The Power of Meme: From Dogecoin to Market Manipulation

At the beginning of 2021, a simple social media post sparked a frenzy among online communities and Dogecoin, causing the market value of this originally satirical cryptocurrency to soar to about $14 billion in a short period of time. Memes do indeed have their unique charm, capable of spreading ideas in a concise and powerful way, deeply rooted in people's consciousness.

This phenomenon of memes spreading through the internet is also explored in the science fiction novel "Snow Crash". Although the idea that "memes influence markets" is thought-provoking, it seems few have deeply considered its implications or read the book "Snow Crash".

Meme: A Weapon Beyond Humor

In "Snow Crash", memes are described as a "mental virus". In fact, memes are not just visual humor. The term "meme" represents "memetics", which refers to information and cultural elements designed to take root in people's minds in order to effectively spread ideas and thoughts.

The application of these meme technologies in reality, especially targeted memes spread through social media, has shown a destructive impact on the democratic process. During the COVID-19 pandemic, memes also played a role in spreading misinformation, triggering protests against public health measures worldwide, resulting in actual negative consequences.

Clearly, memes are far from being mere jokes.

The Influence of Online Communities: From Memes to ICOs

After the GameStop stock price incident, we witnessed how retail investors united to successfully counter the short-selling operations of large hedge funds on Wall Street. This collective action was not only a protest against the strategies of hedge funds but also implemented an effective counterattack in the market through coordinated cooperation.

On social media platforms, we see similar group behavior affecting the market, especially in "pump and dump" operations. This kind of market manipulation has been ongoing for years.

In the field of cryptocurrency, especially during Initial Coin Offerings ( ICO ), we can also observe similar group dynamics. There is a subtle interactive relationship between project founders and active users in online forums, primarily driven by economic interests, as all participants hope for the value of the cryptocurrency to rise.

This phenomenon raises a question: In the future where the digital space increasingly merges with the real world, how will network groups that can coordinate actions to influence physical markets and public behavior shape our world?

The Prophecy of the Crypto-Punks

As early as the 1990s, cypherpunks foresaw this development trend. Some of their extreme views held that online mobs and organized crime groups are inevitable products of a decentralized internet. The side effects of this trend include not only increasingly frequent, severe, and costly DDoS attacks but also the growing prosperity of dark web markets.

"Snow Crash" depicts a future where cyberspace is tightly interwoven with everyday life. In this world, different private cartels govern various urban areas, and people can choose the jurisdiction that they find most acceptable. This paints a vivid picture of a possible future for the online world.

At the same time, cryptocurrency projects are beginning to realize that their work is actually about adopting new, more decentralized and digital ways of governance design. This indicates that digitization and decentralization are not only trends in the tech field but are also becoming important components of social and governance structures.

Future Challenges of Governance

If memes truly become the "controlling force of the future economy," then the challenge we face will be how to respond when the ideals of "freedom" and "justice" are no longer determined by the market's "invisible hand" or the "immutable code" of cryptocurrencies, but instead stem from "desire meme theory."

How should we create a cyberspace based on "sharing" rather than "cartel control"?

Attention to governance design is rapidly increasing within distributed network communities. People are gradually realizing that "decentralized autonomous organizations" are not flawless code machines that guide human behavior. Even permissionless digital infrastructures cannot completely escape governance issues.

In this context, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Elinor Ostrom's theoretical framework on the management of public goods is becoming an important guide for online community governance. This provides us with a perspective that views digital infrastructure as a "shared resource" or shared public good, aimed at co-construction and co-maintenance, rather than as a tool for attack.

The emergence of Gamestop, Dogecoin, and more memes constantly reminds us that all infrastructure, including digital infrastructure, has political attributes. However, citizens of the internet should be aware that memes are a powerful tool in this war for mindshare and behavioral influence that cannot be underestimated.

The most effective antidote has been proven to be education. Some researchers have created games aimed at training students to recognize and understand the development process of memes, helping them to distinguish between memes and misinformation.

Although information infrastructure provides individuals with greater freedom, power, and the possibility of participating in governance, we are still exploring the guidelines for living that are suitable for this era. In this evolving age of digitization and decentralization, how to balance freedom, security, and public interest will be a continuing challenge we face.