Two major blockchain founders face off directly, with Crypto Twitter fully charged with tension.
An intense debate surrounding "creator tokens" has ignited the crypto community. Base and Solana blockchain founders rarely personally engaged, confronting each other directly around the ZORA and Pump.fun platforms.
What exactly triggered this confrontation? Let's start from the beginning.
Controversy Trigger: Sterling Crispin's Questioning
This crypto "verbal battle" started with Del Complex researcher Sterling Crispin's public questioning of Zora.
Zora is a social network platform on the Base ecosystem that tokenizes user profiles and posts, aiming to help creators directly monetize their content.
However, in Sterling's view, Zora is merely old wine in a new bottle. He bluntly stated that the vast majority of tokens issued on automated market makers (AMM) with extremely low liquidity and exponential price curves are still "rebranded shit coins".
In his debate with community users, he used Pump.fun as an example: "The median result of ERC20 tokens on Pump.fun is not just underperforming the market, but directly going to zero."
Facing this fierce questioning, Base founder Jesse Pollak quickly entered defense mode. He stated on X platform: "I think you're wrong. Content is valuable, creators are valuable." He further emphasized, "Viewing assets issued on Pump.fun and Zora as equivalent is a logical fallacy. Not all tokens are the same, fundamentals are important."
However, Jesse's statement quickly stimulated another big shot's emotions - Solana founder toly.
Solana Founder Intervenes, Escalating the Battle
Solana founder toly quickly joined this debate, retweeting Jesse's post and sarcastically saying: "lol wut? Do any tokens on Zora have equity in the creator's future cash flow?"
(Note: "lol wut" is an internet slang with a slightly disdainful or deliberately confused tone, often used to express disagreement or finding something absurd.)
The founders' battle then officially began:
Round One: Does content have "fundamental value"?
Jesse firmly stated: Content itself has fundamental value.
toly challenged: How to prove it has value? Do token holders have the right to share future advertising revenue?
Jesse responded: Advertising is just one monetization method. Like a painting, it has value even if no one pays for tickets.
toly continued attacking: By this logic, is it good for creators to sell Zora tokens for retail investors? Because they can buy below the content's fundamental value?
Jesse tried to explain: Tokens on Zora have many types, but they share one common point: they are a repeated, infinite game where participants' behaviors affect the entire system's operation.
Round Two: Deadlock, Neither Backing Down
toly was unconvinced, coldly mocking: Sounds like their "fundamental value" is zero.
Jesse stood his ground: If you want to believe content's value is zero, suit yourself. But I believe content is very valuable, and we can build new systems to return this value to billions of creators.
toly delivered his final blow: Go convince token holders to have Coinbase use profits to buy those Zora tokens approaching zero because they're "below content's fundamental value".
This conversation was like schoolchildren arguing, neither conceding, ultimately ending with Jesse's brief "OK".
Interestingly, toly himself has been enthusiastically promoting Solana ecosystem meme coins in recent years, but to enhance his persuasiveness, he added: "I've been saying for years that meme coins and Non-Fungible Tokens are digital garbage with no intrinsic value. Like in-game items in mobile games, where people spend $150 billion annually."
Zora's "Pump Show"
The focus of this "verbal battle", Zora project, not only had Base founder Jesse Pollak's support, but the $ZORA token has also surged 883% in the past month. This rally was driven by both the Base App's integration of content tokenization features and Binance listing ZORA/USDT perpetual contracts.
Yesterday, Zora platform had 21,478 creators, including 12,292 new creators, with 50,475 tokens issued, all hitting historical highs.
However, on-chain data offers another interpretation. According to on-chain analyst AI Aunt's analysis, in spot trading, Coinbase is the largest trading platform for this token, with a 24-hour trading volume of $82.6 million; in contract trading, Binance's 24-hour volume reached $1.354 billion, 16.4 times the spot volume.
She suggests that ZORA seems to have created an independent pump, but recent on-chain data shows no single transaction over $500,000, suggesting possible manipulation in centralized exchanges.
Jesse and toly's fierce confrontation not only revealed profound differences in the crypto world's understanding of "creator tokens" but also reflected the complex competition and ideological collision between blockchain camps.
This debate has no winner, just like the ongoing battle over value definition, always intensely wrestling between ideals and reality, belief and doubt.
Click to learn about BlockBeats job openings
Welcome to join BlockBeats official community:
Telegram subscription group: https://t.me/theblockbeats
Telegram discussion group: https://t.me/BlockBeats_App
Twitter official account: https://twitter.com/BlockBeatsAsia
