I started writing this to validate a product idea I had, but it quickly morphed into a deeper exploration of memes and culture. What began as a simple thought transformed into a comprehensive analysis, covering the transmission of culture before and after the internet, crypto’s impact on cultural dynamics, and the current state of cultural dissemination mainly through memecoins. It’s a lot to digest, but I aimed to present it in a way that builds logically.
What the f*ck is a meme? This question kicked off my journey. Growing up in the early internet era (Wolfenstein, Diablo 1&2, Napster, Limewire, AddictingGames, etc.), I thought I knew what a meme was. To me, memes were just funny images, gifs, and videos that conveyed information and emotion. But was that all there was to it?
The answer, as it turns out, is yes and no. Memes do convey information, but understanding how and why they do so is crucial. They’re not just about humor; they’re about how we communicate and share culture.
A few years ago I remember reading a paper called Narrative Economics by Robert Shiller. I couldn’t recall the details of the paper, but I remembered it was impactful and figured this would be a good starting point. Long story short, the paper talks about how narratives influence economic events in trends (more on this later). While the paper provided a useful framework, it didn’t define what a meme is. A quick search through its citations led me to Richard Dawkins, who coined the term in his 1976 book, “The Selfish Gene.” To truly grasp what a meme is, I knew Dawkins’ work was the place to start.
When I started reading “The Selfish Gene,” I immediately felt a connection. This book wasn’t just about the origin of the word “meme”; it was diving into the depths of human evolution and survival. I realized memes were far more than just amusing images or videos—they were integral to how we communicate and evolve as a species.
I’ll do my best to summarize what I learned from “The Selfish Gene,” but I highly recommend reading it yourself. Richard Dawkins presents a gene-centered view of evolution, emphasizing that evolution operates at the level of genes, not individuals. Genes, in their drive for self-preservation and propagation, act selfishly. This can even lead to altruistic behaviors that benefit relatives sharing the same genes because genes are replicators striving to survive.
So how does this connect to memes? Dawkins was interested in how replicating entities influence evolution. He proposed that just as genes are the fundamental units of biological evolution, memes are the fundamental units of cultural evolution. Memes, like genes, replicate and evolve, shaping human culture in the process.
Before diving into what a meme is, let’s talk about why culture matters. What is culture, and why should you care?
Culture is the collection of beliefs, values, customs, and behaviors shared by a group or society. It shapes our societal structures, gives meaning to our lives, and provides a sense of belonging. Culture also facilitates the rapid dissemination and accumulation of knowledge, driving innovation and intellectual growth. Think of the Renaissance in Europe—a period where cultural emphasis on art, science, and exploration led to significant advancements in various fields.
Culture is crucial for human survival. It promotes social unity, passes down essential knowledge, helps us adapt to new challenges, and enables us to manage resources effectively. Imagine a culture that values honesty. If I tell you there’s a hungry bear outside your house, you might decide to stay inside, increasing your chances of survival and reproduction. This is where the interplay between genes and culture gets interesting.
Genetic changes happen slowly over generations, but cultural changes can occur rapidly, allowing societies to respond quickly to new challenges and opportunities. This combination of slow genetic evolution and fast cultural adaptation lets us thrive in diverse, ever-changing environments. Cultural changes can influence genetic evolution, while genetic traits can shape and guide cultural practices. This coevolution develops complex traits and behaviors that enhance our survival and reproduction.
Maybe my comic below will help illustrate the interplay between cultural influences and human evolution.
The concept of biological evolution is more intuitive than cultural evolution, probably because most of us learned about it in school. Genes tell humans (the vessels) to reproduce, and new vessels emerge. These new vessels carry on the process, ensuring the continuity of life. Memes, in the same way, are the building blocks of culture. Just as genes transmit biological traits from one generation to the next, memes transmit cultural traits.
Think of memes as cultural genes. They carry pieces of information that get passed around, adapted, and evolved as they spread through communities. This is why you might feel something when looking at a picture of SBF or Techno Viking. If you don’t feel anything, it’s likely because you aren’t part of internet/crypto culture. At the end of the day, memes are all about the transmission of culture. They encapsulate and convey shared experiences, ideas, and values, evolving as they spread through various groups.
If memes are how culture is transmitted, then how do they spread? This has changed over time, but I think the best way to understand it is that memes spread like diseases. There are many models to understand how diseases spread, but the SEIR model applies quite well to memes.
