Ryan Daniel Moran (Capitalism.com) recounts a personal experiment in decentralized finance: he allocated about $200,000 to DeFi protocols (depositing funds into Aave, bridging assets to Polygon via the Matic bridge, and participating in liquidity pools/farms) and experienced an approximate $100,000 paper loss when the market dropped and he suffered impermanent loss. He frames the loss as an intentional learning expense — a way to gain firsthand knowledge and an "educated opinion" — and argues that being willing to "suck" and make big mistakes is essential for entrepreneurs and investors to learn and improve.
Questions this video answers
Approximately $100,000.
About $200,000.
Aave.
The Matic bridge to Polygon (Polygon/Matic).
Impermanent loss from liquidity provision after the market dropped.
I am just willing to suck and lose and be stupid and be the ignorant person in the room until all of a sudden I have an educated opinion on something. And it's that mindset that most entrepreneurs are not willing to have when they start a business.
Last week, I lost approximately $100,000 trying to figure out decentralized finance. What? What the f. It was actually really fun. I know that sounds morbid and weird, but the truth is that I learn best by making mistakes. I know this about myself. I basically run into walls, say ow. And then run back into the wall and yell ow again. And then I run into it a third time, but I go, wait, maybe there's a door. That is how I learn best. I learn the fastest by making really, really big mistakes. And then I course correct. And I know this about myself, so I just jump into things and click buttons. And I know that I go in willing to lose a certain amount of money or sleep or time in order to learn something. Several weeks ago, maybe two months ago or so, I decided I didn't wanna be the old guy that had to ask my teenage daughter how to buy something on your phone, because those are my parents, right, Ryan? How do I upload on Facebook? Oh, my goodness. Please stop asking me questions. The only piece of technology that my mother has figured out is the email forward button. I don't wanna be that person. So I decided that I wanted to go down the defi rabbit hole and figure out things like impermanent loss and.
Taking the Matic bridge to convert into polygon. What? I had no idea what that meant. A few weeks ago, I took some money that I was willing to lose. It was about $200,000, and I decided to play with it inside of decentralized finance. And basically what I did was I put it into aave, which I didn't know existed a few weeks ago, borrowed against it, got some polygon bonuses, and then I figured out liquidity pools and farms, which again, I had no idea these things existed a few weeks ago. And then the market came way down. And so I had something called impermanent loss, which is where the value of your cryptos goes down compared to other assets. I'm having a blast with it. And I've had some really deep anxiety of like, what have I done? Why did I try to figure this stuff out? But on the other side of it, I got a master's degree, a crappy master's degree in understanding crypto a little bit more and understand understanding decentralized finance a little Bit better. Now, I'm still somewhat of a novice compared to a lot of a lot of other people. But I now feel like I'm in a position where I can at least have a conversation with people smarter than me. Whereas just a few weeks ago I had no idea what people were talking about one third of the time. Now here is the mindset behind this that you can take into business or investing or stocks or anything. I know that that hundred thousand dollar loss is temporary. That could come back when the price of crypto comes back up. It could also come back when I now have a more educated opinion about the next decision. And that next decision could make $200,000 or it could lose me another hundred grand, who knows? But I now have an education. I now have a filter through which to see better opportunities. And it's that willingness to suck at something that is one of the secrets of my success. I am just willing to suck and lose and be stupid and be the ignorant person in the room until all of a sudden I have an educated opinion on something. And it's that mindset that most entrepreneurs are not willing to have when they start a business. What if I lose money? What if a product fails? What if I get a bad review? What if I get sued? All of those things could happen and you come out the other side and you're just fine. I've bought businesses that lost me millions of dollars. I have bought stocks that lost hundreds of thousands of dollars. I have made lots of mistakes. And you know what? Life goes on. And some people see this and say, must be nice to be able to have 100 grand to lose. Do you know why I have 100 grand to lose? Because I was willing to suck until I was actually good at something. And right now I'm in the I suck part of understanding crypto and defi and bitcoin and all of these things. But I know for my own self that I learn best by sucking until I'm better at something. So I know that 100 grand is just temporary because I'll make better decisions, I'll make better investments and I'll be more educated on the other side of this. And I won't be the dad that has to ask his daughter what a bitcoin is made out of. And that's what's most important here. I'm Ryan Daniel Moran with capitalism.com and if you're not willing to suck at something, you can't get better at it. Thanks for watching this video. See you next time.
