📖
Web3 Encyclopedia
  • Welcome aboard!
  • Source
  • 😀Evolution from Web 1.0 to Web 3.0
    • Web 1.0 Web 2.0 Web 3.0
    • Key Features
    • Current Limitations
    • Future of Web 3.0
    • Learn: What Is Web3?
    • Learn: Will Every Brand Have a Web3 Strategy?
    • Learn: Big Ideas in 2023
    • Learn: The Web3 Paradox: Why Scaling Usage Alone Won't Lead to Mass Adoption?
    • Learn: Is Web3 A Marketing Buzz or Tech Revolution?
    • Learn: What is the relationship between blockchain and Web3?
    • Learn:Empowering Women in Web 3.0: The Role and Contributions of Women in Blockchain, DeFi, and dApp
    • Learn: Web 3.0 and the Future of E-Commerce
    • Learn: 12 ways ecosystem projects can attract more developers
    • Learn: How Web3 is Impacting Education?
    • Learn: Web3 And The Future Of Digital Advertising
    • Learn: Web3’s impact on personalization, trust and engagement
    • Learn: Web3-Powered Identity Management -- Unlocking the Benefits of Decentralization
    • Learn: Why Web2 companies fail in Web3 while others made it?
    • Learn: To Identify or Not in a Web3 World?
    • 🤫[Insider Series] McKinsey x Web3
    • TL;DR 👀
  • 💲Blockchain Fundamentals
    • Why is Blockchain So Popular?
    • Introduction to Blockchain
    • Blockchain Misconceptions
    • Blockchain vs Bitcoin, Database, Cloud
    • Consensus Mechanism
    • Public and Private Keys
    • Hash Functions and Cryptography
    • Sharding
    • Types of Blockchains: PoW, PoS and Private
    • Understanding Cryptocurrency
    • Coins vs Tokens
    • Blockchain Trilemma
    • Legality
    • Learn : Google’s Cloud Based Blockchain Node Service
    • Learn: How Blockchain, Digital assets, and Web3 Unlock Financial Inclusion Globally
    • Learn: Will Chinese-Made Crypto Soar Higher?
    • Learn: What Does MiCA Mean for Crypto in Europe?
    • Learn: Unraveling the Intricacies of Blockchain Forensics and Asset Tracking
    • Learn: Promising blockchain use cases in healthcare industry
    • Learn: The Role of Blockchain in Authenticating and Provenance Art
    • Learn: Blockchain-Based Digital Identity: Benefits, Risks, and Implementation Challenges
    • Learn: The Future of Energy Supply Chains
    • Learn: Revolutionizing smart contracts and cryptocurrency
    • Learn: Nigeria goes blockchain
    • Learn: A Game Changer for Online Gaming?
    • Learn: Is blockchain technology ready for high-storage applications?
    • Learn: Will Blockchain Technology Mark a Turning Point in Fraud Prevention?
    • Learn: Why ZK-rollups need data availability?
    • Learn: How will generative AI disrupt blockchain?
    • Learn: A New Blockchain for Generative AI?
    • TL;DR 👀
  • 🏟️Web3 Utilities
    • Decentralized Applications (dApps)
    • Cross-chain Bridges
    • DAO
    • Artificial Intelligence
    • Learn: Is Community-building Essential for Web3 Startups?
    • Learn: ‘Decentralization Theater’
    • Learn: Crypto and AI- A yay or nay combination?
    • Learn: Dissecting the DAO
    • Learn: What is motivating Lido DAO to rise?
    • Learn: How to Turn Your Community Into a DAO?
    • Learn: The Key to Decentralized Decision Making
    • Learn: How Web 3.0 can disrupt the supply chain industry?
    • TL;DR 👀
  • 🪙Bitcoin
    • What is Bitcoin
    • Bitcoin's Blockchain Technology
    • UTXO Model and Transaction Fees
    • Bitcoin Mining and Mempool
    • Learn: What is bitcoin mining?
    • What are Hard Forks and Soft Forks
    • What is SegWit and the Lightning Network
    • Bitcoin Ecosystem
    • Can Bitcoin be Destroyed? Game Theory and Network Attacks
    • Learn: Crypto token supplies explained
    • Learn: What is crypto tax-loss harvesting, and how does it work?
    • Learn: Can Crypto Go Green? How to Invest in Eco-Friendly Cryptocurrencies
    • Learn: Why Did FTX Collapse? Here’s What to Know.
    • Learn: How Sam Bankman-Fried swindled $8 billion in customer money?
    • Learn: How much is Bitcoin worth today?
    • Learn: The Costs of Running a Bitcoin Node In Nigeria
    • Learn: Has 2022 Left Any Crypto Positives?
    • Learn: How Crypto Exchanges Can Be Free of Risk?
    • Learn: Greed, Lies and FTX: Is Crypto a Force for Good or Evil?
    • Learn: Is Crypto a Cultural Movement?
    • Learn: What are the consequences of crypto’s ongoing regulatory process?
    • Learn: Beyond the Crash and Embracing NFTs?
    • Learn: Understanding crypto bag holders and their mindset
    • Learn: Inscriptions: Just A Fad, Or A Real Threat To Bitcoin Becoming Decentralized Money?
