WNS 0.0: the Wen New Standard Proposal, Explained
Historical post This post records events as they were reported at the time. Facts are checked against sources; nothing here is a forecast.
On January 25, 2024 — the day before the WEN airdrop — a short proposal appeared on Jupiter's research forum: Wen New Standard (WNS) 0.0. It described a lightweight way to make NFTs on Solana's Token-2022, with no middlemen. This post records that proposal as it was written, explains each part in plain words, and shows where it led.
Where WNS came from
On January 25, 2024, Meow — co-founder of Jupiter — announced "Immortalizing WEN Culture" in five parts: the Poem, the NFT, the NFT Standard, the first culture token, and the first LFG Launchpad project. The third part was WNS. The same day, the proposal was posted to the forum (WNS 0.0 on discuss.jup.ag): a coalition of ecosystem partners, starting with Ovols and Jupiter, supported by the Wen Foundation, a Solana public-goods organisation.
Community member Swervor summed up the mood the next day: "a coin for the people, but WEN?" (post on X).
What WNS 0.0 is
WNS is a lightweight NFT standard built on Token-2022, Solana's newer token program with built-in "extensions". Instead of a separate NFT program, WNS uses features already inside the token program. Version 0.0 starts as simply as possible:
- One instruction creates an NFT.
- Metadata lives in the mint account itself, with three fields: name, symbol and URI.
- New instructions are added only after community approval.
- The proposal expected WNS 1.0, once widely adopted, to be renamed — a standard meant to belong to everyone, not to Wen.
Three goals
- Coordinate asset information — a shared, on-chain place for data that any program can read.
- Remove intermediaries — no one charging a fee just to pass that information along.
- Diversify the technology — Solana's NFT infrastructure had become concentrated in too few hands.
The first three features
| Token-2022 extension | What it does | In plain words |
|---|---|---|
| Metadata Pointer | Points the mint to its on-chain metadata | The NFT carries its own name card |
| Group + Member Pointers | Link NFTs into a collection | Proof that an NFT belongs to a set |
| Mint Closure | Lets the creator close the mint and reclaim rent | Most of the minting cost can be recovered |
Planned extensions
- Transfer hooks ("transfer interceptors") — call a royalty program on every transfer, so creators are paid by the token itself.
- Non-transferable tokens — for badges, attendance proofs and identity.
- CPI Guard + ImmutableOwner — stronger protection for holders' accounts.
Why it matters
Most memecoins are only a ticker. Wen arrived with a public, open standard attached — royalties enforced by the token program, metadata without middlemen, costs that can be reclaimed. That is the difference between a meme and a piece of infrastructure, and it is why this almanac keeps WNS at the centre: the technology works whatever the market does.
What came next
- The next day, the WEN airdrop became Solana's biggest public stress test; soon after, the first large NFT collections were minted on WNS.
- The deeper story of the standard is in Token-2022 and WNS; the timeline from SPL to real-world assets is in the PDF WNS standard, 2024–2026.
- Wen Open Lab turns WNS into free, tested models — receipts, royalties, invoices — that anyone can run.
Video
Official sources and the Wen community
- wenwencoin.com — official Wen site with the contract
- wenwencoin.com/brand — brand kit; see also our Wen Media archive
- docs.wenwencoin.com — documentation
- x.com/wenwencoin — official X account
- youtube.com/@wen-coin and TikTok — community video
- Pinterest — community art, also on our Pinterest page
- iq.wiki/wiki/wen — the wiki entry, reviewed in our IQ.wiki post
- All open Wen sources and links in one place
Check before you trust: the WEN contract
The one and only WEN mint on Solana is WENWENvqqNya429ubCdR81ZmD69brwQaaBYY6p3LCpk. Compare it character by character with the Solana Explorer and the official site wenwencoin.com. A short video shows how: find the ID contract. Names, tickers and logos can be copied; the address cannot.
Every claim on this site carries a status in our trust chain.
Keep exploring
- The launch-day stress test — the day after WNS 0.0
- What does "wen" mean? — slang, Chinese characters, Old English
- ❓ What do you know about Wen? — ten questions, with a knowledge card for every miss
- ★ Wen Open Lab — free, tested models built on WNS and Token-2022
- About the Wen token — the poem, the airdrop and the cat
- Token-2022 and WNS — the technology under the meme
Disclaimer. This is an educational almanac entry, not financial advice. It describes events and ideas; it does not recommend buying, selling or holding any token. Where a detail could not be confirmed, it is marked in the text and listed in our trust chain.
Wen Media
Wen cat, Wen meme and the golden Wen coin: a few picks from the community archive. Open all of Wen Media.
This page is the current, maintained version of this piece. It was first published on wen-crypto.com and has been rewritten, checked and expanded for the Wen almanac. Original page: wen-crypto.com.