Over the past few years, memes have been used to poke fun and evoke emotions. As a social phenomenon, memes are also evolving with those who use them. With the increasing adoption of blockchain and NFTs, this evolution has seen viral memes converted to NFT memes in a meme gold rush.
", "Overly Attached Girlfriend", and "Disaster Girl", have found buyers on public NFT marketplaces like OpenSea and auctioned for as high as $590k.is seen as a welcomed development for artists who, before the spike in the popularity of NFTs and blockchain, had to watch from the sidelines as their memes were unrestrictedly used by everyone across the board.
However, in this arrangement, the global meme community is adversely affected. Although users can freely circulate the meme's copy, there can be severe repercussions if the purchaser—or the owner—discovers that their work was used, knowingly or unknowingly, in commercial activities without permission. To prevent such a scenario from happening, some leading social media channels are de-platforming NFT memes from viral videos.
For instance, the "Charlie Bit My Finger" is no longer available on YouTube though copies may exist on other channels. The trend seems to be picking up momentum. NetGems, a digital agency representing artists behind some popular video memes like "Two Pretty Best Friends" and "The Crazy Nastyass Honey Badger", also deleted the original videos when their collection, comprising these videos, was auctioned as an NFT collection.
Still, as the internet and NFTs evolve, it would be interesting to watch how blockchain technology shapes communication.