Mastering Discord: Why Is It So Attractive to the Crypto Community?

Author: DADA, Editor: Menren

Twitter, Telegram, and Discord are the three essentials for cryptocurrency projects and communities, comparable in importance to what is referred to as "the two WeChat and one Douyin" (Weibo, WeChat, and Douyin) in China.

While domestic users are somewhat familiar with Twitter and Telegram, Discord is relatively unfamiliar. However, in the past year, as censorship on domestic social platforms has tightened and the popularity of NFTs and DAOs has surged, Discord has increasingly come into the spotlight. By the time you read this article, many may have already been navigating Discord for a while.

Yesterday, a screenshot from Discord founder Jason Citron's Twitter hinted that Discord might be testing a feature to link Ethereum addresses through Google plugins with MetaMask and WalletConnect (the two most commonly used digital wallets). This also reflects the growing influence of the crypto community within Discord.

Back to the point, for many domestic users, using Discord still has a certain threshold. The complex Servers (the term for each independent project’s created server in Discord, uniformly translated as "servers" here) have a very different functional distribution compared to traditional social media, often blurring the lines between projects and direct messages. There are several different ways to enter a channel, and the natural language barrier adds to the need for exploration.

However, once you cross this threshold, you will experience the power and convenience of Discord, as well as its important role as a social media platform in the cryptocurrency field. More importantly, if you are an investor, Discord is undoubtedly an essential tool for understanding project dynamics and engaging deeply with the community.
Without further ado, this article will guide you through getting started and mastering Discord.

1. What is Discord and how to use it?

Discord was founded in 2015, the peak year of gaming popularity. Many online games consume a lot of computer resources during operation, and games that rely on team combat modes require real-time communication to increase the chances of winning and enhance interaction. At that time, many real-time communication tools were competing for computer resources with games. So, since the game itself couldn't be changed, let's make communication less resource-intensive.

With this "original intention," and thanks to excellent product design, Discord quickly became a unicorn company valued at $15 billion, with over 150 million monthly active users in just a few years. Its services have expanded from video game support to various fields, from study groups to communities.

When chatting with overseas friends about their experiences using Discord, most express that they cannot do without Discord's real-time communication while gaming. Friends still in school often have their own Discord servers for classes, where they receive most of the information issued by teachers and schools. It sounds like Discord's popularity is comparable to QQ in China.

1. Getting Started with Discord
Like many other communication apps, Discord offers a free version for download on Windows and macOS. Portal: https://discord.com/download
For users who want to use it conveniently, it can also run in a browser. However, the desktop application has some advantages, including the ability to stream video to servers. There are also mobile versions available for iOS and Android for free download.
When registering, users can choose to use an email or phone number and set a password, just like most social software.

2. Choosing to Join a Server
Many users in cryptocurrency communities start using Discord to gain firsthand project information. At this point, you can directly click on the Discord link published by the project party to enter and complete the corresponding verification as required by each project.

If you want to explore other popular or related Discord servers, there is an option called Explore Public Servers at the bottom left of the main page, where Discord will recommend some popular servers based on popularity and themes.

3. Complete the "I am human" verification
Basically, anyone joining a server will be required to verify and read the project party's rules. Projects usually require users to click a small emoji, like ✅, in the Welcome channel to complete the verification.
A significant number of project parties also use bot verification methods to complete image classification tests via DM (direct message) before entering the server.

4. Find the Announcements channel
Compared to channels like Rules and FAQ, which can almost be skipped, the Announcements channel publishes the most important information updates from the project party, including new content releases, new roadmaps or the status of completed roadmaps, the latest project dynamics, and event previews.

BAYC has pinned the Announcements channel in the most important position

After the event preview is released, there will be specific channels to announce the details and gameplay of the event, and the remaining details will be discussed in the event channel.
Some NFT project channels may also create a Sneak-Peeks channel to occasionally release fresh NFT images to maintain community engagement.

5. Discover Events
Many players enter Discord because they saw airdrop or whitelist-related activities from other places like Twitter.
At this point, there are usually dedicated channels, such as Whitelist Rules and meme contests. Some special activities, like giveaways for following or retweeting, can be found in dedicated event channels.
Friends with decent English can try to follow the steps listed by the project party to complete the operations step by step. Many projects offer quite good benefits to early supporters of the community during their early promotions. Supporting is often very simple: just join Discord early and invite some friends.
Don’t worry about the language barrier; with the help of translation apps on your phone, completing most tasks isn't too difficult.

6. Try Chatting
Chatting—usually in the General or main chat channels—is where community members get to know each other, discuss projects, or spontaneously create more meaningful interactions.
Try chatting, and gradually you will find your presence in the community, which is also a unique identity recognition for community members or NFT holders that NFT projects provide. In this regard, NFTs have brought a new way of online virtual socializing, achieving a certain level of consensus through hobbies and collections.
Many people have become core members of the project party's community due to their active participation and interesting suggestions.
Additionally, many project parties have set up Chinese channels. Cryptocurrency is a global market, so many project parties set up multiple language channels to facilitate communication among community users who speak the same language.

7. Create Your Own Server
For users who want to experience Discord more deeply, creating your own server is the best way to understand Discord.
Click the green plus sign at the bottom left of the webpage to create a new server for free.

When creating a new server, there are options for personal servers and community/group servers.

After entering a name and completing the creation, you can manually add channels and sub-channels. Creators can categorize the information they want to convey in order of priority and can mix some emojis into the text and channels to create a youthful and lively atmosphere, making it pleasant and relaxed for newcomers entering the server.

Once some necessary parts are set up, you can click the Invite People option at the top left of the page to create a link and invite friends to your exclusive server.

