Author: William M. Peaster, Bankless; Translator: Deng Tong, Golden Finance
There is a new trend on the frontier of chain: scenario coins.
According to Li Jin’s recent classification of meme coins, scenario coins are “community-first meme coins” that “start as Schelling points of distributed communities with common values and missions.” (Golden Finance Note: Schelling point, also translated as Xue Lin point, or focal point, is the choice tendency of people in game theory without communication. This choice may be made because it seems natural, special, or related to the chooser.)
Have these grassroots tokens developed from the bottom up soared? The new on-chain stack makes it easier than ever to coordinate cryptocurrencies.
For example, a key pillar here is Warpcast, Farcaster’s leading application and the darling of the current crypto social scene.
Due to its built-in wallet support and composability with other resources such as Zora NFT minting, Warpcast has become fertile ground and home to a new wave of community-driven meme coins, such as $DEGEN, $HIGHER, and $ENJOY.
Another pillar of the rise of scene coins is Party, a platform + protocol combination for streamlining on-chain groups. The $HIGHER community uses Party to transparently coordinate the release of its tokens.
Of course, without top-down organization, scene coins all start from a budding state, and then they gain further attention by stirring up the "hive mind" community participation. Now, we see:
$DEGEN Mission = Rewarding wonderful Farcaster content.
$HIGHER Mission = Creating an optimistic lifestyle brand.
$ENJOY Mission = Curating delightful on-chain media.
Just as NFTs on Zora have become the preferred diffusion path for noun media, Zora has also become the preferred minting platform for cultural creation in today's scene currency community.
There are many reasons - Zora is very easy to use, it provides rewards and flexibility for creators, and it is Farcaster-friendly. But more importantly, Zora has recently leaned towards scene coins and has become the center of scene coins in its own right.
In fact, the Zora team recently activated ERC-20 minting, paving the way for creators to sell NFTs in exchange for non-ETH tokens. As these memecoin communities continue to flourish, this new feature, combined with Warpcast, which is friendly to minting NFTs, has sparked a craze for NFTs themed around scene coins in recent days.
Nevertheless, in the ongoing memecoin craze in the crypto economy, new on-chain stacks such as Warpcast, Party, and Zora are redefining how asset creation and community diffusion work. Together, they can channel the energy of meme coins into the development of scene coins, focusing them on productive goals.
Looking ahead, the lasting success of scene coins will depend largely on community engagement and bottom-up governance. How these projects navigate and innovate around decentralized decision-making will be key clues to watch in the future.
In addition, speculation aside, the long-term value of scene coins will depend on their adoption and utility within and outside the community. Keep an eye on upcoming integrations and partnerships, as well as the potential for scene coins to evolve into mature product lines.
Can this new token niche maintain momentum and engagement in the coming years? What models can ensure its growth and sustainability without sacrificing community value?
The answers to these questions remain to be seen, but the potential for scene coins to reshape how new communities are built from the ground up is already clear.