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memes aren't the only meta.

a peek at some of the best things in crypto you probably don't know about

Sparkz

Sparkz

Aloha gang, it’s Jacy!

It’s been a minute since my last writeup and I’ve been meaning to get another one together for a while, but all the AI agents I asked to write it for me were busy launching tokens.

So I’m pulling up from the trenches to share some projects that I’m excited about and I think are worth looking into.

Unsurprisingly, a lot of these are built on Base. It’s by far the chain I spend the most amount of time on these days - and it’s home to a large, thriving community of builders. I’m constantly in awe of the sheer volume of consumer apps, games, products, etc. that ship on Base daily. 

Also, this goes without saying, but NFA DYOR XYZ. 

This isn’t a shill. It’s just a shortlist of projects that I genuinely think are doing interesting stuff. In a very crowded market for attention these teams have built something that caught my eye and I think is worth sharing. 

Alright, on to the list: 

Stoke Fire: 

I’ll be honest with you, despite seeing Stoke Fire repeatedly on my timeline for quite some time now, I really had no idea what it was. And it’s a bull market … so I kinda didn’t care. Shiny things everywhere, on to the next, you know the deal. 

Then one day, after realizing I was in a group chat with the founder Noah Bragg, I listened to a podcast interview he did with another friend, Gramajo - which I highly recommend you check out.

My curiosity was instantly piqued. 

I learned that Noah is a prolific builder. Stoke Fire is his latest endeavor, but he also founded Poolfish, a tool suite targeted at crypto LPs, and started and sold a couple other bootstrapped businesses in the web2 space. 

Stoke Fire is an onchain game where you gather resources, raid your friends, and ‘stoke the fire’ to grow your village. 

It’s currently invite-only and the invites are highly coveted. I scored one from siadude, who’s not only a homie, but a Top 5 ranked player on the leaderboard 🙌🏼 

He gave me a quick tutorial and I was off to the races.

The game itself is really well done. For starters, it’s an actual app you DL from the app store (no offense to anyone building PWA). 

The game play is incredibly sticky. 

Not in the “I’m addicted and it’s sucking up all my bandwidth” kind of way, but in the “perfect blend of simple strategy and won’t take up too much of my time” kind of way. The graphics and UI are also really fun, and the UX is smooth and intuitive. 

You can read the game mechanics on the site, but I will say it’s really simple and quite fun.

There is a tiny bit of an up front investment. You need some Base ETH for gas, plus about $20 worth of $FIRE to run tasks in your village. [Don’t let the price of $FIRE scare you - Noah’s great about keeping the cost to run tasks flexible and pegged as close to $1 as possible and your $20 should be more enough to get rolling].

Your goal is simple - to have the most productive and thriving village while fending off competitor villages from stealing your goods. 

You earn rewards - in ETH - proportionate to your success. 

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If you wanna get started, all active players get 3 new invites a week. You can scan Noah’s “Most Active Players” Starter Pack or feel free to slide into the DMs for one of mine - but fair warning, I’m only giving them to folks who are committed to playing for a few days so I can get my kickback. No seriously, don’t make me be this gal: 

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CastOut:

Hosted by the loveliest ladies on the purple app, Nounish Prof & Adrienne, CastOut is GM Farcaster’s version of Survivor or Crypto: The Game. 

Last season, 16 Farcaster OGs battled to wear the CastOut Season 0 crown. They began on teams - competing in online games like Yoink and Oregon Trail, testing their social capital strength with viral polls and meme competitions, and backstabbing alliances until only the mighty Toady Hawk remained. 

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This season, I’m throwing my degen hat in the ring and will be playing alongside some of Burr Frens’ finest poker players for a huge pool of crypto prizes.

I don’t know what they’ve got in store for us, but I think we’ve got a pretty solid team with a good shot at winning. Plus, we're poker players, so ya know ... hyper competitive and kinda sharks.

You can follow along at GM Farcaster and pick your winning team on Bracket Game. Just know it’s all onchain so we can see who you’re rooting for 😉


AlgoHan:

I kinda wanna keep this one under wraps because the more eyes on it, the higher the odds are of me getting sniped. But I’m feeling generous and Han deserves all the love. Plus, these mints don’t come without friction.

Han is an OG creator who released CryptoCubes in 2020. He’s a low-key legend followed on X and Farcaster by the likes of Deeze, Ripcache, Jack Butcher, and a ton of crypto artists.

In short, he’s a chad.

