Dan Finley, co-founder of the MetaMask cryptocurrency wallet platform, recently conducted a hands-on experiment with memecoins to explore issues of consent and trust in the Web3 ecosystem.
By releasing two tokens—'Consent' on Ethereum and 'I Don’t Consent' on Solana—Finley personally experienced what he described as 'extremely unpleasant in predictable relationships.'
The experiment quickly evolved into a troubling view on the intersection of hype and accountability, linking his experience to broader debates regarding consent for data usage in artificial intelligence and public platforms.
Finley's findings are significant as the implications extend beyond Web3, highlighting the blurred lines between public visibility and user expectations, as well as the need for clearer systems of consent, trust, and accountability. He explained:
"This is not a call for ethics; it is a call to create better quality products. Your application should not turn into a puddle of toxic waste. Your community should not be filled with people making personal threats. Your stocks should not be diluted by anonymous whales."
Memecoins and financial risks
The MetaMask co-founder's experiment provides critically important insights into the speculative and risky nature of the memecoins he launched using the Clanker bot on Ethereum and the Pump.fun platform on Solana.
Launching two tokens, Finley discovered that the rapid trading activity significantly inflated their value, briefly raising the co-founder's assets to over $100,000.
However, the lack of a clear structure and purpose for the tokens left participants vulnerable to financial losses, which, as Finley explained, led people to 'constantly try to ascribe them greater value.'