Rise Of The Memers: How The Cryptocurrency Community Freehold Plans To Use The Power Of Memes To Benefit Their Creators

he power of memes is something that most people would’ve scoffed at just a decade ago. Even today, many have yet to fully understand how much influence these humble images and videos truly have on the world around us — but that doesn’t mean nobody has come to this realization in the last few years.

From politics to social movements and even newfangled forms of marketing, memes have had a profound impact on humanity since emerging in the mid-2000s, and their array of subject matter has led to memes being made on just about every conceivable topic imaginable. Despite this, the individuals who create these memes are still largely trivialized and brushed aside by most who have yet to see their potential.

The world of cryptocurrency is one natural fit for meme material, and ever since debuting online, the two realms have been closely intertwined through examples like hodl (slang for holding onto cryptocurrencies rather than selling them due to fluctuations) or Dogecoin (an altcoin emblazoned with the face of Doge). With communities of memers pushing the discussion of crypto for years, whether by happenstance or purposeful intent, memes have undoubtedly made their mark on the industry and its followers.

Taking notice of all this and the increasing power of memes to drive discussion, Patrick Stanley founded Freehold, “a community of high-impact hodlers,” last year to reward these undervalued meme creators while educating newcomers to cryptocurrency through their content. Not only does this introduce people to crypto, but it also directly rewards memers for creating content they’re already passionate about.

“Freehold rewards people who take an active role in educating others about cryptocurrency,” Stanley told us during our interview. “It is designed so technical and non-technical holders can become real stakeholders in the rise of a movement.”

By harnessing the influence of memes, combined with their ability to educate, Stanley hopes Freehold will be among the first to recognize meme creators for their sway while benefiting both them and the cryptocurrency community as a whole.

“The whole thing is not just spreading memes, although that's important, it's not just spreading education, though that's also important, it's about building a community of people who get in the habit of doing work that has an impact on the things that they believe in,” Stanley said.

One such meme creator and Freehold user is Chefjessions, who runs a large political meme page on Instagram that’s focused on getting all sides of the aisle to laugh at themselves. Chefjessions has been an active creator working with Freehold since last year, and when asked about how the community benefits him as a memer, he told us that there are two main perks he particularly enjoys.

“Not only does Freehold get us paid in crypto, which is inarguably a nice feature of working with them, they give us exposure to the crypto world. Most importantly I’m getting a great understanding of the value of hodling and seeing crypto’s long-term investment value,” Chefjessions said. “Something that is a personal favorite aspect of mine, Freehold has given me a chance to use memes and my platform to help demystify crypto to an audience who is largely unaware of its potential.”

Providing memes at the intersection of space, finance and technology on his Instagram page, creator Teflon_Musk is another member of Freehold who’s seen similar benefits since joining the community. When we spoke about why creators like him should know about Freehold, Teflon_Musk said that connecting with fellow memers and the crypto community at large to collaborate has been fundamental in helping him grow creatively in new ways he never thought of.

“It’s easy to get stuck in your small circle of memers that you ‘grew up’ with, but today a lot of the best memes are coming from smaller up-and-coming accounts who don’t have a chip on their shoulder,” Teflon_Musk said. “It’s a unique model to engage with memers, influencers and content creators to educate the broader public about crypto and their offerings through this extremely wide-reaching global online community.”

Unlike other meme creators who’ve turned their craft and followings into a way to make money, such as the infamous FuckJerry and Jerry Media, Freehold doesn’t require its community to post sponsored content of any type nor things that they themselves don’t want to or aren’t passionate about.

By avoiding the pitfalls of traditional paid-memeing, not only are these more organic posts more effective, but they also don’t require one to have a massive following to access ways of profiting from their work. Stanley told us that even someone with a thousand followers can begin posting crypto-related memes as they build an audience and earn more over time through their investments with Freehold.

“Their [memers] eyes haven't been opened to their actual value yet because no one's presented them with a business model that actually affords them the value that they offer,” Stanley told us. “So I'm trying to connect them to the market and get them paid out for high-impact work and the things that they actually believe in.”

Through fostering these meme-driven communities aimed at any level of cryptocurrency knowledge, hodlers will be rewarded for their efforts by becoming stakeholders as they earn Bitcoin, Stacks or other currencies of their choosing. This emphasis on hodling is also what makes Freehold unique.

“Folks who have an impact working together are rewarded for their work in the respective cryptocurrency they are educating about,” Stanley said. “Then Freehold monitors whether those earners continue to hodl the currency or sell it, and the community of folks who retain their earnings by ‘hodling’ get more opportunities for earning than those who don’t. This way the community is made up of folks who have high conviction and high impact over time.”

