Original Text Translation
Title: Deep Tide TechFlow
Host: The Defiant
Guest: Zion Thomas (aka Ansem), amateur boxer and well-known figure on Crypto Twitter (CT)
Podcast Source: The Defiant - DeFi, Web3 & NFT Insights
Original Title: Chatting with Ansem, AKA 'The Solana Guy'
Broadcast Date: May 28, 2024
Key Points Summary
Zion Thomas, also known as Ansem, is an amateur boxer and a well-known figure on Crypto Twitter (CT) for his insightful cryptocurrency market analysis. He is also building a project called Bullpen.
In this conversation, Ansem shared his journey into the crypto world, discussed his experience as a CT influencer, and the challenges faced by Solana. He reviewed Solana's ups and downs and its uniqueness. Ansem also revealed his favorite ecosystems and applications, provided advice, and briefly introduced his project Bullpen. Finally, he shared his future plans and some valuable Alpha.
Entering the Crypto Field
Before entering the crypto market, Ansem was a software engineer and a full-stack developer at Capital One. In 2016, Ansem recognized the importance of Bitcoin but did not immediately purchase it.
In 2017, after graduating from the Georgia Institute of Technology, Ansem became a software engineer and, influenced by a work mentor, started trading cryptocurrencies in his spare time.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, the market underwent drastic changes, but Ansem continued trading and performed well. In 2021, he decided to fully engage in cryptocurrency and has been primarily focused on it since then.
As Ansem became more active in the cryptocurrency field, he found himself enjoying trading more and more. Ansem stated that trading provided him with immediate feedback, whether in profit or loss, which fascinated him. This immediacy and continuity of trading contrasted with the fixed working hours and sense of achievement after completing a project.
Ansem previously served as the research director at TCG Crypto and now mainly works independently.
Crypto KOL
Ansem mentioned that his favorite moments are when people feel excited and make money by following his trades. He noted that some people would tell him they made a lot of money because of his advice, and some even became millionaires. They were very grateful, attributing him to changing their lives. Especially for those fans who have been following him for years, they witnessed Ansem's journey from receiving only a few likes when he started posting trade ideas in 2017 and 2018, to posting all trade logs and analysis weekly on a private page with only 100 people in 2020. These people saw Ansem's efforts and perseverance, which made him very proud and satisfied.
Ansem also shared the part he dislikes. He mentioned that now with nearly 400,000 followers, he inevitably encounters some people who are dissatisfied with him. Some are unhappy due to a loss in a trade, overcommitment, or misunderstanding his words, or simply because he is a prominent account. Dealing with these negative emotions and private messages is his least favorite part. However, Ansem believes that overall, the positive aspects far outweigh the negative ones.
Solana's Development Journey, Challenges, and Opportunities
Ansem first explained why he came to Istanbul. He stated that he came to Istanbul to attend the Slide Across Roads conference organized by Step Finance. This conference brought together developers, traders, community members, and those interested in cryptocurrency.
Ansem emphasized the importance of in-person events, especially in a highly online community, as these events help build closer connections.
He also mentioned that at last year's Breakpoint conference in Lisbon, his face-to-face interactions with founders and traders in the Solana ecosystem strengthened his confidence in Solana.
Ansem believes that future users will still be humans, not AI agents. He acknowledges that AI will be integrated into various aspects of our future, but he believes that humans will still be active on the blockchain.
Solana's Ups and Downs
Ansem pointed out that Solana's development speed and innovation set it apart among many L1 solutions. He believes that Solana's community building and rapid development pace are its greatest strengths.
He also mentioned that Solana and Ethereum have different focuses, with Solana aiming to be an integrated L1, while Ethereum relies more on L2 solutions.
Ansem also reviewed the significant impact of the FTX crash on Solana. Although this crash led to a sharp drop in Solana's price, he pointed out that it did not shake the confidence of developers and the community within the Solana ecosystem. While external perceptions were affected, those who truly believe in Solana still have faith in its long-term potential.
Solana's Uniqueness
Ansem believes that Solana's rapid development and strong community support are key factors in its success. He mentioned that Solana's establishment of a community in 2021 was one of its biggest milestones. Solana successfully attracted developers and built a strong online and offline community through means such as the community and NFTs. When the market conditions were unfavorable, it was the long-term belief of these community members that supported Solana.
Another important milestone is Solana's development speed. Although there was a period in 2022 when the Solana network was almost unusable, the team fixed a large number of issues within a few months. This rapid development and repair capability regained people's attention to Solana in 2023.
Ansem believes that Solana's uniqueness in the development community lies in its top-down development approach. The development team led by Anatoly adopted a strategy of "fast action, fast fix," which forward-thinking maximized Solana's hardware and software. He emphasized that Solana's goal is to become an integrated L1 blockchain, with execution, consensus, and settlement all taking place at the L1 layer, while Ethereum relies more on L2 solutions.
Ansem pointed out that early adopters of Solana were mostly active traders and developers after DeFi Summer. In 2021, the rise of NFTs attracted a large number of retail traders to trade on Solana, laying the foundation for Solana's success.
