Original author:XIN
Original source: noweb3
How can technology infrastructure projects create the Meta of the ecosystem?
XINAPR 22, 2024Share
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In my previous blog post “What kind of DApp do we need?”, I shared my thoughts on the key components of a successful application: product, subculture, and economic model.
I predicted that meme tokens would become a trend in this cycle. This prediction was several months earlier than the meme became popular in 2024.
So the questions are:
Why are some public chains highly active and filled with various meme coins, while others have significantly decreased after airdrops and become "ghost chains"?
Before we go any further, let's first understand the concept: "meta".
What is "Meta"?
You’ve probably heard the term “Metaverse” or “Meta” (Facebook) a million times, but what does “Meta” actually mean?
In computer games, "Meta" generally refers to the game strategy that is considered optimal. If you know the "Meta" of a computer game, you can easily win every computer game.
For example, in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, you can shoot arrows at your house after your bow is on fire to get infinite arrows, which is a small Meta in the game.
Another "Meta" in the game is like the ban and pick phase of all MOBA games (such as DOTA, LOL). To master the meta, players need to conduct in-depth research on the game version, understand the latest values of the heroes, understand the advantages of the opponents, and understand the winning rate of each hero against each other.
How to create the "Meta" of your own ecosystem?
In the context of a crypto project building its own ecosystem, we can compare a public chain-like project to a country or a city. The "Meta" of this entity can be equated with its culture, including elements such as language, history, and art.
Name and mascot
Consider an easy-to-remember name for your public chain, such as Berachain. An animal-inspired name is not only easy to remember, but also consumer-friendly because it reduces the technical aspects.
If your brand already carries a tech or geeky name, consider adopting an official mascot that embodies a charming animal.
Solana has dogs (Dogwifhat, Bonkinu) and cats (Wen, Meow), and Monad chose a purple hedgehog named Molandak as its mascot.
The crypto industry is full of technical terms and numbers, and more cute pets and animal images will add affinity to your project.
language
Language is the soul of a culture.
When you speak a language that only your community understands, it strengthens the connection between its members. Being able to speak a language that only a certain group of people understands feels exciting and unique.
Just like in the wizarding world of Harry Potter, wizards can call upon magical spells, but Muggles cannot.
The Berachain community uses "Ooga Booga" as a way to say "hello" or "good morning," imitating the sounds made by cavemen.
Jesse Pollak, the founder of Base Chain, has been using the word "Based" when forwarding various ecological projects related to Base Chain. Therefore, "Based" has become the unofficial slogan of Base Chain. In the Base chain community, "Based" also means "cool" or "awesome".
Here's a quick question: A project has written its slogan in ciphertext. Can you guess what it means?
The answer will be revealed at the end of the article. (Hint: Find the corresponding letter in the picture below)
Community and Apps
Just as a country's culture is not produced by its leaders, the "Meta" of a crypto project generally cannot be designed by the core team or foundation alone.
How to get the community involved? On the one hand, it is to bring users to non-DeFi projects.
DeFi projects focus mainly on APY, perform complex calculations, and mainly attract liquidity hedge funds, savvy big players, and airdrop hunters. If tokens are airdropped or APY drops slightly, these users tend to migrate to places with higher returns because their main loyalty lies in DeFi returns.
Base Chain set a strong precedent with its launch program called Onchain Summer, which lasted for a month and involved more than 50 well-known brands, creators, artists, and builders in the fields of on-chain art, games, music, etc.
In addition, its flagship application Farcaster, as a social network on the chain, provides an open space for the community to share, and the content is not limited to cryptocurrencies. This is why the Base community naturally produces Meme coins like "Degen". (To see what made Degen reach a value of $1 billion in three months, please refer to my previous blog: https://www.noweb3.ai/p/what-makes-degen-a-1b-project-in)
In terms of community participation, the influence of KOLs is undeniable. Instead of looking for already popular KOLs, it is better to promote the early core supporters of the community as KOLs of the ecosystem. This will enable them to grow with the project, enjoy the dividends of ecological growth, and enhance their loyalty to the ecosystem.
What preparations should be made before building "Meta"?
Build a cheap and reliable infrastructure.
For the average user, encountering gas fees of over $10 or cross-chain fees of up to $50 can be daunting. More affordable gas fees coupled with easy-to-use bridges (centralized or decentralized) will make the onboarding process much smoother for users.
Send your users some free candy
Users often find it frustrating to complete countless odysseys only to receive little reward at the end, so sometimes a fair launch approach could be considered as an alternative to introducing a test token or free NFTs.
For example, Jupiter first launched a meme coin called “Wen” before its official token launch. This free airdrop of tokens is now worth $174 million. Similarly, Hyperliquid also distributed its meme token, called “Purr,” before its native currency.
Another example of asset-first comes from the Asian team Bitmap Tech. They launched BRC-420 with an initial minting price of only $0.1, and its peak price was close to 0.8 Bitcoin (about $50,000). Starting with NFT collections, the team launched its own Bitcoin Layer2 Merlin, with a total locked value (TVL) of more than $3 billion.
To sum up, for convenience, I have constructed a triangular model to illustrate the construction of "Meta". The following diagram shows the interaction between community, culture, and non-defi products.
PS. The answer to the cipher text is: We are so early
PSS: This article has no useful content, this article is just a meme
