memecoins should be earnest.

every coin -- from BONK to BTC -- is a memecoin. gold is the original memecoin. money is a memecoin. btc is a memecoin. these memecoins derive their value from self-fulfilling prophecy, wrought from a collective hallucination.

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(thanks to Soju for the image)

the vast majority of memecoins try to be cool, to not take themselves seriously, to cash in on internet culture. they're buoyed by not much other than speculation, and become a flash in the pan.

but there are a few that are different: the lindy ones. btc first amongst them. these memecoins stand for something. btc stands for self-sovereignty, for libertarianism, against government overreach. these memecoins are earnest.

it's hard to be earnest. it comes across as juvenile. especially in crypto, it's not cool. it's cool to be a cynic, to care only about making money. caring about making the world better makes you look like a rube. plus, it's scary. you pour your heart out putting your mission out there and nobody believes in it. nobody believes you can make it happen. everyone is scared to believe. cynicism is cooler and safer. but i think earnestness wins eventually.

a memecoin can only be earnest if us founders are earnest. that means doing the right things for the right reasons. to know what the project wants to do and why.

i think a project can survive for a longer time without the why than the what, but we need both in order to create a truly lindy, truly symbolic meme. The "what" is akin to the "genesis legend": bitcoin as digital gold, SOL as world's fastest blockchain, Man U the world's best football club. The "why" is a layer on top of that. it's about values, allegiances, feelings? you buy BTC to make money, of course, but you're also identifying yourself as "a bitcoiner", that you believe in self-sovereignty, in libertarianism etc. etc.

an earnest memecoin makes anyone who buys it think that they are supporting something bigger than themselves. tokens-as-allegiance. when you're buying SHIB, or HARAMBE, what are you saying apart from "I was here when this thing happened"? that's the problem, i think. there is neither what nor why.

qns for memecoin creators:

the two projects i'm working on are each missing one piece of the puzzle.

at pathfinders, we want to breathe beauty in the world; to permanently enrich the creative commons; to prove that we can create great art without having to shackle it with copyright or exploitative dark patterns. we want to alleviate loneliness. we stand for exploration, collaboration, friendship, for wanderlust, for indulging our childlike wonder, for everything Miyazaki stands for.

we have a why, but we don't quite have the what. we know what we want to achieve, but we don't know what we're building exactly.

at sanctum, we are making all SOL liquid. we are building an infinite-LST future. we are redefining what an LST is and what it can do. we are pioneering the new meta of staking to someone to recognise their contributions and to give them value.

unlike pathfinders, we know exactly what we want to build: the one-two-three of reserve - infinity - infinite LSTs, and i'm quietly confident that it will usher in a sea change in liquid staking, even if nobody knows it yet.

but i don't know yet why we are doing it. we know that a world where all SOL is liquid is better than the status quo. it's how liquid staking should have been done in the first place. but why are we doing it? to supercharge DeFi? to improve financial inclusion? help creators monetise? enable new ways to collaborate and create value?

over the next few weeks, i will cook and think of the genesis legend of both these projects.

qns: