Original Title: "Is Focusing on Work Actually a Reason for Market Crash? The Irony Behind Gas's Cold Reception"
Original Author: KarenZ, Foresight News
In recent days, it's hard to scroll through Twitter without being inundated by BAGS.
The hype around BAGS not only comes from the crazy influx of on-chain players but also from an article that sparked it all—a lengthy piece titled "Bags and the Creator Economy" published by programmer Steve Yegge on January 15, detailing his journey from "suspecting a scam" to "this is great."
When Tech Geeks Encounter "Sudden Wealth"
The author of the article, Steve Yegge, is quite a figure. With 40 years of coding experience and having worked for giants like Amazon, Google, and Grab, this tech veteran is known for his sharp criticism of platform architecture and extreme engineering thinking.
The script here is fascinating:
1. Suspected Scam: Steve Yegge received a message on LinkedIn saying someone was sending him money (initially $49,000) and mentioned that developer Geoffrey Huntley had just received $56,000 the week before. His wife said it was a scam, and his intuition told him it was a setup, but he still gave it a try.
2. Real Money: To his surprise, the money actually arrived! This made him realize that BAGS might not just be a simple pump-and-dump scheme, but rather a paradigm shift in the creator economy.
Steve Yegge pointed out, "BAGS is a marketplace that fuels creativity, where people try to predict and support future winners. These creators can be individuals or small teams creating amazing things. As we move into 2026, with tools like Gas Town, individual creators will be able to produce products that rival large companies."
When such a "tech geek" begins to seriously analyze a Web3 product, the market briefly realizes that BagsApp might not just be a meme frenzy, but a fundamental reconstruction of the creator economy. Many believe he represents the most hardcore and pragmatic engineering mindset in Silicon Valley.
So how does BAGS work?
BAGS is a token launch and trading platform on Solana that utilizes Meteora. Its distinction from most launch platforms is that creators can specify who receives the transaction royalties when launching tokens. The default token transaction royalty on BAGS is currently 1%.
This presents a new opportunity for the Web2 developer community. Because even if they do not issue tokens or hold tokens, as long as the tokens have trading volume, they can earn continuous passive income.
Whether it's individuals creating tokens with self-set royalties or communities issuing tokens for favored developers and designating their wallets or Twitter accounts to receive profits, the barriers for creators to monetize have been lowered.
Additionally, BAGS has a profit-sharing feature where token creators can enable a fee-sharing mechanism to reward top holders based on their holdings. The system checks every 24 hours, and if unclaimed earnings exceed 10 SOL, it will automatically distribute them proportionally to the top 100 holders.
Moreover, holding tokens grants access to the community's chat privileges, achieving a native binding of finance and social interaction.
In another sense, BAGS creates a deceptively "gentle" environment: even if you don't issue tokens, as long as you have fame, the community can forcibly send money your way.
But this also brings about a paradox: when a developer can gain benefits through "passive royalties," do they still have the motivation to complete those tedious, lengthy, and potentially failing technical deliveries?
Top Memes in the BAGS Ecosystem
The top two memes in the BAGS ecosystem by market capitalization are:
RALPH (Current Market Cap: $29 million)
A tribute to the "Ralph Wiggum Technique" in the AI programming circle (i.e., using AI to iterate through trial and error until the code works). This token was created by the community as a meme representing a development culture. Geoffrey Huntley did not deploy this smart contract.
Gas (Current Market Cap: $9.24 million)
Gas originated from Steve Yegge's release of the AI coding agent coordinator Gas Town. On January 2, 2026, Steve Yegge released the coding agent coordinator Gas Town, a tool that can manage multiple AI coding agents simultaneously. Gas Town plans to expand this year in three areas: 1. Model cognitive capabilities; 2. Enhancing agent compatibility with Gas Town; 3. Incorporating Gas Town and Beads datasets into the training corpus of cutting-edge models. The Gas token is community-issued.
More critically, of the $270,000 in transaction fees generated by the Gas token, 99% flows back to Steve Yegge himself, forming a seemingly perfect closed loop of "developers focusing on building, and the community continuously empowering."
When "Focusing on Development" Becomes a Negative Factor
But the reality is, when Steve Yegge stated on January 17 that he would "return to development, fully commit to Gas Town, and could not spend too much time on CT," the community's enthusiasm instantly cooled. Gas peaked at a market cap of $60 million on January 16, and as of the time of writing, it has dropped over 83% from that peak.
This contradiction precisely confirms a harsh reality: the market has never regarded Gas as a true AI product but rather as the next AI meme hype target.
When "focusing on development" becomes a negative factor for the token price, we must acknowledge: the current Web3 AI track is still dominated by the attention economy's PVP battlefield.
The awkward situation of Gas reveals the deepest structural contradictions in Web3: the speed of capital flow is in seconds (transactions), while the speed of building quality products is tortoise-like (months or even years).
In Steve Yegge's case, the market essentially bought his future "expectations" by sending him money. But the crypto market is too impatient; it demands that money invested this second must have a "positive" echo the next second. When developers choose to retreat to fulfill their promises, they cut off the "emotional liquidity" that speculators need most. However, real coding requires long periods of silence and deep diving.
People want the Builder's story to support valuations but are unwilling to wait for the long process of the Builder solidifying technology. When the novelty of the story fades, and the founder no longer cooperates with traffic operations, the token will revert to its speculative essence.
Conclusion
So, is BAGS the future of the creator economy? Perhaps. But for now, it seems more like a ticket for Web2 developers to passively participate in "attention harvesting."
Web2 developers are used to being responsible for codebases, while Web3 forces them to be responsible for market capitalization. When Steve Yegge wants to return to his engineering roots, the market punishes his "inaction." This may be the biggest warning BAGS leaves for the industry: if we only learn how to "financialize" people but do not learn how to protect their "creativity," then what we get will be hollow shells drained of traffic, rather than a true technological revolution.
When the market begins to appreciate the Builder's long dive into the depths of code, rather than just focusing on the momentary spikes on the K-line chart, the "long-termism" spring for tech geeks will have truly arrived.
DYOR is particularly important in this game of technology and memes.
免责声明：本文章仅代表作者个人观点，不代表本平台的立场和观点。本文章仅供信息分享，不构成对任何人的任何投资建议。用户与作者之间的任何争议，与本平台无关。如网页中刊载的文章或图片涉及侵权，请提供相关的权利证明和身份证明发送邮件到support@aicoin.com，本平台相关工作人员将会进行核查。
