Did you know that in 2009, a clip of Marilyn Monroe smoking pot was auctioned off for $275,000? (See “Film clip shows Marilyn Monroe smoking pot,” December 1, 2009, https://www.today.com/news/film-clip-shows-marilyn-monroe-smoking-pot-wbna34224533) I don’t pretend to know how the Monroe estate is doing, but that seems like a good deal for them! I found this little piece of information on Reddit, which, after IPOing, is still a dumpster fire. Even though I love it, it needs to be reconstructed on a blockchain, but that is a conversation for another time…
What this article is about is introducing you to the weirder, better, new world of Middle Finance (“Mid-Fi”) and Web 2.5! We are not quite at Web 3.0 yet, where blockchain addresses protect our privacy (as best as they can at this point), transactions flow smoothly, and you don’t need passwords for every damn site, but we are close! More importantly, and even though Web 2.5 is sexy and full of potential, the Mid-Fi part of it is what led us here. Middle Finance (not to be confused with the mortgage company by the same name) is the complex but compelling world between centralized finance (“Ce-Fi”) or Traditional Finance (“Trad-Fi”) of banks, payment processors, stock brokers, centralized custodians, and exchanges (“CEXs”), and the infamous Decentralized Finance (“De-Fi”) of self-custody wallets, decentralized exchanges (“DEXs”), and apps that allow for remittance without a third party’s permissions. It is right in the middle of it all, requiring bits of both its momma and papa to make it work! For example, if you need Ethereum to participate in the latest new Non-Fungible Token (“NFT”), you’re going to need to change your greenbacks (U.S. “fiat” dollars) into $ETH. This requires an on-ramp called a CEX, which needs to be plumbed into the U.S. banking system to work, but that is changing and changing rapidly in the world of Web 2.5.
Regardless of whether it was Reddit or some other corner of the Web 2.0 Internet, we’ve all seen dope memes, adorable cat videos, or profound thoughts from people like yours truly. Sometimes these original creations garner a like, comment, or the coveted repost/share, but that is not going to be the future anymore. Hell, it’s not even the present right now! Right now, in Web 2.5 the present is being built on blockchain using apps like Warpcast, created by the team at Farcaster. (This is confusing branding, but just remember one and it will lead you to the other.) While X, formerly known as Twitter, is scrambling for money transmission licenses to make X a “super” app along the lines of WeChat (a primarily Chinese-based platform) to allow tips and splitting the check with friends, Warpcast is already there. Warpcast allows users to tip for memes, profound comments, cool gifs (pronounce it however you want, in your own head), and even allows you to buy merch (on third-party platforms)! Or you can do it just to be NICE! (Nice on the Internet is still something us “monkeys in clothes” are trying to master.)
Hell, there is even an effort led by Linda Xie to build what she is calling BountyCaster, where you complete “bounties” for different types of crypto-based rewards. In some cases, the results are seen by all, and the transactions are “cast out” on Warpcast as completed. That’s what happened with Fred Ehrsam, formerly of a tiny company called Coinbase and Co-Founder of Paradigm. He posted a bounty of $1,000 for a research question: “Will crypto stablecoins become the largest holders of US debt?” His results are here: https://x.com/FEhrsam/status/1772442811708621007?s=20 or full results on Warpcast: https://warpcast.com/fehrsam/0x902d2105
Spoiler alert! Fred did the Web 3.0 hero shit and paid three people $1,000 USD in bounties and one $250 honorable mention. These folks didn’t need those “fiat on-ramps” I talked about. They did the work, which we all can appreciate, and got paid for it.
Do you know what’s even crazier? Artists are starting to win again! In the world of Warpcast, there are meme coins, and some of these meme coins have power. (I’m sure you’ve heard of them by now; if you haven’t, ask Franklin Templeton. In “Meme Coins Strongly Correlated to Network Growth: Franklin Templeton,” March 14, 2024, by Shaurya Malwa, www.coindesk.com/markets/2024/03/14/meme-coins-strongly-correlated-to-network-growth-franklin-templeton/) There are two that I currently hold (full disclaimer below) called $DEGEN and $Higher. Both are meme-related to the convictions of crypto degeneracy (pun intended) and going higher as a positive, optimistic community. (There is also gambling-like behavior by some because “we are all monkeys in clothes,” but I digress). These meme coins have created internal societies and communities that thrive on tipping, creating, and using the emblems of the appropriately chosen or bestowed meme (both $DEGEN and $Higher were airdropped to people who contribute to various communities on Warpcast). I cannot think of a better example than the brilliant artist that is Miguelgarest.eth (https://linktr.ee/miguelgarest), where a simple but creative gif of an arrow enjoying the bounce received by a spring has sold all 69 NFT gifs for a total of ~$1,100 in mere hours! (Because we are back, baby!) Some of those folks are flipping those limited NFTs they purchased for $15 to nearly 10x that less than 24 hours later!
What makes this insane is that the original sales occurred on Warpcast for a Warpcast community for $Higher! (I do not own any of these NFTs, but full disclosure below). There were no middle-persons or systems in between, and this all occurred within the app! (So centralized but decentralized). Miguel got real ETH on Base, and these folks got real value on-chain in the form of a creative, limited edition NFT. Will the gif hold its value? I have no idea, and I sadly doubt that there will be an auction for these NFTs like there was for the Monroe smoking video, but both went higher than they were expected to go!
This was our brief introduction to the world of Mid-Fi and Web 2.5, where we are not quite decentralized but not quite centralized, where value on-chain is created by making communities and putting thoughts and ideas into the ether of the Universe and having it rewarded with actual value, free from an oppressive regime or tyrannical rule. It’s not the utopia of a free, decentralized Internet, but you can see it from here.
If you want to collect my NFTs go to Mirror.xyz/Dunsmoor.eth.
If you want to learn more about $DEGEN and $Higher, get on Warpcast.
Also, S4msies has an excellent breakdown of the possibilities and accomplishments of $DEGEN so far. Read more here: https://x.com/s4msies/status/1772133881346437609?s=20
DISCLAIMER: This is not investment, financial, or legal advice. Do your own research. I have $DEGEN and $Higher. They are in my most public wallet, Dunsmoor.eth. I do have an NFT that allows me into PartyDAO (https://www.party.app/) as $Higher explores the development of the community. I found out about both of these communities too late for airdrops, but I will be buying more of both.
SOURCES:
(1) Film clip shows Marilyn Monroe smoking pot, December 1, 2009 https://www.today.com/news/film-clip-shows-marilyn-monroe-smoking-pot-wbna34224533
(2) https://www.farcaster.xyz/
(3) https://www.bountycaster.xyz/
(4) Fred Ehrsam: https://x.com/FEhrsam/status/1772442811708621007?s=20
(5) Fred Ehrsam: https://warpcast.com/fehrsam/0x902d2105
(6) Meme Coins Strongly Correlated to Network Growth: Franklin Templeton, March 14, 2024 by Shaurya Malwa www.coindesk.com/markets/2024/03/14/meme-coins-strongly-correlated-to-network-growth-franklin-templeton/
(7) https://linktr.ee/miguelgarest
Jonathan Dunsmoor
