As the self-appointed leader of the Karen Army, I feel it’s my duty to respond to the Karens complaining about TDH voting in The Memes. Some thoughts on: - TDH - Are winners “the best”? - Decentralization - IVGs / Cabals - Brutal truth A thread 🧵

Seize the complaints. Seize the submissions. Seize the coordination. Seize the Memes of Production.

If you’re a voter: talk to your frens. Find a submission you all like. Vote together. You’ll enjoy the process more and maybe make new frens along the way.

If you’re not a big name artist yet, the bar may be a little higher, but it's achievable Join the community, get feedback, keep trying, or just watch and observe what voters like and how it can match your style.

Rare exceptions like @justinaversano who shot to first in a day. Instead of complaining that the system is rigged, appreciate the years he spent on his art and building his story and community presence. The TDH vote market predicted demand correctly and it sold out.

Don’t be a special snowflake ~300 submissions per week → only ~1% win a week Most take weeks to climb Many nGMi.

Brutal Truth Saying “everything is rigged” without trying is a loser’s mentality. Reality is you need to work harder, move out of your mom’s basement, and find a way to stack some voting support.

Cabal ≠ IVG. Cabals vote for profit — ETH, mints, “being early", or clout IVGs vote for their favorite submissions, surfacing quality work that deserves visibility. IVGs are also able to coordinate to actively counter cabals.

Ironically, IVGs increase decentralization. A thoughtful group with discussion and aligned votes are likely to outperform cabals and/or whales by bringing to surface submissions others will also love and vote for. More eyes create better signals.

IVGs change that by finding broader consensus and concentrating votes so that an artist with less visibility can be seen as a potential winner. An independent voter may not vote for a submission they like with 2 million votes, but if it now has 10+ million votes, that changes.

Here’s the math. I currently like ~45 of 300 submissions (15%). Of those, 5–10 I really like (3%). If I spread my votes across all, they have a small impact. If I focus on one, game theory says: pick the one most likely to win. This is how whales and reputations dominate.

IVGs vs Cabals Many Karens often conflate the two. Without IVGs (Impact Voting Groups), Power Laws would dominate — the most well-known artists would win even more frequently. IVG's help level the field.

Decentralized voting shifts complaints away from curator gatekeepers to voting owners. Curators can be paid, own no art, and act like cabals. TDH voters earned their votes by collecting, holding, and believing. They buy the art they voted for.

Decentralization is not Democracy A common misconception. TDH is decentralized because anyone can join or leave. But votes aren’t equal like a democracy. Votes scale with Skin in the Game. Many TDH "whales" are community members, not a whale in any other crypto context.

Would we even want a system where “the best” art (by some committee’s definition?) always wins? What if the best art comes from an artist’s who's a jerk and only wants to extract value from the community? I wouldn’t. The art and culture matter.

Complaints that an artist needs to be an insider or a big name to win are lazy. Does reputation help? Sure, but plenty of lesser-known artists also win. Opinions don't change this reality.

Maybe instead of saying “the best,” we should say “our favorite.” That phrasing includes the quality of art and admits we’re human. We may vote for the art we love, but also for our frens or for a flip. The Network likes what it likes.

“The Best” Complaints about “the best” submission miss the point. Art is subjective. Every collector has different tastes, priorities, and biases. Even in a small group of 7 frens, we rarely all agree on one submission. (@0xAnimatedNFT is a noob who doesn’t know anything)

TDH voting is as free-market as it gets. Anyone can get MemesNominee rep (Almost) Anyone can submit. Anyone with TDH can vote. Votes are backed by real cost in time, ETH, and conviction. That’s decentralized market curation in action.

Why? Because HODLers of past Memes are the best predictor of who will buy future Memes. TDH = measured by Meme quantity + time held. Karen's collecting Memes for 3 yrs with a high TDH, are far more likely to buy the next Meme than a new Karen who minted her first last week.

TDH Voting Forget what you think you know about TDH. At a minimum... A TDH vote is a quantifiable market predictive signal of whether people will buy a submission as a Meme.