Vitalik — 除了迷因，迷因币还能做什么？
Ten years ago, two weeks before the Ethereum project was publicly announced, I published this post on Bitcoin magazine arguing that issuing coins could be a new way to fund important public projects. The thinking went: society needs ways to fund valuable large-scale projects, markets and institutions (both corporations and governments) are the main techniques that we have today, and both work in some cases and fail in others. Issuing new coins seems like a third class of large-scale funding technology, and it seems different enough from both markets and institutions that it would succeed and fail in different places - and so it could fill in some important gaps.
十年前，也就是在以太坊项目公开发布的两周前，我在比特币杂志上发表了这篇文章，主张发行代币可能成为资助重要公共项目的新途径。我的想法是：社会需要不同的途径资助大规模的项目，目前来说，市场和机构（包括企业和政府）是资助这些大规模项目的主要途径，这两种方式在某些情况下有效，在其他情况下则失败。发行代币似乎是大规模融资的第三种形式，它与上述两种方式有着足够很多的不同使得其可能弥补传统的融资方式中存在的空白。
People who care about cancer research could hold, accept and trade AntiCancerCoin; people who care about saving the environment would hold and use ClimateCoin, and so forth. The coins that people choose to use would determine what causes get funded.
Today in 2024, a major topic of discussion in "the crypto space" appears to be memecoins. We have seen memecoins before, starting from Dogecoin back in 2015, and "dog coins" were a major topic during the 2020-21 season. This time, they are heating up again, but in a way that is making many people feel uneasy, because there isn't anything particularly new and interesting about the memecoins. In fact, often quite the opposite: apparently a bunch of Solana memecoins have recently been openly super-racist. And even the non-racist memecoins often seem to just go up and down in price and contribute nothing of value in their wake.
And people are upset:
对癌症研究感兴趣的人可以持有、接受和交易 AntiCancerCoin；关心环保的人可以持有和使用 ClimateCoin，等等。 人们可以通过选择代币来将决定哪些事业获得资助。
今天，在 2024 年，“加密空间”的主要讨论话题之一似乎是 memecoins。 我们从 2015 年的狗狗币开始就见过 memecoins，例如，在 2020-21 ，Dogecoin（狗狗币）兴起的时候，”狗币”是一个热门话题。 这一次，memecoins的热度再次升温，但却是以一种让人感到不安的方式卷土重来。因为 memecoins 没有任何特别新颖或有趣的地方。 事实上，恰恰相反：最近，许多 Solana memecoins 公开宣扬种族主义。 即使是非种族主义的 memecoins 也经常只是因为价格上下波动而受到关注，并没有留下任何有价值的东西。
And people are upset:
人们很沮丧：
Even long-time Ethereum philosopher Polynya is very very unhappy:
甚至以太坊的哲学家 Polynya 也非常非常不高兴：
One answer to this conundrum is to shake our heads and virtue-signal about how much we are utterly abhorred by and stand against this stupidity. And to some extent, this is the correct thing to do. But at the same time, we can also ask another question: if people value having fun, and financialized games seem to at least sometimes provide that, then could there be a more positive-sum version of this whole concept?
对于这种复杂的问题，我们可以摇头晃脑，对这种愚蠢行为感到厌恶和反对。 在某种程度上，这样做是正确的。 但与此同时，我们也可以问另一个问题：如果人们忠于娱乐，而金融化游戏似乎至少有时能提供这种体验，那么是否有可能存在一个正和版本的memecoin概念？
Charity coins
Among the more interesting of the coins that I've seen are coins where a large portion of the token supply (or some ongoing fee mechanism) is dedicated to some kind of charity. One and a half years ago, there was a (no longer active) coin called "GiveWell Inu" that donated proceeds to GiveWell. For the past two years, there has been a coin called "Fable of the Dragon Tyrant" which supported cultural projects related to anti-aging research, in addition to other causes. Unfortunately, both of these are far from perfect: GiveWell Inu seems to no longer be maintained, and the other one has some highly annoying core community members that constantly badger me for attention, which currently makes me unenthusiastic about mentioning them more than once. More successfully, after I was gifted half the supply of the Dogelon Mars token, and immediately re-gifted it to the Methuselah Foundation, the two Methuselah Foundation and the Dogelon Mars community seemed to develop a positive-sum relationship with each other, retroactively converting $ELON into a charity coin.
It feels like there is an unclaimed opportunity here to try to create something more positive-sum and long-lasting. But ultimately, I think even that would create something fundamentally limited, and we can do better.