    • Learn: How Bitcoin Ordinals Can Change the Future Of Mining?
    • Learn: What is a supernet?
    • Learn: Bitcoin Miners Celebrate 10 Years Since First ASIC, What Changed Since Then?
    • Learn: Bill Vs. CBDC – Why This US Congressman Wants To Block The Fed From Issuing A Digital Dollar?
    • Learn: Why Bitcoin Will Blow People’s Minds In 2025?
    • Learn: How the Howey Test Sheds Light on Cryptocurrency's Regulatory Gray Area
    • Learn: Cryptocurrency vs AI: A Complex Debate
    • Learn: Where the U.S. Government Went Wrong in Regulating Crypto?
    • Learn: The Nostr Privacy Paradox
    • Learn: Do algorithmic stablecoins have a future as centralized coins are under scrutiny?
    • Learn: Is Bitcoin Set To Revolutionize The Financial World With Its Superior Purchasing Power?
    • Learn: What is Shibarium, and what does it mean for Shiba Inu?
    • Learn: What is a crypto dusting attack?
    • Learn: Is the Adoption of Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs) the Future?
    • Learn: How Artificial Intelligence Could Revolutionize Crypto?
    • Learn: What’s next for EU’s crypto industry as European Parliament passes MiCA?
    • Learn: Why the EU Has MiCA and the U.S. Has Securities Law Confusion?
    • Learn: Six New Projects Looking to Mitigate Bitcoin Mining’s Energy Footprint
    • Learn: Who on Crypto Twitter chose not to pay for a blue checkmark?
    • Learn: What is the wash-sale rule in Crypto?
    • Learn: What is Pepecoin and can it flip memecoins Dogecoin and Shiba Inu?
    • Learn: Can you recover stolen Bitcoin from crypto scams?
    • Learn: What the ‘anti-mining bill’ means for the crypto industry in Texas?
    • Learn: Does the US have a crypto ‘tax loophole’ problem?
    • Learn: How users can stay protected?
    • Learn: How Crypto Revolutionize Cheaper and Faster Transactions?
    • Learn: Can NFTs and CFDs be BFFs?
    • Learn: A PR expert’s tips for memecoin projects
    • Learn: Why politicians aren't convinced about the Digital Euro?
    • Learn: How A 90-Year Old TA Theory Predicted The Sudden Bitcoin Boom?
    • Learn: Social Trading Platforms and CFDs: A New Paradigm in Investment
    • Learn: How could the Chinese economic crisis impact Bitcoin and crypto?
    • Learn: How do they compare: Bitcoin IRA vs. traditional IRA?
    • Learn: Why Tokenized Assets Are Safer During a Banking Crisis?
    • TL;DR 👀
  • 🛢️Ethereum
    • Bitcoin vs Ethereum
    • What can Ethereum do?
    • What is Ether (ETH)?
    • What's Unique About ETH?
    • What are Smart Contracts?
    • Energy Consumption?
    • Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM)
    • Pros & Cons of Smart Contracts
    • Decentralized Applications (dApps)
    • Ethereum Token Standards (ERC-20, ERC-721 and ERC-1155)
    • Evolution of Ethereum
    • How to Get Your First Ethereum
    • Learn: Next Ethereum Upgrade — Shanghai Upgrade
    • Learn: Tipping Scale for Crypto Adoption: Usability vs. Accessibility
    • Learn: Major Publicly Traded U.S. Bitcoin Miner Files For Chapter 11 – Impact On The Market?
    • Learn: 5 altcoin projects that made a real difference in 2022
    • Learn: How Tether Can Be a More Stable Stablecoin?
    • Learn: Are the Ethereum Killers Still Deadly?
    • Learn: What Ethereum Tech Trends Are Weathering the Bear Market?
    • Learn: How Ethereum’s token burns are making it a deflationary cryptocurrency?
    • Learn: A few things to know about Ethereum's Shanghai Upgrade
    • Learn: The Role of Enterprise Ethereum
    • Learn: Understanding Layer 2 Scaling Solutions for the Ethereum Network
    • Learn: The Battle of Giants: Bitcoin vs Ethereum
    • Learn: Cryptography, Smart Contracts and Distributed Networks
    • Learn: The Memecoin Grift and How It Threatens Ethereum Culture
    • Learn: What Is Ethereum’s ‘Data Availability' Problem, and Why Does It Matter?
    • TL;DR 👀
  • 👛Wallet
    • What is a Blockchain Wallet?
    • Hardware / Software Wallet
    • How to Get Your First Cryptocurrency
    • Setting up Metamask Wallet
    • Learn: How to connect the Avalanche network to MetaMask?
    • Learn: How to pass on your crypto when you die?
    • Learn: What are hierarchical deterministic (HD) crypto wallets?
    • Learn: Pros and Cons of Digital Wallets
    • Learn : How Web 3.0 Wallets Are Redefining Digital Asset Security?
    • Learn: Open source: Buzzword or real security for crypto wallets?
    • TL;DR 👀
  • 🌕New & Rising Protocols
