1/ People that don't understand the pudgy pengus don't understand the power of mimetic desire & in-group signaling
If there are people that you respect and want to be 'accepted' in their group, you'll likely mimic their behaviors & actions
2/ Mimetic desire is baked into our brains, as an evolutionary mechanism to belong to a group in order to maximize survival
In our modern society, this is reflected in literally 90% of our actions & behaviors: our hobbies, our clothing, our slang
All to belong
3/ For all pfps, there's a sense of signaling. It's the combination of two reasons why ppl are saying that pfp projects are pumping: flexing & community.
Flexing = ur signaling outwardly of being a part of an exclusive group
Community = u reap the benefits of being in the group
4/ Punks = you signal you're either a crypto og or you have a lot of money (like @sc)
Apes = you reap the benefits of a great bottom-up community: meetups, merch drops, derivative art + now it's become a flex as well (see below)
6/ If there are people that you admire - whether it be protocol devs that build cool shit or altcoin traders that are worth 7-8 figures, you want to MIMIC what they do
And before pfps, that used to be copy trading or tinkering on side projects, but now it's aping into a pengu
7/ Having a pengu says loud and clear "hey, i'm a degen too! im a builder! im not just another nft ape, i've been aping since defi summer or even the ico 2017 bubble!"
And that garners a level of respect from the ppl that you admire
1/ It's finally dawning on me that NFTs unlock the next level of degeneracy. One that is:
✅community-driven
✅internet-native in its social sharing/virality
✅has individual utility baked in
And the next wave of innovation will be to feed this degeneracy
Ser, this is a casino
2/ Community-driven
Everything comes down to in-group signaling - it's baked into our evolutionary need to belong to a tribe in order to survive
NFTs (esp pfp projects) show that you have shared ownership in a community of peers
2/ First growing pain: getting voter active participation
some DAOs' progress grinded to a halt due to voter apathy - something that's endemic in any pure democracy (see: Ancient Greece, modern day Switzerland)
1/ ETHcc takeaway #2: NFTs and DeFi are rapidly colliding together
NFTs have seen a resurgence since its peak earlier this year led by new pfp projects like BAYC, generative art like @artblocks_io, 1/1s like @Ghxsts
And I don't need to restate the crazy punk pump today lol
2/ Now NFT holders are facing the same problems that early crypto holders xp'd, esp those who have a big portion of their net worth in digital assets:
+ how do i get liquidity for my holdings
+ how get i get value generated from my NFTs
that's where the power of defi comes in
3/ liquidity
NFTs are illiquid assets. @nftx and @NiftyMuseum created pools that basically tokenized NFTs 4 easier buying selling + swapping
@genie_xyz takes it 1 step further: an aggregator for NFTs, routing to any liquidity source - even os or fnd - for the best order fill
2/ For context, there are 9 1/1 Cool Cats that exist — of which 7 are already owned by existing cat holders
Of the two that aren't released yet (the devil cat, and the golden lucky cat), the Cool Cats team will give them away to the community
3/ These cats fetch the prize of 50+ ETH. Winning 1 would be life-changing for some (me)
I put together a proposal that could simultaneously:
+ give some1 life-changing money
+ ensure the lucky cat is a focal point of the community
+ make sure the cat has exposure to the world