慈善币
在我见过的代币中，比较有趣的是其中很大一部分代币供应（或一些持续的费用机制）专门用于某种慈善事业。 一年半前，有一个名为“GiveWell Inu”（已停止维护）的代币将收益捐赠给 GiveWell。 在过去的两年里，有一个名为“Fable of the Dragon Tyrant”的代币支持与抗衰老研究相关的文化项目，以及其他事业。 不幸的是，这两者都还远远不够完美：GiveWell Inu 似乎不再维护，而另一个代币有一些非常令人讨厌的核心社区成员，他们不断骚扰我引起注意，这让我目前不愿意再提及他们。 更成功的是，在我收到一半的 Dogelon Mars 代币供应后，我立即将其重新赠送给 Methuselah 基金会，Methuselah 基金会和 Dogelon Mars 社区似乎彼此发展了一种正和关系，将 $ELON 转换成为慈善币。
感觉这里有一个待挖掘的机会来创造一些更正和、更持久的东西。 但最终，我认为即使那样也是有限的，我们其实可以做得更好。
Robin Hood games
In principle, people participate in memecoins because (i) the value might go up, (ii) they feel democratic and open for anyone to participate, and (iii) they are fun. We can siphon off a large percent of a memecoin's supply to support public goods that people value, but that does nothing for the participants directly, and indeed comes at the expense of (i), and if done poorly at the expense of (ii) too. Can we do something that instead improves on both for the average user?
The answer for (iii) is simple: don't just make a coin, make a game. But make an actually meaningful and fun game. Don't think Candy Crush on the blockchain; think World of Warcraft on the blockchain.
Robin Hood 游戏
从理论上讲，人们参与 memecoins 是因为 (i) 价值可能会上升，(ii) 他们觉得民主和开放，任何人都可以参与，(iii) 他们很有趣。 我们可以将很大一部分 memecoins 的供应用于支持人们重视的公共事业，但这对参与者本身没有任何帮助，事实上是以 (i) 为代价的，如果做得不好，也会以 (ii) 为代价。 我们能做些什么来同时为普通用户改进这两项吗？
(iii) 的答案很简单：不要只做一个代币，做一个游戏。 但要制作一个真正有意义和有趣的游戏。 不要想区块链上的糖果粉碎传奇，想想区块链上的魔兽世界。
An "Ethereum Researcher" in World of Warcraft. If you kill one, you get 15 silver 61 copper, and a 0.16% chance of getting some "Ethereum Relay Data". Do not attempt in real life.
魔兽世界上的“以太坊研究员”。 如果你杀死一个，你会得到 15 银 61 铜，以及 0.16% 的机会获得一些“以太坊中继数据”。 请勿在现实生活中尝试。
Now, what about the Robin Hood part? When I go around low-income Southeast Asian countries, one claim that I often hear is how some people or their family members were poor before, but then got medium-rich off of the play-to-earn feature in Axie Infinity in 2021. Of course, Axie Infinity's situation in 2022 was somewhat less favorable. But even still, I get the impression that if you take the game's play-to-earn properties into account, on average, the net financial gains were negative for high-income users but might (emphasis on might!) have been positive for low-income users. This seems like a nice property to have: if you have to be financially brutal on someone, be brutal on those who can handle it, but have a safety net to keep lower-income users protected and even try to make them come out better off than they came in.
那么，Robin Hood 部分呢？ 我经常在东南亚的低收入国家听到一种说法，人们提到在 2021 年，通过 Axie Infinity 的玩赚功能，一些人或他们的家人摆脱了贫困，实现了中等收入。 当然，到了 2022 年，Axie Infinity 的情况就不那么妙了。 但即便如此，我的印象是，如果考虑到游戏的玩赚属性，那么对于高收入用户来说，平均而言净财务收益可能为负，而对于低收入用户来说则可能是正的（请注意“可能”这个词）。 这似乎是个不错的特性：如果你必须在经济上对某些人残酷，那就对那些能够承受的人下手吧，同时设立安全网来保护低收入用户，甚至让他们比刚开始有着更好的生活。
Regardless of how well Axie Infinity in particular accomplished this, it feels intuitive that (i) if the goal is to satisfy people's desire to have fun, we should be making not simple copy-paste coins but rather more complicated and interesting games, and (ii) games that leave lower-income players in particular economically better off are more likely to leave their communities better than they came in. Charity coins and games could even be combined: one of the features of the game could be a mechanism where players who succeed at some task can participate in voting on which charities the issued funds are distributed to.
