Vitalik vs. Solana Memecoins, Wormhole Pre-Listing, Grayscale SOL Fund & More

Welcome back!

This is J264G and this week I’ve got these titbits for you:

• Vitalik’s Ruminations: Should memecoins power charities & games?

• Solana Ascent: Grayscale launches Dynamic Income Fund incl. SOL.

• $W Pre-Listing: Mango pre-lists Wormhole’s governance token.

Sometimes we forget what it's all about ⬇️

That's the intro for this week — short and sweet. So let's get right to it!

Click on any underlined heading/hyperlink to learn more.

Spotlight

All Coins Are Memecoins

Last week, Vitalik Buterin — co-founder of Ethereum — published a blog post about memecoins. 

Here's the gist of it:

• Hypothesis: People participate in memecoins because (i) the value might go up, (ii) they feel democratic and open for anyone to participate, and (iii) they are fun.

• Idea 1 — Charity Coins: Memecoins could generate meaningful contributions to society by focusing on charity projects. Logic: People buy charity memecoins to indirectly donate to a cause they care about.

• Idea 2 — On-Chain Games: Create and play on-chain games such as Axie Infinity with in-game currencies (memecoins) which benefit both the developers and the players. 

I wholeheartedly agree!

Yet, I have a slightly different POV when it comes to memecoins. 

As I wrote in last week's newsletter, the conventional economic model and traditional financial system have not been working for younger generations. Consequently, younger generations face more significant financial challenges than their parents did.

Additionally, the global middle class has been shrinking, and economic security and prosperity for people from middle and low-income countries seem to increasingly turn into a Fata Morgana.

Crypto in general, and memecoins in particular, offer one of the few possible exit hatches these people have.

In this context, very few trade memecoins for fun — they trade them to free themselves from socioeconomic shackles. 

With respect to charity memecoins: Young people, the shrinking global middle class, and people in middle and low-income countries can't afford to do good, they need to do well first. When you're living from pay cheque to pay cheque, charity memecoins are useless. Let's be real: People with only $50 or $100 to their name are looking for nothing more than lottery tickets when trading memecoins.

Regarding on-chain games: Why can't we have both pure play memecoins and in-game (meme)coins? But again, young people, the shrinking global middle class, and people in middle and low-income countries might not have the opportunities and time to spend on the grind play-to-earn games require. Yet, they might have 5 minutes here and there to spin up their Phantom wallet and trade some memecoins that might moon.

I'm paraphrasing here, but I remember Arthur Hayes saying something along the lines of: All coins are memecoins — including ETH and SOL.

So, when it comes to memecoins, do whatever you need to do.

But remember to always put your oxygen mask on first before helping others: When your memecoin gains enable you to hold your head above water, make sure to take care of your family, friends, and community as well. Only then you might want to consider donating to The Nature Conservancy or other NGOs/charities.

Until then, here’s a Solana memecoin guide — happy trading manlets!

Chart Of The Week

News Bites

Capital Efficiency: Circle's Cross-Chain Transfer Protocol is now live on Solana mainnet — enabling users to move USDC from EVM chains to Solana securely and without (significant) slippage.   

Spam Wars: Phantom introduced a new spam model which has been able to improve the overall user experience and make all things on-chain even more delightful.

Solana Ascent: Grayscale has launched its Dynamic Income Fund (GDIF) with the aim of making the access to proof-of-stake assets, such as SOL, more effortless. However, GDIF is currently only available to qualified clients ($1,100,000 assets under management or a net worth of $2,200,000).   

Agave Validator Client: In the past, we had a look at “Agave” — a fork of the original Solana Labs validator client, maintained by Anza. Now, the team has released a  paper on how Agave's runtime works — read it here.

Wormhole Pre-Listing: The next highly anticipated airdrop is around the corner: Wormhole. Mango has already pre-listed Wormhole’s governance token — $W — allowing you to set up limit orders right now!

Caught In 4K

Weekly Take

Keks & Giggles

And that's a wrap!

If you'd like to reach me, respond to this newsletter or reach out to me on 𝕏.

Talk soon!

J264G

_{DISCLAIMER
None of this is financial advice. This newsletter is strictly educational and is not investment advice or a solicitation to buy or sell any assets or to make any financial decisions. Please be careful and do your own research. Lastly, please be advised that we discuss products and services from our partners from which our team members may hold tokens/equity.}