To preface this, let me state that I am not sure if this is the correct category for me to add this to, as I would love to receive funding to HELP build a platform to accomplish this, but there currently exists merely an idea alone.
Now…
As I am sure all of you are aware, we have remained in a memecoin frenzy for the last little bit, and with that has come a large number of extraordinary success stories regarding gains. However, what has also been at least equally as frequent an occurrence. Of course I could understand some people’s feelings to be in line with “it’s a blessing and a curse” mindset, but I personally feel like we can and should be holding ourselves, and this community, to a much higher standard.
It has become all too often that tokens launching on Ethereum/Optimism-based chains (ETH/OP going forward), and other chains, are done so with the secret intent of being nothing more than a rugpull or similar scam. If we look into why this is, I think we end up coming to the revelation that it is foundationally based on the fact that creating a token on this chain is both extremely cheap and extremely easy–perhaps even more so than most other chains, resulting in a higher than average concentration of scam tokens.
In fact, I personally just spent the past 48 hours experiencing this firsthand. I have spent this entire time–since the virality of DOGE–purposely refusing to invest in utility-less “memecoins”. However, I chose to change course a few days ago, just as an experiment, and invested the most amount of money I have ever invested in that short of a period. The result was not attractive–for me, or for ETH/OP as a community. After having put money into a total of 9 different “memecoins” on ETH/OP (and more on others), 6 of those ended up being rugpulls, and one ended up going severely in the red for whatever other reasons. The one successful token has, to this moment, only given me like a 28% gain in total. THIS IS UNACCEPTABLE! The other 2 chains I invested in coins on for the last 2 days have only totaled in one (of three) of the whole number of tokens. If we put a grain of trust in this experience, that means on ETH/OP there were 66% of tokens that were rugs, whereas only 33% on other chains were. IDK about the rest of you, but I–as a member of this community–am not even somewhat satisfied with this. It HAS to change. NOW.
I propose that we start focusing on ways to prevent this from continuing or reoccurring, and I suspect that we would do well to begin looking at the simplicity with which anyone can create and launch a token. IDK if there should be any technical barriers created for creating and launching a token, or what, but something has to be fixed. I have two primary concepts that I am personally working on, which I think would serve this purpose in a clean, practical, understandable way. However, these are nowhere beyond the ideological stage, so it will take time to spin them up. I also encourage others look into doing the same.
I guess since I did decide to post this here, I will mention that I would like to propose–and get input on–the thought that I receive a small chunk of compensation to continue working on the two concepts that I have. I will mention in all fairness, that I have posted similar proposals on the forums of the other two chains aforementioned, and will ultimately choose to direct my work towards whichever project is willing and able to pay me for my efforts, but for now I am working on the concepts as if they were going to be leveraged for all three communities.
I would love to hear any and all input in response to this issue, potential solutions, and the thoughts about my request for compensation for such.
I appreciate any readers’ time and consideration, and hope to engage with many of you soon!
–lex