Original author: TechFlow
Reprinted: Lawrence, Mars Finance
Meme, as defined by its characteristic of 'rapid dissemination', spreads quickly like wildfire across various sectors of the crypto ecosystem: from celebrity effects, U.S. elections to Truth terminals, zoo meetings, every new day brings new Meme narratives, often before one has even had a chance to sleep.
As BTC breaks the historic threshold of $100,000, the long bull market's enthusiasm has been reignited, prompting some to notice: in a time when everything can be Meme, Bitcoin Meme seems to have become a neglected corner of attention.
Some may say that most Bitcoin holders seem to remain at the 'hold' stage, but the unprecedented 'everyone inscribing' craze in 2023 has surely shown us the community's enthusiasm for engaging with the Bitcoin ecosystem.
Some may say that Bitcoin's scalability limitations and lack of support for smart contracts raise doubts about how to support Meme's asset issuance and high-frequency PvP. Such concerns are clearly somewhat outdated, as infrastructure has become the main theme of this cycle in the Bitcoin ecosystem, with numerous projects aimed at achieving Bitcoin's native programmability emerging. Babylon has made a dramatic entrance with its staking narrative, and CKB is steadily bringing scalability, making Bitcoin capable of supporting a more complex ecosystem.
So, under these preconditions, is Bitcoin Meme truly the next battlefield for attention?
From a market perspective, core builders of the Bitcoin ecosystem have already taken action: in addition to Merlin Chain's call to become the 'core force of Bitcoin Meme', CKB, as a much-attended Bitcoin Layer 2 protocol and also the proponent of the RGB++ idea, launching its ecological Meme launch platform CKB.FI has led to high expectations for the future trajectory of Bitcoin Meme.
This article aims to delve into the essence of the Meme pandemic and compare these essential factors with the Bitcoin ecosystem, exploring the prospects of Bitcoin Meme and the key role of RGB++ in driving Meme to become a traffic entry point in the Bitcoin ecosystem.
Getting to the essence of the problem: Why does the Meme narrative remain evergreen?
According to data from CoinGecko, the market capitalization of the Meme track has exceeded $130 billion. Taking the Solana ecosystem's Meme issuance platform Pump.fun as an example, in its eight months since launch, it has deployed over 4 million tokens, generating cumulative fee income exceeding $368 million.
Meme is on fire and needs no further elaboration. However, no multi-billion dollar craze arises by coincidence. Behind the heat of Meme, an important topic worth exploring is: what exactly ignites our enthusiasm when we engage with Meme?
Essentially, Meme is a type of asset class, but unlike other assets, the Web2 internet culture and the Web3 decentralized rebellious spirit layered onto Meme create its unique allure.
Cultural attributes: Eye-catching novel narratives
Infectiousness is at the core of Meme, but the infectiousness of Meme does not come from grand narratives. It resembles most dark humor films focusing on the underlying issues, using playful expressions such as 'jokes', self-mockery, and irony to satirize realities, accurately capturing attention while further stimulating emotional resonance among users.
Spread attributes: Virus-like diffusion based on community and social media
The highly symbolic content form of Meme itself endows it with outstanding dissemination advantages, and community-rooted Meme naturally benefits from the spontaneous promotion of a strong community, allowing Meme to further sweep the globe at a viral pace. Compared to traditional assets, Meme is community-driven, and this decentralized dissemination method is both efficient and highly penetrating.
Fairness attributes: Perfect embodiment of decentralized spirit
The birth of blockchain stemmed from people's revolt against the centralized finance controlled by institutions, and in this cycle, where VC Tokens have disappointed secondary market investors time and again, the issuance and circulation of Meme rely entirely on community consensus. This decentralized characteristic makes Meme a digital asset that aligns more closely with the spirit of Web3 and is seen as a community's expression of resistance against VCs.
Trading attributes: An exciting PvP battlefield, where risks and opportunities coexist
While the high volatility of Meme brings risks, it also offers investors huge potential profit opportunities. In the exciting PvP battlefield, traders' sharp market insights and decisive trading decisions are tested, and amid countless wealth creation myths, countless people fantasize about being the next protagonist of a rags-to-riches story.
By clarifying the core attributes of Meme, the cultural infectious power behind the Meme craze, viral distribution, decentralized spirit, and huge potential benefits become apparent. Understanding the underlying logic of Meme's breakout provides us with a clearer argument framework for dissecting the advantages and exploring the potential of Bitcoin Meme.
