Those teenagers in the crypto wave

Source: Rhythm BlockBeats

A project called The RandomDAO, developed by a 12-year-old elementary school student, has inexplicably swept through the cryptocurrency world.

This project was initially just an attempt during the learning process, a milestone achievement in his personal study of smart contract programming. Its functionality is quite simple; every wallet address can claim an RND token airdrop. Currently, this project has been rapidly rising for several consecutive days.

On March 10, Huang Zheng announced on Twitter that the RND airdrop had ended and claims were completed. As of today, the total market capitalization of RND is approximately $32 million.

The Legendary 12-Year-Old with "6 Years of Experience"

This young developer has not stopped at development; he has even become a teacher. Recently, a set of smart contract teaching videos circulated online. The author of the videos is none other than the currently popular founder of The RandomDAO—Huang Zheng. He is a 12-year-old smart contract developer currently in the sixth grade, claiming to have been learning programming for six years.

The tutorial is still being updated and has now reached its ninth session. Even more astonishing is that this emerging developer has also created a bilingual version, recording tutorials in both Chinese and English.

In the video, Huang Zheng deploys a smart contract on the Ethereum chain. This course is based on the entire process of deploying this smart contract. The course will detail the creation, deployment, testing, airdrop, and mining of smart contracts. It is hoped that everyone can learn how to create a smart contract from this course.

("I have been learning programming for 6 years")

As a result of Huang Zheng himself, he ultimately deployed a project called The RandomDao, which is the origin of the recently popular RND project.

Rumors suggest that Huang Zheng's father is the founder of a trading platform. Although this rumor cannot be verified, it is reasonable to speculate that someone so young has already come into contact with smart contracts. In today's increasingly common environment of "tiger parents," learning children's programming, mathematical thinking, and phonics can no longer differentiate them from their peers; blockchain development has become an alternative, niche, yet interesting choice.

As many crypto developers transition from traditional internet backgrounds, a 12-year-old "native" developer naturally sparks endless imagination in the market and astonishes people: the youthfulness of the crypto world is more intense than we imagined.

In the crypto world, the rise of the "new wave" is not surprising; the vigorous growth of the new wave is simply the norm in the crypto field.

The 12-Year-Old Crypto KOL with "5 Years in Crypto"

"I am only 12 years old, but I know a lot about the crypto field."

This is how the Twitter user Bitcoinboyizzy introduced himself, and according to his own description, he is only 12 years old this year. For seasoned investors who have weathered the market, this may seem a bit unbelievable. In fact, the new wave is indeed stepping into this field at a pace beyond our imagination.

Not long ago, Bitcoinboyizzy initiated a space discussion on Twitter, the theme of which was equally shocking—"Talking about cryptocurrency with kids aged 12, 15, and 19." The most eye-catching aspect of this space was that both the initiator and the main guests were teenagers.

Twitter user "CryptoCoinKid" was also one of the guests in this discussion; "CryptoCoinKid" is the real name Kamea Lafontaine. Like Bitcoinboyizzy, he is also very young—only 12 years old. Even more exaggerated is that Kamea's Twitter bio states that he began entering the crypto field as early as 2017. If this resume is true, it may surpass most adult investors in the market.

Kamea is not only a Twitter KOL but also a YouTube blogger and PodCast host. In fact, his Twitter has even been followed by the official Huobi account. Browsing his YouTube channel reveals that most of his content revolves around the crypto field: "How Children Can Buy Bitcoin?", "What is NFT?", "What is Stablecoin?", "DeFi for Beginners"…

(The young blogger skillfully introduces what DeFi is to the audience)

Young people in the crypto world are increasingly exploring the crypto field. For them, traditional finance and capital markets may seem too distant, but dApps and tokens are within reach. Although these new wave creators and developers may still seem a bit immature now, "permissionless" and "decentralization" are profoundly changing a generation's perception.

In the world of traditional internet, 985 and 211 have become the starting points for entering major companies as developers. Without years of rich experience, it is almost impossible to participate in the core development of a product. Impressive resumes and backgrounds have become the threshold for entering the developer world. The increasingly "inwardly competitive" internet workplace makes "becoming a developer" even more difficult than "developing" itself.

Crypto Teams with "Average Age Under 20"

In the crypto world, permissionless and decentralized development methods have made young teams the norm in the industry. Renowned first-tier venture capital firms have even hired a high school student.

In mid-February, the well-known crypto venture capital firm Paradigm announced that an anonymous developer named Transmissions had joined Paradigm as a research engineer. As an anonymous developer, there is not much personal information about him online, but Paradigm's public information states that this person will complete his high school studies in California during his spare time.

(Image source: Paradigm)

The youthfulness of the entire team is not unprecedented.

Earlier this year, a candid photo quickly circulated in the community. The image shows several teenagers playing games in a room, just as naturally as most boys do at gatherings. What surprised people was that the scene depicted in the photo was actually a candid shot of Rari Capital's office. Rari Capital is a DeFi product for long-tail asset lending, and its biggest difference from other DeFi projects is probably the age of its founding team.

In Rari Capital's office, the average age of the team is under 20, with the youngest member, Ben Mayer, only 14 years old.

Rari Capital was co-founded by 18-year-old Jai Bhavnani, 19-year-old Jack Lipstone, and 19-year-old David Lucid.

Although their ages are far from most investors, their professional experience is not as immature as their age suggests. The two founders, Jack and Jai, had already developed a DeFi wallet application called Ambo while they were still classmates in high school, and later the project was sold to MyCrypto.

Subsequently, Jack and Jai invited David Lucid to join them to co-found Rari Capital. The 19-year-old David Lucid is also not a newcomer to crypto; he previously founded a DEX platform. As the project grew, they successively hired 14-year-old Ben Mayer, 17-year-old Justin Yu, and 19-year-old Richter Brzeski.

Currently, Rari's governance token RGT has a market capitalization of approximately $160 million. At its historical peak, the market cap once exceeded $500 million.

In 2011, the newly born magazine "Bitcoin Weekly" struggled with a lack of content sources. A 17-year-old boy took on the role of a writer for the magazine to earn 5 BTC per article (which was only worth a few dozen dollars at the time), tirelessly introducing and promoting the young cryptocurrency to the world.

This young Russian boy was named Vitalik Buterin, who would later be given a nickname we are more familiar with in the Chinese internet—V God.

The story of V God and Ethereum needs no elaboration; this younger crypto has long held the second-largest market cap after Bitcoin. The first practical use of smart contracts on the chain has made Ethereum the undisputed king of public chains, and this innovation has profoundly changed the narrative and history of crypto.

Let’s return to the original point of the story: Was it that magazine that inspired countless people? No, that was not the beginning.

In 1998, 4-year-old Buterin received a computer from his father, which became his enlightening object. Buterin became obsessed with programming, and at the age of 4, he began his programming journey. By 12, he could write simple games in C++ for himself. At 18, he won a bronze medal in the Olympiad in Informatics.

At 17, V God encountered Bitcoin, and by then, it had been 5 years since he first wrote a C++ program.

At the end of 2013, two years after becoming acquainted with Bitcoin, Vitalik Buterin published the first version of the Ethereum white paper, at the age of just 19. The subsequent story needs no further elaboration, as it has become well-known in the industry.

A person who touched a computer at the age of 4 was still miles away from designing Ethereum. But what we know is that without that computer received at age 4, none of this might have started.

Since Web3 is young, why can't the builders of Web3 also be young?