Seed Phrase: My MeMe Learning Journal

Original Title: "MeMe Study Notes"

Original Source: Binance Co-Founder He Yi

1. Subculture: From the Margins to the Center of the Stage

Expression is a commonality of humanity. A good MEME can cross cultural boundaries and evoke a knowing smile. When the collective self-identity, emotions, and subjective intentions of the masses overlap, they form unique values, semantics, and forms of expression. For example, the burial-love family of the QQ era, the social dance of the mobile video era, or the Three Harmony masters on the edge of the post-industrial era have created unique subcultures. I did not grow up in Western culture, but I believe that every culture has a subgroup with which you can deeply resonate. Therefore, the subcultures I mentioned earlier are very niche and obsolete, not good MEME expressions. However, at some point in history, they appeared in an extreme form, with a distinctive image that was refreshing.

Essentially, no one circle is truly more advanced. A hippie attending a Zen meditation class is not necessarily more tasteful than someone attending a storytelling session. Those who enjoy reincarnation and Star Wars do not necessarily have better aesthetics than fans of Hong Kong gangster films. Because the more niche the aesthetics, the less common ground there is. Moreover, our generation spans the Agricultural Revolution, the Industrial Revolution, and the Information Revolution, heading straight into AI. Chaos is the norm, all authorities have been undermined, and each idol is just the same. A meme is a silent thunder, the ultimate expression of a crowd, a subculture's impact on mainstream culture. Therefore, being meme'd or having a coin issued about you is also part of deconstruction. So, I don't think I am worthy to be at the center of a MEME.

Similarly, chasing trending topics on Twitter, within replies from CZ or me, is not the optimal path to discover or create MEME. The MEME is in your heart.

2. Who Can Surpass Doge?

There is only one Doge. During the first Bitcoin bull run in 2013, amidst numerous projects attempting to clone Bitcoin, Doge both mocked Bitcoin and self-mockingly embraced itself. With a carefree face and full of passion, the developers abandoned the project, yet the community possessed its own vitality. The community spontaneously added an important chapter to the development history of crypto culture. In the Chinese crypto community, Dogecoin was sent all over the world by Jiang En, paving the way for a unique crypto track: "Evangelize for the industry, reward first." The messages on BBS forums at that time were like, "I think you're a good person, so I'll reward you with 10,000 Doge coins," leaving the recipient bewildered in the wind. One couldn't really understand how much 10,000 Doge was worth without a calculator. In the evolution of the crypto industry, every community has its own "Jiang En." In subsequent developments, Elon Musk's fondness for Doge propelled subculture into the mainstream. Today, Doge is more than just a dog.

MEME is the attention economy, but it's not just about attention. If all of this feels like Twitter's trending topics of the day, then everything is destined to be short-lived. A great MEME doesn't come from a celebrity's quick wit; that alone is not enough to become a MEME. It's about worshipping the top dogs (whether politicians or entrepreneurs), and that's not cool.

On the other hand, those who oppose for the sake of opposing often have a hidden right-wing face, and those who passionately shout for decentralization often end up being extremely centralized. Maintain a critical mindset to separate truth from falsehood.

Imagine someone in your group telling you to buy into a trending topic for the day. Of course, by the next day, that topic will have cooled off. If this attention can transform into a product, a belief, a religion, only then can the next Doge appear. It might even surpass Doge. Who says it's impossible? Everything is possible.

3. Is Long-Termism Outdated?

I don't trade, but I hold long-term because I follow the logic of value investing. Just as I run a business, I also adhere to long-termism, building a clock or a garden.

Binance is just an infrastructure, setting up a stage where the project team and investors can both win or lose. This depends not only on capability but also on mindset and judgment. Top-notch entrepreneurs are few and far between. To embrace long-termism, you need to DYOR (Do Your Own Research) and know when to take profits. It's not that long-termism is outdated. Is it possible that you have chosen the wrong subject for long-termism?

When the blockchain fever hit, investors poured mountains of money into projects. Entrepreneurs could claim their project is worth 100M, 1B, or even 100B with just a few people. Everything can have a token, and price and value may deviate, but over time, they will converge.

The market size in 2017 was smaller than it is now, and the DeFi summer of 2021 had a smaller fund size compared to today. Yet, we see more excellent entrepreneurs entering the Web3 industry, expanding the industry, although confidence is dwindling. Many users ask why project valuations can't return to the ICO era. We can never go back to the past, but we are trying. Trying to let users vote for listings, trying to have Web3 wallets for IDOs, allowing projects to choose low-barrier, low-market cap launches, benefiting real users. This is always better than spending money to fabricate false data and deceive oneself.

Whether it's MEME or AI, gaming or DeFi, social networking or RWA, with a variety of choices, may we still have some beer left in the glass after every bubble of the trend fades. Fortunately, history always repeats itself. The grand visions of tech changing the world from the past will be realized by the successors one by one.

I heard that many serious projects don't want to persist anymore. Hey! Friend, there will always be new opportunities, but the world belongs to the very few who drive it forward. Instead of chasing trends, why not become the trend.

Four, Investment Advice Friends Always Ask About

All my assets are in coins, and my long-term HODL style may not suit most people, but there is one point to consider: make money with certainty.

1. Make money based on cycles, roughly judge economic cycles and bull/bear markets, sell in a bull market, buy in a bear market is the basic operation.

2. Assets in any category follow the Pareto Principle.

3. It is recommended to allocate at least 20% to coins. Land is the asset of agrarian civilization, minerals are the hard currency of the industrial age, and in the information age, the top assets are stocks of top internet companies and coins with network effects.

4. Some friends say that coins with good fundamentals do not fluctuate enough. If you don't use leverage or trade high-risk tokens, there may be no opportunity. In that case, it is recommended not to exceed 10% of your disposable assets.

5. Most of the reasons are actually understood by everyone and do not need my extra words. It's just hard to do, just like losing weight.

I wish everyone knows and acts on it.