Today, I discussed the risks and safety of Web3 with people around me and came to an important conclusion: always maintain【reverse thinking】and【independent thinking】. Often, what you see is what others want you to see. Looking at announcements like the country's 2017 ban on ICOs, the 2013 joint meeting of thirteen departments, or crackdowns on virtual currencies in other years, how should we think in a reverse manner? On the surface, these announcements seem to be “for your own good” or “to prevent you from losing money,” which makes some sense and can indeed help many newcomers avoid losing money in the crypto space. But we need to think from a different perspective: why did the country issue these announcements? What problems did they solve? Are they really for our benefit? If they truly were for our good, they wouldn’t simultaneously promote rational consumption while heavily promoting credit cards, mortgages, and car loans. Here, if you want to transfer a large sum abroad, you must go through a bank, declare the purpose, and are limited by a fixed annual quota. But cryptocurrencies can bypass all of this. That’s why cryptocurrencies have been widely used to circumvent regulations, which naturally leads to announcements to prevent capital outflows and strengthen foreign exchange controls.

Whether before entering the space or after, many friends around me say that trading cryptocurrencies is illegal, or that using VPNs to access certain sites is illegal. Sometimes I feel sorry for them, thinking their minds are being restricted. I often wonder: if I were someone who just follows the crowd and parrots what others say, would I miss out on early dividends? If web crawlers can only crawl data allowed by websites, then what’s the point of having crawlers? When HR asks a candidate, “Have you used Google Chrome to search for things?” and the candidate replies, “Huh? I don’t use it. That’s illegal. Do you guys still use it? Then I won’t join your company,” it sums up: no matter what the matter is, whether it’s investing or daily life, think more about whether the other party benefits from what they’re doing for you. Why are they doing it?

From the root, think independently about issues. Returning to the risks of Web3, let’s look at history: (1) Ming Dynasty’s household registration system, passport system, and literary inquisition; (2) the Nationalist Party’s Gold Yuan notes; (3) family planning and mandatory vaccines during pandemics; (4) only opening Guangzhou’s Thirteen Hongs; (5) North Korea’s hereditary system. Also consider Uber, Alipay, Xuanzang’s Western journey, and the original accumulation of some entrepreneurs. Perhaps then you’ll understand: don’t just listen to what others say, but observe what they actually do.