For years I lived around crypto, not inside it. I analyzed markets, wrote threads on trends, predicted “local bottoms” that weren’t so local, and explained to others why some product decisions were “obvious.” 📈
On paper, I knew the game: liquidity flows, narratives, tokenomics, user behavior. But there was one tiny problem - I didn’t write a single line of code. The products I commented on daily were basically black boxes to me.
I was that person who says:
“Dev work is simple here, just add this small feature.”
Spoiler: nothing about it is “just”.
When Theory Hits a Wall 🧱
At some point it became painfully clear: the market was maturing faster than I was.
- Wallets stopped being “just apps” and turned into complex key management systems.
- “Bridges” weren’t metaphors anymore, but real, fragile infrastructure.
- Stablecoins, payments, on/off-ramps - all of this required understanding how things are built, not just how they trade.
- I could explain a DeFi protocol to users, but I couldn’t:
- Read a simple smart contract without getting lost
- Estimate what’s hard vs trivial for the dev team
- Prototype even a small internal tool to automate my own work
That’s when you realize:
"Analytics without at least some hands-on technical skill is basically a very eloquent opinion."
My Very Unimpressive, But Honest First Steps 👨💻
My “entry into dev” wasn’t romantic. I opened a code editor, followed a tutorial, and got stuck on something that looked like the easiest example on earth.
My first achievements were laughably small:
- A tiny script that pulled BTC prices from an exchange API
- A basic dashboard that showed PnL in a less painful way than my spreadsheet
- Reading docs and actually understanding 60% instead of 10%
- But even this changed everything:
- Conversations with devs became concrete, not abstract
- Product ideas turned from “would be cool” into “this could be built like X with Y constraints”
- Roadmaps stopped being magic scrolls and turned into understandable plans
You don’t need to become a senior engineer. But in crypto, where everything is code-driven - infra, custody, payments, DeFi, wallets - staying non-technical forever is a self-imposed ceiling.
Why I Joined a Talent Program Instead of Just More Tutorials 🚀
Recently I discovered the WhiteBIT Global Talent Program, which launches in March. I spent literally 7 minutes registering and, in return, got a chance to spend 4 months inside a real product team.
Combining my crypto knowledge with actual development
Working on real tasks instead of purely theoretical pet projects
I’m sharing this because I honestly think it’s a great starting point for anyone who wants to stop being “just the person with hot takes about the market” and start building tools people actually use.
If you want to grow in this space - take a look at the info via the link.
Join and get a real chance at a job offer. Sometimes the difference between “I’d love to build something” and “I work in product/dev now” is exactly those 7 minutes you either spend on registration… or on scrolling X again 😉
Top comments (0)