Dialogue GMGN HAZE: How did the "Dog Biter" go from a loss of 350,000 USD to becoming a consultant in the Memecoin trading paradise?

Editor: Wu Says Blockchain

Recently, the well-known grid trader HAZE has been dubbed the "Dogecoin Idiot" after losing $350,000 trading meme coins. In this podcast, we talked with him about the process of trading memes and the professional meme on-chain tool GMGN that he co-founded. With the meme market booming, GMGN, an internally developed product, has become a hot project with impressive daily revenue. Whether GMGN will establish a "Idiot Index" based on HAZE's experience and its future development plans is also a key topic of this podcast.

According to @adam_tehc's Dune data dashboard, the on-chain MEME trading tool GMGN reached its current peak trading volume on November 17, with a single-day trading volume of $72 million, second only to PHOTON ($330 million) and surpassing BULLX ($67 million). This product line ranks second, with a daily fee income of $710,000 and daily users of 25,000.

Please note that the content of this article reflects the personal views of the interviewee and does not represent Wu Says' views. Wu Says does not endorse any tokens or projects, and readers are advised to strictly comply with local laws and regulations. On-chain tools carry significant security risks, and readers should use them with caution.

Why is HAZE Called the Memecoin "Idiot"?

Colin: Hello everyone, welcome to this episode of our podcast, featuring our familiar friend HAZE. He has recently gained some attention on Twitter, and this time we have a more relaxed topic. HAZE, can you start by explaining why you are referred to as the "Idiot Indicator" in Memecoin trading? Please share with everyone.

HAZE: Hello everyone, I am HAZE, an advisor for the GMGN project. The so-called "idiot" is quite simple; it refers to continuously trading low-quality coins on-chain, with both large and small funds participating. However, I believe that to break the conventional mindset, one must pay tuition fees. If you approach Memecoin trading with traditional secondary market thinking or value coin investment strategies, you will likely end up with a lot of losses. In the end, the tuition fees are fully paid to the on-chain, becoming liquidity for various dog coin groups. That's why I lost $350,000. But this account was initially used for trading dog coins, and it's a typical "tuition account." Recently, there have still been profits. If you aren't making money recently, then you really are an idiot, hahaha.

The Origin and Naming of GMGN Product

Colin: I remember when we talked before, Memecoin wasn't very popular yet, and you had already started working on this product, right? Can you tell me about the history of this product?

HAZE: That's right. Last year, I was quite interested in new products, and my entire investment mindset is product-driven. During the DeFi period, I was investing quite successfully, but this year, value coins have not performed well. So, I was always looking for new narratives. Initially, I saw the product UniBot. It solved the problem of transaction speed for users on the Ethereum chain, allowing users to access early project costs. I thought this product addressed some of the users' needs, and the business model was good. However, after experiencing it, I felt that TG Bot products were not suitable for mass usage in terms of experience and feel.

So, I was thinking, can we create a product with a great experience that allows everyone to quickly engage with projects while making the entire visualization and experience data intuitive and smooth? In July of last year, there was an independent team capable of doing this, but they asked me what the product should be named. I said, let's call it GMGN.

In terms of naming, I believe a good name is half the success. GMGN itself is a Crypto native term in the on-chain community. I wanted to use some vocabulary originating from community language to name this product. I think GMGN is a friendly, catchy, and simple name. When people were playing with NFTs, they often used greetings like GM (Good Morning) and GN (Good Night). So we hope this product provides an excellent user experience for community users and is friendly and approachable, hence the name GMGN. Our slogan at that time was: GMGN, Degen everyday.

This is a very native slogan, hoping everyone can open GMGN every day, trade on-chain, and make money. That's how the product's positioning and name came about.

Migration from Ethereum to Solana, "Mouse Warehouse" Feature Goes Viral

Colin: Since last year, how has your development progressed?

HAZE: Initially, we started on the Ethereum chain. I was confident about Ethereum during this cycle. At that time, new meme coins like MOG and BITCOIN (HarryPotterObamaSonic10Inu) were emerging. I thought, could we do this based on the Ethereum chain? However, during the process, I found that there were indeed contradictions regarding user sentiment, asset issuance effects, and transaction speed on the Ethereum chain. Originally, we sought quick entry and exit with high risks and high returns, but the trading experience was not smooth enough, which was problematic. So we began considering whether we needed to switch chains. Our target chain options included Blur's Blast, Coinbase's Base, and Solana.

In January, a wave of enthusiasm for Solana emerged. After observing the trend of Solana, I felt that choosing Solana was more appropriate because Solana is more mature and has been around longer than other chains. After team discussions, we decided to prioritize entering Solana while keeping Blast and Base as alternatives and fully supporting a multi-chain model. Thus, we entered Solana. However, during the BOME wave in March, we didn't benefit much from it because our initial layout was still on Ethereum, and we didn't deploy fully to Solana in time.

