Meme Coins Are So 2021—It’s All About Meme Chains Now

The most well-liked memes within the crypto house are again—in blockchain type. 

What Are Meme Chains?

It’s turning into simpler than ever to launch your individual blockchain—and the memes are benefiting from it. 

In latest weeks a number of new meme-themed blockchains have hit the crypto house, providing customers some lighthearted enjoyable and a short respite from the enduring crypto winter. 

Till now, most crypto meme tasks took the type of a token on a pre-existing Layer 1 chain. For instance, Shiba Inu launched as an ERC-20 token on Ethereum, and Solana received its personal canine token within the type of Samoyedcoin. The principle exception to this development has been the crypto meme progenitor, Dogecoin, which was initially created as a fork of Litecoin and lives by itself chain. 

Nonetheless, regardless of their success in going viral, these meme tasks have confronted vital hurdles. Throughout its peak, Shiba Inu mania helped the gasoline charges on Ethereum soar, dissuading new patrons and limiting the meme’s potential. Dogecoin, which speculators largely purchased by way of centralized exchanges, was less expensive to acquire however restricted by its lack of Turing completeness, that means it can not help good contracts or DeFi functions. 

The brand new wave of meme chains capitalizes on two issues: good contract interoperability and all-time low charges. After paying a small price to bridge tokens to a meme chain, customers are unrestricted in what they’ll construct or do. Low transaction charges encourage use, and extra customers carry extra builders. 

In latest weeks, a number of up-and-coming meme-themed blockchains have captured the crypto market’s consideration and generated pleasure at the same time as costs development down throughout the board. 

Dogechain 

Dogechain is a meme chain that’s bringing good contracts to Dogecoin. Marketed as a “Layer 2 for Dogecoin,” Dogechain is constructed utilizing the Polygon Edge framework. Whereas Dogechain is Ethereum-compatible, it doesn’t use ETH for its transaction charges. As a substitute, customers pays charges with both wrapped Dogecoin (wDOGE) or the chain’s native Dogechain token (DC). 

The group behind Dogechain is nameless and reportedly has no connection to Jackson Palmer, Dogecoin’s authentic creator who has since distanced himself from the crypto house. On the Dogechain website, the meme chain is marketed with the tagline “NFTs, Video games, and DeFi for Dogecoin customers,” alluding to all the probabilities Dogechain’s good contract performance allows. 

Presently, a lot of the exercise on Dogechain comes within the type of wild token hypothesis that’s turned the community right into a makeshift on line casino. As a result of low-cost transaction charges and low barrier to entry, it’s straightforward to create new tokens with meme-worthy names, and even simpler to purchase them. Low ranges of liquidity imply new tokens can shortly go parabolic, netting early patrons big returns on even a modest “funding.” Nonetheless, for each winner, there’s a whole graveyard of tokens that didn’t make it, lots of them sitting 99% down from their all-time highs. 

Though most exercise on Dogechain is glorified playing, adoption seems to be growing. In accordance with the official Dogechain Twitter account, the community surpassed 15 million transactions on September 5 and hit an all-time high each day transaction depend of two.6 million the next day. Moreover, there are additionally hints of extra critical tasks getting concerned with Dogechain. Stablecoin protocol Frax Finance just lately launched a decentralized change on the meme chain, and the Dogechain group officially endorsed it because it went reside. 

As a meme, Doge has an extended historical past courting again over a decade and has turn out to be a mainstay of Web tradition. Dogecoin’s parabolic run in 2021 reveals the explosive potential of meme cash given the proper circumstances. If curiosity in crypto picks up once more, Dogecoin and Dogechain may seize a number of consideration from newer entrants and crypto veterans alike. 

Berachain

Berachain pays homage to the continuing crypto bear market and the idea of “bearposting.” It makes use of picture derivatives of Bobo the Bear to carry its group collectively, very like Dogechain makes use of the Doge meme. Nonetheless, whereas Berachain might appear to be one other lighthearted meme on the floor, the venture is pioneering a number of improvements that might change the way in which blockchains and DeFi operate. 

