Vitalik criticizes the chaos of meme coins: respects meme coin hype but hopes to see more high-quality projects

Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin wrote a special commentary on the proliferation of memecoins, expressing respect for the hype around memecoins and hoping to witness the emergence of higher-quality projects. He also believes that combining memecoins with charity, blockchain games, and other initiatives is a viable approach.

"What else could memecoins be?"

Meme Coins Ravaging the Crypto Space

Vitalik uses Dogecoin as an example, which has been around for many years and performed well in 2020. However, meme coins, apart from speculation, have not made any progress. A series of Solana meme coins have even delved into areas such as racism and gender discrimination, bringing no value whatsoever.

As a long-time builder and promoter in the crypto space, how should one confront the issue of rampant meme coins?

Vitalik suggests one approach is to scoff at it, showing how much one detests and opposes such foolish behavior:

In a way, this is the right approach, but we can also consider another question: "If everyone values the aspect of 'fun,' financial games seem capable of combining speculation and fun. So, could there be a more positive version of the meme coin concept?"

Meme Coins Associated with Charity

Vitalik has encountered some interesting charity tokens.

A token named "GiveWell Inu" donated all its proceeds to the U.S. non-profit organization GiveWell a year and a half ago.

Over the past two years, a meme coin called "Fable of the Dragon Tyrant" has also supported cultural projects related to anti-aging research.

However, these two projects did not last long and were far from perfect. GiveWell Inu seems to have no developers maintaining it, and the Dragon Tyrant has very annoying core community members, which makes Vitalik reluctant to mention these two projects.

In the past, meme coins deliberately transferred coins to Vitalik's wallet for publicity, and Vitalik subsequently donated the tokens directly to the foundation. This seemingly led to a good relationship between the meme coin project Dogelon Mars ELON and the foundation.

Vitalik stated:

Charity meme coins seem like a good opportunity with no competition to try to create something more positive and long-lasting. But I believe there are limitations even if we do so.

The Shiba Inu frenzy ends! Vitalik donates a large amount of dog-related coins, unhappy with Ethereum fueling speculation?

Meme Coins Combined with Gaming on the Blockchain

Vitalik points out that combining meme coins with meaningful and fun games is also a viable option. While visiting low-income Southeast Asian countries, he often heard about certain low-income families becoming affluent due to earnings from Axie Infinity.

Therefore, he believes that charity tokens combined with blockchain games are also feasible. For example, game mechanisms could allow players to participate in voting to decide which charities to allocate the funds issued after completing a certain task.

Vitalik specifically mentioned that the game development team he has the most confidence in and finds most interesting is 0xPARC, which has successfully developed Dark Forest and FrogCrypto, and players play for fun rather than solely for the desire to make money.

Vitalik: Respecting Meme Coin Hype, Hoping to Witness Higher-Quality Projects

Vitalik mentions a personal moral principle at the end of the article:

If you dislike a certain group of people or organization, you should also be willing to appreciate some things, people, or objects that align with your values within that group. I view the "coin hype culture" in the crypto community in the same way. The idea of "all OOO are problematic," while providing personal satisfaction, can lead one into an echo chamber,

He respects everyone, and the gradual change in the mainstream development of cryptocurrencies is not a bad thing. He hopes to see more high-quality and interesting projects in the future that can make positive contributions to the ecosystem and the world, rather than just focusing on "user engagement."

At the very least, there should be more good meme coins than bad ones. Ideally, they should support public goods rather than benefiting only internal personnel and token issuers. If they can further integrate gaming to allow participants to enjoy the process more, that would be even better.