From Gamestop to Dogecoin, why are meme narratives so "sexy"?

Author: Kelsie Nabben

Compilation: Sissi@TEDAO

At the beginning of 2021, the online community, Elon Musk, and DOGE caused a stir over a tweet that caused the spoofed Crypto AssetsMarket Cap to soar to about $14 billion in a short period of time. Memes are really interesting, they are deeply rooted in people’s minds and convey ideas in a concise and clear way.

This meme phenomenon, which spreads through the Internet, is also explored in the science fiction novel Snow Crash. While the notion that “memes affect the market” is compelling, few people seem to have really thought deeply about what it means or read Snow Crash.

meme = weapon

In Snow Crash, this phenomenon is called a “psychological virus”. MEME is not just “visual humor” as described by the Australian Financial Review. In fact, the term “meme” stands for “memeology”, which refers to an information and cultural element that aims to be rooted in people’s minds in order to effectively disseminate ideas and ideas. **

Real-world applications of these meme technologies, including those disseminated through social media, especially those that are targeted, have been widely demonstrated to have a devastating impact on the democratic process. In addition, memes have played a role in the misinformation and disinformation of COVID-19, which have sparked protests against public health measures around the world, with very real consequences.

Actually, memes are no laughing stock.

You should have invested in Bitcoin a long time ago. [Source: ]

The Power of Netizens: Memes and ICOs

Another real incident occurred immediately after the “GameStop” stock price underwent market manipulation. It shows how retail investors have come together to successfully counter the stock market short operations of Wall Street’s large Hedging Funds. Through collective action, these retail investors not only protested against the strategies of the Hedging Funds, but also effectively fought back against these funds in the market through coordinated cooperation and resource integration.

On platforms such as Twitter and Reddit, we’ve seen similar group behaviors impact the market, especially in the case of “pump-and-dump” operations. This market manipulation has been going on for years.

In the Crypto Assets space, we can also see similar group dynamics, especially in ICOs (ICOs). There is a subtle interaction between the project founder and the active users of the online forum. This relationship is largely driven by economic interests, i.e. everyone expects the value of Crypto Assets to rise.

This is a common criticism of the Blockchain space by other “peer-to-peer” Decentralization technology projects and researchers. Crypto Assets-based Blockchain Networks envision an ideal technological future for computer control and freedom from political and governance issues by creating economic scarcity. The hostility between these different tech circles may be partly due to the fact that some projects have failed to make huge fortunes from Crypto Assets.

As these technologies evolved, regulators stepped in to take regulatory action on the impact of these emerging markets and cyberspace. The development of events has become complicated. Meanwhile, the chat app “Discord” banned some online forum groups due to hate speech.

This begs the question: how will online groups that can coordinate their actions to influence physical markets and public behavior shape our world in a future where the digital space is increasingly intertwined with the real world?

Cypherpunk prophecy comes true

Back in the 90s of the 20th century, Cypherpunks had already foreseen this trend. As they foresaw, some extreme views within the “crypto-anarchist” community believe that cyber mobs and organized criminal syndicates are an inevitable consequence of a decentralization internet. The side effects of this trend can be seen in several ways, including not only the increasingly frequent, severe, and costly DDoS attacks, but also the growing boom in the deep web market.

In the science fiction novel Snow Crash, the author imagines a future in which cyberspace is closely intertwined with the realities of everyday life. The world in the book has been privatized, with different private cartels managing various areas of the city, and people can choose which jurisdiction they least dislike the most. This description paints a vivid picture of a possible future for the online world.

At the same time, crypto projects are beginning to realize that their work is actually adopting a new, more decentralization and digital approach to governance design. This development shows that digitalization and decentralization are not only trends in the technology sector, but are also becoming an important part of social and governance structures.

Govern the future

As Elon Musk puts it, memes may indeed become “the controlling power of the economy of the future.” If this is the case, then the challenge will be, how do we respond when the ideals of “freedom” and “justice” are no longer determined by the “invisible hand” of the market or the “immutable code” of Crypto Assets, but are derived from the “memeology of desire”?

So, how do we create a cyberspace based on “sharing” rather than “cartel control”?

In the distributed web community, the focus on governance design is growing rapidly. THERE IS A GROWING RECOGNITION THAT A DAO IS NOT A FLAWLESS CODE MACHINE TO GUIDE HUMAN BEHAVIOR. Even permissionless digital infrastructures can’t get rid of governance issues entirely. Instead, we may need to look for a better version in the inevitable digital world. In this context, Ostrom’s theories are particularly important, and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Eleanor Ostrom’s theoretical framework for managing public goods is becoming an important guide for online community governance. This provides us with a perspective on digital infrastructure as a “shared resource” or shared public good, with the goal of co-building rather than as a tool for attack. **

The advent of Gamestop, Dogecoin, and many more memes is a constant reminder that all infrastructure, including digital infrastructure, has a political nature. However, citizens of the Internet should beware, **meme is a powerful tool to be reckoned with in this war for influence in mind and behavior. **

The antidote that has proven to be the most effective is education. European researchers created the game GoViral! to train students to recognize and understand the development of memes, helping them distinguish between memes and disinformation.

While the information infrastructure offers individuals greater freedom, power, and the possibility to participate in governance, we are still exploring the norms of life that apply to this era.

Original: After Gamestop, After Dogecoin: Memetics, Mobs, and the Future of the World

Unsplash@Kanchanara

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