With hodling as a central pillar to Freehold and how it benefits users, the invention of the “Hodl Score” is another innovation they’ve introduced. Essentially a credit score for cryptocurrency holdings, this creation allows Freehold to track which users have a long-standing history of trusting in their investments and not succumbing to volatility in worrisome moments.

Chefjessions recounted his own experience with this phenomenon during our discussion, where he told us that he had a “sell too early” Bitcoin experience back in 2011 when he owned two whole coins and sold them for beer money in college. The blunder caused him to be shy about getting back into crypto but added that Freehold has helped him and others with similar experiences get back in the saddle, all while learning the importance of hodling and the long-term investment value from working with their community.

Stanley also attributes this newfangled mentality in the crypto community to that of West Coast vs. East Coast investors. What he alludes to by this is that Freehold and its users are more in the West Coast mindset of investing. This means that since they have “skin in the game” by owning cryptocurrencies they’re involved in growing, they become more trustworthy and reputable than someone who doesn’t have a vested interest.

“The fact that I have skin in the game is a signal of my conviction, and I can speak authoritatively because I have stuff to lose,” Stanley said. “That concept translates to what we're trying to do with folks who want to go from a standing start, creating memes that educate and have fun while creating a sense of community, to becoming a stakeholder in something that they believe in.”

By treating memers as respectable first-class citizens that are part of a media community, Freehold aims to change the mentality on creators and benefit them, all while using memes as a vehicle for educating others about cryptocurrency in hopes that they might too become investors in the sector. This is something that Freehold predicts will become a reality over the next decade or so, that everyone will ultimately become a crypto investor as the economy slowly meshes with blockchain technology first introduced by Bitcoin.

Teflon_Musk reiterated this when asked about what he’s currently seeing around the meme-verse these days, denoting that many of his favorite crypto-related memes as of late have revolved around the Federal Reserve printing money and the fear of inflation (seen in the Money Printer Go Brrr meme), which is driving a new interest and investors to cryptocurrencies.

“I predict we’ll start to see cryptocurrency incorporated more in the broader meme community in 2021 as crypto becomes part of the daily conversation with many financial media outlets, high-profile investors, FinMeme accounts, investment banks, etc. that continue to comment on the topic,” Teflon_Musk told us. “Freehold plays a unique role in this as they bring together groups of memers who have a stake in the game and are part of this community that is bullish on the cryptocurrency market.”

With memes and cryptocurrency already having such an extensive history together, it’s a safe bet that these two online worlds will only continue to intertwine in the years ahead. For 2021, Chefjessions expressed that it will be a big year of “I told you so” memeing as the dollar and nation face down uncertainty that could benefit hodlers as people become more curious and confident about crypto. He added too that Freehold is on the right track for placing this emphasis on hodling at its core and using memers to shift what audiences think of cryptocurrencies.

“When people see crypto being memed and spoken about positively by their favorite memer, the veil of mystery around it begins to be lifted,” Chefjessions said. “I think once the cultural shift around crypto occurs and people see it as just as normal an investment as anything else, crypto will be on an irreversible rocket ship upwards. Freehold is spearheading the effort to make that cultural shift occur with younger audiences.”

So how does Freehold play a role in this future crossroad between memes, those who create them and the everchanging world of cryptocurrency? For one, coming off such a year of turmoil for many that devastated entire job markets, traditional investments and sources of income, Freehold is poised to play an important role in helping people find new ways to make money. Based on a Gallup poll from last year, only 55 percent of all Americans own stock, so Freehold also hopes that its novel idea will result in many making a zero to one shift in terms of investments as they become a stakeholder in the crypto world.

Though they’ve always consistently grown in prominence since their debut, memes in 2020 were easily at an all-time high for sheer prevalence, acting as a form of therapy for many. This is something Stanley thinks will continue in the near future as the world trudges on and moves toward a (hopefully) better tomorrow.

Freehold is still relatively new, having only been launched in the latter half of 2020, but speaking with both its founder and users who’ve already seen success through the platform points to a bright future and some much-deserved recognition for meme creators who have long since been ignored or undervalued.

So with all this in mind, will 2021 see the rise of the memer as a new economic powerhouse? Stanley seems to think so.

“The folks that stay consistent with it are essentially going to be like the new ‘internet proletariat’ and eventually the new kind of ‘internet wealth class.’ There should be multi-millionaire, if not billionaire, memers, so why hasn't that happened yet?”

Patrick Stanley is the founder of Freehold, a community of memers working to entertain and educate people about cryptocurrencies. If you're a meme creator or simply interested in joining the community, you can check out Freehold's website for more info and follow them on Twitter.

Editor's Note: This article first appeared in the February 2021 issue of Meme Insider, a magazine covering memes and other internet phenomena, as part of a paid partnership between Meme Insider and Freehold. You can subscribe to the magazine here.