- Concerns about memecoins hurting the crypto sphere have recently increased.
- Solana’s co-founder, Raj Gokal, responds with a playful jab.
- However, Solana’s Gokal response comes with a twist.
Memecoins have recently emerged as one of the best-performing subsectors in the crypto industry despite their admitted lack of utility beyond being ‘for the memes.’ The asset class has confidently outpaced leading tokens with its performance by comfortably registering over 10x gains and tempting investors to participate in hopes of quick profits.
With memecoins taking over the spotlight, many of the industry’s leaders expressed their concerns about the asset class’s impact on the crypto’s long-term vision, sharing it was driving developers away. Solana’s co-founder Raj Gokal, on the other hand, argues otherwise.
Solana’s Raj Gokal Punches Back
While industry leaders piled on the rise of memecoins, Solana’s Raj Gokal stepped into the ring to challenge recent concerns about the subsector driving developers away.
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Sneering at an earlier post made by A16z’s CTO Eddy Lazzarin, Solana’s Raj Gokal didn’t hold back. Sharing a picture featuring Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin in a furry costume, Gokal retorted, “May I remind you about the “serious builder” who set all of this work in motion?”
The Solana co-founder brushed off the idea that memecoins drove serious builders away. According to him, anyone who’s rattled by how the younger generation chooses to use permissionless systems to have fun wasn’t cut out for the crypto industry.
However, Gokal’s defense comes with a twist, especially considering Solana’s recent infestation of racist memecoins.
Solana: A Hub for Racist Memecoins?
Solana has recently emerged as a bustling hub for memecoins, with many leading tokens like Dogwifhat and BOME hosted on the network. Experts suggest that much of SOL’s success can be attributed to the rising number of memecoin traders flocking to the protocol, especially considering over 20,000 new coins are minted daily.
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However, while Solana’s network growth has exploded this year thanks to memecoins, it has also taken a darker twist with the proliferation of bigoted memecoins. Slur-laden coin tickers and stereotyped imagery have become distressingly common on Solana DEXs, highlighting the double-edged sword of decentralization principles like censorship resistance and permissionlessness.
While Gokal argues for allowing young people to ‘have fun,’ Austin Federa, Head of Strategy at the Solana Foundation, offered an interesting perspective on the racist memecoin problem at a recent conference. He proposed that wallet developers be allowed to implement a “block list” feature, allowing users to filter out tokens containing offensive language.
Making an analogy to the internet, Federa explained, “It's unreasonable to expect an internet service provider (ISP) to filter out content that some might find offensive, he said. After all, the internet, like crypto, operates on a largely permissionless basis.”
"No one expects Verizon to have a legal obligation to prevent a phishing email from landing in your inbox or to prevent you from accessing something that is potentially racist material," he said.
Federa emphasized that Solana is all on the application level. It’s wallets making decisions about the content they want to show and display.
On the Flipside
- The memecoin frenzy has brought technical strains to the Solana blockchain. The influx of high-volume transactions associated with meme coins led to network congestion, contributing to a high failure rate of transactions.
- ZachXBT, a well-known blockchain investigator, uncovered that at least 12 Solana-based memecoins were abandoned over the past month. These projects raised about $26.7 million from investors before developers took off with the money.
Why This Matters
While it is true that memecoins can shape how the public perceives the crypto industry, Raj Gokal presents an intriguing perspective on the decentralized principles of blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies.
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