迷因和遊戲化如何改變我們所知的金融

隨著社交、金融、遊戲、訊息傳遞被折疊在單一「超級應用程式」中，迷因以數位原生方式傳遞微妙但強大的文化意義

Memes are changing finance as we know it. Behind the community forums, comical volumes of wealth emerging within days, and sometimes-crude humor, something is happening that is both amusing and meaningful.

正如我們所知，迷因正在改變金融。在社群論壇、幾天之內湧現的大量財富、有時甚至是粗俗的幽默的背後，正在發生一些既有趣又有意義的事情。

On the surface, memes are just photos and video clips that quickly spread around the internet in text messages, on social media timelines, and in community forums. It’s easy to overlook them and dismiss that they may carry with them more than a humorous reference. However, memes transmit subtle but powerful cultural meaning in a digitally-native way. A meme that is popular to a community or a culture often signifies something about that group and their values in that particular moment in time.

從表面上看，迷因只是透過簡訊、社群媒體時間軸和社群論壇在網路上快速傳播的照片和影片片段。人們很容易忽視它們並忽視它們可能不僅僅只是一種幽默的參考。然而，迷因以數位原生方式傳遞微妙但強大的文化意義。在社區或文化中流行的迷因通常代表著該群體及其在特定時刻的價值。

This op-ed is part of CoinDesk's GameFi Theme Week.

這篇專欄文章是 CoinDesk GameFi 主題週的一部分。

Blockchain technology has offered the capacity to financialize nearly anything that is digitally-native, so it’s only natural that crypto has captured meme culture over the years. However, meme-ified finance is not unique to crypto. Across traditional and Web3 finance, meme-ified finance has brought together powerful online groups. And now financial gamification, though still in a rudimentary state, is revealing a new path forward.

區塊鏈技術提供了將幾乎所有數位原生事物金融化的能力，因此多年來加密貨幣捕捉迷因文化是很自然的。然而，迷因化金融並不是加密貨幣所獨有的。在傳統金融和 Web3 金融領域，迷因化金融聚集了強大的線上群體。現在，金融遊戲化雖然仍處於初級狀態，但正在揭示一條新的前進道路。

In TradFi, a fringe Reddit community in 2021 became a harbinger for the type of community-first, anti-institutional, anti-sensible finance that is deeply and inextricably linked to the intersection of gamification and humorous meme culture. The r/wallstreetbets community “stuck it” to traditional finance, gaming the traditional stock market and reveling in their success with facetious online posts.

在 TradFi 中，2021 年的 Reddit 邊緣社群成為社群優先、反制度、反理性金融類型的先驅，這種金融與遊戲化和幽默迷因文化的交集有著深刻而密不可分的聯繫。 r/wallstreetbets 社區「堅持」傳統金融，玩弄傳統股票市場，並透過滑稽的線上貼文陶醉於他們的成功。

In crypto, memecoins have always played a major role — appealing to the type of community-first finance that typically spreads through the power of memes and market gamification. Early memecoin iterations like DOGE were followed by use-case-specific versions like NFT collections, and today are accelerated by next-gen, low-cost blockchains like Solana.

在加密貨幣領域，迷因幣一直發揮著重要作用——吸引了社群優先的金融類型，這種金融通常透過迷因和市場遊戲化的力量傳播。 DOGE 等早期 memecoin 迭代之後是 NFT 集合等特定用例的版本，而如今，Solana 等下一代低成本區塊鏈則加速了這一迭代。

This raises an ongoing debate: Do memecoins need intrinsic value to be successful, or does the enthusiastic support and participation of their communities suffice? When we talk about “value,” are we referring to a solid roadmap and utility, or is the real value in the vibrant communities and the culture they create? Perhaps the true worth of memecoins lies in their ability to unite and engage people rather than conform to traditional financial metrics.

