One of the big trends in Web3 in 2023 is the rise of memecoins, cryptocurrencies also known as “shitcoins” themed around a viral internet trend. Their light-hearted nature is only part of their appeal; with enough momentum around them, they can make serious profits for early buyers due to their extreme volatility.
One of the most successful memecoins to hit the scene in recent weeks was $TURBO, an experimental project by digital artist Rhett Dashwood (Mankind) that had a market cap of $50 million at its peak. Dashwood had created the token from scratch using ChatGPT and advice from his Twitter followers. The success earned Dashwood respect among $TURBO holders and the wider Web3 community for his creativity and willingness to build with his community.
On June 1, Dashwood announced his next experimental project: an attempt to create a new $1 billion crypto token or NFT artwork. As a result, he’s faced some harsh criticism from the same community that praised him for his work with $TURBO. Here’s what you need to know about $CLOWN.
$CLOWN has entered the chat
“The circus is in town,” Dashwood wrote in a Tweet announcing the experiment before giving his followers an address to send ETH. ‘We are all clowns. Enjoy the performance. As an art/ai/social experiment, I asked ChatGPT if it could make a billion dollar coin or artwork.”
1/8$CLOWN or Crypto Clown art. The circus is in town. We are all clowns. Enjoy the performance. As an art/ai/social experiment, I asked ChatGPT if it could make a billion dollar coin or piece of art. 🤡🖼️💰 follow along 👇
Make sure you read the entire thread before sending ETH to: clownbag.eth pic.twitter.com/DJn3yRZRk0
— Rhett Humanity (@rhett) June 1, 2023
Aside from the token’s intrinsic value, whatever that turns out to be, the only use it has is to bid on a piece of crypto art with a clown image. Dashwood’s conceptual framing here is to confront people with a choice between art and money. The choice of the clown theme stems from criticism Dashwood has received over the months for working in the NFT space and with crypto tokens.
“I’ve heard countless times, I’m a clown for selling digital art, a clown for doing crypto, a clown for using AI, a clown for making a token, so I embrace the clown or be afraid of it forever,” Dashwood elaborated in his Twitter thread.
Those interested in participating in the experiment will have one week to send their ETH to an address Dashwood provided in the Twitter thread and receive an “equitable split” of the token supply based on ETH percentage of the total volume received. At some point in the project, there will be a 1/1 art auction of clown themed art for $CLOWN holders to use their tokens to bid on.
Dashwood says the experiment is completely decentralized, with no significant websites or social pages, and he will not withhold any amount of the tokens. “Expect absolutely nothing from me after release,” he said of the experiment.
The recoil
It’s that last bit about expectations that seems to have earned Dashwood the ire of some of his followers. This is partly due to the emergence of another recent trend in the Web3 landscape in which social media influencers demand that of their followers send them money for either a shady memecoin offering or, in some cases, nothing in return at all.
Some of these efforts have seen influencers make millions in a matter of days, souring artists (and their collectors) in the Web3 space who have worked for months or years to provide value to the digital art ecosystem and to do so. properly compensated.
I fully supported the $Turbo experiment
But this one gives off 🚩🚩 imo.
– “Expect absolutely nothing from me after release”Also probably not wise to reply to comments from people with clown emojis
— BenJammin.eth 🍌 (@xBenJamminx) June 1, 2023
In a bold display of dedication to the bit, Dashwood has responded to people’s criticism with a variety of clown-centric GIFs. However, not all of Dashwood’s followers criticized the idea, with several congratulate the artist with the experiment.
$CLOWN, $TURBO and memecoin empires
Dashwood is certainly capable of pulling off a large-scale conceptual experiment like this, as evidenced by his success with $TURBO, a project he has since handed over to the community that helped build it. The artist’s ability to play with new technology and trends is exactly what made $TURBO fun to watch. Since Dashwood leans on tricky optics in his latest experiment, it will take a deft touch to avoid being thrown into the same category as someone like Ben.eth, who recently launched his third crypto token in almost as many weeks.