By
Julia Sakovich
May 3rd, 2024
A group of developers has announced the launch of a “revolutionary” new defi token, but something about the pitch has a funny smell to it.
According to its creators, Ardor Defi, the DeadFish (DeFI) platform and its $DEFI token will “smash the hegemony of Wall Street millionaires” by making “advanced financial instruments such as leverages, futures, DEX, tokenization platforms, derivatives and predictions markets available to the average Joe.”
It’s a claim with a pungent aroma, but one which begs further investigation. As the popularity of defi booms and crypto enters another bull market, are the developers simply poking fun at a new era of cash-in shitcoins, or is there something more to it? We sniffed a little deeper to find out.
Real Life or Fantasy?
With defi fueling the crypto revival, the Ethereum network has slowed to a crawl as speculators FOMO in on a glut of new ERC20s with little to distinguish them. A group of developers from the Ardor community has seized the moment to market its own token while poking fun at the decentralized finance space. Despite sounding like spoof material, DeadFish is a genuine proposal that is launching on Ignis, an Ardor childchain maintained by Jelurida.
Its developers claim that $DEFI will benefit from the Ardor blockchain’s superior efficiency and scalability, contrasting with ERC20 tokens that get bogged down with slow transactions and high gas prices. Other stated benefits of Ardor include lightweight smart contracts and low barriers to entry, since DeadFish is available on Ardor DEX.
In the same announcement, Ardor DeFi goes on to say the DEFI tokens will have a finite supply of one trillion, “which is a perfect mix of the deflationary limited supply and enough for all the 7 billion people on the planet. DeFi (DeadFish) lives by the US Marine axiom of ‘No man (or woman or non-binary person) left behind.” The tokens will also be incredibly affordable according to the developers who say: “Even the citizens of Venezuela and Zimbabwe with their worthless currencies can buy some.”
Joke Coins With a Real Message
Crypto is no stranger to jokes that also impart a serious message. In May 2018, at the tailend of ICO mania, the SEC launched the website Howey Coins which skewered the worst excess of the era. It wasn’t a bad attempt at a joke from an organization which isn’t known for its easygoing sense of humor, but Howey Coins arrived just a little too late to make a potent point. By the time the site arrived, ICOs were already in decline. Ardor DeFi are upping the ante with DeadFish, which not only arrives at a time when defi is hotting up, but with an actual product behind it as well.
The only question now is whether this viral-bait campaign will make a mark. The proportion of people who get the joke will determine whether this DeadFish swims or floats belly up. Whatever the outcome, the spoof token has raised the profile of Ardor at a time when defi developers are searching around for Ethereum alternatives that can take the strain. Perhaps there’s life in DeadFish after all.