這引發了一場持續的爭論：模因幣是否需要內在價值才能成功，或者社群的熱情支持和參與就足夠了嗎？當我們談論「價值」時，我們指的是可靠的路線圖和實用性，還是充滿活力的社區及其創造的文化的真正價值？也許模因幣的真正價值在於它們團結和吸引人們的能力，而不是遵循傳統的財務指標。

All that is happening — both in traditional and crypto finance — speaks to something emergent and powerful. After decades of obscure, obfuscated, straight-laced, ivory tower financial services, people are moving in an opposite direction. Discovering collective financial power and then applying that power to markets goes hand in hand with technologies that connect people on a daily, global basis (e.g. Reddit) and that democratize financial autonomy (crypto). All of this is wrapped up in humorous, meme-based communities and financial gamification that is, at the end of the day, simply fun. It seems hard to imagine a world where such community-powered, entertaining wealth creation will do anything but grow.

所有正在發生的事情——無論是傳統金融還是加密金融——都說明了一些新興而強大的東西。在經歷了幾十年晦澀、混亂、刻板、象牙塔的金融服務之後，人們正在朝著相反的方向前進。發現集體金融力量，然後將這種力量應用於市場，與在全球範圍內日常連接人們的技術（例如 Reddit）和民主化金融自主權（加密貨幣）密切相關。所有這一切都包含在幽默的、基於迷因的社群和金融遊戲化中，歸根結底，這很有趣。似乎很難想像這樣一個由社區驅動、娛樂性的財富創造除了增長之外什麼也做不了的世界。

We can think about the meme-ification and gamification of finance as the result of the folding of technologies into one another. To date, the different ways that we’ve spent our time online have been fairly distinct. Social platforms, financial platforms, education platforms, gaming platforms, etcetera, have all been separate from each other — cordoned off into their own digital siloes.

我們可以將金融的迷因化和遊戲化視為科技相互融合的結果。到目前為止，我們上網時間的不同方式已經相當明顯。社群平台、金融平台、教育平台、遊戲平台等等，都彼此分離——被隔離在自己的數位孤島中。

Over the last 20 years, some of these sectors have folded into one another already. Gaming and social media are already inextricably linked, with platforms like Twitch specifically targeting the intersection of the two. Under the force of crypto, we’re starting to see finance fold into social media as well.

在過去 20 年裡，其中一些產業已經相互融合。遊戲和社群媒體已經有著千絲萬縷的聯繫，Twitch 等平台專門針對兩者的交叉點。在加密貨幣的力量下，我們也開始看到金融融入社群媒體。

Undoubtedly, APAC is significantly ahead of the west in terms of this folding of technologies. Platforms like WeChat seamlessly combine commerce, social media, gaming, communication, and more. When all these technologies fold into one another, what is the shared thread among what were once separate ecosystems? Culture. And how does culture spread online? Memes. We might not know what the next product is that will fulfill everyone’s needs, but one thing we can guarantee is that everyone needs happiness, and that is memes.

毫無疑問，亞太地區在這種技術融合方面明顯領先西方。微信等平台將商業、社群媒體、遊戲、通訊等無縫結合。當所有這些技術相互融合時，曾經獨立的生態系統之間的共享主線是什麼？文化。文化如何在網路上傳播？模因。我們可能不知道下一個能夠滿足每個人需求的產品是什麼，但我們可以保證的一件事是每個人都需要快樂，那就是迷因。

Crypto is changing the face of finance, but it’s not happening in a technological vacuum. It is accelerated by memes and by the deep economic gamification that is core to blockchain systems. The power of finance is no longer in knowledge of esoteric financial principles. It’s no longer even in the kind of relationships built in stoic financial corporations. The power is in community, in virality, and in deep cultural synchronicity.

加密貨幣正在改變金融的面貌，但它並不是在科技真空中發生的。迷因和區塊鏈系統核心的深度經濟遊戲化加速了這個過程。金融的力量不再在於深奧的金融原理知識。甚至不再是堅忍的金融公司建立的那種關係。力量在於社區、病毒式傳播和深刻的文化同步性。

Welcome to the Meme Age.

歡迎來到模因時代。