    • Binance
    • NEAR
    • Solana
    • Fantom
    • Polygon
    • Cardano
    • Polkadot
    • Cosmos
    • Harmony
    • Cronos
    • Optimism
    • Terra
    • Who Will Win the L1 Wars?
    • Learn: New Layer 1 Blockchains Are Expanding the DeFi Ecosystem But No Eth Killers Yet
    • Learn: Is an Increased Focus on Layer-2 Scaling and ZK Technology Justified?
    • Learn: What Are the Stakes in the SEC vs. Ripple Case?
    • Learn: What is The Graph, and how does it work?
    • TL;DR 👀
  • 📈Decentralized Finance (DeFi)
    • CEX vs DEX
    • CeFi vs DeFi
    • Algorithmic Stablecoins
    • Airdrop
    • Liquidity Pool
    • Impermanent Loss
    • Swapping
    • Wrapped Token
    • Arbitrage Opportunities
    • Staking
    • Yield Farming
    • Total Value Locked (TVL)
    • Gas Fees
    • Lending & Borrowing
    • Useful Tools
    • Activity: Uniswap & Pancake Swap
    • Learn: Automated Market Makers (AMMs) in DeFi
    • Learn: Crypto Moving towards ESG: What Is Regenerative Finance (ReFi)
    • Learn: What Is dYdX? Understanding the Decentralized Crypto Exchange
    • Learn: It's A Wrap - DeFi in 2022
    • Learn: Why DeFi should expect more hacks this year?
    • Learn: The Security Challenges of DeFi
    • Learn: The Promising Future of Decentralized Social Media on Web 3.0
    • Learn: Can CBDCs, Tokenized Deposits, Stablecoins and DeFi Coexist?
    • Learn: The Increasing Popularity of DeFi and Its Potential to Disrupt Traditional Finance
    • Learn: The future of DeFi is ReFi
    • Learn: DeFi aggregation
    • TL;DR 👀
  • 🙈Non-Fungible Token (NFT)
    • What are NFTs?
    • Case Study
    • Storage
    • Who are the Players?
    • NFT Marketplace
    • NFT Useful Resources
    • Activity: Mint Your Own NFT
    • Learn: How You Can Prevent Hackers From Stealing Your NFTs?
    • Learn: What Is an NFT Floor Price?
    • Learn: Should Bored Ape buyers be legally entitled to refunds?
    • Learn: China’s view of NFTs different from rest of the world’s
    • Learn: NFTs IRL: How Digital Collectibles Are Forging Offline Experiences
    • Learn: How NFT Brands Can Cut Through The Noise
    • Learn: How Web3 disrupts the music sector?
    • Learn: Unlockable content in NFTs
    • Learn: Why Meta Matters in NFTs?
    • Learn: Should NFT Marketplaces Become Centralized?
    • Learn: Hermès vs. MetaBirkins: The NFT Case That Could Have Major Trademark and Artistic Consequence
    • Learn: What are phygital NFTs, and how do they work?
    • Learn: What is NFT ticketing and how does it work?
    • Learn: Why Solana NFT marketplace is seeing less active users?
    • Learn: NFTs and Intellectual Property
    • Learn: How AI Is Changing Artistic Creation and Challenging IP Laws?
    • Learn: The Future of NFTs: Exploring Dynamic NFTs and Their Versatile Use Cases
    • Learn: NFTs in the event and ticketing industry
    • Learn: What is NFT rarity, and how to calculate it?
    • Learn: What happens to your NFTs when you die?
    • Learn: Dogecoin-Like Spike in Milady NFTs After Elon Musk’s Tweet, But Will It Last?
    • Learn: What are NFT royalties, and how do they work?
    • Learn: How developers aim to store crypto inside NFTs?
    • Learn: Generative Art NFTs: What Are They & Why Are They So Popular?
    • TL;DR 👀
  • 💗Metaverse
    • What is the Metaverse?
    • Metaverse Economy
    • Metaverse Companies
    • GameFi
    • Learn: Are We in the Metaverse Yet?
    • Learn: Can the Metaverse exist without blockchain?
    • Learn: Can the Metaverse Facilitate Sustainable Growth of Defi Systems?
    • Learn: What is the role of biometrics in the metaverse?
    • Learn: Can metaverse be the future court?
    • Learn: Metaverse Fashion Is on the Rise, but for Whom?
    • Learn: Sustainability in the Metaverse: Challenges and Opportunities
    • Learn: How To Build A Responsible Metaverse?
    • Learn: What is a VTuber, and how do you become one?
    • Learn: How proof-of-identity provides human experiences?
    • Learn: The “Metaverse” Next Frontier for Business: Impact And Challenges
    • Learn: The 5 Biggest Misconceptions About The Metaverse
    • Learn: Why culture and ownership are critical to the metaverse?
    • TL;DR 👀
  • 👾Career in Web3 (coming soon)
    • Developers
    • Moderators
    • Community Managers
    • UI/ UX Designers
    • Digital Fashion Designers
  • 🌱Sustainability (Coming Soon)
    • Industry Effort
    • Co-author
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  1. Ethereum

