Best of paragraph.xyz/@tpan on Kiwi News
@tpan on Paragraph · Most upvoted by Kiwi News readers
11 stories by @tpan on Paragraph have been shared on Kiwi News since 24 July 2024, with 27 upvotes and 9 comments in total. The latest was shared on 9 August 2025. They are listed below, most upvoted first.
Text under a title is an AI summary of the linked article.
- dGEN1 - A physical device (and airdrop magnet) for Ethereum
The ethOS team introduced the dGEN1, a physical Ethereum-focused device built by Freedom Factory, priced at 0.2 ETH (about $520) with payment also accepted in $DEGEN and by credit card. The article says the device includes a system-level wallet and that buyers can use a referral code for a 5% discount, while referrers earn 5%. Several memecoin communities joined the referral program with custom codes. The author links this to airdrop incentives seen with the Solana Saga, Solana Seeker, and other onchain devices, noting that preorder rewards are promoted explicitly and that the referral window runs until December 31st.
- #342: AI in Crypto Marketing, the AI Agent Cambrian Explosion
AI agents are presented as a new marketing channel, and crypto is described as one of the best industries for experimenting with AI-enhanced marketing. Jin, Head of Marketing at Nuffle Labs, walked viewers through his AI tools for content calendars, images and videos in a livestream with Emily, VP Marketing at Hype. Examples of agents cited include Virtuals' Luna, which has 500k+ TikTok followers and a token valued at about $100M, and aethernet, whose Zora art commission reached 687k mints.
- #347: Crypto is Stocks but Better
The author argues that crypto can be explained to newcomers as "stocks, but better," and presents this as a way to build a foundation for later crypto terms. Separately, the piece describes artist-led memecoins as a growing path for artists, citing fwog ($433M, created by Groowut) and BOOK OF MEME ($700M, created by Darkfarms). It notes that fwog's "The Pond" NFT collection has a floor price of 113 SOL (~$27K), and that dric's This is Frog NFT collection, minted in December 2022 with 2,222 frics, had almost no sales until fric the memecoin launched on November 24th.
- 3 Articles That Made Me Think
The author recaps three articles on crypto and consumer behavior: John Wang on "softcore gambling," Richard Chen of Varrock VC on crypto-native versus crypto-adjacent builders, and 0xKyle of Defiance Capital on Internet Capital Markets. Wang argues that gambling-like mechanics such as blind boxes, coin pushers and gamified rewards have spread into everyday consumer products, with Pop Mart fans and Shein shoppers cited as examples. Chen says crypto-native businesses face difficult retention and open-source moats, while crypto-adjacent companies treat crypto as a feature, and 0xKyle argues that investors can become operating partners alongside teams.
- #330: The Evolution of Social Engagement Through NFTs
Rodeo and Zora are emerging social platforms that replace likes with paid mints, with the author arguing this approach addresses pain points of incumbent social media. Rodeo, built by the Foundation team, lets users mint posts for a 24-hour window at a fixed price of 0.0001 ETH, or about 25 cents, with mint proceeds split between Rodeo and the creator. Zora has adopted a flat mint price of 0.000111 ETH (111 sparks) for all content, and comments are available only to minters.
- Ugly Fonts, Fully Onchain Games, Distribution is the Bottleneck, PTAL
This roundup covers four topics: using ugly fonts or disfluent formatting to grab attention, Bitkraft VC's in-depth piece on Fully Onchain Games, Seyi Taylor's Columbia Business School slides arguing that distribution is the bottleneck, and a PTAL billboard experiment. Goblintown and Ethena are cited as projects that used unusual text formatting to stand out, with Goblintown doing so for two years. Seyi Taylor's slides give examples of verticals such as online news, social content platforms and DTC ecommerce that boomed and busted as distribution channels changed. Quinn Campbell, former VP Growth at Axie Infinity, describes a billboard experiment on Tribally facilitated by PTAL, which he founded, in which a Pixels landowner earned $100 for displaying the ad.
- A 2024 web3 with TPan recap
TPan reviews 2024 web3 themes and makes predictions for 2025, arguing that airdrop magnets, socialfi, memecoins, claimdrops, prediction markets and AI agents will shape the coming year. On airdrop magnets, the article cites Aligned's airdrop to 891,322 qualified wallets that held at least $50 of listed tokens, and Pudgy Penguins' PENGU launch, where over 7 million wallets qualified. It predicts a breakout socialfi app reaching mainstream users in 2025, pointing to Fantasy.Top's $4.25 million seed round. It also predicts that AI agents will become a requisite marketing channel for projects.
- #346: The AI Agent Cambrian Explosion pt. 2
The author's central point is that AI agents in crypto have multiplied quickly, with Virtuals' agent ecosystem a leading example. Virtuals Fun, launched November 1st, is a launchpad where agents get tokens attached, and over 9,000 agent tokens had launched on it in its first month, with over 7 million VIRTUAL spent creating them. Three Virtuals-linked airdrops, for MUSIC, Pondhub and SERAPH, all ran within one week, and their criteria rewarded simple participation rather than specific assets.
- Fantasy Top Meets Survivor: Heroes Vote Out
Fantasy Top's new Heroes Vote Out feature has produced unexpected results in its first event, which runs for another week. Players use FAN points to vote on Heroes to remove, with 5 Heroes removed and their holders' cards swapped for similarly ranked Heroes. The top vote-getters include Greg (score 996, rank 1) and Ansem (score 935, rank 3), both consistently top-5 performers over recent months, which the author says could upset their holders. The author views the outcome as an emergent governance dynamic, and notes the team said it would not let top Heroes be voted out, so adjustments such as immunity for certain Heroes may follow.
- #313: Squiggle #9999 and Attestations
Erick Calderon (Snowfro) announced that Squiggle #9999, the last piece of the Squiggles collection, will be minted and donated to LACMA (Los Angeles County Museum of Art), with a farewell smart contract commemorating the final mint. Participants sign the farewell by sending any amount of ETH to the contract squigglefarewell.eth, which records their participation and returns the ETH, minus gas. The farewell opened the past Monday and concludes on Monday, July 22. The author argues that blockchain attestations can validate such interactions securely and decentralized, comparing them to yearbook signing and voting stickers.
- Web3 with TPan | #314: Polymarket and How a Head of Lettuce Beat Biden
Polymarket, a crypto-based prediction market platform, drew attention in July 2024 when a "Will Biden drop out?" derivative market resolved to "Lettuce," using a head of lettuce's 10-day shelf life as its time-based rule. The market opened July 18 and would have resolved in Biden's favor if he had not dropped out by end of day July 28, and the writer notes it had about $107k in bets and was built to create awareness and engagement. Polymarket also made promotional fight posters, and the writer suggests prediction markets may become more creatively framed and marketed, potentially acting as a marketing channel for other products.