Blockchain Capital: How Meme Coins Empower Web3 Social

Author: KINJAL SHAH; Source: DAOSquare

Meme coin is ushering in its highlight moment. However, at its core, what we have witnessed in the Crytpo world over the past four years is nothing more than the implementation of some of the same ideas in different new media. Such as social tokens, NFTs or Meme coins. Their common feature is to enable the financialization of shared ideas, assets or information. To participate in these markets is to participate in the next “meta” that is constantly being created, spread and evolved.

The current state of Meme coins is extremely controversial because its culture is one that celebrates (approximately) gambling mechanisms. But imitation of online behavior is a very popular entertainment tool on the Internet. If you look closely, you can see this potentially evolving into deeper forms of participation, ownership, and monetization for creators and users.

In one of my previous posts, I stated that user-generated content is a native form of currency on the internet. User-generated content, such as memes, is primarily published and distributed on media aggregators such as Meta (Facebook) and X (Twitter). With cryptocurrencies, it goes one step further. User-generated assets are issued and spread on digitally native exchanges, and as we are starting to see, they are the new age form of issuance. Memes are just another way to attract attention, a way to spread the word on the web3 platform.

Meme Coin as part of the Creator Toolkit

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Although it is still in its infancy and has no It's in its final form, but a toolkit for web3 creators is slowly emerging. For example, mechanisms like points and airdrops reward usage of the protocol. In terms of airdrop design, we still have a lot of room for improvement before maturity, such as whitelisting and release mechanism restrictions, which have the potential to give birth to more specific reward mechanisms. Further fuel its growth through existing community, on-chain referral rewards, and “token social proof.”

Meme coins can also be used to bring different communities together or capture a special moment. For example, Seed Club recently launched $ENJOY on Zora in a completely permissionless manner. The Meme Coin was airdropped exclusively to users who authentically interact with Zora and Seed Club in one form or another. This operation allowed them to use the traffic of the Zora network to attract a wider range of attention to themselves.

With on-chain addresses and wallets, $ENJOY can specifically reward participation that goes deeper than simple Mint operations. Holders of $ENJOY represent a unique set of wallet addresses that demonstrate a degree of loyalty and participation in Zora and Seed Club. While meme coins may be short-lived in nature, they are also an effective tool for gaining attention and marketing.

We will start to see more and more creators and brands reward and engage their users through on-chain mechanisms. Your favorite newsletter author might offer a referral bonus to a portion of their readers. Additionally, those KOLs may airdrop their Meme coins based on active engagement on social channels. Here are some examples of tools creators can use to acquire users and add value to their assets.

Social consensus and narrative construction play a crucial role in this regard. We've seen almost every form of content aggregation take place on the Internet. To this day, the crypto community relies heavily on traditional social media platforms to build narratives. However we also have some examples of products being released on-chain via protocols such as Lens and Farcaster, as well as applications built on top of these protocols like Warpcast, Drakula and Orb.

With these platforms, Meme coins can become part of the product experience. For example, you can comment on a post (Cast) table on Warpcast, and then your wallet address bound to the Warpcast account (FID) will receive BONSAI. $BONSAI holders can access specific collections or join specific group. In addition, we have also seen this kind of social behavior appear in other emerging markets, such as wallets, Telgram’s trading channels, etc. Publishing platforms can use this data to provide a seamless user experience for users of specific protocols or applications.

To date, our primary mechanism for monetizing Internet memes and content has relied on advertising and sponsorships. With the emergence of on-chain assets, we are witnessing the next generation of Internet “meta” led by a series of new behaviors and mechanisms.