Later, around April and May, after GMGN went live, I promoted it on Twitter, and users provided feedback that the dashboard feature was quite useful. Users could continuously explore smart money addresses, analyze the operations of large holders, and conduct address assessments and data analysis. During this phase, we gradually accumulated some seed users. With seed users, the product's demand updates and iterations became more aligned with actual user needs.

What truly made GMGN explode widely was the "Mouse Warehouse" feature. This feature was inspired by user feedback and our intuitive feelings. With on-chain asset data being so transparent, we thought we should better utilize this transparency. So, we launched the mouse warehouse labeling feature. For example, when users are rushing into a project, they are most concerned about whether there is a mouse warehouse involved. After adding this feature, we could clearly label which projects had mouse warehouses.

In April and May of this year, after the "Mouse Warehouse" feature went live, it further propelled explosive growth based on the already good reputation of finding smart money. Many users shared screenshots in the community discussing how GMGN labeled mouse warehouse data, such as how many mouse warehouse addresses a project had. This level of discussion rapidly increased GMGN's popularity.

The influx of more users also made our previous smart money address feature more popular. We clearly labeled the address data and even matched some information from Twitter. Users could also add follow and note features.

Many users began writing tutorials, such as "I found a smart money address that made this much money," and then shared how to use GMGN for data mining. The effect of such content being posted on Twitter was unexpectedly good. As a result, more and more creators began to produce content based on GMGN's features. Whether in Chinese or English, many high-traffic posts on Twitter now utilize GMGN's dashboard feature. At this stage, GMGN's popularity truly exploded.

Recently, as the Memecoin market has gradually heated up, more and more people have been recommending GMGN. In the past few days, GMGN's servers have been overwhelmed six times in four days.

Colin: So there were several days of downtime?

HAZE: Haha, yes, yes, yes. The server traffic surged, and everyone had a high demand for buying and selling Memecoins using GMGN. At that time, our development team basically didn't sleep and was working overtime to expand capacity, but still couldn't keep up with the users' rush. Thus, the server was overwhelmed six times in just four days.

This was completely unexpected. According to our operational experience, we had already done a lot of redundancy for traffic data. We can only say that the heat of the Memecoin market far exceeded our expectations, which also proves everyone's recognition of the GMGN product. Here, I also want to thank all the users of GMGN; it is your support that led to this result. Of course, we will continue to work hard to optimize the servers.

Colin: So what is the current growth trend of users? Are there any significant growth milestones?

HAZE: Overall data can actually be queried on-chain. Our data from the past half month indicates that trading volume has surged by 600%.

Colin: How is the current team size of GMGN? How many people are there?

HAZE: About 30 people.

Reviewing Other Platform Security Incidents and Optimizing Security Solutions

Colin: Recently, a certain product had a security incident. What improvements will you make regarding security?

HAZE: There has been a lot of discussion about a recent security incident involving a meme product, with various analyses and evidence surfacing on Twitter. From the current information, it appears that they used plaintext transmission for private key transfers, which essentially shows a lack of any security protection. Furthermore, from the leaked theft process, funds were transferred one-to-one from user addresses to hacker addresses, indicating that the server was likely hijacked. Because the private keys were in plaintext, once the server was compromised, the users' private keys were completely exposed, allowing hackers to easily transfer funds.

Regardless of the situation, security is paramount for custodial platforms. For products like TG Bot, hosting user private keys is equivalent to hosting users' funds. If you do this, you need to implement various technical measures to ensure security, such as encrypting private key storage, establishing a comprehensive internal control system, and ensuring strict isolation between business servers and secure storage servers. You also need to ensure platform security through offline solutions and real-time monitoring.

If funds are indeed stolen, the first step is to quickly identify the problem and stop losses at sensitive nodes. If the scale of theft is small, the platform can quickly compensate users with its own revenue. Since there is no 100% secure system, the key lies in the ability to respond quickly and compensate users. These measures can help the platform achieve a higher standard of security.

Our team has been very focused on security from the beginning, establishing a complete professional security team. We have experienced the waves of the internet, traded coins, and witnessed large capital flows, fully aware of the "dark forest rule" in the blockchain industry. We also understand that platform security is the most fundamental guarantee.

GMGN offers two user experience modes. One is the TG Bot mode, where user private keys are hosted on the server, meeting the strategy and speed needs of advanced users. The other is where users connect directly to the GMGN website for trading interactions through plugins like Phantom or MetaMask, requiring user authorization for each operation, which is relatively safer.

We have invested a lot of effort in both the front end and back end to continuously optimize security mechanisms. Based on the recent security issues of a certain product, we will further learn from the lessons and fill in the gaps. We will adopt a more cautious attitude to enhance the overall security of the platform.

Future Development Strategy: Stable Services and Continuous Engagement with Hot Narratives

Colin: Have you ever calculated your market share? What does it look like?

HAZE: In terms of overall market share, we should be relatively leading globally. Our main competitor is Photon, which has a clear first-mover advantage on Solana. The BOME wave benefited them the most.