Han stuck around building in the bear and fast forward to 2024, he started dropping some mysterious mints on Farcaster in mid-October. The first cast said merely:

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I immediately minted, because well, Han. But also - I love everything about this. 

DEGEN tip-to-mint means not only do you need to be on Farcaster, but you also need to have a tipping allowance. Right off the bat this is going to be an exclusive club of minters.

I didn’t even know what the mints were about. And tbh, I still kinda don’t. I just know that Han has said he’s building an AI bot and that full set holders of all 100 stories (mints)  would get … [something]. 

The ‘stories’ are editions of /100 and the next one doesn’t launch until the prior one has minted out completely.

Lastly, before you ape in, you should know that:

  1. You’ll need to be a full set holder and the only way to mint is either with DEGEN tips or to market buy

  2. The costs of the mints increase. The first 10 were 100 DEGEN, the next 10 jumped to 200 DEGEN. I’m not sure if we’ll continue to see the same increment jumps for all 100 mints, but it does seem that only those with higher DEGEN allos will be able to participate via tipping at some point. 

I’m a full set collector so far and I’m happy to keep minting to see where this goes!

The Pledge

If you blinked this month you might’ve missed this on the timeline. It’s flown relatively under the radar compared to other token launches. And it surely hasn’t made the rounds on Farcaster, presumably because it isn’t on Base (although it’s on ETH mainnet, so technically Base-adjacent).

The TLDR here is:

  • $PLEDGE is a memecoin allocated to a select group of 900 people who vow never to sell more than 1% of their allocation each month and tweet once a month: “I am upholding the $PLEDGE”

The idea is that by publicly upholding the vow - no matter the price of $PLEDGE - we (the pledgers) form a verifiably trustworthy group of individuals. 

The list of pledgers, along with our wallets and socials, will be made publicly available upon launch. We’re getting 90% of the initial allocation, and we all pitched in to fund the liquidity pool. 

The project is 100% community created, driven, and run - and it’s an amazing group of people. A lot of the early team appear to be OG Punks who were looking for something that wasn’t pure grift or extraction.

I was invited by a friend, who had to personally vouch for me. My reputation was scrupulously vetted via socials, and I was manually approved for discord. It felt like online cult initiation. 

I’m not sure where this will go, but we’re already getting allowlist to some cool projects, the community has good energy, and it’ll be fun to track price action given the fact we’ve all sworn ourselves to not selling. The airdrop is happening tomorrow (12.5.24) so we’ll soon find out …

AlfaFrens:

I’ve been shilling AlfaFrens on the timeline recently - and it’s not just because I’m on the consulting team that’s leading comms & marketing for their upcoming V2 launch. 

I’m actually a longtime fan and user of the app and am genuinely excited to help take the app to the next level. 

AlfaFrens is a fun place for users to create a private channel to chat with followers. And it’s not just for KOLs and influencers. Some of my fave follows are everyday people chatting about niche content in their area of expertise.

AF is a product of SuperFluid, and utilizes their innovative streaming token technology. What that means is, if you’re a creator, name your price and you get paid by your subs in real time every second.

On the flipside, it’s a great way for subscribers to get access to specialized content or to chat with people you might otherwise not be able to connect with. And because you pay by the second, you only pay for what you use. 

Plus, subbing earns you ALFA, which will be converted 1:1 for $AF in the upcoming TGE 👀

I can’t say too much about what the team’s got cooking, but you can follow AlfaFrens on Farcaster and X to stay up to speed. You might also wanna keep tabs on SuperFluid. Word on the street is they’re “gearing up for something big” too.

Oh, and if you’re enjoying this writeup, I welcome you to join my AlfaFrens channel where I tend to share this kinda stuff in real time.

Ok I think that’s a lot for one writeup, but I did wanna give some micro shoutouts to some other things that have been taking up headspace for me lately:

  • AIXBT: This scrappy little AI agent is quickly becoming my favorite crypto twitter KOL. It's sharp and quick with the ratios and recently began rage-burning the tokens it accidentally deployed with another agent. But mostly it's a fun and quick way to stay informed on larger token narratives in the space without needing to spend hours researching. It improves daily on signal-to-noise and is becoming my go-to daily digest for what's eating mindshare.

