According to CoinDesk, panelists at the recent BUIDL Asia summit in Seoul discussed the issue of racist meme coins and how to best address the problem. With the rise of tokens containing the N-word and other racist themes, the question of whether wallet apps, decentralized exchanges, or nodes should be responsible for screening out banned words was debated. Austin Federa, the Solana Foundation's head of strategy, argued that wallet developers should have the right to institute a block list, while maintaining that the core network should remain permissionless. He compared the situation to internet service providers (ISPs) not being expected to filter out offensive content.
Marc Zeller, founder of the Aave Chan Initiative, an Aave DAO delegate and service provider, offered a different perspective, noting that under European Union law, there is an obligation to filter content. He cited France as an example, where ISPs are legally required to block certain content, such as Holocaust denialism. Zeller emphasized the importance of free speech and censorship resistance in the blockchain ethos, but acknowledged that different cultures have different approaches to the issue. Federa also pointed out that, despite the attention they receive, racist meme coins are relatively insignificant compared to the scale of the crypto industry.