That said, making a genuinely fun game is a challenge - see some negative takes on how well Axie did at being fun, and this positive take on how they have improved since then. The team that I personally have the most confidence in to make fun crypto games is 0xPARC, because they have already succeeded twice (!!) at making crypto games (first Dark Forest, then FrogCrypto) where players were willing to play entirely for fun, rather than out of a desire to make money. Ideally, the goal is to make a co-created environment that leaves all players happy: money is zero sum, but fun can be positive sum.
无论 Axie Infinity 在多大程度上实现了这一点，直觉上感觉是合理的：(i) 如果目标是满足人们玩乐的欲望，那么我们应该制作更复杂、更有趣的的游戏，而不是简单的复制粘贴代币；(ii) 尤其让低收入玩家在经济上获益的游戏，更有可能让他们的社区比一开始更好。 慈善币和游戏甚至可以结合起来：游戏的功能之一可以是一种慈善机制：让完成某些任务的玩家参与投票，决定发行资金分配给哪些慈善机构。
话虽如此，制作一款真正有趣的游戏绝非易事 - 可以看看一些关于 Axie Infinity 的负面评价，以及他们自那以后取得的正面改进。 我个人最信任的能够制作有趣区块链游戏的团队是 0xPARC，因为他们已经成功制作了两款区块链游戏（分别是 Dark Forest 和 FrogCrypto），在这两款游戏中，玩家完全是为了好玩而玩，而不是为了赚钱。 理想情况下，目标是创造一个共同创造的环境，让所有玩家都感到开心：金钱是零和游戏，但乐趣可以是正和游戏。
Conclusions
One of my personal moral rules is "if there is a class of people or groups you dislike, be willing to praise at least a few of them that do the best job of satisfying your values". If you dislike governments because they violate people's freedoms, perhaps you may find space in your heart to say something good about the Swiss one. If you dislike social media platforms for being extractive and encouraging toxic behavior, but you think Reddit is 2x less bad, say nice things about Reddit. The opposite approach - to shout "yes, all X are part of the problem" - feels good in the moment, but it alienates people and pushes them further toward their own bubble where they will insulate themselves entirely from any moral appeals you might have in the future.
I think of the "degen" parts of the crypto space in the same way. I have zero enthusiasm for coins named after totalitarian political movements, scams, rugpulls or anything that feels exciting in month N but leaves everyone upset in month N+1. At the same time, I value people's desire to have fun, and I would rather the crypto space somehow swim with this current rather than against it. And so I want to see higher quality fun projects that contribute positively to the ecosystem and the world around them (and not just by "bringing in users") get more mindshare. At the least, more good memecoins than bad ones, ideally those that support public goods instead of just enriching insiders and creators. But also ideally, making games rather than coins, and making projects that people enjoy participating in.
总结
我的一条个人道德守则是“如果你不喜欢某一类人或团体，也要愿意表扬其中少数几个最符合你价值观的人”。 如果你不喜欢政府侵犯人们的自由，也许你内心深处可以找到一些赞美它的地方。 如果你不喜欢社交媒体平台因为榨取用户利益而助长不良行为，但你认为 Reddit 相对好一点，那么就表扬 Reddit。 相反的做法 - 大喊“是的，所有 X 都是问题的一部分” - 虽然当时感觉痛快，但却会疏远人们，把他们推向自己的泡泡里，让他们完全屏蔽你未来可能提出的任何道德诉求。
我以同样的方式看待加密领域的投机部分 (degen)。 我对那些以极权政治运动、骗局、地毯式拉盘 (rugpull) 命名或任何在 这个月让人兴奋，但在下一个月就让所有人都感到沮丧的代币没有任何兴趣。 与此同时，我珍视人们玩乐的欲望，我更希望加密领域能够顺应这种潮流，而不是逆流而行。 因此，我希望看到更多高质量的有趣项目，这些项目能够为整个生态系统和周围的世界做出积极贡献（而不仅仅是“吸引用户”）。 至少，我希望看到更多好的 memecoins 而不是坏的 memecoins，理想情况下应该是支持公共事业而不是仅仅让内部人员和创造者获利的 memecoins。 但最理想的是，制作游戏而不是代币，制作让人们乐于参与的项目。
原链接：
https://twitter.com/VitalikButerin/status/1773636178236895583
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