If you’ve spent any amount of time online investigating bitcoin and related digital asset markets, you’ve probably heard the advice or term DYOR or Do Your Own Research. It’s a rallying cry used by many in the space and used as a blanket statement to throw new investors into the deep end and fend for themselves.Â
But telling someone to do research and expecting them to know where to begin or how to source information are two different things. The average user’s research behaviour normally revolves around a few Google searches leading them to the same old sources. They’re used to going to an official website, Wikipedia page, or Brand Social Media account or speaking directly with representatives of a company or asking questions on community message boards.
Since bitcoin doesn’t have a company that enforces brand guidelines, creates official courses or pushes our press releases to ensure that there is a single source of truth, bitcoin information remains scattered all over the internet. When researching a specific aspect of bitcoin, you might need to frequent
- Podcasts
- YouTube videos or other video-sharing sites like Bitcoin TV
- Online news sources
- Blogs
- Forums and message boards
- Social media feeds or specific bitcoin social media accounts
- Bitcoin books
- Bitcoin research papers
Despite the wealth of bitcoin content we have today; it’s still not easy for the average person to find it. Search engine results are dominated by big media publishers, and social media is dominated by those who know how to game the research of the algorithms. If the information isn’t riding one of those waves, it gets much harder to find and gets buried.
Very few of us are willing to scroll down to the 3rd or 4th page of search result pages to see what alternatives are provided; brands and publishers rely on this, which is why search results remain cluttered.
If you’re finding bitcoin research lacking with your current search engine options or you’re fed up with having to sift through too much noise before you find the signal, then perhaps finding a different information source is your next step.
The next step you research a bitcoin-related topic. You can try using a bitcoin-focused search engine like Bitcoin Search.
Try out bitcoin search.
If you’re ready to start your research journey and have a few pressing topics you want to dive deeper into, check out the URL below and enjoy falling down the research rabbit hole. You can use bitcoin search either as your primary research tool or to compare it against sources you’ve found through traditional search engines or social media.
It’s good practice to cross-reference relevant details from several reputable sources and get different opinions from technically inclined people. Bitcoin search can assist you in thorough research, which can help assess the validity and potential of a project, protocol, BIP or software.
Where does bitcoin search source its information?
Unlike traditional search engines that scrape all websites that are open to the “clearnet” and have not asked to be ignored by search engines like Google and Bing, bitcoin search curates and indexes information from select sources, namely:
- Bitcoin Talk Forum
- Bitcoin StackExchange
- Bitcoin dev mailing list
- Lightning dev mailing list
- BTC transcripts
- Bitcoin Optech
Submitting a new source
If you’re doing bitcoin research using Bitcoin Search and you find that there is a source you have come across that you think others would benefit from, you can submit it for consideration to their index.
- Underneath the search button is an option called “Add a source”.
- Once you click it, a window will pop up asking you for the URL to the resource you think should be considered for indexing.
- Paste the link into the bar.
- Click submit.
Question your sources, not only the content.
Should you be turning to me or any one person as a source of truth about bitcoin or for investment advice? Absolutely not, we’re all scammers, and we all have agendas. It’s the internet; for goodness sake, the barrier to creating a webpage is so darn low these days, anyone can do it, which is great that everyone has access and can share their opinions, but it does make it harder to find good sources of information.
More often than not, the search results you’re finding are not the best, but the best SEO optimised, while the articles getting viral appeal are not the best, they’re just the best at playing the algorithms. So be sure to take any resource you find yourself on with a pinch of salt and check it against results from other search engines or opinions from various message boards.
In honour of scammers everywhere.
Bitcoin is a dangerous place filled with misinformation, biased sources, shoddy research and investors trying to make a quick buck. The truth is everyone wants your bitcoin because it’s valuable, and acquiring them is hard.
You either need to work for it, mine or it or scam for it, even we ask for bitcoin donations, so consider us scamming people out of their sats too. Your stack will constantly be under threat, and people will tell you anything to get you to part with your bitcoin, so beware, even of those who seem to be on your side.Â
To give an idea of the scammer landscape you’ll find yourself in, which I found very helpful when I got into bitcoin, then I highly recommend you check out this piece, Everyone’s a Scammer, by Michael Goldstein.
Do you DYOR?
How do you conduct bitcoin research? Who do you turn to for advice on bitcoin? Where have you found the most valuable sources for bitcoin-related content?
Let us know in the comments down below.
