The BlockchainGov Newsletter #17 | January Monthly Report
Welcome back to BlockchainGov's monthly newsletter!
The first month of 2025 is gone and it already feels like so much happened. The global situation is rapidly mutating with Donald Trump's second term at the White House and the crypto sphere is part of this re-alignment. As many blockchain projects plead their support to the new US president, this month saw the Ethereum Foundation in a fight for hegemony between the more "degen" faction and the old leadership.
Meanwhile, our research team returned to work, motivated to conclude their PhD dissertation theses due by the end of the year.
As so much is happening, this issue is dedicated to research artifacts that can help navigate the current moment, and sensemaking the rapid rhythm of events!
I. Research Focus: What is a memecoin?
Donald Trump releasing a memecoin is one of the top news of the month. Our team discussed internally what is a memecoin and we decided to share on our social channels some of the outputs of this discussion.
We start with an anarchic reading of memecoins: Think of memecoins as DDoS attacks on state monetary control. Decentralized swarms of capital using virality and humor to creatively disrupt traditional financial power structures
Furthermore, memecoins capitalize on the shared cultural context created by the virality of memes. The memecoin has always a meaning attached to it attracting people to buy it. Could it be used for community-making rather than short-term speculation?
On a more critical note, one can interpret memecoins as artifacts of late-stage capitalism. Speculating on collective humor and creativity, they create financial assets purely fueled by FOMO and network effects. They represent a pure form of commodification
Moreover, to further focus on this phenomenon we recommend you to read our Article of the Week: "The Rise of Blockchain Egregores" by Primavera de Filippi, Morshed Mannan, and Wessel Rijers, published in 2022.
The article explores how memecoins have evolved from jokes into powerful market forces through the concept of "egregores" - thought-forms manifested by the collective imagination. Starting with Dogecoin reaching an $88B market cap in 2021, these currencies have created strong communities that influence markets and even billionaires like Elon Musk.
Cryptocurrencies like Shiba Inu have grown through community engagement, airdrops, and memetic marketing. The phenomenon represents a cultural shift, challenging traditional finance by combining humor with serious market impact. The article questions whether the crypto communities control these egregores, or if these collective thought-forms have taken on a power of their own in reshaping the financial landscape. Read the article here. We also suggest this great piece by Daniele Allene commenting on the recent developments on the Atlantic.
II. What Are We Reading
The AI We Deserve - Evgeny Morozov examines how AI's development has been shaped by market-driven efficiency goals, arguing for an alternative vision based on "ecological reason" Drawing on historical examples from Latin America and the concept of "eolithism," he advocates breaking AI free from corporate control to serve broader social purposes.
The longue durée of extraterritoriality and global capital - This article examines how extraterritoriality - the exercise of jurisdiction by one state within another's territory - has evolved alongside changing concepts of sovereignty, from Italian city-states to modern floating micro-sovereignties. Part of a special issue on "Theorising Special Territorial Status and Extraterritoriality" that explores the complex relationship between sovereignty, territory and jurisdiction in our globalized world. Relevant for all the Network States nerds.
OpenAI Furious DeepSeek Might Have Stolen All the Data OpenAI Stole From Us - A pointed critique of OpenAI's complaints about DeepSeek potentially using distillation techniques to learn from GPT models, highlighting the irony given OpenAI's own history of training on copyrighted content without permission.
Protocolism: The Evolving Landscape of Art in the Age of AI - Primavera de Filippi Introduces the concept of "Protocolism," an emerging artistic movement where artists create protocols that guide the production of artworks by both humans and AI. The article explores how this challenges traditional notions of authorship, copyright, and creativity in the digital age, suggesting a new framework for understanding artistic collaboration between humans and machines.
Thanks for reading BlockchainGov's January roundup - we'll be back next month!