The neglected corner of attention: Why should you pay attention to Bitcoin Meme?
In terms of cultural heritage, it's hard to find any crypto ecosystem that dares to compete with Bitcoin.
As the pioneer of cryptocurrency, Bitcoin is like the Jerusalem of the crypto world. It symbolizes decentralization, freedom, and a challenge to the traditional financial system, serving as a symbol of decentralized faith and values.
The 16 years of tumultuous development have not only provided countless Meme materials but have also attracted numerous geeks, tech enthusiasts, and investors, forming a unique and active cultural circle. Whether it is Satoshi Nakamoto, the 5.22 Pizza Day, or Bitcoin enthusiast Trump, the dense memes in the Bitcoin ecosystem always manage to elicit a knowing smile.
When it comes to spread attributes, it's hard to find any crypto ecosystem with global influence that can match Bitcoin.
From on-chain data, the number of Bitcoin wallet addresses has surpassed 500 million, with over 50 million wallets holding assets worth at least $1. The traditional sector has seen multiple companies, including Tesla, Microsoft, and Starbucks, support Bitcoin payments, and over 60 publicly traded companies have emulated MicroStrategy's Bitcoin strategy. With Bitcoin prices breaking new highs in November, mainstream social media platforms like Twitter, Weibo, and Google have seen a surge in search and discussion volumes about Bitcoin.
A series of data showcases Bitcoin's strong appeal and widespread adoption globally, and its large and active community undoubtedly lays a solid foundation for the widespread dissemination of Bitcoin Meme.
It can be said that the Bitcoin ecosystem has very favorable innate conditions for Meme development, and in fact, Bitcoin and Meme also have deep roots.
Tracing back, the Meme veteran Doge, which sparked heated discussions even among subway aunties in 2021, was created inspired by Bitcoin. In 2013, Adobe software engineer Jackson Palmer and IBM software engineer Billy Markus built Doge based on the UTXO transaction framework, aiming to demonstrate improvements to Bitcoin and create a cryptocurrency that was easier to obtain, more practical, and more fun than Bitcoin. Today, Doge has grown into an absolute leader in the Meme track.
Looking closely, the 'everyone inscribing' craze driven by the Bitcoin ecosystem in 2023 emphasizes that inscriptions, which stress fair issuance principles, are an evolutionary variant of Meme. The spectacle of inscriptions has not only ignited people's enthusiasm for participating in the Bitcoin ecosystem but has also pushed Bitcoin to initiate large-scale ecological infrastructure. The most well-known example is the Web3 wallet under the leading exchange OKX, which gained fame for its smooth inscription experience.
Additionally, the established public chain CKB, known for its technological strengths, has keenly sensed the mismatch between the enthusiasm for the Bitcoin market and the lagging infrastructure. By launching the isomorphic binding RGB++ extension protocol, it achieves Bitcoin's native scalability and has built a series of Bitcoin ecological infrastructure products based on this extension protocol, including a crypto wallet JoyID that integrates Passkey key management, allowing users to use it without any blockchain knowledge; a programmable stablecoin product USDI and RUSD, providing a stable value bridge for BTCFi; and a series of native trading platforms like UTXOSwap, Omiga, Dobby, etc., effectively addressing the liquidity issues and high trading costs in the Bitcoin ecosystem at that time. This not only greatly enhanced users' experience in participating in the Bitcoin ecosystem but also laid a solid foundation for the future development of Meme.
More importantly, making money in the Meme track relies on early ambush and attention when it goes unnoticed, and the currently neglected Bitcoin Meme has become the focus of attention for sharp Meme hunters.
Solana, as the main battlefield for Meme in this cycle, has recently shown signs of fatigue, with a large influx of users leading to serious PVP involution, causing more and more people to lose money and exit. Meanwhile, in the past month, Base Meme has emerged, with multiple blockbusters created by Virtuals and Clanker not only making early ambushers rich but also bringing a clear Meme revelation:
When attention has not yet gathered, preparing for ambush often leads to less competition and greater opportunities for better returns.
Now, according to data from Artemis, the net inflow of funds on Base in the past month has exceeded $750 million. Clearly, the profit margin for ambushing Base is rapidly narrowing. Following the logic of 'early ambush, high returns' and the Meme development experiences of Pump.fun for Solana and Virtuals for Base, as long as a complete infrastructure and launch platform are built, Bitcoin Meme, which has deep cultural roots but has not yet gained widespread attention, is highly likely to take over Base and become the next Meme main battleground.
