Vitalik’s Evaluation of the Chaos in the Meme Coin Market: Respecting Meme Coin Hype While Awaiting the Emergence of Higher-Quality Projects
Vitalik Buterin, the founder of Ethereum, recently wrote an article commenting on the proliferation of memecoins. He expressed his respect for the hype surrounding memecoins and his hope to witness the emergence of higher quality projects. He also believed that the combination of memecoins with charity and blockchain gaming is a feasible approach.
“What else could memecoins be?”
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Memecoins are wreaking havoc in the crypto space
Memecoins linked to charity
Memecoins combined with blockchain gaming
Vitalik: Respecting the hype around memecoins while hoping for higher quality projects
Memecoins are wreaking havoc in the crypto space
Vitalik pointed out that Dogecoin has been in existence for many years and performed well in 2020. However, memecoins have made no progress other than speculation and a series of Solana memecoins have even ventured into areas such as racism and gender discrimination, bringing no value whatsoever.
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As a long-time builder and advocate in the crypto space, how should one approach the issue of memecoin proliferation?
Vitalik suggested one approach is to dismiss it with disdain and show how much one despises and opposes such foolish behavior. However, he also raised another question: “If people value the aspect of ‘fun or not’, it seems that financial game theory is capable of achieving both speculation and fun. Can memecoins have a more positive version of the overall concept?”
Memecoins linked to charity
Vitalik has encountered several interesting charity tokens. A token called “GiveWell Inu” donated all its proceeds to the U.S. non-profit organization GiveWell a year and a half ago. For the past two years, a memecoin named “Fable of the Dragon Tyrant” has supported cultural projects related to anti-aging research.
However, these two projects did not last long and were far from perfect. GiveWell Inu seems to have no developers maintaining it, and Fable of the Dragon Tyrant has some very troublesome core community members, which Vitalik prefers not to mention.
In addition, there have been memecoins deliberately sent to Vitalik’s wallet to gain popularity, but he has always transferred the tokens directly to the foundation. Later on, it seems that a good relationship was established between the memecoin project Dogelon Mars (ELON) and the foundation.
Vitalik said:
“Charity memecoins feel like a good opportunity that no one is competing for, where one can try to create something more positive and long-lasting. But I think there will still be some limitations even if we do that.”
(Dogecoin frenzy ends! Vitalik donates a large amount of Dogecoin series coins, unhappy with Ethereum’s speculation?)
Memecoins combined with blockchain gaming
Vitalik pointed out that combining memecoins with meaningful and fun games is also a viable approach. During his visits to low-income countries in Southeast Asia, he often heard about low-income families becoming prosperous due to the earnings from Axie Infinity.
Therefore, he believes that combining charity tokens with blockchain games is also possible, for example, game mechanics that allow players to participate in voting and decide which charities the funds should be allocated to after completing certain tasks.
Vitalik specifically mentioned that the development team he has the most confidence in and finds the most interesting is 0xPARC, which has successfully developed Dark Forest and FrogCrypto. The players play these games for fun rather than the desire to make money.
At the end of the article, Vitalik mentioned his personal moral principle:
“If you dislike a certain group of people or organization, you should also be willing to appreciate some people, things, or events that align with your values. I view the ‘hype culture’ in the cryptocurrency community in the same way. The idea of ‘all OOO are problematic’ might give oneself a sense of pleasure, but it pushes oneself into an echo chamber.”
He respects everyone and believes that as cryptocurrency evolves with the mainstream, it will gradually change, which is not a bad thing. He hopes to see more high-quality and interesting projects in the future that can make positive contributions to the ecology and the world, rather than just focusing on “attracting users”.
At the very least, there should be more good memecoins than bad ones. Ideally, they should support public goods rather than benefiting only internal members and token issuers. If they can further integrate with games and allow participants to enjoy the process more, that would be even better.
Vitalik
Vitalik Buterin
memecoins
blockchain gaming
Further reading:
Bitcoin ETF sees three consecutive days of net inflows, BTC returns to $70,000, memecoins generally decline
Majidage’s luck runs out, coin creation is explosive, will he issue coins for his beloved dog?