Imagine I tell you a story. If we speak the same language, you’re Susceptible (S) to understanding my story. Maybe you heard the same story from someone I told a month ago. This means you’ve been Exposed (E) to my story, although you don’t believe it or feel compelled to tell it to others yet. After I tell you the story, something resonates. You become Infected (I) and now want to spread the story. You tell the story to 10 other people. After telling 10 people, you come across another storyteller, and they infect you with their story. You stop telling the story I told you and have Recovered (R).
The contagion rate (or the speed at which my story spreads) is determined by a variety of factors, but generally speaking, virality is determined by a few core factors:
It’s relatable. If it’s relatable, more people are likely to share it.
It’s simple and clear. Effective memes can be understood at a glance and convey a message quickly.
It’s visually appealing and elicits an emotional impact.
It can be easily adapted or remixed.
It’s accessible and/or relevant to what is already on people’s minds.
There are more factors, but these are some of the key ones.
I’m now going to talk about how memes spread before and after the internet and how the internet came in and changed everything.
I’m thankful that I spent a good chunk of my childhood without the internet. Things moved at a slower pace. There was less pressure. Before the internet, culture was transmitted through stories, rituals, art, and written text.
Memes spread through verbal communication such as stories, jokes, and catchphrases. These verbal memes required face-to-face interaction or small group settings to propagate, which limited their spread and speed of evolution.
Books, newspapers, magazines, and letters served as mediums for transmitting memes. The distribution of written material was slower and more geographically constrained compared to today’s standards.
Cultural values and norms were expressed and transmitted through artistic works and musical compositions. These memes required physical presence or ownership of the media to experience.
Cultural norms and practices were reinforced through community rituals, educational systems, and familial traditions. Memes were embedded in everyday social interactions and communal activities.
In short, before the internet, culture spread at a snail’s pace compared to today.
The internet came in and sped things up. How memes spread didn’t change, but the medium of communication did. The way memes spread didn’t change, but the medium of communication did. The internet has fundamentally transformed cultural dissemination by:
Increasing speed and scale. Cultural ideas and memes now spread globally in seconds, reaching millions of people simultaneously.
Enhancing interactivity: Online platforms enable instant feedback and collaboration, allowing memes to evolve quickly based on user interaction.
Facilitating archiving and retrieval: Digital media allows for the easy archiving and retrieval of cultural content, preserving it for future generations.
The shift from pre-internet to post-internet eras highlights how digital communication has revolutionized the spread and evolution of memes. The internet’s impact on dissemination is profound. It has increased the speed and scale of cultural idea propagation, enhanced interactivity, and enabled the archiving and retrieval of cultural content. This transformation underscores the significant role of the internet in shaping modern culture.
While the internet revolutionized the transmission of culture, it also introduced significant challenges around control, privacy, security, and equity. Let’s consider a few examples:
Platform dominance. The FANG companies dominate the internet and control vast amounts of data and user interactions. It gives these companies significant power over what is accessible to the user.
Censorship. These platforms have the authority to censor content, without transparency or accountability.
Monetization of users. Users typically don’t own the content they create on the platforms. Further many internet services are “free” but monetize user data.
Market monopolies. Dominant players can stifle competition, making it difficult for new entrants to succeed.
The internet transformed how we share culture, but it also centralized control, jeopardized privacy, and stifled competition. Crypto changes this by decentralizing power and enabling true digital ownership, paving the way for a more open and equitable digital landscape.
There’s been extensive writing on the importance of decentralization and token networks. To stay focused on memes, here are some resources that delve into how crypto addresses the internet’s problems:
In short, crypto changes the internet:
Elimination of centralized control
True digital ownership
> security & transparency
Incentivized participation
Interoperability & composability
The internet changed how we share culture, but crypto is transforming it again by introducing ownership, provenance, and monetization. Traditionally, memes have been ephemeral, rapidly shared, and modified without a clear origin or ownership. Crypto enables verifiable origin, which adds intrinsic value to what was previously a freely replicated digital item.
Moreover, the monetization aspect brought in by tokenization provides creators with a direct financial incentive to produce and share memes. This incentive not only encourages more creative outputs but also ensures that creators benefit financially from their work.
