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So why am I writing this? Well as most of you know, I launched $area a little over a month ago now and I have been thinking more deeply about memecoins/content creator coins/community tokens/etc for a bit. As a Nouner, I have also given it a ton of thought of what a Noun memecoin could look like and if the current set ups we have now fit the bill (since technically Nouns have 3 memecoins already). With that said, let's dive in!
As of the writing of this piece, this is where my brain is at. Maybe it is because I am a small time creator, maybe I suck at marketing. But to put it bluntly, this shit is hard. Attention in this space is hard to capture, keep consistently. For this reason, I do think a coin doesn't solve a lot unless you have something that constantly can drive attention or buying pressure. But for something like Nouns, I do think having a memetoken or supporting one outright makes sense as another source of income.
I don't know if I have seen an example of a memetoken fully replacing the income stream of a subscription model or pure revenue/profit model but it is a great way to bootstrap or getting some side income to whatever else you have going. At least that is how it has worked for me and from what I can see from the outside looking in. If you have examples where a token has fully solved all problems for a project after reading this, please let me know.
Two of the biggest projects in the space and there perspective launches are extremely revealing and share a ton of insight I think Nouns can learn from.
Pengu was the first of the two to drop and I think this launch went pretty smoothly looking back. Hype around this token was HIGH. Pudgy Penguins the NFT collection was trading at 29ETH right before the drop. Things have cooled off in this collection dropping and stabilizing to around 17.5ETH. Which is around a -40% loss in the collections value. BUT keep in mind the collection was trading at around 8ETH just less than 90 days ago, so overall still up. Now for the token, the token is sitting around the lowest it has ever gone from the early days. But it still is making around 40k txs in the last 24hrs and over 35M in volume. This to me is extremely bullish as the token is still commanding attention even with the release of a couple Trump and family tokens and it competing with AI tokens and more.
Animecoin from Azuki is the latest to drop. Azuki's on the lead up to there token got up to around 15ETH with things now stabilizing at around 4.25ETH for their main NFT collection. This is a -71% drop off in the collection. Longer term looking around 90 days ago, Azuki was trading around 5ETH so this is a bit under those times but not too far. All in all about where they started or pretty close to it. The token on the other hand, has around 3k txs in 24 hours and around 5.6M in volume in the same timeframe. From my perspective the buzz around anime coin is almost non existent on my timeline. Fighting for attention in this space is difficult.
I think the jury is still out on whether a coin can fully sustain or replace an income stream for a project. But we do have some examples of this working for some.
Some examples of where I see coins working (NFA). A web3 game, a game like Stokefire or frenpet seem like perfect avenues for tokens especially if the game itself leverages the token is either a burning mechanism or purchasing mechanism. Although, the big caveat for this is games are hard to build and also have their own complexities around capturing and keeping attention. But if a game like Fornite was built on top of a web3 token it would do well for a quite a bit of time to be honest. Only issue is building a game as big as Fortnite haha. But to take the example of Stokefire, which I am more acutely aware of due to the fact I sat down with Noah to chat, but keep in mind, I am not Noah so these are my assumptions, is that Noah needs to nail down making an attractive game. And if he can do that, the token itself should do fine as there will be constant attention to it based by the game.
Another example that comes to mind is $clanker, Proxy and team so far have been able to use the fees from their token launcher and partnerships to really commit to making token launches better, safer and accessible for all. With over 100m+ in revenue in the last 30 days, if clanker is able to even make a 1% dent the team will still come out ahead.
As mentioned in the beginning technically Nouns already has three (two active, 1 proposed) memetokens. As a Nouner I had to learn this the hard way when I learned about this. The three tokens are:
Nogs feels the most memetic of the three. As in, it is a straight currency with no onchain voting although right now you are able to do voting via snapshot. $nouns is a fractionalized/backed Nouns currency, which means you can convert your $nouns into an Noun and vice versa. $⌐◧-◧ is not out in the wild but wants to add additional onchain functionality around voting as well as being a backed noun reserve. Putting aside the fact there are three and this is what happens when dealing with a permisionless brand/group like Nouns; here are my thoughts as things become more and more tokenized.
