Base, Coinbase's layer 2 solution, is often admonished by crypto natives for its lack of degeneracy. Yet, by every conceivable metric, Base's growth has been meteoric, to say the least. I say this as someone outspoken about my disdain for the centralization and unabiding love Coinbase has shown the government. With nearly $2.7B bridged to their network, it's safe to say that Base is killing it.
However, I agree that Base has lacked a certain level of unhinged behavior that provokes the crypto bros and gets funds flowing into the chain. That said, if an L2 is equipped to achieve this goal, it is Base. Unlike most other solutions, Base has no network token. Instead, users can bridge and use $ETH natively as a utility.
Where's the meme?
While there have been a few exceptions, such as $DEGEN, $BRETT, and $HIGHER, the meme culture on Base has been decidedly lackluster. Without a doubt, most of this cycle's action has taken place on self-proclaimed Ethereum killer Solana. Thanks in part to the popularity of the crypto casino that is pump(dot)fun, Solana has seen immense growth not only in attention but also in token value. While most pumpfun tokens inevitably go to zero, degens (and liquidity) abound. Add to that Solana's near-free transactional capabilities and immense speed, and you will have the perfect environment for this type of high-risk game.
Meanwhile, Ethereum has struggled to outperform USD inflation this cycle. Objectively, keeping your money in a Chase CD would have been better than holding Ethereum. While legendary memes have proliferated on Ethereum's mainnet (see: Pepe, Shiba Inu, Floki, etc.), the shift in focus is readily apparent. Base, however, offers benefits similar to those of Solana while remaining native to the chain ecosystem with the most overall liquidity.
The trenches
The "trenches" is a colloquialism coined by the most redacted, left-curve-coded degenerate gamblers in the crypto space. They attribute their efforts in PVP trading to the warfare customary in World War I. Because, naturally, sitting at your computer and turbo-gambling high-risk assets is the same as getting suffocated by German mustard gas before you get your head blown clean off by the Austro-Hungarian Armed Forces. Same thing, really.
To outsmart your opponent in the trenches requires a keen sense of the prisoner's dilemma one places oneself in when entering this arena. Knowing full well that you are deep within Schrödinger's Box and could, at any moment, become the victim of a rug pull.
While several launchpads have propagated across the various L2s, including Base, none have captured the sensibilities of the degen, nor have they appropriately employed the necessary vibe capital to attract those who would play such games of frivolity—until now, that is.
Wow...
Zora is a once-popular but since-waning onchain visual media platform that enables users to pay a few cents to like and collect each other's NFTs. Recently, they launched a mechanism that adds speculative financialization to the platform. After a certain number of mints, a piece is automatically deployed as an ERC20 token to Uniswap. This enables collectors to capture instant liquidity for their works and instantiates a free market around the piece.
Yesterday, November 6, 2024, Zora stealth-launched a new product even more entrenched in speculation.
Wow.xyz is Zora's answer to PumpFun. Developed for the Base ecosystem, Wow enables anyone to deploy any token they can dream of quickly, hence the clever name they’ve coined: “dreamcoins,” a play on memecoins.
The system works similarly to PumpFun. A token is placed upon a bonding curve. After roughly 80% of the supply is purchased, a Uniswap pool is automatically deployed using the collected Ether against the remaining supply of tokens.
The twist here is that the platform is highly aesthetic. While it employs some of the same visual mechanics, a clear delineation adheres to Zora's "tastemaker" vibe.
The top trending tokens quickly reached hundreds of thousands, even millions, in market cap—driven mainly by insiders and OGs on Farcaster. Since then, hundreds of new tokens have been deployed, and attention and excitement have grown.
Based
Despite the speculative, casino-like nature of this new platform, Wow should appeal to the hardcore Base crowd, who often deem themselves as above the bullshit antics played on other chains (spoiler: they're not). And let's be honest - Base has been thirsting for its "degen moment" since launch. Between Coinbase's regulatory-pilled approach and the chain's squeaky-clean image, the ecosystem has been missing that crucial ingredient that makes crypto degens foam at the mouth.
Wow.xyz might be that missing piece. It's the perfect combo: Zora's tastemaker aesthetic meets PumpFun's degen economics, all wrapped up in Base's Ethereum-native packaging. For the Solana refugees tired of getting rugged on PumpFun but still chasing that sweet volatility high, Base's regulatory moat and Coinbase backing might be enough hopium to make them ape in.
The real question isn't whether Base needed this - it's whether this is the catalyst that finally bridges the gap between "respectable" L2 and degen playground. With Wow.xyz, Base isn't just choosing violence - it's choosing sophisticated violence.
Will you be early or let your galaxy brain force you to fade gen wealth again, anon?