Ownership, provenance, and monetization are why crypto is the ideal medium for internet culture, allowing creators to verify authenticity, maintain control, and earn directly from their work.
Two main meme formats have dominated the crypto space: NFTs and memecoins. NFTs and memecoins are the primary vehicles for cultural expression in crypto, each serving different purposes. In 2020/2021, NFTs were the primary medium for speculation and cultural transmission, while today, memecoins on SOL have taken the lead. Each format offers distinct advantages and disadvantages.
NFTs:
Purpose: Ownership + provenance, authenticy, community engagement
Pros: Ensures authenticity and provenance. Good at preserving culture, Authenticity = better stories
Cons: Low liquidity, higher barrier to entry vs. memecoin
Memecoins:
Purpose: Speculation, community engagement, fungibility, liquidity
Pros: Gud liquidity
Cons: PVP, lack of long-term value, and based on hype and trends
The landscape of meme culture in crypto has evolved significantly. While NFTs once dominated as the primary canvas for cultural speculation and profit, the current trend has shifted towards memecoins, particularly on platforms like pump.fun. This shift is largely driven by the liquidity issues inherent in NFTs, which have made them less attractive for rapid speculative activities. As such, I will focus primarily on memecoins in this section.
Today, the memecoin market is highly saturated, with new coins being launched frequently.
Pump.fun has made it incredibly easy for individuals to create memecoins, removing barriers to entry for the average user and allowing virtually anyone to participate in the creation of new tokens. It’s insane actually, we’re talking 50,000 + tokens per week. Check out ilemi’s dune dashboard to see more.
As a result:
More tokens. The frequency of new coin launches has skyrocketed….
Diluted liquidity. The influx of new coins has spread the available liquidity thin, making it difficult for any single coin to reach the massive market caps seen in 2021.
Economic and cultural fragmentation. The ease of launching new coins has led to a fragmented market where liquidity and attention are dispersed across numerous tokens.
This fragmentation has several consequences:
Lower market caps: Whereas memecoins in 2021 frequently reached market caps of $100M or more, current coins often peak at significantly lower levels.
Decreased buyer confidence: With so many new coins entering the market, buyers are more cautious and less likely to hold onto any single token for long, leading to rapid pumps and dumps.
Cultural dilution: The sheer volume of new memecoins has led to a loss of novelty and humor, which were central to the memecoin phenomenon. Memes have become less funny and more formulaic, reducing their cultural impact.
The cultural landscape of memecoins has shifted from a cohesive community-driven approach to a more adversarial and competitive environment:
PvP: The current environment resembles a player-versus-player (PvP) battlefield, where individuals are more focused on outmaneuvering each other for quick profits rather than building a supportive community. The focus has shifted to short-term gains.
Constant meta shifts: Investors and creators quickly move from one trend to another, chasing the next big thing without establishing lasting value or community.
The challenges outlined above, underscore how large the meme/memecoin design space is. Pump.fun has fundamentally altered how memes and culture are created, shared, and monetized.
Fwiw, although i’m presenting some of the new challenges pump.fun introduces to the space, I think its a great innovation!
Pump.fun is fundamentally transforming the landscape of meme culture by democratizing the creation and dissemination of memecoins. It removes barriers to entry, allowing virtually anyone to participate in creating new tokens. This ease of access fosters uninhibited expression and rapid content generation, much like 4chan’s anonymous posting did in its prime.
What sets Pump.fun apart is its introduction of economic incentives. By enabling users to easily create and monetize their memecoins, it adds financial stakes to the cultural game. This incentivization encourages a continuous flow of creative content, providing creators with a direct financial reward for their contributions.
Pump.fun’s environment is designed to foster free expression without the burden of persistent identity. Users can engage and share bold content without fear of long-term consequences, which promotes a vibrant and dynamic community. The “king of the hill” dynamic ensures that content creation is constantly flowing, preventing stagnation and keeping the platform lively and engaging.
The platform has also cultivated a unique identity. Over time, this will help create a sense of belonging among users, fostering a tight-knit community with its own culture and norms. By reducing friction and providing economic incentives for creators, Pump.fun has the potential to significantly enhance user engagement and content quality.
Pump.fun is not just another platform; it’s an innovative space that offers a new way for memes and culture to be created, shared, and monetized, disrupting legacy platforms and paving the way for a more dynamic and participatory digital culture.
