If you haven't been living under a rock, you've probably seen a reply on Farcaster (and maybe on X) mentioning '$degen' over the past month or two. If you haven't, no worries—I've got you covered.

In today’s deep dive, we’ll explore everything related to $degen, why it is more than a meme coin, how it is changing social media's power dynamics, and how you can participate (includes creators, founders, developers, collectors... This isn't just a farming token).

What is $degen?
Behind the Mechanics
Ecosystem and Integrations
Degen's Future: What's Next
Multiple Ways to Earn $degen

As always, this isn't financial advice. Always do your own research.

What is $degen?

$degen is a token powered by the Base L2 chain. It is led by Jacek, a Polish developer who launched the token on Jan 15, 2024, using Farcaster as a distribution method. Founders, developers, and content creators using the Farcaster, specifically those who interacted in specific channels and held specific Farcaster NFTs, received the original airdrop.

The token quickly caught fire as Farcaster users engaged and became curious about it. Today (March 28th, 2024), 1 degen = $0.024 (95,409.5% from its inception) occupies the #266 position on Coingecko, with over 50,000 holders and a market cap of $277M.

Behind The Mechanics

$degen isn't your typical meme coin that produces millionaires out of thin air. Let's review some innovations that are currently reshaping crypto and social media.

The First Airdrop

I already mentioned what I believe was the first innovation: the airdrop. By airdropping it to active Farcaster users, $degen got in the hands of active (duh) people. This made the token stand out in feeds and have a solid wave of early supporters. In addition, the tokenomics were sound (more on this later), with a clear strategy that guaranteed sustainability, room for experimentation, and a commitment from the founding team.

This sort of airdrop mechanic (using Farcaster open stats and social graph) is becoming more popular day-to-day. For example, I'm getting NFTs and token airdrops on a daily basis—some worthless, some not—thanks to the Farcaster social graph.

The Tipping Friendzy

For the second airdrop distribution, the team announced a tipping system. Users received a daily allocation of points to gift (1 point = 1 degen), with the goal of rewarding top content via $degen. Anyone who connects a wallet to Farcaster and casts at least three times receives an allowance and is eligible to receive tips.

Edit: You need to have 10,000 $degen in your wallet to be eligible for an allowance.

The daily allowance followed their playbook of Farcaster open stats and social graph, giving a larger sum to those with strong engagement.

To send a tip, you only need to reply to any cast with X $degen, X = the amount you would like to tip. You can check your daily allowance and received points here.

Distribution is in the people's hands. The team has moved quickly to stop farmers, spammers, and bots, ensuring strong distribution and high-quality content (with some exceptions) stands out.

Here are some initiatives that caught my attention. These are mostly related to onchain art, but there are many more in different areas.

Camille Roux runs a daily gen art contest with $degen awards.
Phil sponsored your favorite book with $degen.
Kugusha gives $degen to active members of the art community.
0xen gives back $degen to his collectors.
I've used my daily allowance to tip interesting content and conversations in my channel.

Ecosystem and Integrations

So far, it feels like a social token powered by network effects. That's cool, but is there more? Everything shared until now is just the first chapter...

The rest of this issue is for Kaloh's NFT subscription token holders.

You can learn the full list of benefits, including premium content like this one, Discord access, revenue sharing, airdrops, and more...