Learn: The Memecoin Grift and How It Threatens Ethereum Culture

If Ethereum is to grow it’ll have to mature beyond the antics of those shilling the token-of-the-moment, says CoinDesk columnist Paul Dylan-Ennis.

PreviousLearn: Cryptography, Smart Contracts and Distributed NetworksNextLearn: What Is Ethereum’s ‘Data Availability' Problem, and Why Does It Matter?

Last updated 1 year ago

The ceaseless and cynical pumping of tokens devoid of value is an existential threat to Ethereum’s reputation.

This memecoin culture is populated by the most chronically clout-addled people in the crypto industry, who exist in the Influencer Pit of Despair. This is a deep, dark hole where grifter influencers clamber over one another to rob the nearest retail tourist. You can locate the Influencer Pit in the form of a Twitter Space. But not just any Twitter Space. More like Twitter Spaces experienced as a debilitating K-Hole in a Prague dive-bar. And you’ve lost your wallet.

It’s a fundamental paradox that since anyone can use the Ethereum blockchain, anyone can use the Ethereum blockchain. If Ethereum were a local park, the memecoiners would be an unruly gang of teenagers listening to music on some god-forsaken Bluetooth speakers.

The ceaseless and cynical pumping of tokens devoid of value is an existential threat to Ethereum’s reputation.

This memecoin culture is populated by the most chronically clout-addled people in the crypto industry, who exist in the Influencer Pit of Despair. This is a deep, dark hole where grifter influencers clamber over one another to rob the nearest retail tourist. You can locate the Influencer Pit in the form of a Twitter Space. But not just any Twitter Space. More like Twitter Spaces experienced as a debilitating K-Hole in a Prague dive-bar. And you’ve lost your wallet.

It’s a fundamental paradox that since anyone can use the Ethereum blockchain, anyone can use the Ethereum blockchain. If Ethereum were a local park, the memecoiners would be an unruly gang of teenagers listening to music on some god-forsaken Bluetooth speakers.

Paul Dylan-Ennis is a CoinDesk columnist and lecturer in the College of Business, University College Dublin.

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Imagine you’re working on Eigenlayer or zero-knowledge (ZK) proofs or you’re an Arbitrum delegate. And while you’re valiantly working away on something useful you can’t help but grit your teeth to hear some braindead dolt just made a cool million by tweeting.

Memecoins will always be part of an open source network like Ethereum, but for cryptocurrency to be widely adopted the industry needs to find a way to collectively address its worst forms of valueless profit seeking.

There is something hopeless about how little is offered by the memecoin grift.

