Elon Musk & Dogecoin – A Story Unfolding
Started as a “prank” cryptocurrency, Dogecoin managed to hit the headlines right after Gamestop’s (GME) rally, gaining the Reddit community full support.
This article will try to outline the history and vantage points of the most famous dog-friendly (pun intended) meme coin in the cryptocurrency world, which both Reddit investors & Elon Musk want to “fly to the moon.”
A Shibe Star is Born…
For those readers who are well-versed with history – especially with the Medieval and Renaissance periods of the Venetian Republic – it may be worth noting that the coin’s name “Doge” is entirely unrelated. Instead, Dogecoin pays homage to what is probably one of the most persistent and resilient memes in web lore history.
Born as a seeming malapropism of the word “dog,” the Doge is a cute Shiba Inu (commonly called “Shibe” in the crypto space) that’s almost always depicted with a vaguely gobsmacked expression. This dog is often coupled with some vignette/interior monologue, whose selected characters’ font is strictly in Comic Sans.
For the sake of completeness, the Shiba Inu, who’s lent its expressive muzzle to the internet memes that are raging throughout the Web, does genuinely exist. Its name is Kabosu and bears quite a heroic background and past: he is one of the few Shibas, in his litter, having survived a ‘Puppy Mill’ ordeal, before being rescued from almost spelled death by Japanese nursery school Atsuko Sato in 2008.
Two years after, Sato decided to share some pictures, of her and Kabosu, on the Web. It was one of these fatal shots that managed to catch the Internet community’s attention, decreeing the meme’s birth that’s been raging both in the crypto space, especially in the past years, weeks, days.
(By the way, despite more than ten years have passed since that fateful picture having been uploaded on the Web, it seems Kabosu is still alive and well, having reached a venerable age by now. Wow. Much Reverence).
Ð is for Ðogecoin
The definitive twist came when Billy Markus, an IBM engineer, and Jackson Palmer, an Australian software engineer and employee of the Adobe The definitive twist came when Billy Markus, an IBM engineer, and Jackson Palmer, an Australian software engineer and employee of the Adobe Systems Marketing Department (one of the biggest tech firms in the world at the time) conceived – at least initially – the pranky idea of creating a crypto coin that would combine two of the most discussed topics on the Internet: cryptocurrencies and dogs. «Invest in Dogecoin. I am pretty sure it will be the next big thing», that’s what Markus had tweeted in what could be considered a moment of boredom. The joking tweet and reference to Dogecoin – which still had not yet been created by Markus and Palmer – was meant to target/criticize when new cryptocurrencies were being launched by the day, many of which had no intrinsic value or solid fundamentals, according to Palmer.
But we all know that fate loves irony, and that’s how a tweet about a crypto coin that was meant to be a prank managed instead to gain a lot of attention, traction & followers. The same followers then encouraged Palmer and Markus to implement Dogecoin’s creation. Shortly after the tweet, dogecoin.com was born, and the website received more than 1 million visitors in the first month since its initial launch.
Palmer’s tweet was then taken seriously by many crypto investors and fans, who decided, from that moment on, to fully embrace “the Doge” as one of their favorite cryptocurrencies, acclaiming it as “the next big thing” in the crypto-financial sector.
I
n the wake of this success, Palmer and his associate decided to build upon the public acclaim and validation by purchasing the dogecoin.com domain and creating the primogenitor Doge’s “viral logo,” as we know it today.
The project was put to fruition in a short time but, despite Palmer and Markus riding the wave, they seemingly still considered it a “game”: therefore, the project cruised forward placidly – until social news aggregator Reddit and its community decide to “adopt” the $DOGE. Dogecoin’s subreddit rapidly reached peak subscription numbers and activity levels, thanks to implementing the so-called “Reddit Tip Bot.” This tool hugely boosted Dogecoin’s adoption by rewarding Reddit’s most active users and original content creators, and – in a concise amount of time – Dogecoin’s circulation bloomed and blossomed: from then on, virtually every Reddit user started earning and collecting his/her $DOGEs and the “viral spiral” of the internet meme & crypto communities took over.
Since then, many initiatives have been launched by Dogecoin’s community of fans – some crazier than others, some audacious, some quite noble. These included the crowdfunding to help the Jamaican bobsled team join the Soči Winter Olympics, the Doge4Water initiative to help collect donations to build a well in the Tana river basin in Kenya Dogecoin’s NASCAR sponsorship banner over driver Josh Wise’s car.
And all these eventful happenings came to be way before Elon Musk “got elected” as Dogecoin’s CEO.
“All Hail The New CEO!”
The last sentence in the previous paragraph deserves some clarification, especially for anyone that, quite understandably, knows Elon Musk is renownedly Tesla and SpaceX CEO, but not Dogecoin’s. When did that happen?
Elon Musk’s “first contact” with Dogecoin’s creator Jackson Palmer probably dated back to September 2018 and was unrelated to $DOGE – Musk asked Palmer’s aid to get rid of malicious bots impersonating him after a cryptocurrency scam bot virus was raging throughout Twitter. Palmer was called to arms – or so to speak – having developed a script in the past that would help solve the long-standing issue.
