Behind the Charts is a blog post series about MetricsDAO’s analyst community. It serves as a way to get to know and feature some of the best analysts in the crypto space. As we seek to empower protocols and organizations in the crypto space, it is important to empower on-chain analysts as well and highlight their skills and talents.

In this edition, we speak to Adria Parcerisas, a blockchain analyst with extensive experience in doing analytics bounties with over 300 under his belt. He shares details about his background, how he got started in crypto, and his goals in the space. Make sure to read through the whole thing as he shares some best practices on getting started with on-chain analytics.

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rplust - interviewer (RT): Hi Adria! Thank you for agreeing to be interviewed and featured on MetricsDAO’s series of Analyst Interviews. Can you start by telling us a bit about yourself?

Adria Parcerisas (AP): Hi! I am a Biomedical Engineer with a PhD Machine Learning (ML) and Artificial Intelligence (AI), taking on technical projects for data analysis and research.

As a cryptocurrency fan, I also have experience as a blockchain technology and cryptocurrency analyst, crypto community manager, and analytics bounty manager.

To be more detailed, my career is mostly based on the medical field, specifically in bioengineering. In fact, I have a MSc in Smart Healthcare and a PhD in ML. In parallel, I have been analyzing the cryptocurrency market for more than 5 years. My main hobby now is doing comprehensive reviews of different crypto projects that come out to the market in order to analyze their impact.

RT: See I already knew you were a “big brain” with all the analysis you’ve been putting out but your background just really screams “big brain”. Could you tell us more about how you got into the crypto space?

AP: A few months ago I discovered Flipside Crypto. From there, I started to work on on-chain data analysis. So far, I have written more than 300 articles related to different cryptocurrency aspects, metrics and assets not only through Flipside bounties but also MetricsDAO ones, where I have won more than 30 grand prizes.

Currently, I am a freelance data analyst contributing to several communities like Flipside Crypto, MetricsDAO, and Uniswap Grants. I’m also a reviewer at Flipside Crypto and MetricsDAO as well.

Thanks to these communities, I not only have gained some income through the bounties but more importantly, I have learnt a lot in terms of programming and analyzing the web3 space.

RT: Over 300 articles and 30 grand prizes from bounties? I think this is starting to become more than a hobby for you. What is it about crypto that interests you the most?

AP: My real interest is in the technology itself. I think that one of the most promising things that cryptocurrency brought to the world are the blockchain itself and smart contracts. Analyzing the projects available on Flipside Crypto and MetricsDAO gave me a unique perspective regarding on-chain data and about the important benefits these technologies bring.

RT: Speaking of on-chain data, what is your approach to on-chain analytics when you’re looking to dive into a protocol or tackling a bounty? Any best practices you can share?

AP: After doing more than 300 different bounties, my approach has changed quite a lot. However, I think I have found an optimal approach that works for me.

• First, I think what an analyst should have in mind is to know what he or she is going to analyze. Prior to the analysis, we need to soak up information about the particular project. Obviously, each bounty will require different information, but the idea is to know how to find this information and see how to best approach it. After doing several bounties on the same project, we may be able to skip this part.
• The next step is to look for the necessary information regarding the smart contracts or the functions that we must take into account within each chain. This is so that we can carry out the analysis code in a more intuitive way.
• The third step is to start with the material and explore the database we have at our disposal. In my case, as I use Flipside Crypto, I take into account its schemas. Once we know which table to get the data from, the first thing to do is to get some examples of the variables that are available in the database and which ones are useful for the analysis. Then, we will have to filter the results according to what is demanded by the bounty.
• Once we get the expected and solved results, we can generate the plots and the graphical visualizations for the final result.
• Finally, we will need to create the dashboard where we will publish the final work. The idea is to add a brief introduction of what is being analyzed, as well as an explanation of the data obtained. The final icing on the cake is the key insights section at the end which summarizes the interesting findings for the reader.

RT: I really like the comprehensive step-by-step guide you gave. With this in mind, out of all the analyses and dashboards you have made, could you share what is your favorite?

AP: My favorite dashboard is this one which is around tagging addresses on THORChain.

It is about the different clusters of users present in the THORChain network based on their activities. It was a fun analysis for me because I used not only web3 data but also ML technology to solve it. Finding clusters was really interesting. The final result was promising as well because the main goal was achieved and a cluster of THORChain bot addresses was found.

RT: That’s really insightful. I’m sure the THORChain community got a lot of value from your work. Based on this analysis and your previous work, you are obviously an analyst with many skills. What do you consider to be your greatest skill as an on-chain analyst

AP: The skill that makes me different from other analysts is the ability to not only know how to program but to know how to apply ML and AI techniques to my data analysis. This gives me extra knowledge when analyzing certain datasets and as I mentioned earlier, I enjoy doing this kind of analysis.

RT: And what would you like to further improve on as an analyst?

AP: At the moment there are some functionalities within specific projects that escape me and I would like to be clear about them at some point. However, what interests me most in the short term as an analyst is to improve my SQL skills. During my career I used programming languages such as Python and Matlab, but not SQL. I have been learning during these past few months but I still have to learn a lot of techniques and skills to improve myself and get better results.

RT: Are there any plans in the near-term you’d like to share or goals you’d like to achieve?

AP: In the last few years, I have been dedicated to the biomedical engineering field. In parallel, I have been using my free time to learn about the world of cryptocurrencies, and in these last few months, my time has been geared towards on-chain analysis through MetricsDAO and Flipside Crypto.

Thanks to my personal growth and my improvement in analytical skills related to this, my immediate plan is to finally dedicate myself 100% to this. My goals for the end of the year are to take a step further into the crypto world and move crypto from being a hobby to being a core part of my day-to-day life.

Once I have taken the leap, I’ll continue improving my skills as an analyst and also start posting all my work on my Twitter account to get feedback and help people get into this world. I also intend to continue my blog on Medium where I already have about 1k followers. I think one of the best satisfactions as an analyst is to have your work read, respected, commented on and above all useful for the readers.

RT: I agree on what you said at the end about having the work of an analyst be respected and be useful for others. I’m definitely excited to see you dedicate yourself full time to the crypto space. Having someone like you will greatly benefit the community at large.

Thank you for taking the time to share some great insights about you and your work, Adria!

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If you want to learn more about Adria, be sure to reach out to him on Twitter and check out his Medium blog. Want to see his work? Check out the analysis showcase on the MetricsDAO website where you can find his top submissions as well as those of other analysts in the MetricsDAO community.

Stay tuned for the next edition of Behind the Charts!

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