In Defence of ChainLink's Army of Anon Green Frogs - Decentralise #21
The case for memes, anonymity, and froggy frens.
Engagement
David Hoffman’s stance against the anon green frogs of ChainLink has captured the focus of crypto twitter today.
But is the controversial opinion engagement motivated?
The suggestion alone demonstrates the value of the meme army.
Regardless, I think there’s a lot to dive into here.
The value of memes, anonymity, and crypto culture is a topic that I recently had the pleasure of discussing with a brand new project with incredible technology that will clearly revolutionise a segment of the DeFi industry.
Should every upcoming project adopt the green frog or a similar meme?
Of course not.
But I do think there are key lessons to be learned from the success of ChainLink, especially as marketers in this space.
The Green Frog Army
Anon green frogs are a tribe, a community that reinforce each other and push the ChainLink narrative. If social media is an echo chamber, anon froggy frens are the guys in the tunnel who never get bored of shouting ‘echo, echo’. They push the LINK narrative beyond the confines of the original community, drawing attention and engagement to the project.
ChainLink’s technology is groundbreaking, but I would attribute a chunk of the platform’s $5b market cap success to the community’s total domination of social media, with the Pepe meme mobilising a culture and inspiring active online presence.
Let’s not forget that ChainLink was unique this bear market, with phenomenal growth throughout. I don’t have proof here, but my feeling is that this rarely happens from tech alone.
In crypto communities culture is everything. And memes win culture wars.
Besides the meme value, frogs can be informative, educational, entertaining, insightful.
Those who would never speak up publicly are emboldened by the veil of anonymity, converting into preachers, visionaries, motivators.
David, ignore green frogs at your peril.
Let’s have a look at the self-proclaimed frog killer’s argument:
1) Anon green frog accounts can’t provide value or contribute to discussion.
I think this in particular is an incredibly bad take. What difference does it make if the anon profile is a whale, a spartan warrior, a hallucinatory psychedelic visual, or a frog.
It makes no difference: information is information.
You can’t support one but disparage the other based on the chosen mask.
Case and point, ChainLinkGod is a highly informative frog who has done more to spread LINK awareness and bridge the Link Ethereum community via Twitter than any podcast ever could.
Need proof? Check out this monster thread posted today:
2) Real people have value, frogs don’t
So here David seems to imply that his personal reputation makes the takes he puts out more valuable than the information put out by anons.
It’s an interesting opinion, and sure, you have more at stake when you put your face behind a take.
But that doesn’t give the take more value in my opinion, or mean that information or analysis supplied by a frog is any less valuable.
Information is information.
It also doesn’t mean that anons can’t cultivate reputation. An anon account that has spent years building a following has as much to lose as a crypto influencer, even if their personal name isn’t on the line.
3) Green Frogs are Bad For Serious Projects
This is starting to sound like a more reasonable argument.
You can definitely have the opinion that memes might associate the project with a less than reputable side of the internet.
You could make a link that 4Chan = Pepe, and Pepe = Link, therefore Link = 4Chan.
There’s something to be said for that, but this approach misses a crucial aspect of the LINK army.
That missing piece is the clear divide between ChainLink as a product, a serious, ground-breaking piece of technology, and LINK frens on Twitter.
As an example, the ChainLink discord has a no memes rule. This clearly divides the serious product from the entertaining meme community, focusing the froggy frens on social media where they have even more amplified impact.
It’s a balance that gives the best of both worlds.
Anyone who has glanced at the ChainLink Discord, Youtube or Twitter can immediately see this is a serious, reputable product.
Froggy frens don’t detract from that, they’re compartmentalised, mutually beneficial and distinct.
The frogs take the technology and keep a permanent conversation going online. They make the technology fun, engaging, and inspire action in a way that Mr Hoffman’s work never will (sorry David).
Conclusion
I think I’ve spoken enough today about memes, anons and frogs, so I’ll wrap this up.
The LINK frog army promotes a culture of vocal participation and fosters a sense of community.
A project managing to impact an individual so completely that they adopt the meme as their online identity is no mean feat, and their success has been an inspiration for other communities in the space.
Cryptocurrency communities have strongly held belief systems and values, including permissionlessness and open inclusion.
Green frog anonymity is a perfect embodiment of these values enacted, and a stance against frogs is in my view a stance against the values of our technology itself.
Thank you for attending my TED talk.
