In this episode of Talking Tokens, Jacquelyn Melinek speaks with David Phelps, Co-Founder of JokeRace, an onchain platform that wants to turn governance, incentives, and community engagement into lightweight, fun, and highly participatory experiences. David breaks down why governance has failed in most crypto communities, how JokeRace simplifies participation, and why real utility often comes from small, low-friction interactions rather than complex systems.

They also discuss how communities can design better incentives, what JokeRace has learned from thousands of contests, and why the future of onchain engagement depends on experimentation, humor, and user-driven creativity. David also walks through his recent Base controversy, what he actually meant in his comments vs how it was interpreted online. He also talks about expectations placed on L2s, foundations, and application teams building in public.This episode is sponsored by Forgd. Thousands of Web3 projects leverage Forgd’s free tools to design smarter tokenomics, engage market makers on fair terms, plan listings strategically, and monitor liquidity after launch. Start using the Forgd platform for free, or sign up for white-glove advisory services, at Forgd.com

Timestamps

(00:00) - Intro

(01:27) - Devconnect Buenos Aires and public-access events

(02:08) - How someone buying substances introduced David to crypto

(03:07) - Discovering programmable money and why it “changes everything”

(04:13) - Bitcoin vs Ethereum and how Bitcoin creates value

(07:04) - Stablecoins, USD dominance, and crypto’s internal contradictions

(09:23) - Why DAOs failed and how that led to the creation of JokeRace

(10:29) - Participation, incentives, and why governance must be fun

(12:27) - Subjective prediction markets and competition inside JokeRace

(15:32) - Tribalism, rivalry, and true community psychology

(19:06) - Who actually uses JokeRace and how mainstream users onboard

(21:36) - Governance failures, branding, and why DAOs aren’t entertaining

(32:03) - The Base controversy: what David meant vs what people heard

(35:09) - Why chains must be opinionated and focused, not “for everyone”

(44:22) - Token launches, market makers, and structurally short deals

(49:03) - David’s best advice on being online and embracing authenticity

Essentials

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