When pepe (PEPE) was created the team outright admitted that the project was pure memeology, propelled along by our favorite rehabilitated frog. There is, at this stage in the industry’s cycle, something quite empty about returning to the meme well, eking out a living as bottom feeders on some anon team’s larp. Its mindless algorithmic churn, like we invented the wheel but only used it to go in circles.

And those Spaces! My word. Memecoin Spaces seem to be required by law to have the most obnoxiously loud host, for no apparent reason. At least three of the speakers, sporting equally terrible NFT (non-fungible token) investments as their PFPs (profile pictures), will admit to several misdemeanors over the course of an hour. At least 75% of the audience has bought something from Supreme and made a loss on it.

Before you feel bad, let’s remember what the Influencer Pit does. It sucks in retail investors, selling them on the concept that financial nihilism is the truth. It contributes to the idea that blockchain (or crypto or Web3) is merely about speculation. It stipulates your only option in life is to hustle fast enough and hope you don’t end up as fodder for a CoffeeZilla video.

The latest trend is painfully banal. It’s such a low-brow grift I’m embarrassed to even write about it. Influencer grifters, often double-dipping from prior shilling of memecoins, will simply post an Ethereum address and ask people to send ether (ETH) to it. One can only hope the IRS does not . The wink and nod in this scam is the explicit promise of no return. You would, and I mean this quite literally, be just as well setting fire to your physical wallet than sending a transaction like this.

In Ethereum there are no police. In a decentralized, permissionless culture there is nobody who can sanction you like the law might IRL

I’m not sure what the appropriate punishment should be for these crimes against humanity. First-time offenders might have to attend Bitcoin Miami wearing an Ethereum T-shirt. Serial offenders will need harsher punishments, perhaps trapped in a dark room with a monologue on repeat, for up to two years. We might instead decide to capture all the grifter influencers on an island somewhere. Perhaps we could create a fake conference, NFT Pitcairn Islands, and then create a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) whose only purpose is to ensure no flight ever leaves, spending treasury funds on bribing the islanders to distract the influencers with shiny objects.

Downtown is not as bad as Skid Row where you’ll probably find people plotting to social engineer Bored Ape owners. Like any city you can silo yourself in the safe areas and hope the police might deal with it. Except in Ethereum there are no police. In a decentralized, permissionless culture there is nobody who can sanction you like the law might IRL (of course governments can outside Ethereum).

Similar to the open-source concept that many eyes can fix a problem quicker than a single pair can, the Ethereum Assembly could consider pressing issues (e.g. what to do about Lido, a decentralized service that is said to be dominating Ethereum staking) but also how to encourage people away from degen into regen with active efforts. Citizens from each stakeholder group, from validators to developers to application builders to Average Joes could come together and hash it out.

And the most important effect? I believe it would encourage a sense of responsibility over the protocol across the community spectrum, introducing social matters as important as technical ones.

Or we could just keep sending the grifters ETH…

There is a real problem here. Influencer grifters tell us upfront and you will be happy. But underlying is a much darker message: We can do nothing. This is the paradox of permissionlessness intrinsic to blockchain communities. Permissionlessness is a red line, non-negotiable topic in Ethereum culture. Without wishing to get all esoteric, if you lost the property of permissionlessness you wouldn’t have Ethereum at all.

With technical solutions verboten this leaves us only with social options. Imagine Ethereum as a cosmopolitan city. It has its Municipal Hall of developers, organizers and researchers. It has its finance district with decentralized finance (DeFi). It has its bohemian quarter of NFTs. It has its But it also has its shady downtown where the grifters live.

This means you have to create an atmosphere, a cultural context, where the message of long-term regen culture overshadows short-term degen culture, relegating it to an immature phase. are those within Ethereum culture dedicated to ensuring the technology does not generate negative externalities, but instead positively impacts society over the long term. How do we, in the words of Gitcoin founder Kevin Owocki, funnel more Ethereans into regen than degen?

Here I advocate for something a little unorthodox. I believe Ethereum should introduce a In my home country of Ireland, citizens are randomly selected to convene and discuss important issues relating to the Irish Constitution. In Ethereum, we don’t have a Constitution but there could be value in an annual forum where various stakeholders in Ethereum meet to discuss important concerns.

This is written by , a lecturer/assistant professor in the College of Business, University College Dublin, first appeared in Coindesk

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"you will get nothing"
Average Joes living on Main Street.
The regens
Citizen’s Assembly.
Dr. Paul J. Dylan-Ennis
ENS
Richard Heart
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