  • GDUPI: I’m not trynna shill any memecoins, but I truly think Yonfrula’s GDUPI token is so much more than a meme. I’m happy to support a hardworking and talented artist like Yon and just vibe with a fun and passionate community. Plus, I mean ... just look at this chart 🤯

    • FUN FACT: As one of the first true artcoins, GDUPI has bridged the gap with collectors ranging from art lovers to everyday degens to the big guys like PROXY, Mike from Rainbow, BitFloorsGhost and Deeze. The kicker? The quant AIXBT approves:

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  • Burr Frens Poker: If you’re on Farcaster, love playing poker, and importantly - have great vibes - come join us at Burr Frens poker!! Hosted by Burrrrrberry the poker queen, all games are free to play and prizes are awarded in Base tokens of all sorts, but mostly DEGEN and tn100x (aka Ham)! 

    • BONUS: Burr Frens is one of this month’s Degen Pad recipients, so if you’ve got DEGEN or HAM tips to spare, donate them via Degen Pad to Burr Frens and earn $DPAD!! Great way to reward yourself in support of the club!!

  • Frens Alpha: Frens is a fun social trading group chat app. It’s kinda like if Telegram and Interface had a baby. Chat with your friends about tokens, post the CA and see who's buying high and selling low 😜

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That’s all for now, if you enjoyed this writeup, feel free to pass it along and come say hi on Farcaster!

Mac BudkowskiFarcaster
Mac Budkowski
Commented 5 months ago

You know someone who writes and might want to join our contest? Tag them below and share link to your fav post by them to get some DEGEN (rain 10000 $degen)

Mac BudkowskiFarcaster
Mac Budkowski
Commented 5 months ago

ps: huge thanks to @jacek for supporting the contest :)

Shazam 🇵🇸Farcaster
Shazam 🇵🇸
Commented 5 months ago

@0xmugiwaraanas hop in show them some cool writings ✍️

misha  🪨Farcaster
misha 🪨
Commented 5 months ago

maybe @gokhan.eth 👆🏼

Gökhan TurhanFarcaster
Gökhan Turhan
Commented 5 months ago

cheers, i'll check this!

FeMMieFarcaster
FeMMie
Commented 5 months ago

@koedy get in

Panji 🟡 ⌐◨-◨Farcaster
Panji 🟡 ⌐◨-◨
Commented 5 months ago

@gramajo.eth has unique writing skill! https://warpcast.com/gramajo.eth/0x467d069c

MikadoFarcaster
Mikado
Commented 5 months ago

@jacy you might want to check this out

sparkzFarcaster
sparkz
Commented 5 months ago

this is awesome, thx for sharing mikado! 100 $DEGEN

MikadoFarcaster
Mikado
Commented 5 months ago
Dvyne🎩Farcaster
Dvyne🎩
Commented 5 months ago

My brother writes irl, i brought him on here too @patoski Will share some work below

Dvyne🎩Farcaster
Dvyne🎩
Commented 5 months ago
Dvyne🎩Farcaster
Dvyne🎩
Commented 5 months ago
Dragonite.eth 🎩🥇✍️Farcaster
Dragonite.eth 🎩🥇✍️
Commented 5 months ago

@superbuu.eth is a fantastic writer ✍️

Lisa bell 🎩Farcaster
Lisa bell 🎩
Commented 5 months ago
sparkzFarcaster
sparkz
Commented 5 months ago

Han is back, minting pieces from his algo collection via degen tips only. not entirely sure what’s in store, but it’s got elements of art + AI so i’m in. did a brief write up on it a while back if you’re curious: https://paragraph.xyz/@futureproof/memes-arent-the-only-meta

Terry BainFarcaster
Terry Bain
Commented 5 months ago

/microsub tip: 🍖x682

3d1tFarcaster
3d1t
Commented 5 months ago

Tipped: 682 Today's Allocation: 4313 Total Tipped Today: 682 Remaining Allocation: 3631 Balance: 4369 Ham Score: 2 Rank: 77

Spaceman Spiff 🎩🍖Farcaster
Spaceman Spiff 🎩🍖
Commented 5 months ago

/microsub tip: 🍖x207

3d1tFarcaster
3d1t
Commented 5 months ago

Tipped: 207 Today's Allocation: 1485 Total Tipped Today: 207 Remaining Allocation: 1278 Balance: 1861 Ham Score: 1 Rank: 419

sparkzFarcaster
sparkz
Commented 6 months ago

i have 3 invites to play /stokefire, a fun mobile app game that earns you ETH. read about in my latest newsletter and lmk if you want an invite! *pls only ask if you 100% intend to play 😊 https://paragraph.xyz/@futureproof/memes-arent-the-only-meta

ting.⌐◨-◨Farcaster
ting.⌐◨-◨
Commented 6 months ago

I want to check it out but can't guarantee I'll play every day. + @chasesommer

Jules 🎩Farcaster
Jules 🎩
Commented 6 months ago

Me

sparkzFarcaster
sparkz
Commented 6 months ago

invited. just dl the app.

