Remember Dogecoin? A cryptocurrency that started as a joke and served no real-world utility was one of the best performing crypto assets of 2021 with over 12,000% YTD, beating the likes of Bitcoin and Ethereum. This massive return didn’t come from the technology or the team but was purely driven by the community.
A strong community is by far the single most important asset that any company can have, be it a startup or a cryptocurrency project. Satoshi Nakamoto realized the importance of a community from the beginning when he was working on Bitcoin. He created the BitcoinTalk Forum to introduce and discuss the idea of a peer-to-peer and decentralized currency with some of the leading cyberpunks, cryptographers, and people who cared about the project.
Source: BitcoinTalk Forum (first post on the forum by Satoshi himself)
After Satoshi disappeared from the web, the original Bitcoin project was adopted by the community that collectively nurtured and worked towards the advancement of Bitcoin and its ecosystem. Bitcoin never had any marketing budget, and it went from nothing to become a trillion-dollar market all because of the power of the community.
If technology is the brain, then the community is the heart of any cryptocurrency project. To understand the importance of building a community, let’s explore two of the best examples of community-driven cryptocurrency projects and how they are making a dent in the decentralized ecosystem.
Dogecoin
Dogecoin is a super-hyped and Twitter’s favorite cryptocurrency that got mainstream attention recently. Dogecoin was launched back in December 2013 by Jackson Palmer from Adobe and Billy Markus from IBM. It was created as a Bitcoin parody, inspired by a viral meme of a friendly Shiba Inu dog on Reddit.
The Dogecoin fans built a dedicated Reddit community, and they started using it to tip each other over funny or informative comments since it was worth a fraction of a penny at the time. Dogecoin didn’t get the mainstream attention until last year when it was picked by Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX.
Since then, Dogecoin became the center of discussion on Twitter and was later picked up by many influencers and celebrities, including Mark Cuban. The community growth was so exponential that Dogecoin became the best performing asset, spiking up in value by 12,000% which is phenomenal. Who would have thought a cryptocurrency that started as a joke will grow so massively, all thanks to the power of a strong community.
Edgeware
The second project that is super-focused on community building in the cryptocurrency space is Edgeware. Unlike Dogecoin that has no better technology or use case, Edgeware is a platform that bridges its sophisticated technology with a sound approach towards community building.
Edgeware is a smart contract chain for the next generation of decentralized applications. This smart contract platform is fully EVM-compatible, allowing developers to migrate their Solidity based DApps from Ethereum to Edgeware without making a single change to the codebase. New developers coming to the platform can also use Rust and WebAssembly.
Now coming to a great community aspect of Edgeware, it allows builders and organizers to connect with a robust community, share their skillset, and receive funds for the projects they want to work on within the ecosystem or beyond. Rather than a single large community, the Edgeware ecosystem has small focus groups where community members can interact with each other, work on ideas together, or form a team.
To empower the community of builders and organizers, Edgeware has an on-chain treasury managed by the community. This community treasury disburses funds to a working group or a full-fledged project plan to support the development process. Edgeware is a unique platform that focuses not only on community building, but also on empowering the community and helping them engage and connect with each other in the ecosystem.
Here are some of the many reasons why crypto projects should play their part in building strong communities where people can engage and interact with each other in ways that will benefit the ecosystem and strengthen the project along the way.
Inclusivity And Trust
Crypto projects can play a crucial role in providing users with a sense of acceptance and inclusivity through building focused communities. It empowers users with a sense of ownership of what the project is built around.
The projects should serve as a bridge for users to join the community through various social media platforms so they can communicate with each other. Communities can be a great way to connect newbies, traders, investors, and people from diverse backgrounds to join hands and share their views under a single platform.
Communication Brings Clarity
The complex world of cryptocurrencies can be compelling at first, but robust communities can help bring clarity to the people once they engage with each other. Community platforms can be a great place for having two-way communication, where crypto Projects can connect with their users and answer any possible questions concerning their services, mission, or project roadmap.
Creating Opportunities Through Online Meetups
One of the great trends among the community builders is arranging online meetups. By organizing these online meetups, crypto Projects can build a strong online presence, and welcome more people into the ecosystem, thereby creating more networking opportunities and possible peer engagements from the members.
Conclusion
Communities are an integral part for any project in the crypto space. No matter if you have an awesome technology or an awesome team, if you don’t have a robust community, you might lose the battle. Crypto projects that are focused on building a community early on have a higher chance of getting success and traction in the market – Power to the people!
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