Berachain differentiates itself from different meme chains by promising to carry new ranges of capital effectivity to DeFi. The venture plans to take action by way of a brand new tri-token design and a “Proof of Liquidity” idea. The three tokens within the Berachain ecosystem are a gasoline token known as BERA, the BGT governance token, and a collateralized stablecoin known as HONEY. 

In accordance with the Berachain team, the rationale behind having separate tokens is the idea {that a} decentralized financial system has three important parts which might be vital to its success: a medium to cost a unit of labor (gasoline), a medium to come back to consensus and make selections about the way forward for the community (governance token), and a medium by which in to transact by way of a standard steady denomination (stablecoin). Most current networks mix these features underneath the identical tokens, however Berachain needs to separate every one. 

By making every element separate, Berachain can implement its novel Proof of Liquidity Sybil resistance mechanism. Right here, tokens used to assist the community come to consensus are repurposed to supply liquidity all through the Berachain ecosystem whereas incomes a yield from block rewards and protocol charges. If the plan works, Berachain may set a brand new commonplace for capital effectivity and blockchain design. 

Berachain remains to be within the early phases of improvement however plans to launch its first incentivized testnet quickly. Though the chain is being constructed utilizing the Cosmos software program developer package and makes use of the Tendermint consensus mechanism, its builders are promising it will likely be Ethereum-compatible and have full cross-chain interoperability. 

Separate from its tokenomic improvements, Berachain has garnered a number of consideration in crypto circles. The venture’s Discord server has attracted over 60,000 members, with many aiming to make it onto Berachain’s unique “Honeylist.” Not a lot is thought about what a spot on the Honeylist grants or what hopefuls can do to get on it, however some have speculated that it’ll grant early entry to the Berachain testnet or different advantages. 

Kekchain 

Final up is Kekchain—a meme chain devoted to the satirical faith primarily based across the worship of the traditional Egyptian frog God Kek. The meme was first conjured up on the imageboards of 4chan, the place posters famous a similarity between Kek and the favored meme character Pepe the Frog created by Matt Furie. 

Kekchain harnesses the meme energy of Pepe and its derivatives, similar to Peepo and Apu Apustaja. Discovering viral success as early as 2008, Pepe rivals Doge in its widespread recognition throughout the Web. Nonetheless, the meme’s adoption by some far-right circles has damage its fame in recent times. 

Like Berachain, Kekchain can also be in its pre-launch part however has launched its native KEK token as an ERC-20 on Ethereum. Moreover, the venture has additionally launched its personal .kek area title service akin to Ethereum Title Service’s .eth domains. When the Kekchain mainnet launches later this yr, its builders plan emigrate KEK over from Ethereum so it may be used to pay transaction charges. Kekchain is presently working a testnet the place customers can check out the chain and begin constructing functions. 

Regardless of its small following, Kekchain has made good progress selling itself. To this point, the KEK token has been listed on Coingecko, and ChainList has additionally added the Kekchain testnet to its roster of RPC server addresses. 

Nonetheless, the KEK token contract expenses a controversial 10% exit tax for promoting KEK on the open market. Kekchain’s builders keep the tax is important to assist develop and market the chain. Nonetheless, taking a reduce of merchants’ tokens may very well be a nasty shock for some and damage the community’s total adoption. 

Ultimate Ideas

Though meme cash—and now meme chains—have produced good-looking returns for early patrons, the dangers related to a majority of these tasks are excessive. Meme tasks can sometimes soar in worth, however they’ll simply as shortly plummet, leaving those that purchased on the prime holding the bag. Moreover, many meme tasks are created by nameless groups, that means that it is extremely tough to carry anybody accountable for them. This will increase the chance of tasks “pulling the rug” on token holders by stealing funds, dumping tokens, or abandoning the venture. Anybody considering of exploring any meme chains or tasks discovered of their ecosystems ought to do their very own analysis and perceive the dangers concerned.

Disclosure: On the time of scripting this piece, the writer owned ETH and a number of other different cryptocurrencies. The data contained on this article is for academic functions solely and shouldn’t be thought-about funding recommendation.