There are many projects in cryptoshpere that has no real utility. Then there are others that did not have a fair launch (sometimes due to regulatory reasons). ICOs and memecoins are not solutions to these problems. Instead, they act as an equalizing force. Venture Capital often buy into projects (many of them do have utility) at dirt cheap prices and then make them accessible to the general public at very high price points. ICOs at least offer a chance for anyone to invest anything (including vaporware and scams).

Memecoins lead by DOGE are more fun communities that does not pretend to change the world or even offer utility. These have been a grift for some time. I remember DOGE in 2017 (where I bought and sold at a profit) and it was one of the friendliest communities in cryptosphere. At the time, the obsession on the price was not that high.

@brianphobos made a DHF Proposal use memes to promote HIVE. It is more on the edgy side of things. I am not an expert on memes and I would rather focus on projects that have some utility and a real business. That does not mean I am oblivious to the opportunities and marketing potential that is in memecoins.

GIFU Has Made Some Good Moves

If some picture can get multi billion dollar valuation around a Token, why can't GIFs do the same? I am not pushing for the labour theory of value. I completely reject such nonsensical ideologies. What I am saying is that GIFs are more expressive and capable of invoking a sense of movement in a way static images cannot. Anything a static image can do, a GIF is capable of the same job.

$GIFU is a deflationary meme-tility token built on Binance smart chain founded by our very own @raymondspeaks, a respected hiver with a blueprint of success across the hive blockchain; he's the founder of Man Cave and the brain behind one of the top performing hive engine tokens, Bro, not forgetting LGN and Cine which are also part of his impact on the hive.

Unlike BRO, LGN and CINE which are built on Hive Engine, $GIFU, on the other hand, is built on Binance smart contracts (BSC). The core reasoning behind this was to implement a "tax" on transactions. When trading on BSC, 3% of every transaction is taxed, with 1% being permanently burned and 2% allocated to further development of the project.

The GIFs I have seen so far are from @stickupboys. They have already figured out the art of making GIFs for various HIVE projects. They are the perfect people for this job. They have 1.1K GIF uploads on GIPHY. They have a Tenor account for those who prefer it.

Insights from Google Trends

Unfortunately, most of the internet searches go through Goggle instead of Brave Search and other privacy friendly alternatives. The silver lining is that it is possible for us to gain insights into the interests of all those billions of Google users. Keep in mind that Google should be able to manipulate these numbers if they decide to.

One fact I missed at the first viewing is that the difference between the peak of "bitcoin" vs "crypto" and "binance" was massive in 2017 when compared to 2021. Altcoins are slowly catching up. There is a wide variety of different altcoins that come in many names. It would be difficult to eclipse the search volume for BTC for a sustained period of time.

Too much focus is on "bitcoin" at the moment and it will take some time for the interest to get back into altcoins such as HIVE, SPS, LEO and even smaller projects such as GIFU. There will be a time where many Tokens with no good fundamentals get pumped. So far, most of the projects I have invested in failed to get attention of the mad crowds. @leofinance onboarding meme communities and GIFU doing its thing could help to change that.

GIFU Supporter NFT Launch

@gifu team has done a good job with the launch of the Token so far. There is a wrapped version on HIVE-Engine that I recommend trading. It is hard to go back to fees after getting used to fast 3 second transactions that are free.

Auctions + Legends Are A Success

These are best used by Whales (especially in the case of Auctions). I am unable to invest due to the harsh conditions of the bear market. These Cards themselves are relatively expensive compared to what is available on the market at similar rarity.

We should not forget the fact that Card used to be worth a lot more during the previous bull market. @splinterlands end up being the biggest part of my portfolio and my best performing asset for a period of time.

If you want to know the USD value, remove the last 3 zeroes. Currently DEC is trading below its intended soft peg of $0.001. We will eventually get close as the markets conditions improve. We know for sure that there is a real demand within HIVE. What is left for us is onboarding more users from outside.