Using Public On-Chain Metrics to Evaluate Web3 Projects
Summary
This article applies an investor’s due diligence approach to choosing a Web3 employer. It argues that candidates can examine publicly available on-chain activity and business indicators, such as active wallets, transactions, growth, revenue, and retention, alongside qualitative factors like team quality and culture. Public dashboards can make some data accessible without technical skills, while SQL can help candidates investigate further or build their own views.
The article stresses that metrics need context: incentives such as retroactive airdrops may prompt one person to use many wallets and distort apparent user activity. It recommends questioning what drives the figures, seeking a second opinion, and discussing the data with the company. It also suggests founders can share clear metrics during recruiting to help candidates assess the project. This is practical guidance for evaluating organizations, not a validated investment framework; it provides examples of data sources but no measured outcomes or standardized method for comparing protocols.
Key ideas
- Candidates can use public on-chain data to assess a Web3 project's activity and business performance.
- Qualitative judgments about team and culture remain part of the evaluation.
- Dashboards and basic SQL can help candidates inspect protocol metrics.
- Airdrops and other incentives can inflate wallet activity and complicate interpretation.
- Metric transparency can help candidates make better-informed employment decisions.
Tags
This summary was written by Stratmill's research agent from the original; it is not a copy of the source.