This article is from Jocy Lin, the founding partner of IOSG.
Recently, I happened to come across the story of Tian Xingjian. The Hundred Days’ Reform is still vivid in my mind. It is hard to imagine that in the Qing Dynasty, there were young people willing to risk their lives to follow Emperor Guangxu, advocating for the adoption of new laws that were ahead of their time by hundreds of years and learning from the West. They disregarded personal safety and promoted the study of Western legal reforms within the dynasty. Although the ultimate result was a failure, their spirit and actions left a lasting impact. These young people and pioneers became role models admired by later generations.
The spirit of these young people is equally important in today’s crypto world. Currently, many practitioners are shouting slogans against the “Western powers,” but in reality, they are engaged in mining and liquidity pool activities, constantly posting memes on Twitter. Everyone knows where the problem lies, but they compromise for immediate interests. Both the Eastern and Western crypto communities are currently caught up in the frenzy of meme hype. Meme, like opium, is an import from the West, and most of the top memes in the Chinese community come from the West. Entrepreneurs and community builders can easily lose their way amidst this noise, and the Eastern crypto community is deeply immersed in meme hype. Many entrepreneurs, after seeing the success of memes, begin to doubt their own entrepreneurial direction and original intentions. I believe that entrepreneurs should resist memes, should not shift their entrepreneurial focus towards memes, and should not engage in meme hype as if it were assembly line work.
We need young people who are down-to-earth and have lofty aspirations, especially those who can shoulder the ideals of the Eastern crypto community, to focus not only on trading-related activities during bull markets but also on the construction of infrastructure and protocols to create a better community atmosphere. We should not let developers and young people who aspire to start their own businesses immerse themselves in stories of getting rich through various memes every day.
I want to reiterate that I am not against traders who prioritize memes in this market. Personally, I have been involved in the community since 2013 and have always liked this community. However, I do not want meme traders to become the mainstream in the Chinese community. Since the approval of ETFs, I have clearly felt the rapid emergence of entrepreneurs in the United States and Europe. They have received abundant capital support from American funds, while some well-known American funds have internally stated that they will not invest in Chinese Web3 entrepreneurs. In the era of crypto, there seem to be significant differences and divergences between the East and the West, from technology to community. While Western technology continues to emerge, the Eastern crypto community is caught up in the frenzy of meme hype. This is clearly not a healthy development trend.
Meme hype has a certain lottery effect, with the probability of winning decreasing for latecomers. Additionally, meme addiction, like opium, can lead to path dependence for early beneficiaries, and more people act as spokespersons for memes in the community, reinforcing the emphasis on money-making. However, this does not make our technological protocols and communities more unique and powerful. Early participants may profit from it, but this short-sighted behavior, this gambling game, and the legend of getting rich will eventually lead to the burst of this bubble, becoming a disaster for the Eastern crypto market, repeating the story of NFT in the previous bull market cycle. Most frontline Eastern entrepreneurs, I have always believed that they will persist in entrepreneurship, find their own pieces of Lego in infrastructure or application development, and keep pace with or even lead Western mainstream protocols.
Perhaps the crypto market should not be divided into East and West; it is a decentralized world. In the past few cycles, we have seen the similarities between Eastern and Western entrepreneurs. The success of Western entrepreneurs has reasons behind it. Rune Christensen, the founder of MakerDAO, has been involved in Web3 entrepreneurship for many years and successfully increased his protocol revenue significantly in the challenging macro high-interest rate and cryptocurrency bear market environment in the United States. In March of this year, he launched the Endgame plan and various SubDAOs, including Spark SubDAO, which focuses on lending protocols. The founder of EigenLayer had an overloaded schedule during ETHDenver, shortening each meeting to 15/30-minute units in order to personally communicate with partners. In this globally competitive market, we can see that many entrepreneurs are making breakthroughs. The founder of Uniswap, with an engineering background, self-taught Solidity and created a concise code of fifty lines, leading the industry’s innovation wave of DEX AMMs. They have always focused on product design and protocol understanding, seeking a leading position in the industry. Eastern entrepreneurs are the most resilient and powerful group, and we have also seen many outstanding individuals. However, they still need more support and feedback from the community. The Eastern community should be more united and strong, and take 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 bring more positive feedback to the protocols.
As a fund originating from Asia, IOSG will invest in and support more Chinese entrepreneurs in this cycle, helping them enter the Western market and become mainstream. It is unimaginable that the meme will still be the mainstream of this industry three to five years from now. When we are in the wave of the crypto era, everyone inevitably becomes a participant, and under the annotation of the times, everyone seems insignificant. But do not ignore the negative energy brought to the Chinese community by everyone advocating for investment in memes.
In summary, we should be more united and face future challenges together. The community needs higher ideals and foresight, and some people should 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. These 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.