Jules 🎩Farcaster
Jules 🎩
Commented 6 months ago

Thanks

SandyFarcaster
Sandy
Commented 6 months ago

Invite me

adrienneFarcaster
adrienne
Commented 6 months ago

memes aren't the only meta: a peek at some of the best things in crypto you probably don't know about Check out @jacy ‘s list “This isn’t a shill. It’s just a shortlist of projects that I genuinely think are doing interesting stuff. In a very crowded market for attention these teams have built something that caught my eye and I think is worth sharing.”

sparkzFarcaster
sparkz
Commented 6 months ago

thx for sharing 😘😘

adrienneFarcaster
adrienne
Commented 6 months ago

You're a good writer!

sparkzFarcaster
sparkz
Commented 6 months ago

ty adrienne, means a lot coming from you 🥹

sparkzFarcaster
sparkz
Commented 6 months ago

it's been a minute since I've written anything, so decided to put pen to paper and share some of my favorite (mostly) non-memecoin things that are happening (mostly) on @base. i think you'll find some hidden gems in here. featured: - @nbragg and stoke fire - @gmfarcaster and castout - @yonfrula and gdupi - @burrrrrberry and burr frens - @han.eth - @alfafrens - @frens and a couple other bonus shares. this is optimized for website viewing, but you can def read in frame if that's your thing. lemme know what ya think in the comments. are these on your radar? https://paragraph.xyz/@futureproof/memes-arent-the-only-meta

Kyle PatrickFarcaster
Kyle Patrick
Commented 6 months ago

super based

sparkzFarcaster
sparkz
Commented 6 months ago

thx kyle, gotta follow in the ambassadors footsteps 🫡

Kyle PatrickFarcaster
Kyle Patrick
Commented 6 months ago

we gotta relaunch an overpriced jpeg like media for fc at this point 😆

JasonFarcaster
Jason
Commented 6 months ago

Great piece Jacy :)

sparkzFarcaster
sparkz
Commented 6 months ago

thx jason :)

Christina BorrowLucid | ChonesFarcaster
Christina BorrowLucid | Chones
Commented 6 months ago

for sure, will read!

Christina BorrowLucid | ChonesFarcaster
Christina BorrowLucid | Chones
Commented 6 months ago

whadda i gotta do to play stoke fire?

sparkzFarcaster
sparkz
Commented 6 months ago

need an invite, some $fire, and a little base eth 😃

Jerry-d 🍖👽🎩 ↑Farcaster
Jerry-d 🍖👽🎩 ↑
Commented 6 months ago

If you’re any kind of a gamer, casual or hardcore or somewhere in between, you’d appreciate the simplicity and brilliance of stokefire. If you need an invite, I can help you get started. Let me know! 🙌🏽

PlantsFarcaster
Plants
Commented 6 months ago

Bangerrrrrs

sparkzFarcaster
sparkz
Commented 6 months ago

😃

jesse.base.eth 🔵Farcaster
jesse.base.eth 🔵
Commented 6 months ago

based

O+<  (dan/steely)Farcaster
O+< (dan/steely)
Commented 6 months ago

Awesome great read!

sparkzFarcaster
sparkz
Commented 6 months ago

thx spit!

FinnTec.eth 🎩Farcaster
FinnTec.eth 🎩
Commented 6 months ago

Siiiick 500 $degen

sparkzFarcaster
sparkz
Commented 6 months ago

hey thanks bud 😊

GarrettFarcaster
Garrett
Commented 6 months ago

based

sparkzFarcaster
sparkz
Commented 6 months ago

thx garrett 😊

GeeGeeFarcaster
GeeGee
Commented 6 months ago

Great read I only didn't know two of them and now I'm glad I do through you Thank you 🍖 x 192

sparkzFarcaster
sparkz
Commented 6 months ago

awesome, hoping ppl can discover at least one new thing they like here!

GeeGeeFarcaster
GeeGee
Commented 6 months ago

Great job Love to see more if you had time 😍😍

memes aren't the only meta.