How a Digital Artist Used Chat GPT to Create a $50M Meme Coin
Something can occur in Web3. In truth, probably the most alluring features of the crypto and NFT area is its Wild West-like nature; play your playing cards proper, and also you may stumble into generational wealth in a method that simply isn’t attainable wherever else. And whereas scams, fraud, and break actually rank among the many seemingly infinite prospects the area has to supply, it’s essential to keep in mind that innovation and even altruism do, too.
One of many extra encouraging tales Web3 has seen in the previous couple of days is the rise of $TURBO, a meme cryptocurrency created as each an experiment and piece of efficiency artwork by artist Rhett Dashwood (AKA Mankind). Mankind is a Sotheby’s-selling OG crypto artist whose work typically depicts ethereal and otherwordly scenes and figures coated in saturated colours.
The gimmick behind the token’s rise? Mankind created the coin with a $69 finances and the assistance of ChatGPT — and with no expertise in coding or making a coin to talk of.
You may say his experiment has been successful. $TURBO at present has a market cap of $50 million and has executed over $26 million in quantity within the final 24 hours alone. Right here’s how he did it.
Ranging from scratch
“I gave ChatGPT-4 a finances of $69 and requested it to make the following nice meme coin,” learn Mankind’s April 23 tweet. The straightforward premise was the product of Mankind’s reflection on the present state of the crypto artwork area.
“I’ve been in crypto artwork for fairly just a few years, and this 12 months has been completely useless for attempting to promote digital artwork,” Mankind mentioned in a recent YouTube video by which he describes his reasoning for beginning the mission. He’s not improper. NFT sales volumes are at 20-month lows, and the whole Web3 ecosystem is feeling the load of a crypto winter that no person can see the top of.
Mankind says he figured that it was the proper time to mess around with some AI instruments he’d been exploring currently, with ChatGPT being entrance of thoughts. Maybe, he thought, he might draw folks’s consideration to his paintings by an experiment.
The very first thing ChatGPT instructed him to do was flesh out the idea. This included developing with a reputation for the coin, a catchy backstory, and a brand. Mankind then requested ChatGPT to additional help within the creation of a reputation or provide you with different concepts.
As a part of the experiment, he inspired his Twitter followers to assist him with the decision-making course of. Giving them 4 choices from GPT’s prompt checklist of ten meme coin names — HypeHound, AstroCorgi, FomoFeline, and TurboToad — his followers overwhelmingly chosen TurboToad as the best way to go.
After developing with a reputation for the coin’s mascot, a personality referred to as Quantum Leap, Mankind used Midjourney to assist him create the emblem. Once more polling his followers to decide on the mascot picture, he settled on a cute, Pixar-esque picture of a yellow-orange toad character carrying a spacesuit.
Code massive or code house
At this level within the experiment, Mankind encountered a hurdle. ChatGPT’s capabilities are restricted as this system is skilled on knowledge up till September 2021, with no entry to developments past that time. This triggered the artist to think about how the dearth of entry to developments within the coin financial system past that time may have an effect on the form of data he was getting from the AI. After feeding new and up to date context again into ChatGPT, the AI gave him new data and suggested him to jot down the code for the mission. The one downside was that he had no thought code.
“This was in all probability the primary stumbling block,” Mankind mentioned of his expertise. It was problematic as a result of the AI had instructed him to go learn to code, one thing he had neither the time nor need to do. So, Mankind’s pure subsequent query was, “Are you able to assist me do the Solidity coding?” After hours of backwards and forwards with Mankind and the AI creating and checking the code collectively, the artist succeeded.
By the top of the primary day of the experiment, Mankind had developed the idea of the coin, the tokenomics, its white paper, and had 75 p.c of its good contract written.
“I assumed that was superb. In in the future, to have the ability to get that far.” Mankind mentioned.
His subsequent step was to get an audit of the code. After asking his followers if anybody might test the code for him, just a few folks volunteered to offer him some recommendation, which he then fed again into GPT to optimize the code. By the end of day two of his experiment, Mankind had completed the good contract for the coin and begun constructing the mission’s web site and social channels.
After a failed launch of TurboToad that noticed bots swoop in and break the experiment by snatching up a lot of the liquidity pool, throwing the worth out of proportion and stopping him from including extra liquidity to the mission, Mankind determined that was the top of the road. He had sunk round $600 at this level (properly past the $69 finances he started with) and didn’t have the funds to strive once more.
Fortunately, his group got here to the rescue. After polling them on what he ought to do subsequent, his followers mentioned to discover a new method ahead. With ChatGPT’s assist, Mankind determined to crowdfund, promising contributors that they might be equitably rewarded with the token for no matter they put in to assist fund the mission. After selecting a brand new title for the token, Turbo ($TURBO), he determined that the overall provide could be 69 billion tokens, with 60 billion reserved for the group and the remaining for himself as its core contributor.
The group voted for a method ahead. Right here it’s!https://t.co/XE798VTRtw
— Rhett Mankind (@rhett) April 26, 2023
Turbo, take two
By this level within the experiment, Mankind felt the mission was past him. He didn’t personal the bulk share of the token and had inspired his followers to take the mission in no matter route they wished, whether or not that be beginning up a Telegram channel or making a Discord for the coin.
They did just that, and because the meme coin started to realize the attention of artists noting how progressive the experiment was, Mankind polled his followers to see what they wished to do subsequent with the mission. Their response was to extend liquidity. As $TURBO continued choosing up steam, it acquired a significant enhance from well-known Web3 collector Pranksy, who made a V3 liquidity pool, which solved the issue the group shortly earlier than voted to deal with.
Within the first 48 hours of the launch of the brand new model of $TURBO, the coin reached a $1 million market cap, one thing that was far past something Mankind had envisioned would occur for the mission. Now, the token is spreading like wildfire all through the Twitterverse, with a few of its most notable commentators and influencers praising Mankind for the thought and its success.
Because the groundswell continues, Mankind has his sights set on decentralizing the mission, polling his followers on whether or not or not it’s the proper to renounce ownership of the mission’s good contract, making it inaccessible. Whereas the ballot has but to conclude, a majority of followers have to this point indicated that it’s time to take action.
Surprising innovation, sudden good
The NFT area has a well-earned popularity for fraud and for shady actors, however $TURBO’s story is one which reminds Web3’s critics and supporters of its capability to do good as properly. As $TURBO continues to rise, Mankind’s experiment has gone the purpose the place it may very well be described as successful. Whereas claims of holders within the mission Discord with the ability to repay home loans as a result of meme coin have but to be substantiated, there’s no query that it’s altering issues for the higher for its creator.
“Simply to suppose that my daughter might look as much as me and see one thing that I’ve executed is profitable; that was superior as properly,” Mankind mentioned in his current video. “So many issues have come out of this that it’s overwhelming as a result of it has already taken on a lifetime of its personal that’s far past me. Simply to know that I put in momentum one thing that might tackle a lifetime of its personal is absolutely particular.”
