How to Build a Personal DeFi Research Log
A lightweight template for separating source facts, observations and unresolved questions.
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A research log is not a diary. It is a record structured so that a future version of you, holding a different amount of money and a different opinion, can reconstruct why a decision was made. The value is entirely in what makes it reconstructable.
What to record for every position
The thesis in one sentence, written before you enter. If you cannot write it without referring to your entry price, you do not have a thesis yet. This one habit eliminates most emotional holding, because selling requires you to either defend the sentence or adopt a new one.
The evidence, with links, and what would falsify it. Two sources from different domains, and an explicit statement of the observation that would prove you wrong. The falsification condition is the part people skip and the part that makes the log useful later — without it you can reinterpret any outcome as consistent with what you believed.
The size of the position, as a fraction of what you can afford to lose. Write the denominator too. “5% of the portfolio” is meaningless in eighteen months; “5% of the amount I would be willing to lose entirely” stays meaningful.
What you did not do, and why. The positions you passed on are the ones that teach you the most. Recording that you declined a yield product because you could not identify who controls the withdrawal path prevents you from rediscovering the same doubt later in a worse market.
The two columns people forget
Where the money went, and where it came from. DeFi transfers frequently route through intermediaries you did not select. Recording the actual path, as the block explorer shows it, is what lets you reconcile your own balance later.
The state of your setup at the time. Which wallet, which chain, which contract addresses you were interacting with, which approvals were outstanding. Half of all “where did my tokens go” questions are answered by a note that says which address was connected that week.
How to keep it usable
Write in a format you can search — plain text or a spreadsheet, not screenshots or a notes app that changes its export format every two years. Keep one row or one block per decision rather than one per asset, because assets are revisited and decisions are not.
Date every entry with a local date, and do not rely on the timestamp a tool records for you: tools run in UTC, on other people’s clocks, and sometimes get imported in a batch that scrambles the order. The date you cared about is the one you wrote.
What a research log is not
It does not predict anything, and it does not make the reasoning better. Its only function is to make your past self auditable. If you find that you never look at it, the fix is usually to shorten it — a log you actually maintain beats a comprehensive one you abandoned in the third month.