Yeah. And they’re likely to show up here, take one look, and bolt. And that’s likely to happen the very first time they take even a glancing look at our voting process.
DATA ANALYTICS & SYNOPSIS
NOTE: This isn’t off-topic. I will get to the point shortly. Just read. It’s cathartic.
I mean, c’mon now, who are we kidding? There’s near zero interest in Web3 outside Web3. It’s the same people and communities in the churn. Though some have, hilariously, pivoted to AI. You get a spike a few times, and people move on. There’s seemingly zero reason to stick around. None. Other than those like us who want to belong to something impactful, in a well-managed (I believe the ApeCoin admin team have done a good job with this - all things considered) community where you can make a difference.
Web3, from the ground up, is about making money. There’s absolutely no other prosperity related utility to it. None. I don’t care what anyone says, that’s an absolute fact.
ApeCoin is a DAO with a $750M market cap. That’s a small cap corp territory. Yet, it’s not being run by professionals who would otherwise be hired for such a corp gig by other professionals in a small cap corp. Instead, the DAO is being run by a small group of individuals, hired via voting consensus, and who are making a go of it. As such, there are zero consequences to failure. It’s precisely why there’s an active battle going on in AIP-277 over transparency and accountability, even as some people in that thread are more concerned about their bags than about the community and wellfare of the DAO.
When you vote people into a PAID position there is an expectation of performance, transparency and accountability. These are some of the things that people with a keen interest, pay attention to. This isn’t 4Chan, Reddit or any number of inconsequential communities focused on the meme of the day. This is - again - is a small cap corp with a $750M market cap. And you wouldn’t know it just by a casual glance.
When I joined ApeCoin DAO on June 29th, 2023, the ApeCoin hodlers were at 123,508,. A few days ago, it was 129,666. You can see the metrics. I am on Edge and can’t run metrics using my Metamask wallet because it doesn’t work. But you can run it yourself for today’s snapshot.
- July 16, 2022 - Yuga launches 1st Otherside trip → 81,719
- Mar 25th, 2023 - Yuga launches 2nd Otherside trip → 114,764
- June 29, 2023, Yuga launches HV:MTL game → 123,508
- July 27, 2023, Today’s Snapshot → 129,780
So, between June 29th and July 27th, almost a month later, only 6,272 $APE “wallets” have entered the ecosystem.
And those metrics don’t even tell the whole story because individuals can have several wallets that hold $APE. I personally now have 3 wallets with $APE. Long story.
Add to that the fact that even with 129,780 wallets, Discourse and Discord combined, don’t even represent 10% of the Ape community proper. In fact, Discourse barely represents 6%.
So, even with those metrics, it’s easy to see that the Ape community is basically STAGNANT.
There’s literally zero interest in it outside of the pre-existing Web3 bubble cluster. You know why that is? There’s ZERO incentive and ZERO reason to be a part of it. The people who even have a passing interest in the Ape community - unlike most of us - are in it for the money and the value of their bags. They can do all that by staring at CEX/DEX charts 24-7, engaging in social media feeds where they can actually influence the trends of their $APE bags etc. Why on this God’s Earth would they come here? What’s the incentive? What’s in it for them?
And it’s specifically why, if you look at most of the AIP trends, most have come from new users to this community. That’s not to say that they didn’t have $APE or anything like that (see above), it’s to say that, for most, the value of engaging here is in one thing and one thing only: WHAT CAN APECOIN DO FOR ME?
And those who are already here, trying to help, vying for the PAID positions or whatever, are locked in this circular battle between “doing the right thing” and “towing the line”. And it took me all of 9 days (yes - I actually charted this) to figure this out.
Take a wild guess what happens when people in a community feel as if they 1) don’t belong or 2) nothing they do or say will make a difference?
They leave. And sometimes come back from time to time to lurk, not engage in any meaningful way etc.
So, imagine my surprise why this went up yesterday night on Discord.
CONCLUSION
People join a community for specific reasons. And once those reasons prove to be immaterial, they will move on.
To me, it doesn’t matter what a small cap corp - much less a DAO - does with their $750M market cap, without experienced people, advanced metrics, meaningful programs, meaningful outreach AND engagement incentives (for customers, workers, partners), it’s going to FAIL. The result? The loss of investor funds. And in the case of this DAO, the end result is going to be $APE going to zero.
So, the Ape Assembly failing - having achieved absolutely nothing in three months - should come as no surprise.
To that extent, the MWG is likely to end up being more of the same because I have thus far seen no plausible reason to believe that it will succeed where even Yuga has failed. But everyone in the Ape Foundation, of which the MWG will become a part, will still be getting DAO funding all the way to :
$APE == 0