Ansem explained the reasons for the increase in Solana's trading volume. He believes that although Solana's price fluctuated between $15 and $30 for most of 2023, as demand exceeded supply and the price broke through $30, it attracted a lot of attention and trading volume. Airdrops of projects such as Bonk and Jupiter also contributed to increased trading activity.
OPOS
Ansem explained that "OPOS" stands for "Only Possible on Solana." This was a slogan proposed by the Solana market team in 2023, aiming to emphasize Solana's advantage over other blockchains (such as Ethereum) in handling high throughput applications.
Ansem pointed out that some applications require a large transaction throughput and can only run on Solana. For example, Ethereum can only process about 15 transactions per second, while Solana can handle higher transaction volumes. Therefore, any application requiring high transaction throughput can only be implemented on Solana. Additionally, users can conduct frequent small transactions at very low costs on Solana, which is not feasible during peak trading activity on Ethereum due to significantly increased on-chain transaction fees.
Ansem emphasized that Solana also excels in user experience compared to other blockchains. Its low-cost, high-speed transaction processing capability allows users to conveniently perform various operations, such as dollar-cost averaging small funds into meme coins. These all embody the concept of "OPOS," as such convenience and efficiency can only be achieved on Solana.
Trends in the Future Market
Ansem pointed out that Meme is currently very popular and has become an effective tool for attracting retail investors in this cycle, similar to NFTs in the previous cycle. Meme is easy to understand and leverages the long-standing meme culture on the internet, allowing novice investors to join communities by holding Meme and further explore other applications of cryptocurrency.
Ansem believes that AI will be very interesting in this cycle. With the launch of ChatGPT, many AI-related cryptocurrencies have quickly risen. He mentioned that decentralized computing applications and AI agents are two particularly noteworthy areas. AI agents can automatically trade and seek optimal returns on the blockchain, greatly simplifying user operations.
After the release of ChatGPT, a large amount of capital flowed into the AI field, but it is currently unclear where the maximum potential of the intersection between AI and blockchain lies. He believes that while there may not be clear opportunities for 100x growth at the moment, there will definitely be some AI and cryptocurrency projects reaching the billion-dollar level in the future. He mentioned some unreleased AI projects, such as Ritual and Gensyn, believing that these projects may have great prospects in the future.
About L2
ETH L2
Ansem pointed out that EVM L2 has been overhyped. He explained that if execution is pushed from the Ethereum main chain to these rollups to improve performance and speed, but EVM is still used, the core issues are not actually resolved. He is more optimistic about rollups exploring alternative virtual machine structures, such as Arbitrum's Stylus and Movement's Move VM.
In response to criticism of L2 from another founder, Ansem stated that he would not call them "garbage," but he does believe that L2 projects have received too much funding. He explained that this is because many people believe that Ethereum is the only L1, so they have invested heavily in L2 projects related to it.
Ansem believes that we will see fewer L2 solutions in the future. Although there are currently a large number of L2 solutions, only a few will ultimately become long-term winners. He mentioned that similar to the emergence of numerous L1 solutions after Solana's success, L2 will also go through a similar process. In the future, application-specific rollups may use some shared SDKs (software development kits).
He specifically mentioned Sovereign Labs because they provide an SDK that makes it easy to build high-performance rollups. Once this approach becomes popular, innovation in L2 will decrease, and developers will use existing SDKs.
BTC L2
Ansem also believes that Bitcoin ordinals have tremendous potential in the NFT space, as they are directly recorded in the Bitcoin block, providing strong traceability.
He is reserved about the prospects of Bitcoin L2 in DeFi and other applications, believing that these L2 solutions need to significantly improve user experience to truly be effective. If they are just another EVM (Ethereum Virtual Machine) L2, they may not generate much interest, as they need to demonstrate clear advantages in actual use to enhance user experience.
Favorite Ecosystems and Applications
Ansem explicitly stated that Solana is his favorite ecosystem.
His most frequently used application is Jupiter, an aggregation platform for trading. He also specifically mentioned Drip, an NFT platform where digital artists can release their works, and users can subscribe and obtain NFTs from their favorite artists. Drip has shown excellent user retention, as users frequently use the application without the need for speculation.
He also mentioned that Coinbase's L2 solution Base is his second favorite ecosystem. This is due to Coinbase's extensive influence in the U.S. market and its large user base (approximately 80 million users). Ansem believes that if Base can attract 10% of Coinbase users, a large number of users will start using on-chain applications. However, as an EVM rollup, Base cannot compete with Solana in terms of throughput and fees, and still needs improvement in technology.
Ansem believes that there will be many failures in both L1 and L2, and only a few will become winners. He mentioned that although they may be similar in technology, once an ecosystem successfully attracts enough developers and community members, it is difficult for other ecosystems to compete with it. As the blockchain industry is still in its early stages, it is difficult to determine the winners of the next 20 years.