We REALLY should pick one to be our token or deploy the one we truly want. Attention is hard, but currently there are not many income streams going into Nouns and one aspect I like about NOGS is that funds make their way to the treasury. Adding an additional revenue source to the project.
Having an ERC20 really opens up the ability for users to participate without having a full Noun. Which I know personally I would have gotten more involved sooner if this has existed for me or I was at least made aware of it.
For those thinking that this may devaluate the NFTs or main project, based on what we see from the two biggest launches is we either go up hard and back down but above current floor (Pengu) or we end up about the same as we are now (Azuki). But in the end, we now have not just 1401 Nouns (probably less when some own a bunch) we now have a couple thousand more folks involved in our ecosystem. An ecosystem that is not just about pumping bags but really making a difference in the world or at least voting for DUNA compliance officers lol.
Not tapping in seems like a lost opportunity to expand our ecosystem and world. And with rumors from the current administration of tax exempting trading of "US Coins" and with Nouns literally creating a DUNA in Wyoming, we could easily fit that bill. Let me know what you think?
Have a great rest of your week!
CIAHOAD-Rick James
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Gramajo
Back with a new roundup of great writing over the past few weeks!
@bethanymarz writes about the fear that holds many people back from publishing their thoughts online and encourages people to embrace the act of publishing, not just to overcome fear, but to preserve human insight in an era increasingly shaped by AI-generated content. So if you’ve been waiting, now’s the time. Go ahead, type something into that tiny text box today. Push ‘publish.’ https://hardmodefirst.xyz/getting-up-the-guts-to-type-text-into-tiny-text-boxes-on-the-internet
@dberenzon dives deep into how cryptonetworks are revolutionizing payments by eliminating intermediaries, reducing costs, and enabling real-time, global transactions. As Patrick Collison alluded to, cryptorails are superconductors for payments, forming the substrate of a parallel financial system that offers faster settlement times, reduced fees, and seamless cross-border transactions. https://paragraph.xyz/@archetype/cryptorails-superconductors-for-payments
@jabran argues that traditional legal systems cannot effectively regulate the web3 ecosystem, suggesting instead hybrid smart contracts, decentralized arbitration, and self-regulation as possible solutions for a more structured and enforceable web3 legal framework. "For web3 to mature and function as a legitimate ecosystem, the phrase ‘code is law’ must evolve beyond a mere slogan." https://paragraph.xyz/@jabranthelawyer/web3-law-is-a-lie
GM 👽 Some updates for you all: - Recently dropped a new article about how /nouns can learn a thing or two from the latest memecoin drops https://paragraph.xyz/@0xgramajo/the-tale-of-two-tokens - Shipped some pins and letters to hypersubs - Doing a liveshow with @rocketman on flows, will edit & ship as podcast episode/shorts later - First /solana episode coming before EOM, alfa join my TG and they relate to /futarchy - Deposited my 1st months sponsorship money to my hypersubs, go get your claim - Looking for an artist to collab with for 25th Episode @poapstudio - If youre in the Bay Area, going to do a very unique FC meet up so hit me up Have a great rest of your week
The Tale of Two Tokens. What two of the biggest memecoin launches can teach us about tokens and attention in the space.
@drgonzo can you read articles?
Exploring the future of Nouns in the realm of memecoins and community tokens, @gramajo.eth shares insights on coin sustainability as income sources and the lessons from project launches like Pengu and Azuki. Engaging ideas on how to capture attention in the crypto space await!
great insights @gramajo.eth but how did you publish this letter in the future?
If you buy 1M $Nouns then steak them at nounswap.wtf/steak and vote for a Duna compliance officer you too can get access to the Nouns Time Machine 😂
nah, im all set with nogs