Vitalik 'Unhappy' with Celebrity Memecoin Experiments
Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin gave his thoughts on the most recent iteration of celebrity-promoted memecoins this morning.
A quick summary of features that a celebrity crypto project needs to have for me to be more willing to respect it:
— vitalik.eth (@VitalikButerin) June 5, 2024
1. Have some kind of public-good goal that it's serving, other than enriching the celebrity and early adopters. Realistically, either an art project or the…
What’s the scoop?
- Plain Unhappy: While financialization can be justified when it brings value to society, Vitalik expresses strong disagreement with financialization in the absence of a real product.
- Proposed Fixes: Vitalik claims that he would be willing to respect celebrity-promoted projects that serve some form of greater good, include onchain mechanisms beyond simple token trading, and that can gain long-term adoption. These projects will make everyone involved feel satisfied, even if their underlying assets go to zero.
- Stoner Cat Success: To showcase celebrity projects that border on acceptable, Vitalik highlights the Stoner Cats NFT collection from Ashton Kutcher, Mila Kunis, and Chris Rock. Although the entity behind Stoner Cats was charged by the SEC for offering unregistered digital asset securities last September, Vitalik expresses admiration for the Project’s creation of an actual show.
Bankless Take:
Solana's latest memecoin fervor has brought in a host of minor celebrities, promising nothing but a good time. As demonstrated by the SEC’s Stoner Cats enforcement action, it is inherently difficult for celebrities to promote crypto assets with actual utility. Vitalik's latest critique comes with a pathway forward for celebrities to interact with crypto technology while mitigating legal exposure and yielding a net-positive impact on the industry.
Jack Inabinet