Before we dive into the future of memes in crypto, let’s take a step back and summarize.
Memes are like genes in that they serve as a fundamental unit of information transfer. Genes are the fundamental unit of biological evolution and memes are the fundamental unit of cultural evolution.
Culture is collective beliefs and norms that are crucial for human survival. Culture influences genetic evolution.
Memes spread like a virus.
The internet came in and f*cked shit up. Information travels much faster and can reach anyone.
The internet today has problems around platform dominance, censorship, etc…
Crypto helps solve some problems
People can now monetize culture. People can now own (encode intent) what the create.
Memes are PVP right now
Design space is huge
People who are early to something usually have a good reason for being there. Crypto has brought big personalities and authentic culture, each with unique characteristics depending on when they entered the space. Taking inspo from variant fund I will do my best to break down the types of people in crypto today.
Class: Cypherpunks
Entry: Early 2010’s
Why? Privacy, resist censorship, decentralize control
What they care about: Privacy, security, censorship-resistant systems
Basis: The cypherpunk movement predates Bitcoin, but becomes more prominent with BTC launch in 2009.
Class: Libertarians
Entry: 2011-2015
Why? Achieve economic freedom
What they care about: Reducing government influence, decentralizing money, personal financial control
Basis: Silk road.
Class: Technologists
Entry: 2015-2017
Why? Permissionless innovation and advance technology
What they care about: composability/interoperability, open-source, smart contracts
Basis: ETH launch
Class: Memeooors
Entry: 2017 - present
Why? Fun, profit, cultural disruption
What they care about: Internet culture, quick profits & challenging norms
Basis: While memecoins predate this time, this was the period they gained immense popularity. The surge continues to this day.
Class: NFT enthusiasts
Entry: 2020 - present
Why? Digital ownership, new forms of value, speculation
What they care about: Provenance, monetization through art and collectables
Basis: Mainstream explosion of NFTs
Class: Farmooor
Entry: 2020 - present
Why? Maximize returns on new projects
What they care about: Profits
Basis: DeFi summer brought more airdrops and yield farming opportunities
By understanding the foundation of memes, we see that they function as tools for both disseminating culture and community building, getting like-minded people in the same room. Early internet meme culture has shifted from simple, humorous images to vehicles for complex narratives and cultural evolution. Crypto introduced ownership, provenance, and monetization.
Currently, memecoins are in a player-versus-player (PvP) battlefield, where short-term gains take precedence over long-term community building. NFTs have solidified themselves as a place for authenticity and provenance, but limited liquidity and financial upside have kept creators on the sidelines. While it’s impossible to predict what’s next, here are a few ideas worth exploring further.
Pump.fun for nfts: free mint + fair distribution. https://x.com/beaniemaxi/status/1793123213393756304
Memecoin news feed: Memecoins are launched every second, often reflecting current events. Organizing this information into a news feed could provide valuable insights and context, making it easier for users to track trends and participate in timely discussions.
More balanced launchpads: platforms like pump.fun have shown potential to foster innovation and create a shared culture within the meme ecosystem. That said, there is opportunity for more refined launchpad platforms that balance the need for liquidity with preservation of cultural value, fostering deeper community engagement. A platform with built-in vetting, marketing support and liquidity provision could be interesting.
Memecoin curation platforms: A social platform centered around memecoins that features content sharing, tipping mechanisms, and community forums could help reduce noise from low-quality projects, ensuring that high-quality content receives attention
DAO first memecoins: Make DAOs great again. The goal of the DAO would be to propagate culture through memecoins, potentially dovetailing into memecoin launchpads.
Meme market aggregators: Platforms that aggregate and analyze meme markets could help buyers and creators navigate the fragmented market, providing valuable insights and reducing the complexity of participation.
Provenance tokens: A new value of token backed by original memes, ensuring authenticity and liquidity. https://x.com/Cryptopathic/status/1740832131159306326
Meme time capsule: A meme-based time capsule that stores memes with tokens to be launched at a future date could preserve the cultural significance of memes.
Meme-based prediction markets: Platforms where users can bet on which memes will go viral next could combine humor with financial speculation.
I hope you enjoyed reading and thank you HalloweenIn2008, alon, 0xjose, and taetaehoho for giving it a read before I published it. If you want to chat more feel free to reach out to me on here.