We caught him! To bring more eyes to our upcoming Thesis study mint, we took the opportunity to talk to peer-reviewer of our study, Cardano_whale. We approached him in June this year, explained what we are creating, and asked if he would be willing to evaluate our work when it’s finished. He agreed to do it and he did it! The study is coming out on weekend of October 21st, and here's what he says about his experience with it, general reasons for being in Cardano space and active on twitter (X)
Without further ado, enjoy!
First of all, thank you for accepting to peer-review our study! It meant a lot for us, gave us another push forward and confirmation that what we are doing is a valuable thing. What was your first impression when you got the message from us asking you for that? What made you say “Yes”? Firstly I would say that my contribution was fairly minimal, just giving a read through all the way at the end and sharing some thoughts and comments where I felt things could be improved in a small way. So let's not overplay it. Having said that, I did this for two reasons really. Number one is, Cardano has added value to my life both literally and figuratively speaking, so I try to give back to the community in small ways here and there. Helping a novel effort such as this by spending a bit of time on it is a small thing for me, but if it proves to be useful to yourselves then that is time well spent. Secondly, I think the NFT scene is really novel yet fairly chaotic and not well understood, I think bringing some scientific rigour to it is definitely very useful. Getting your comments on our study was a highly anticipated moment for us! And again, when we got it, it was just another push in the forward direction. It was a pleasure acknowledging directions you suggested and it really felt like making the text better. Some of your opinions also helped us to look at things from a different angle. How did you find the study overall? Do you think such kind of research is needed/helpful in space? You went so much more in depth than I had imagined! I don't want to spoil any of the outcomes but some of the results were really quite interesting and gave me a better understanding of the groups actually active on a day to day basis in the NFT scene. NFTs are clearly becoming a staple in crypto, where the core has long moved on from basic NFT drops like SpaceBudz to full-fledged economically profitable projects like Whiskees or GGMC, comprehensive communities like Derp Birds and Claymates but even traditionally non-NFT projects like MELD, Taptools, Aneta or even Wingriders somehow integrating them into what they are building. So understanding more what drives the space is critical.
Was there any specific part/finding of the study which you found the most interesting? (you can reveal something :) )
One outcome that struck me was that founders of projects are apparently significantly more negative on the NFT space as a whole than the general public, and that they say to experience high levels of stress. I think I knew the second part but to see the people with the loudest voices are actually the most sombre about the near term made me pause. I think a lot of that also just comes down to the bear market and it will turn swiftly, they just experience the emotions all of us go through in a more exaggerated way.
What is your background and experience when it comes to science/scientific work?
I have a university background and written my fair share of theses back in the day, as well as in recent years contributed to scientific papers on quantitative financial topics.
We chose to contact you since we see you as one of the most positive persons in Cardano space, with high morale, objective and always promoting a calm, intelligent and forward looking narrative. Can you tell us a bit more about how you’ve become the twitter persona @cardano_whale? How did you decide to create that profile?
Back in the previous bear market, I was quiet, never had much desire to be active on social media. We had two Cardano telegram groups, a trading and a general one, and I was actively reading but not even contributing to both. Crypto started getting hyped obviously after the early 2020 crash and I started noticing that Cardano was facing increased pushback from big influencers, who were in my eyes teaming up with VCs to steamroll the entire thing.
On the social side Cardano was growing but I also felt it was lacking a loud and clear voice that could dispel false rumours and constant attacks and explain to people why Cardano had at VERY least a right to exist besides Terra Luna, etc... So I decided to do it.. thought I'd be off twitter after a few months again, but the account organically grew really fast, Cardano twitter is fertile ground for someone who wants to advocate it and speak up. Went from 1000 followers, to 10k and before I knew it I was passing another 10k threshold every other month. As they say, it took on a life of its own.
Since then I tried to leave a few times. One thing I especially dislike is drama for no reason, and you will never find me contributing to it if I can at all avoid it. So whenever that started rearing its head I was like "that's enough for now". What I unfortunately also realised is that me leaving in and of itself started causing drama, so I'm kind of destined to stay on twitter indefinitely, until i find a way to peacefully leave. In the mean time I'll just be sharing my thoughts on day to day basis and use the platform to boost people building on Cardano. I think in a few years I'd like to look back at this time as having contributed to some stability in the social sphere in the early days of Cardano and it's first real bull-bear-bull cycle.
Does your involvement in Web3 space take up a lot of your day? We’ve seen in the study that the majority of people spend less than 2 hours a day on things related to space. Would you say you fall in that timeframe too?
It probably does but I feel like I'm quite well able to manage my time. Probably have my phone in hand most of the day anyway which is the predicament most of us find ourselves in nowadays, but I'm definitely not actively staring at twitter 24/7. I find plenty time to focus on work, on my family and friends and other things I like to do. Crypto is a means to an end, not an end itself.
And in the end, one simple question. From 1 to 10 how bullish are you on Cardano? :)
Going to be very unscientific here and say 100.