Colin: What are your plans for future products and development strategies?

HAZE: Our product philosophy is quite simple: first, ensure that services are stable enough; second, pursue faster and more extreme operational experiences; third, carefully record user demands and continuously update based on the urgency of those demands. Our goal is to make the user experience smoother and smoother, and that's basically the idea.

Colin: Are you worried about the decline in Memecoin's popularity? Or after the hype passes, will there be issues with the long-term viability of your product?

HAZE: I think GMGN initially entered the Memecoin track, but its essence is an on-chain product. Its positioning is about how to closely follow on-chain hotspots and major trends, providing users with good trading opportunities and helping them seize on-chain dividends, which is GMGN's core positioning. Therefore, even if Memecoin gradually cools down or loses its current momentum, our key lies in how to identify the next narrative hotspot, and the team will consider how to quickly engage with it.

It's not that we only focus on Memecoin; it is part of GMGN and currently the main part, but it is by no means the only part. I believe that in the blockchain world, hotspots switch very quickly, and innovation happens rapidly. Therefore, we cannot be biased or stagnant. We need to try more, explore more, and find good entry points. If we can solve users' pain points, we will engage and execute. At the same time, we will continuously correct and adjust our understanding.

If we remain immersed in our current comfort zone without breaking it, regardless of our platform position, over time, we may be surpassed.

Development Details: "Idiot Wallet," Niche Tracks, "Conspiracy Groups," and Trading Experience

Colin: Understood, OK. Next, we have two friends joining the discussion, one is defioasis and the other is Yi Yi. They have in-depth observations and practical experience in the Memecoin field and can further discuss some issues with you.

defioasis: I have a few questions. The first is about the "Idiot Wallet" indicator. Is it possible to launch a tool similar to reverse smart money, such as labeling wallets with extremely low win rates that buy at high points?

HAZE: I think this is possible. If we have time, we can label these wallets and categorize them as low win rate wallets. First, put me on that list, hahaha.

Colin: This idea seems quite interesting, haha.

HAZE: Yes, many users who chase high prices often buy at the peak, and then the price starts to drop. So it could serve as an indicator to assist trading decisions.

defioasis: Right, this could be a good selling indicator. The second question is, Memecoin is a large track, and there are many niche tracks within it, such as the recent AI Memecoin and DeSci. Is it possible to optimize the sector classification and sector rotation functions in GMGN so that users can easily see the hotspots?

HAZE: The demand for sector classification has indeed been raised before. Some users are not trading dog coins every day; they may have heard that a certain sector is hot and want to come in and buy some. At this time, providing an intuitive display of market cap and price would be very helpful. We will consider adding these classifications in future function updates.

defioasis: One more question, GMGN has two entry points, one is TG Bot and the other is the plugin wallet. Have you ever calculated which entry point has a higher user volume and trading volume?

HAZE: We haven't done such data statistics recently.

Yi Yi: I have two questions. First, the community is currently particularly interested in two things besides smart money: discovering "conspiracy groups" and guessing who will be listed on Binance. GMGN has strong data analysis capabilities, especially in smart money. Do you have plans to further explore these related addresses, such as labeling which addresses may be involved in conspiracy activities?

HAZE: We have partially implemented this. We initially launched the mouse warehouse feature and later added "fish" labeling. We will label suspected conspiracy wallets as "red fish," with labeling logic including operations on multiple wallets at the same time and consistent fund transfer behaviors. For example, I recently tested an address, and the data clearly showed that the address was a distribution address, labeled as "red fish," with an additional red exclamation mark prompt.

HAZE: Additionally, we have wallet distribution analysis features, such as the distribution behavior of DEV wallets being labeled with a "sniper" icon. For the conspiracy groups mentioned by users, we will continue to identify and determine them through on-chain data, but we will try to avoid subjective labeling.

Yi Yi: Understood. My second question is, can the K-line tool be combined with on-chain data? For example, if I define a time window, I want to know who was driving the price up and who was making money during a major upward trend. Could this be a development direction for GMGN?

HAZE: Currently, we are more inclined to provide data functions that are universally applicable to large platforms. The demand you mentioned belongs to customized functions, which require more resource investment. Our primary task now is to meet the most popular demands, but in the future, if more users raise similar needs, we will evaluate and consider adding these features.

Yi Yi: What will be the focus of GMGN's upcoming iterations? Will there be other exciting features to look forward to?

HAZE: We already have chip distribution features, as well as wallet labeling and dispersion chart functions. The focus for the future will still be on improving the overall stability, speed, and experience of trading. For example, the highly requested "wallet monitoring" feature will expand from supporting 100 wallets to 500. Additionally, the monitoring push needs for TG Bot and channels will also be optimized. Currently, GMGN's push function experiences delays when user volume is too large, and we will prioritize resolving this issue.

Our goal is to enable users to discover information faster, stay updated on dynamics quicker, and complete transactions more swiftly. The current updates mainly focus on these core needs.