So, the script for the Bitcoin Meme craze has been written. Who will be the one to build the infrastructure and set the stage?
Why is RGB++ the optimal solution for Bitcoin Meme asset issuance?
Still, the point remains: Meme is, in essence, an asset class, making the method of asset issuance in Bitcoin a prerequisite for the explosion of Bitcoin Meme.
Due to Bitcoin's very limited scripting language, achieving native asset issuance and granting it complex trading rules and contracts is no easy task. Over the past decade, solutions surrounding this proposition have continuously evolved until CKB, inspired by RGB, launched the innovative RGB++ extension protocol, which combines native characteristics and flexibility, resulting in the most widely accepted implementation approach for Bitcoin asset issuance.
Colored coins are widely recognized by the community as the earliest exploration of asset issuance on Bitcoin. Although this scheme can achieve mapping of various real-world assets, it is constrained by Bitcoin's functional limitations and cannot support Turing-complete smart contract scripts.
For a long time afterwards, the asset issuance in the Bitcoin ecosystem mostly adopted sidechain anchoring Bitcoin schemes. This method of replacing Bitcoin to the sidechain through a two-way peg has sufficient flexibility, but sidechains are essentially independent chains. Even though they are anchored to Bitcoin, they are not directly associated with BTC, lacking native characteristics and posing security risks, and have not been widely recognized for a long time.
On October 19, 2023, Lightning Labs, the developer of the Lightning Network, announced the launch of the Taproot Assets protocol, which is seen as a milestone event for Bitcoin asset issuance. Taproot Assets allows anyone to issue any token based on Bitcoin, but unfortunately, this solution does not support complex smart contracts, which presents significant restrictions for introducing more complex gameplay into asset issuance.
The asset issuance method represented by inscriptions and its variants like BRC-20, ARC-20, Runes, has led the Bitcoin ecosystem's trend under the boost of SegWit and Taproot. In simple terms, the Ordinal protocol assigns unique identifiers to the smallest unit of Bitcoin, 21 million trillion satoshis, and writes information into each satoshi, achieving native asset issuance for Bitcoin.
However, due to Bitcoin's own block speed and capacity limitations, this method of asset issuance still faces limitations such as poor scalability.
In early 2023, when inscriptions began to rise, the CKB, which has long shown great interest in the Bitcoin ecosystem, noticed various limitations caused by Bitcoin’s lagging performance and non-Turing completeness. Inspired by the RGB protocol, it began to design RGB++ to achieve Bitcoin-native scalability and programmability.
The core idea of RGB is simply: to place asset issuance and contract logic off-chain, and through two major technological innovations, client verification and one-time sealing, bind off-chain behaviors with UTXO changes on the Bitcoin chain. Due to UTXO recording transaction events and processes through consensus, this binding relationship allows off-chain asset issuance to inherit Bitcoin's strong security.
In this process, users need to run clients themselves and verify changes in assets related to them. However, since most ordinary users do not have the capacity to save all historical transactions, this creates a data island problem. Moreover, due to various limitations of the AluVM virtual machine used by RGB, RGB still cannot support complete contract functions.
The core idea behind reconstructing RGB++ can be summarized in four characters: isomorphic binding.
By shifting the client operation and verification responsibilities originally held by users to CKB, this scheme—where Bitcoin serves as the main chain, CKB acts as a shadow chain, and the two are bound bidirectionally through UTXO and Cell—achieves the inheritance of Bitcoin's strong security foundation and resolves RGB's global verifiability issues. More importantly, CKB's use of the CKB-VM virtual machine brings powerful smart contract capabilities, making the RGB++ protocol a cradle for incubating Bitcoin-native Meme.
In July this year, RGB++ was upgraded to RGB++ Layer, aiming to play an important role in the asset issuance layer of Bitcoin from a more global perspective, supporting isomorphic binding between any blockchain built on the UTXO ledger model, including Cardano, Dogecoin, BSV, and BCH, and also supporting various types of assets such as FT and NFT, making asset issuance more in line with actual needs.
It is worth mentioning that the recent news of RGB++ soon supporting Doge has attracted widespread attention: for a long time, Doge has lacked a strong on-chain ecosystem, and with the support of RGB++, Doge will upgrade from Meme Coin to Meme Chain, allowing users to issue any type of asset on DogeChain, and benefiting from RGB++'s no-bridge cross-chain Leap and Lightning Networks compatibility, supporting Doge users to transact in a cheaper, faster, and more seamless manner.
