The way I like to consider web3 involves reflecting technical distinctions which divide the sector as a whole into different segments.
I try to avoid ‘pop speak’ which focuses on froth, branding, hype and other things.
‘Bitcoin’ is a specific ‘brand’, so I often avoid talking directly about it, preferring to talk notionally about a segment that bitcoin and maybe others, can fit into.
When I try to write sensibly about a segment for Bitcoin, some folk usually wade in, and try to find reasons why other coins don’t belong in this segment, so BTC has a segment all to itself.
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I don’t see this as reasonable. It’s ‘pop speak’. It’s ‘brand’ talk.
I also don’t like the phrase ‘altcoin’, because it doesn’t make a technical clarification on what it actually is.
‘alt’ is short for ‘alternative’ ,
As Bitcoin was the only established cryptocurrency for some time, anything else that came along shortly afterwards, began to be called ‘altcoin’ regardless of widely varying architectures and tokenomics.
‘altcoin’ just began to mean ‘NOT Bitcoin’
To bring it out into open spaces outside cryptoworld lets use Hyundai as an example to show that ‘NOT<brand>’ as a segment is insane.
Is this ‘NOTHyundai’ a refrigerator? a TV? a car? a tracks excavator? a battery? We don’t know.
Deciding some things need to be classified together simply because they are not something else isn’t rational.
Another phrase that doesn’t make much sense to me is ‘memecoin’.
Adhering to a logo identity and referencing the logo for promotional value is all very fine, but it doesn’t tell you what the product is.
Entertainers, musicians and sports clubs have fashion lines/merch. But a scarf, cap, jersey leather goods and fragrances are different things.
If I stroll on the road with only a ‘merch’ (merchandise branded) track pants or ‘downs’ and am otherwise naked, people may think I am a bit weird, but it will pass.
If I stroll on the road with only a jersey or shirt with a meme logo, and am otherwise naked, I will probably get arrested.
While meme-inspired crypto products may appear to differ only in their logo or avatar designs, their underlying nature and purpose should take precedence in product definition. The meme itself serves as a promotional layer, driving attention and community engagement, but it is not the core essence of the product.
For example, if we take Bitcoin, Dogecoin and Shiba Inu – Dogecoin and Shiba Inu memetheatrics are based on exactly the same species of dog.
The similarity however ends there
Shiba Inu are just ERC 20 tokens off Ethereum… though later, the ‘ecosystem’ developed its own PoS, off which it separately has two coins, leash and bone.
ERC 20 tokens are not decentralized, and are generated off a tool called a ‘smart contract’ connected to a cryptographic structure, which might not even be a blockchain. There are also products with a ‘smart contract’ type construct off the Solana blockchain, such as ‘Dog Wif Hat’ ($WIF). The only ‘coin’ in the whole Solana Ecosystem is SOL.
However, the generation of $DOGE off the Dogecoin blockchain is far closer to the release of BTC from the Bitcoin blockchain in nature, than it is to the generation of $SHIB, as an ERC 20 token, or similar things connected to Solana like $WIF.
A Dogecoin has a minor currency called ‘SHIBES’ which follow a similar construct in how Satoshis comprise a Bitcoin. Doginal inscriptions exist for Dogecoin as Ordinals do for Bitcoin
Neither ERC 20 tokens, nor similar tokens off Solana can do this.
The phrase ‘memecoin’ is a bit of a misnomer, because besides Dogecoin ($DOGE), none of these are coins at all.
What really belongs where?
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