How DragonMusk is bridging the gap between meme and utility.
Memes are an interesting modern phenomenon — a zeitgeist born through the internet which has since evolved to encapsulate the entire mindset of the medium itself. No one really understands exactly what memes are, where they came from, or why they even exist, but no one can deny their popularity. Want to show joy at a recent achievement? Just type some random text over “Success Kid.’ Feeling a bit stressed out? “Hide the Pain Harold” can express that for you. We live in an age where communication has been largely supplanted by this evolution of the emoji.
Whilst memes are often humorous, they also represent the internet culture and its inherent randomness. There often appears to be no rhyme or reason as to why a certain image or video becomes viral, most of all to their creators, who are left scratching their heads when they become overnight internet celebrities. Since their initial inception, memes have evolved to encompass far more than just images or videos, and cult popularity can often mean that they become very lucrative as a commodity. Take meme stocks for example– AMC and GME have become extremely valuable opportunities for retail Investors who congregate on message forums such as Reddit. In late January, the latter was even the subject of a monumental ‘short squeeze’ which saw the price of the stock rocket by over 1500%.
The meme culture has since evolved to include cryptocurrency too, with popular tokens such as Dogecoin seeing massive spikes in value, despite being created as no more than a joke, and having no actual utility beyond their own inherent value. Many other developers have jumped on this hype bandwagon, creating new coins that don’t even attempt to have a real world use-case beyond trying to lure investors in with the promise of big financial gains. A lot of these projects aren’t even designed to exist beyond a few months or even weeks— often turning into pump and dump scams, with the developers splitting when the price starts to dip and leaving unsuspecting investors holding the bag. However, there are some coins that started as memes but have since re-branded themselves as proper projects with lofty ambitions despite their arbitrary beginnings.
DragonMusk is one such token.
Created as no more than a pump and dump scam by the original developer that fed into the then-current hype surrounding Billionaire and meme king Elon Musk’s various tweets — hence the name — early investors in the project were left reeling when the price crashed after only a few hours, dropping the market cap down to almost zero. Sadly this is often the end for many similar projects. Not the case with DragonMusk. The community vowed to resurrect the project and make it something more. This hope was realised when entrepreneur Raff Sleem entered the ring, bringing his experience in the DeFi space to the project. “I have myself been a victim of rug-pulls and scams more times than I care to admit,” he says with a laugh. “Sometimes the fundamentals are there and even for an experienced investor it’s almost impossible to see the trick coming until its already too late. However, with DragonMusk I saw a chance at redemption. The contract for the token was renounced and it was primed to be taken over. There were so many great people in the community who were willing to step up too, so it became a case of not, ‘can I help’, but instead ‘HOW can I help.’”
Since its rebirth as a community token with Raff as the project leader, DragonMusk has transformed almost every aspect of itself, from its logo, it’s website, its whitepaper and — most importantly — how it is perceived by others. “A lot of these tokens embrace the meme, they lean into it,” Raff explains. “We are trying to do the exact opposite. We are a serious project and I think that people are starting to see that.” Indeed the token is just over a month old but at time of writing has over 11,500 holders and a couple of thousand active Telegram members, as well as a dedicated admin team who together form 24/7 support for those who might have questions.
Whilst this is most certainly an impressive turnaround, it’s how DragonMusk is set to bridge the gap between meme and utility that might truly set it apart from its competition. DM has huge aims for the rest of this year, which if it can achieve even a fraction of make it a project well worth watching. Firstly it aims to become a Guardian figure of the DeFi space, with its first milestone set to be giving back to 1000 people who have lost money at the hands of unscrupulous developers. Secondly, it hopes to become the de facto institution for new, genuine projects to partner themselves with. Translation = if a token has the DM seal of approval, it’s a legitimate investment.
Perhaps DragonMusk’s most lofty ambition of all is the creation of DragonSwap – a cryptocurrency exchange platform that hopes to eventually better the cornerstone Pancakeswap in a variety of ways, including adding an option that will allow token farming. “DeFi is an incredible alternative to fiat currency,” says Raff, “however it needs cleaning up and better policing. Currently it’s just too easy to lose money via bad projects or simply not understanding the exchange process on deflationary tokens properly. We are hoping to change that so that more people feel comfortable and safe entering this new world. To improve any new space, you need pioneers who are willing to take risks to push the envelope forward so that everyone benefits. At its core, that is what DragonMusk is all about.”
If you would like to find out more about DragonMusk and its big plans for the future, read the white paper at dragonmusk.ga and / or check out their telegram at https://t.me/DragonMuskCommunity. Raff is due to do a live AMA at 16:00 UTC on Tuesday 22nd June 2021 to answer any questions new or current investors might have.
P.S. I am not a financial advisor and nothing written above should be taken as financial advice.