The advantages of the RGB++ series are further integrated with Doge's million user base and ten billion dollar market cap, making Doge an even more preferred platform for Meme projects and further flourishing the Bitcoin Meme ecosystem.
Thanks to the advantages of the UTXO model, RGB++ Layer can create a new paradigm for asset issuance, supporting the simultaneous issuance of the same asset on multiple chains, each with different proportions. This not only achieves coordination and unification between different chains but also provides high flexibility for asset issuers.
The RGB++ Layer is also introducing a new asset issuance model called IBO (Initial Bitcoin Offering), which supports the creation of funding pools directly on UTXOSwap, allowing newly issued assets to be traded with high liquidity.
Through RGB++, we see a broader support for the Bitcoin ecosystem, greater native programmability, interoperability, simplicity and efficiency, and more openness and transparency in asset issuance, which will also be the foundational infrastructure for the explosion of Bitcoin Meme.
As infrastructure approaches perfection, the focus of Bitcoin Meme development begins to shift towards specific innovative gameplay.
Unlocking trading innovation: How does RGB++ empower more advanced Meme gameplay based on BTCFi?
How can we more efficiently translate the specific advantages of RGB++ in asset issuance into more innovative gameplay and higher quality experiences?
The first lever is the launch platform.
In April 2024, Pump.fun launched to push Solana Meme to its peak, after which major public chain ecosystems reacted. Whether it was TRON's SunPump, BSC's Four.Meme, or Base's frequently emerging Virtuals and Clanker, historical experience has repeatedly proven the important catalytic role of launch platforms in Meme development.
Facing the imminent explosion of Bitcoin Meme, the CKB Meme launch platform CKB.Fi, which benchmarks Pump.fun and Virtuals, is a forward-looking layout of the CKB ecosystem, aiming to become the 'Meme blockbuster manufacturing machine' of the future Bitcoin ecosystem.
Rooted in the cultural heritage of Bitcoin ecosystem Meme culture, while also possessing the advantages of RGB++ asset issuance, another highlight of CKB.Fi's Meme asset issuance lies in its deep integration with the best crypto social media platform, Twitter.
Users have two Meme issuance methods: one is to issue directly based on CKB.Fi, completing the launch in just a few simple steps; the other is to issue based on Twitter, where users can quote a certain tweet as the source of Meme content, and then fill in the relevant token information based on that content. Once eligible tweets are detected, bonding creation will occur on CKB.FI, and CKB.FI Twitter will restore the corresponding bonding link to the authors, officially completing the launch. Subsequently, tokens will be distributed via Twitter followers, achieving a cold start for the community.
It is well known that Twitter has become the largest hub for Meme information, and CKB.Fi's innovative Meme issuance and distribution method based on Twitter not only facilitates the discovery and preservation of value content for Meme projects but also integrates social gameplay, promoting sustainable dissemination and promotion of Meme projects.
Creator incentives are another core feature of CKB.Fi, with 6.9% allocated to token initiators and their Twitter followers. This distribution ratio effectively avoids the existence of 'mouse warehouses' and better incentivizes more people to participate in Meme creation. Additionally, creators can use part of it to incentivize their fans, further introducing social attributes to Meme gameplay and promoting broader dissemination of Meme through Twitter's billions of users.
With a fair, low-threshold, and highly disseminating launch platform, the series of advantages of RGB++ will also introduce more complex, innovative, and value-adding gameplay for the issued Meme assets.
As a Meme asset issuance solution, the Meme based on RGB++ theoretically will never go to zero, especially when the majority of Meme end up at zero. This is due to the unique value capture mechanism employed by the CKB blockchain, which requires the storage and operation of on-chain data to lock CKB tokens. This means that the issuance of RGB++ Meme will occupy a corresponding amount of CKB tokens based on the size of the asset, injecting value support into Meme and distinguishing it from pure speculative Memes: as long as users still like this Meme or it still has profit potential, the Meme will continue to exist; when users no longer like this Meme or it no longer has profit potential, users can choose to destroy the Meme to redeem the locked CKB tokens.
In terms of trading experience, assets created based on CKB have an average block time of about 10 seconds, and the transaction fees are very low. One CKB can typically cover over 5,000 transfers' miner fees, leading to efficiency and cost optimization that address Bitcoin's inherent issues of long transaction times, slow efficiency, and high costs.