Cryptocurrency Investment Advice
Ansem advises diversifying capital into several major ecosystems. He personally mainly invests in Solana and Base. He also mentioned some interesting applications on Base, such as Friend Tech and Farcaster, and believes that SocialFi has long-term development potential. He pointed out that influencers and content creators in Web2 have already proven their influence, and in the cryptocurrency field, due to the different allocation of capital, top creators may earn even higher returns than in Web2.
Ansem also gave the following advice to those who hope to follow in his footsteps in the cryptocurrency industry:
No need for qualifications: Ansem emphasized that in the cryptocurrency field, you do not need any specific qualifications or background. As long as you can prove your abilities in the public domain and show people your efforts, you can achieve success.
Maintain an open mindset: He pointed out that in the cryptocurrency industry, anything is possible. Regardless of your background, as long as you have the right mindset and persevere, you can achieve your goals.
Advice for becoming an excellent trader: Ansem suggested that those who want to become excellent traders need to actively study past market cycles, learn charts, and communicate with experienced traders, as well as understand the early stages of development in other industries. He emphasized that practice is the key to becoming an excellent trader, requiring a lot of practice, and you may lose money at the beginning.
Content creation and influence: Regarding content creation and influence, Ansem stated that he does not have specific advice because his success has been more natural. His experience shows that in the cryptocurrency industry, by demonstrating passion and effort, you can naturally attract attention and gain influence.
Bullpen
Ansem is the co-founder of Bullpen, a social trading platform. The platform aims to provide a place for cryptocurrency novices and experts to discover, learn, and trade in one location. Users can access market trends, trader discussions, and the latest news on the platform, while also being able to trade various cryptocurrencies with a single click.
Bullpen analyzes information from various Telegram groups using a large-scale language model (LLM) specifically designed for cryptocurrencies, extracting the most relevant content and market trends, and pushing this information to users. Users can trade directly on the platform while accessing information.
A key goal of Bullpen is to expand its user base. The more users there are, the more information the platform can collect and analyze, thereby providing higher-quality market insights and trading opportunities.
Ansem shared the motivation behind creating Bullpen, which stemmed from his years of experience in the cryptocurrency field and helping friends get started. He found that novices need a centralized platform to access information and trade, rather than switching between multiple platforms. Therefore, he hopes to provide users with a "one-stop" cryptocurrency trading and learning platform through Bullpen, enabling them to easily understand and participate in cryptocurrency trading, avoiding the cumbersome learning process and multi-platform operations.
Ansem believes that there will be more projects like Bullpen in the future to simplify cryptocurrency trading and user experience. He mentioned that some Telegram trading bots have already proven this demand, and these tools may attract millions of users in the coming years.
Ansem's Next Plans
When asked if he considers himself "successful," Ansem stated that he believes he is successful because he is doing what he loves and is no longer worried about market fluctuations. Regardless of how the market changes, he feels he is in a good position to engage in various interesting activities, including trading, angel investing, and founding companies. He emphasized that success for him means being able to freely choose and pursue different career paths in his favorite industry.
Ansem plans to continue participating in boxing matches and may also participate in racing events. He hopes to achieve more in these areas.
Ansem will be more active in angel investing, supporting founders who develop outstanding applications in the cryptocurrency field. Communicating with founders and helping them develop is currently one of his important tasks.
Bullpen remains one of his main projects. This social trading platform aims to simplify cryptocurrency trading and provide a centralized learning and trading platform for novices.
Ansem also plans to expand his media influence, especially by creating video content on platforms like YouTube and TikTok. He hopes to educate people through videos and help them enter the cryptocurrency world. He plans to create short educational videos covering various topics from setting up wallets to market dynamics, to help those who cannot follow cryptocurrency news full-time stay informed.
Ansem's Strategy
Ansem recommends allocating 70% of the investment portfolio to relatively safe assets, such as Solana, Coinbase stock, Bitcoin, and Prime. He stated that these assets are expected to perform well in the long term, and he enters these markets at the right time through dollar-cost averaging.
The remaining 30% is allocated to higher-risk investments, such as leveraged trading (perps), on-chain trading, small-cap coins, and Meme. He suggests reinvesting the profits from these high-risk investments into the safer investment portfolio to ensure long-term stable growth.
Ansem emphasizes using technical indicators on high time frames to determine when to enter or exit the market. He recommends using moving averages and other high-level signals to identify market tops and bottoms.
He recommended the book "Technical Analysis of the Financial Markets" by John Murphy, which provides the basics of technical analysis and helps understand market trends.
Final Words
Ansem encourages those interested to enter the cryptocurrency field, whether as developers, business developers, marketers, or traders, as there are opportunities suitable for everyone. He advises networking and understanding one's position and learning direction in this field.
He believes that now is the best time to focus on and invest in cryptocurrencies, as the market is recovering from the impact of events such as FTX and SBF, and people's attention and confidence in cryptocurrencies are rising. The approval of a Bitcoin spot ETF and the entry of funds from traditional financial institutions also signal the stability and growth potential of the cryptocurrency market.
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