This article is from Jocy Lin, the founding partner of IOSG. Recently, I happened to come across the story of Tian Xingjian, and the Hundred Days’ Reform is still vivid in my mind. It’s hard to imagine that in the Qing Dynasty, there were young people willing to risk their lives to follow Emperor Guangxu and advocate for new laws that were decades ahead within the dynasty. They embraced Western reforms, disregarding personal safety, and advocated for the study of Western legal reforms. Although the ultimate result was a failure, their spirit and actions left a profound impact. These young people and pioneers became the role models respected by later generations.
The spirit of these young people is equally important in today’s crypto world. Currently, many practitioners are loudly criticizing the “Western powers,” but in reality, they are staking their left hand on Restaking mining and their right hand on liquidity pool rushing, while constantly posting memes and “doge” on Twitter. Everyone knows where the problem lies but compromises with the current interests. Both the Eastern and Western crypto communities are currently caught up in the frenzy of meme hype. Meme is like opium, an import of Western opium, and currently, the top memes of the BN community are from the West. Entrepreneurs and community builders can easily lose their way due to this noise, and the Eastern crypto community is deeply immersed in meme hype. After seeing the success of memes, many entrepreneurs begin to doubt their entrepreneurial direction and original aspirations. I believe that entrepreneurs should resist memes, not shift their entrepreneurial focus towards memes, and avoid engaging in meme hype as a routine operation.
We need young people who are down-to-earth and ambitious, especially those who can shoulder the ideals of Eastern crypto entrepreneurship. These young people should not only engage in trading-related activities during this bull market or the previous bull market but focus on infrastructure and protocol development to create a better community atmosphere. Instead of allowing aspiring developers and young people to immerse themselves in stories of getting rich through various memes every day.
To reiterate, I am not against traders who prioritize memes in this market. Personally, I have been involved in the community since 2013 and have always enjoyed being part of it. However, I do not want meme traders to become the most mainstream faction in the Chinese community. Since the approval of ETFs, I have clearly felt the emergence of a large number of entrepreneurs in the United States and Europe, who have received ample capital support from American funds. At the same time, some well-known American funds have stated internally that they do not invest in Chinese Web3 entrepreneurs. It seems that there are significant differences and divisions between the Eastern and Western crypto communities in terms of technology and community, while Western technology continues to emerge, the Eastern crypto community is caught up in the meme hype. This is clearly an unhealthy development trend.
Meme hype has a certain lottery effect, and the probability of winning decreases for latecomers. Meanwhile, meme addiction, similar to opium, will create path dependence for those who have benefited early on, and more people will act as advocates for memes in the community. The community is prone to continuously reinforce this money-making path, but it does not make our technology protocols and community more unique and powerful. Early participants may profit from it, but this short-sighted behavior, this gambling game, and the legend of sudden wealth will eventually lead to the bubble bursting and become a disaster for the Eastern crypto market, repeating the story of the NFT market in the previous bull market cycle. Most of the top Eastern entrepreneurs, I have always believed that they will persist in front-line entrepreneurship and find their own piece of the Lego in infra or applications, advancing side by side or even leading the mainstream protocols in the West.
Perhaps the crypto market should not be divided into Eastern and Western parts, as it is a decentralized world. In the past few cycles, we have seen the characteristics of Eastern and Western entrepreneurs: the success of Western entrepreneurs is not coincidental. Rune Christensen, the founder of MakerDAO, has been involved in Web3 entrepreneurship for many years and successfully increased his protocol revenue significantly in the US macro high-interest rate and crypto bear market environment. In March of this year, he launched the “Endgame” plan and various SubDAOs, including the Spark SubDAO focused on lending protocols. The founder of EigenLayer had an overloaded schedule during ETHDenver, shortening each meeting to 15/30 minutes to personally communicate with partners. It can be seen that in this global competitive market, many entrepreneurs are at the forefront. The founder of Uniswap, a hardware engineer by training, self-taught solidity and created a concise code of fifty lines, leading the industry’s Dex AMM innovation wave. They have always focused on product design and protocol understanding, striving for a leading position in the industry. Eastern entrepreneurs are the most resilient and powerful group, and we have also seen many outstanding ones. However, they still need more support and feedback from the community. The Eastern community should be more united and powerful, taking the time to discuss how to learn from the West and face the challenge of supporting a stronger Eastern crypto community. When the community and entrepreneurs reach a consensus, it will also bring more positive feedback to the protocols.
As an Asian-origin fund, IOSG will invest in and support more Chinese entrepreneurs in this cycle, helping them better enter the Western market and become mainstream. It is hard to imagine that in this industry three to five years from now, memes will still be the mainstream. As we ride the wave of the crypto era, everyone inevitably becomes a participant, and everyone is insignificant in the context of the era. However, do not ignore the negative energy that investing in memes brings to the Chinese community.
In summary, we should be more united and face future challenges together. The community needs higher ideals and foresight, and we need individuals to step forward for the future of the Eastern community. Crypto is not just about memes; there are many opportunities in infrastructure and applications waiting to be explored and discovered, which are the true industry alphas. IOSG will invest in and support young people who are at the forefront, driving the long-term development of the industry and community, and helping Eastern entrepreneurs shine in the global market.