More importantly, CKB is Turing complete, which not only means CKB can design more complex conditional executions and business logic for Meme gameplay but also that CKB itself has the capability to build a rich ecosystem. The CKB ecosystem encompasses modules such as wallets, DEX, DID, stablecoin protocols, GameFi, SocialFi, etc., and is continuously expanding through active ecological collaborations. This means that Meme assets can also participate as yield tools, such as Meme staking, Meme lending, constructing Meme on-chain identity systems, and social interactions, tightly integrating with other sections of the ecosystem to help its holders earn more.
Beyond a better experience and richer ecological gameplay, unlike the current isolated development of major public chain Meme ecosystems, the Meme asset issuance and trading supported by RGB++ possess strong aggregation and interoperability.
Thanks to the UTXO model, RGB++ not only supports asset issuance on all UTXO model blockchains, but as mentioned above, issuers can also issue the same asset on multiple chains in varying proportions according to their specific business needs. Moreover, through the RGB++ Layer, seamless interactions can be achieved across multiple chains without cross-chain bridges, allowing assets on one UTXO chain to easily cross to another UTXO chain.
In this way, RGB++ brings a unified asset issuance standard to all UTXO model blockchains, making asset issuance and management more intuitive and flexible, and asset trading more secure and seamless. Users, funds, and liquidity across multiple chains, including Cardano, Dogecoin, BSV, BCH, and DogeChain, can be further integrated, enriching the ecological scenarios for Meme and providing a wider user base and deeper liquidity.
Currently, CKB.Fi is nearing completion of the development of btc.finance, which expands the existing Meme issuance mechanism based on RGB++ to BTC. In the future, they will also develop an issuance platform on DogeChain through RGB++, releasing the economic potential of Meme on the most widely recognized Meme (BTC) and Meme Chain (DogeChain).
Another very intuitive case of deep integration between Meme and the ecosystem is Fiber Network:
As an L2 network based on CKB, Fiber Network aims to achieve programmability expansion in the Bitcoin ecosystem. Its initial functions are similar to the Lightning Network, aiming to become a high-performance, low-cost micropayment network, with stronger flexibility and higher efficiency in liquidity management.
However, the emergence of Fiber Network is not intended to replace the Lightning Network but to further enrich the possibilities of the Bitcoin ecosystem in cooperation with it: unlike the Lightning Network's focus on a single cryptocurrency (BTC), Fiber Network can support all assets issued based on the RGB++ protocol.
Fiber Network shares UTXO technological isomorphism with the Lightning Network, and the two inherently possess cross-chain atomic swap capabilities. This combination of 'Bitcoin-level security + Ethereum-level functionality + Lightning Network-level speed' will not only pave the way for the large-scale popularization of the Lightning Network but also introduce infinite imagination for the development of BTCFi. As an important traffic entry point and asset class in the Bitcoin ecosystem, Meme is bound to derive more innovative gameplay in richer BTCFi scenarios.
Conclusion
With just talk and no action, in fact, the Meme in the CKB ecosystem has already shown signs of revival.
At the end of November, the leading asset of the RGB++ ecosystem, Seal, attracted widespread discussion about the potential of the Bitcoin Meme ecosystem with an impressive performance of 430% increase in seven days. It is reported that Seal will become one of the first RGB++ assets supported by Fiber Network, and Seal holders can participate in decentralized liquidity lending and other Lightning-based BTCFi, leading the next development direction of Bitcoin native financial services.
In addition, the CKB Meme launch platform CKB.Fi is also developing Pump.fun-like products based on BTC and DOGE, enriching asset trading gameplay while optimizing Meme asset issuance, which has also sparked concentrated discussions in the community.
From the craze of inscriptions to today, the curtain on the Bitcoin ecosystem has long been lifted, and Meme is seen as an important traffic entry point for more incremental users to enter the Bitcoin ecosystem. From the perspective of Meme characteristics, whether in terms of historical origins, cultural attributes, or ecological potential, the development of Bitcoin ecosystem Meme has great prospects. The emergence of RGB++ further complements the difficulties faced by Bitcoin Meme in asset issuance and trading, bringing solutions that combine native characteristics and programmability.
With CKB continuously improving its product matrix around RGB++ and the ongoing iterations of the Meme launch platform CKB.Fi, will the next breakout Meme blockbuster be born in the Bitcoin ecosystem?
