Author: Fairy, ChainCatcher
Two blockchain foundersdirectly confronted each other, with Crypto Twitter highly charged.
An intense debate around"creator tokens" ignited the crypto community.Base and Solana founders rarely personally engaged, confronting each other directly over ZORA and Pump.fun platforms.
What sparked this confrontation? Let's start from the beginning.
Controversy Trigger,Sterling Crispin's Questioning
This crypto community"verbal battle" was sparked by 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.
But in Sterling's view, Zora is merely old wine in a new bottle.He directly stated that most 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 underperforming the market, but directly going to zero."
Facing this fierce questioning,Base founder Jesse Pollak quickly entered defense mode. He stated on the X platform:"I think you're wrong. Content is valuable, creators are valuable."Andfurther 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 of "Pump.fun ≠ Zora" quicklystimulated another big shot's emotions—Solana founder toly.
Solana Founder Intervenes, Escalating the Conflict
Solana founder toly quicklyjoined the debate, retweeting Jesse's post and sarcastically saying: "lol wut?Do tokens on Zora have any rights to future cash flows from creators?"
(Note: "lol wut" is an internet slang with a slightly dismissive or feigned confused tone, often used to express disagreement or finding something absurd.)
Thereafter, the two founders' battleofficially began:
Round One:Does content have"fundamental value"?
Jesse firmly stated: Content itself has fundamental value.
toly asked: How to prove it has fundamental 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 retail investors if creators sell Zora tokens? Because they can buy below the content's fundamental value?
Jesse tried to explain: Tokens on Zora have many types, but they share one thing: they are a repeated, infinite game where participants' actions affect the entire system's operation.
Round Two: Unresolved,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.
tolydelivered the final blow:Go convince token holders to have Coinbase use profits to buy those Zora tokens approaching zero because they are"below content's fundamental value".
This conversation was like elementary school bickering, neither conceding, ultimately ending with Jesse's casual "OK".
Interestingly, toIy 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"Price Pumping Show"
The focus of this"verbal battle", Zora project,not only hasBase founder Jesse Pollak's support, but the $ZORA token has also surged 883% in the past month. This rally was driven by both the positive news of Base App integrating 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 provides another interpretation. According to on-chain analyst AI Aunt's analysis, in spot trading, Coinbase is the platform with the largest trading volume for this token, with a 24-hour trading volume of $82.6 million; in contracts, Binance's 24-hour trading volume reached $1.354 billion, 16.4 times the spot volume.
She noted that ZORA seems to have created an independent altcoin trend, but recent on-chain data doesn't show any single transaction over $500,000, suggesting possible manipulation by centralized exchange funds.
Image source: AI Aunt
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 ecosystems.
This debate has no winner, just like the world's ongoing battle over value definition, always intensely wrestling between ideals and reality, belief and doubt.
