the moment. Especially last year, all the possible investment options failed to reach more PnL compared to inflation. Even if the US dollar inflation is over 8%, there are no other options to save hard-earned money into cryptos.
At this point, people tend to hold stables mostly on exchanges to benefit from the high APY/APR ratios. After LUNA/UST crash in May, these option seems to be riskier than ever. In short, with high inflation, it's complicated to save money in any kind of currency but remember crisis moments are always for future investments. I'm still optimistic about the future of my country & searching for futuristic opportunities.
Do you want to tell us about the main lessons you have learned since then?
I have to say that research is a ‘must’ in the cryptosphere. Nobody can ever build a strong portfolio and/or knowledge just by looking at the price actions. So, the first lesson I’ve learned is to never forget to search! 5 years is quite a long time for me, actually. It made me lots of mistakes in addition to great moves.
The second thing I must say is never think/say ‘’I’m good enough’’. Please remember that there’s always a person who helps you to improve yourself. Communicate with anyone around you in any way, so you can understand your needs plus may find a way how to improve yourselves. The last major thing I learned so far is to never feel neither so-called euphoric nor depressed about the price actions. I came through the bear market of 2018 and saw the bull market of the post-pandemic period. So, please make sure that you’ll find a spot to make a profit anytime.
What was your best crypto moment?
After DeFi platform token issuance, some protocols started to drop their governance tokens to previous users as many knows. I had qualified none of them so far but I see these airdrops possible way to find new customers/users to the newly emerging DeFi ecosystem.
As I said in the first question, I have a blog about 1k subs. It’s not a personal website, rather than it’s a user account on the Publish0x website. It’s a place where any reader/writer can tip anyone with ERC20 tokens. I got tips accounting 40-50$, but I got qualified to receive Ampleforth’s governance token, $FORTH. At the time of the airdrop, its value was equal to 3 ETH. That airdrop is my best moment in 5 years of presence.
And your biggest fail?
There are tons of ways to scam people, especially in that space and for most beginners. As a beginner, I got scammed back in 2018! The value was not too big for that time, but when you consider the bullish moves last year, I regret it much. So, I again say that research comes first!
How did you find out about PoolTogether?
After I had a blog with a significant amount of subscribers, I was writing mostly in English. Until early 2021, I didn’t even think to translate documents into Turkish & prefer to create specific articles. After 2021, I changed my mind a bit and started translating articles from English to Turkish and vice versa.
By doing so, I first found Index Coop. I was a contributor to Index Coop as a Bronze Owl for 1 year until 2022. In one of their podcasts, I first heard about PoolTogether. So, basically one DeFi let me find another :D
What made you stick around?
After my initial research, I want to give it a try. Then, I realized that PoolTogether doesn’t want to stay only within the Ethereum ecosystem. They were trying to expand into Avalanche & Polygon these days. It changed my mind from staying quietly to contributing as a Translatooor.
So, I’m here in front of you Poolers. I realize my decision is correct nowadays because PoolTogether is at the edge of launching the protocol on the Optimism chain. And in my opinion, this won’t be the last step!
How are you involved in the community? Tell us about it.
The main communication system works through Discord servers for most of the DeFi platforms. As you all know, we’ve Community Call & Swim meetings. I decided to stay around the pool after one or two calls. Then, I started to find somewhere to show my skills and maybe find someone to lead me. The first thing ever I joined a Discord group is looking for a content/marketing team. And I’m lucky that PoolTogether has one. It’s a great place to start!
Then, I checked for the local server of PoolTogether. It was absolutely silent. I don’t claim that the Turkish channel is the most active one but at least I’m sure that we may now have some awareness. For now, I’m translating Community Newsletters, Interviews, and Podcasts. I must say that I enjoyed what neken achieved with the marketing team. He’s a Community Advocate now, and probably inspiring many local translatooooors within and without the PoolTogether server.
Would you recommend PoolTogether to others? How would you describe it to them?
In Turkey, some people prefer to make mattress savings. It’s quite reasonable and also understandable when you account for the current situation in my country. Many banks trying to convince them by offering different productive ways. But, the results are not the best in my opinion. People have yet to change their minds, completely. I recommend PoolTogether for that kind of people mostly.
They are the ones that have stable assets within their bags, and this is your chance to join the raffle by simply putting them into on-chain status. Besides anything, I like PoolTogether’s slogan very much: ‘No-Loss Prizes’. It seems suspicious at first but after some research, it’s valid! But don’t trust anyone, verify it by yourselves. The slogan let me explain the protocol to others. Easy to remember and transmit.
Are you involved in any other projects or communities?
As I said previously, I was a Bronze Owl in the coop. But after 2022, they changed the methodology of being a regular contributor afaik. So, not sure that this role has any power/say in the community. On the other hand, I’m not limited to the Ethereum chain. I’m currently an Ambassador of Zeta Markets. It’s a decentralized options platform that lets you give the opportunity to buy and sell call and put options on the Solana chain. I’m always open to offers, btw :)
Tell us more about Zeta Markets. What does it do and how can new users get involved? What are the risks and dangers involved with this?
Zeta Markets is a decentralized options trading platform. You have the right to buy and/or sell the call options according to your mind on-chain. Zeta is built on the Solana blockchain and $SOL options are the only tool for options right now. But this week, we see $BTC options are being tested on the Devnet, and the third option will be $ETH.
For a spot trader with zero knowledge of how derivatives work, it may be quite complicated to start trading on options. But if you are an expert on derivatives, options trading is a good tool to hedge your portfolio, especially in the period of a bear market. There are no beta phases/testnets at the moment for Zeta. You simply deposit USDC into the platform, put orders according to your opinion, and wait for the options' expiry date.
The common problem related to Zeta is the impermanent halts of the Solana chain. When the chain is stopped, there is no action to cancel orders/open new positions or close the existing ones. We see $100K PnL in one single day on the 11th of July while the total Open Interest is below 60,000 $SOL. That's a huge gain compared to platform volume. So, you can make money anywhere on the DeFi but always consider the possible risks & DYOR.
What do you see happening in the next 5 years within the crypto world based on your experience so far?
From the view of a trader, I expect to see another upside move from Bitcoin and all the other cryptos after each halving. The history of Bitcoin has repeated itself, and this is my point of view: It will repeat again. On the other hand, I expect to see decisions with a lower risk appetite.
As you all know, someday one guy may start a war at your border. There is no escape other than fighting. This will affect the whole monetary system and leads to the rise of protocols with lower risks and sustainable APYs. Don't forget, it will be a great opportunity for PoolTogether.
What kind of research does one need to do to really start to understand a project?
There is a sentence I like much: If you want to learn something, you must search for it until you can teach it to someone else. So, I search until I feel like I can answer all the questions I may face during a conversation with my friends or family members.
Starting from whitepaper reading, even checking the Linkedin profile of the founders may be helpful. So, just start somewhere and it will continue anyway!
Do you have any other thoughts and comments you would like to make?
I want to thank Tjark for being a leader by creating the weekly newsletters and distributing it; Neken for being an inspiring example for others, and to SmartInvestor for inviting me for an interview. Always stay around the pool guys. Thanks for reading!
We hope you have enjoyed this very detailed interview with some superb insights.
Please remember to visit PoolTogether.com to learn more about the protocol and to deposit. We also have the Pooltogether Community Call every Friday at 1.45pm EST live on the PoolTogether Discord.