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Key takeaways
Memecoins represent the monetization of internet memes, turning viral digital culture into tangible, tradable assets.
Viral memes and memecoins share similarities in their rapid, community-driven spread across the internet.
While most memecoins are speculative and volatile, some achieve widespread popularity akin to viral memes.
Memecoins offer a unique perspective on valuing intangible aspects of internet culture, like attention and engagement.
The concept of memecoins serves as a blueprint for exploring the tangible value of intangible online phenomena, potentially extending to entertainment IP.
Memes play an important part in internet culture.
Internet memes are creative, often humorous content like images, videos, or phrases that spread rapidly online, typically through social media. Memes that go viral evolve, expand, and are remixed by users as they circulate. They are a form of digital culture that captures and conveys popular ideas, jokes, or trends in an accessible, shareable format.
One way to view memes is as cheap, childish fun. Maybe even gibberish.
They can also be seen as concentrated examples of the internet's viral distribution potency.
Imagine owning a share of the most popular memes and earning a fraction of a cent each time someone views them. Cool, right?
You can't; that's not how the internet works. Or, it's not the way it's worked until now.
Have you heard about the crypto currency called Doge? What about Pepe? Or maybe Bonk or Dogwifhat?
These are cryptocurrencies that fall under the umbrella term "memecoins." Memecoins are the crypto equivalent of memes, as the name implies.
Other crypto tokens can represent ownership in protocols (blockchain equivalent of "owning company stock") or other types of underlying value, memecoins consist of air and engagement.
Many view memecoins as scams, and rightly so. Most will fizzle out like countless memes and GIFs that never go viral.
Some memecoins will go viral. They will spread like wildfire through communities on Crypto Twitter and eventually reach mainstream audiences, intensifying their popularity.
Just like a viral meme, a viral memecoin can go far.
The difference between a meme and a memecoin is that you own a share of its virality. It's speculation, but also an interesting example of what blockchains enable:
Digital value systems that turn intangible into tangible value.
What is the value of internet culture? Or a viral GIF with billions of views? It’s hard to measure, but it's not zero. Memecoins turn the intangible value of viral internet culture into tangible, tradable assets.
This is not investment advice. Nothing I write is. Memecoins are highly volatile and speculative. Most become worthless.
But if you wanted to invest in the power of internet culture, the power of memes—memecoins make it possible. And it wasn’t possible before.
So, what are we doing here if I won't tell you which memecoins to buy?
We're here to look beyond memecoins' reputation as scams. Memecoins are interesting when considered as a blueprint for making digital value tangible.
There’s much undefined and unmeasurable value created online, like attention.
Similarly, there’s much intangible value in entertainment. What does the memecoin-blueprint yield if applied to entertainment IP, for instance?
This post plants the seed for a framework to explore the intangible→tangible transition enabled by blockchains. A framework we’ll experiment with and develop over time.
Stay tuned.
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