Raphael Thys
Part of Beeple’s EVERYDAYS: THE FIRST 5000 DAYS collection. Image: Beeple
I originally made this checklist for new designers joining Advanced Blockchain.
I’m a strong believer that we learn best by doing, rather than by reading, so I wanted to build a program where you actually try stuff using real money.
Some colleagues told me that I should publish this for a wider audience. So, here it is. This is how people in the crypto industry learn about DeFi in record time!
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We have a design fund at work, so that our designers can use ‘play’ money to try out different apps and study the user flows.
I would take the same approach. About $100 USD should do it. Consider this the price of admission and be prepared to burn through the lot. By the end of it, you’ll know how to do everything and can start making money properly.
note 1 — I originally built this list in Notion with checkboxes. Medium doesn’t let you do checkboxes, so if you want to work through this list, you might want to make a copy into Notion or Google docs and convert to checkboxes.
note 2 — Not all of this will make sense. That’s ok and intentional. Try to work through it anyway and figure out the answers. That’s how you learn. In a company, it’s easy to send a Slack message when you get stuck. If you’re doing this on your own, some reddit or telegram groups may be helpful.
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⛓️ Getting started with blockchains
- Install MetaMask
- Visit Chainlist and add these networks: Avalanche, FTM, BSC, Polygon, Arbitrum, Optimism, Moonriver. Over time you will add more.
- Get an exchange account at Binance or similar
- Get some Matic at an exchange and send to your metamask (via Polygon)
- Add another account to your MetaMask and name it Account 2 or something
- Send Matic back and forth between your accounts
- Get some FTM at an exchange and send it your Metamask (via Fantom)
- Get some BNB at an exchange and send it to your Metamask (via BSC)
- Note how you use the same address, regardless of the network. This is because they are all EVM networks.
- Look up what an EVM network is
📈DeFi Intro
- Go to Uniswap and swap a small amount of Matic for USDC
- Go to Quickswap.exchange and swap some other tokens
- Read about or watch a youtube vid on Uniswap, Maker, Aave, Compound, Yearn. These were the first major DeFi projects and it’s good to know a little history before you progress.
- Check out https://defillama.com/ and look at the DEXes
- Swap tokens on 10 different DEXes — pick any chain. Think about the different UI and UX. Are any of them copies of each other? What differences do you notice?
- [Add the Dexes you used here and write a short note about each. Try to use dexes on a variety of chains. Feel free to add new networks to your metamask and send new native tokens there. What do you notice about the different chains? Are speed or cost different?]
This will be a bit laborious, but we want to make it second nature to swap one token into another. It should feel very familiar to approve and swap tokens. You also want to get a sense of how DEXes operate and why they basically all look the same.
🦾 DeFi Advanced
- Lend and borrow at Aave
- Add liquidity to a liquidity pool on Quickswap
- Harvest rewards
- Auto-compound an LP at Beefy
- Auto-compound an LP at Autofarm
- Browse Autofarm to identify different platforms and add liquidity to LPs on three different platforms
- Use the Zap function on Beefy/Autofarm to add liquidity in one action
- Use Curve to add tokens to the triCrypto pool
- Bridge tokens using Multichain
- Use Connext to swap tokens across different blockchains
- Use two other bridges — use google to find different routes
- [Add a short note about your experience with each here]
- Check DefiLlama’s ‘Reserve Currency’ category. Bond tokens on at least three platforms.
🔴 Polkadot/Kusama
- Install polkadot.js
- Get Kusama
- Provide liquidity at Karuraswap
- Install Talisman
- Use Acala to make swaps and provide liquidity
🪐Cosmos Network
- Install Keplr
- Get Atom
- Visit Osmosis
- Swap some Atom -> Osmo
- Stake some Atom in the Keplr web app
- Vote on something using Keplr
- Add liquidity on Osmosis
- Bond it
- Use IBC to withdraw and deposit to three other networks (Juno, CRO, Secret etc)
🔮 L1 Alternatives (Solana, Cardano, Near, Algo etc)
- As above, so below… Install wallets, swap a token, add liquidity, farm it.
Part of Beeple’s EVERYDAYS: THE FIRST 5000 DAYS collection. Image: Beeple
By the time you’ve done all of this, you should have a pretty good grasp of how this giant thing called DeFi works.
You will also likely:
- find a preference for one particular chain
- realise that everybody copies everybody
- develop a deep-seated hatred for fees on Eth mainnet
- learn more about the blockchain trilemma…
- …and conclude that there are trade-offs for every network