Of course, if you want to learn to use more complex features, it is recommended to watch more Discord tutorials on YouTube.

After getting a preliminary understanding of how to use Discord, many people can't help but ask what qualities Discord possesses that make project parties rush to establish servers and build communities. In summary, it can be explained from the following aspects:

1. Customized Servers
Compared to Twitter, Telegram, or the WeChat and Weibo we are familiar with, Discord creators can set up channels with different functions within the server, supporting each unique need with a dedicated sub-channel. This distinguishes it from simply established chat groups, as many people create channels to address different needs.
For example, in Telegram, project parties often need to create multiple groups when establishing a group, such as one allowing community members to speak freely and another as a mute channel that only publishes official announcements. Different needs require the creation of different groups, which can be inconvenient for users to browse and use.

The channel customization feature in Discord provides creators and users with a multi-layered and centralized information space.
Taking the Bushidos NFT brought by a Coinbase product designer as an example, this project's server has customized about four main channels.

The first main channel, Info (Information) Updates, is where the team shares information with everyone, including rules set by the team and the most important Announcements channel, the roadmap, and the previously mentioned Sneak-Peeks for project progress.

The second main channel, FAQs, lists some common questions that many people may encounter and the answers left by the team regarding project inquiries.

The third main channel, Town Square, is where everyone says gm (good morning) and chats with community members.

The fourth main channel includes activities continuously launched by the project party, such as airdrops and Bushidos-themed contests. These activities often spark community interest, as completing tasks and earning NFT rewards is something many people enjoy.
These are all gradually improved and established by each project party based on their project's direction and interaction with the community.

2. Powerful Bot Features
The powerful bot features are one of the most important reasons project parties choose Discord to build communities.
Taking NFT project Discord servers as an example, those who are keen on grabbing whitelists daily are likely the most familiar with the rich bot settings in Discord.

Bots can recognize the first few users who enter Discord; if the mechanism is invitation-based, the bot can help you check how many real users you have successfully invited to the server by simply entering the /invite command in the Bot channel; the NFT sales status can be updated in real-time by the bot; your activity level in the server will also be rated by the bot, which can adjust the color of your name.

For many projects, the level of activity largely determines whether members have the opportunity to receive airdrops or whitelists.
In summary, these bots have successfully spawned many Discord plug-in services, helping Discord establish a more complete and functionally detailed service.

3. Classification of Community Members
In Discord, the left side of the page contains content and functional sections, while the member section on the right has the functionality to classify different types of members.

From top to bottom, we usually see founders, administrators, and some bots with different functions at the top. Below that, important members often appear; for instance, in BAYC, verified holders of BAYC appear in the section behind the administrators.

In the community, Chase, as a Club Officer, not only holds the officer identity but also has multiple identities displayed by the different colored tags in the BAYC server.

For a community, the level of activity and member management is an important issue. The member classification feature in Discord can effectively help project parties or server creators better motivate and manage users. At the same time, for users, it allows them to clearly see members of different levels or functions from the member list, facilitating effective communication.

4. Other Diverse Features and Settings
As mentioned earlier, Discord is powerful because, in addition to text chatting, it also has voice, video conferencing, and live streaming functions. Users can freely move between various voice rooms; they just need to enter the server and turn on their microphone to interact with those already in the voice room.

Generally, in addition to the official activity voice channels, project parties will also set up some public voice channels specifically for community members to use, and they will occasionally come in to interact with members.

Additionally, Discord offers emoji customization services, which can provide more emoji functionalities for younger Gen Z users who emphasize individuality or NFT projects that want to highlight their uniqueness. After all, the memes brought by emojis are also an interesting part of the interaction between community members and projects, as well as the dissemination of the crypto community.

In terms of interactivity with other websites, Discord generously integrates various sites, allowing easy connections with sites like YouTube.

2. Attention for Newbies!

For newcomers, a risk warning is also necessary. Like many social platforms, Discord is also filled with scams and fraud.
We can see that almost every project has a channel dedicated to scams and emphasizes that they will never DM (direct message) community members.

If you have ever joined some NFT project Discords, you must have experienced receiving many DMs, most of which are promotional or even fraudulent messages. This is one of the most troublesome aspects of Discord. Sometimes, the person DMing you may have the same name and avatar as the project party. If you accidentally click on a fraudulent website they send and connect your digital wallet, it can often lead to financial losses.

How to avoid such problems? Here’s a simple method: after entering each server, click on the project name, find Privacy Settings, turn off the DM option inside, and click Done. This way, strangers in the project will no longer be able to DM you.

3. Conclusion

We can understand Discord as a comprehensive social media platform that includes real-time communication, text, voice, video, live streaming, group functionalities, group differentiation, a rich bot assistance system, and integrates other websites like YouTube, meeting different needs from individuals to organizations to companies or projects.

Discord excellently interprets the value of a third space. Unlike many platforms that are unfriendly to ordinary users and whose system algorithms only reward influential or commercially valuable content, Discord places more emphasis on personal space. In Discord, people can freely meet, chat, and discuss topics of interest. Many examples also prove that the relationship between creators and participants often transforms into friendships and playful relationships.

This has some similarities with the DAO organizational structure popular in the crypto circle, where people enter specific servers and organizations due to common interests and hobbies, finding their place through interactions with others, creating new social structures and personalized adjustments to work through online to offline connections.

The tightening of domestic regulations and the increasing scrutiny of platforms may be an opportunity—a chance for us to better connect and engage with more people and projects around the world. This is also what excites people about cryptocurrency, blockchain, Web 3.0, and even the future metaverse.
So, shall we start learning to use Discord?