The change in attitude and the internet culture’s validation, tributed by meme and crypto communities to Elon Musk as Dogecoin’s CEO, dates back to a 2019 “prank-styled,” renowned poll, launched by Dogecoin’s official Twitter account on April Fools’ day, which saw Elon emerge victorious as the surveyed-elected and undisputed leader of the most famous dog coin of the Web, getting the most preferences (over 4,000 thousand votes) and sympathies over notable opposing candidates, such as Vitalik Buterin (Ethereum founder), Marshall Hayner (Metal Pay’s Founder and CEO) and Charlie Lee (Litecoin’s founder).
Musk was already known as a tech futurist and paper money disbeliever – who in past comments, described BTC as “a brilliant thing” – and, in response to the poll, contributed to the hype by commenting and almost accepting the “public nomination”:
«Dogecoin might be my fav cryptocurrency. It’s pretty cool.»
Musk was also apparently very proud of the crypto community’s Musk was also apparently very proud of the crypto community’s nomination and the faith he was entrusted with. Following the fateful event, he even changed his Twitter header bio to “CEO of Dogecoin,” followed by a tweet with a picture of a Shiba Inu with the caption “Dogecoin Rulz.”
That’s how it all began, and many would controversially agree that Musk took his newly appointed role very seriously, reminding DOGE’s fans, from time to time, that he’s duly supporting the coin with tweets and pranky (sometimes trollish) memes and promoting the most famous Shiba Inu in the world.
The Beginning of a New Paradigm?
Since 2013, almost a decade has passed. Yet, Dogecoin has never been so popular.
In the past years, several viral campaigns have tried to boost the adoption of $DOGE to reach dollar parity. In 2019 and 2020, it was the turn of a user-based campaign on TikTok – and at the time $ DOGE’s value was just around 0,01 dollars, nothing compared to actual prices, which witness Elon Musk “at the helm of the Dogecoin’s moon ship.”
Elon Musk’s active twitter involvement, especially in recent times, has largely contributed to Dogecoin’s growth: significant surges in $ DOGE’s price have occurred each time “his CEO” resolved to tweet his appreciation to the world.
It also seems that Elon’s frequent engagement helped drawing the attention to Dogecoin, not only of the fans, the investors, and the media but also other celebrities, ranging from names such as rap star Snoop Dogg, American songwriter and record producer Gene Simmons as well as pornstar Angela White, who have spent honeyed, sweet words for the coin, fueling and boosting its price to unprecedented, sky-high levels.
Adding to the narrative, $DOGE also managed to gain the attention of the r/WallStreetBets Reddit community, which – after the $GME, $AMC, and Robinhood app uproar – ingeniously refocused the attention towards Dogecoin, meeting with a more than favorable astral conjunction, which saw in Elon Musk tweets its most shiny starlight supporting the recent price boosts.
On a more general note, many would also argue that the recent Robinhood, GameStop, and Dogecoin events managed to stir the waters profoundly and raise the awareness of both many non-crypto & crypto investors with regards to innovation, reliability, neutrality, and decentralization safety that only blockchain technology can bring, and that traditional finance – more often than not – lacks.
In tying in all these happenings together, this analysis couldn’t possibly be complete without mentioning Elon Musk’s recent Tesla $1,5 billion acquisition of Bitcoin. In perfect accordance with the extravagant CEO’s style, the move was preceded by several alluding tweets …
… then by the addition of the #Bitcoin hashtag and emoji ₿ on his bio…
…. and, finally, by an official announcement, which reverberated through the media channels throughout the world, sparkling criticisms (among traditional finance vets) and plauds (among crypto supporters) in almost equal measure.
In many ways, the events laid out «the fundamental question» again: does crypto represent a much-needed, natural evolution to help assist and govern the future of our economic, financial, political, and – maybe partially – social systems?
…To Be Continued?
Final Doge note/trivia: on February 15th, Dogecoin’s value saw a substantial price devaluation, right after Elon Musk criticized the extremely uneven $DOGE distribution, inviting the significant holders to sell a significant share of their coins holding.
Various analytics sources show that just 100 addresses hold more than 70% of the whole $DOGE supply. Therefore, the vast majority of $DOGEs are concentrated in the hands of a single holder, while the next ten major holders own more than 50% of the total supply.
Several hours after the tweet, Dogecoin’s price fell to $0,048, bouncing back to $0,06$ after a general market recovery. That was probably Elon Musk’s only tweet that supposedly caused a reduction in $ DOGE’s price.
Dogecoin’s Website
For everything you need to know about DOGE, visit the official Dogecoin website.
Dogecoin’s Twitter
To keep up with the latest updates from Dogecoin, follow them on Twitter.
Dogecoin’s Reddit
Join the conversation on Reddit to stay up-to-date about Dogecoin and DOGE.
Dogecoin on BitcoinTalk & LitecoinTalk Forums
Get in touch and social with other members of the Dogecoin community. Join the Forums at BitcoinTalk.com.
How To Store and Manage DOGE
You can store DOGE in Atomic Wallet, a secure and decentralized crypto wallet. Atomic Wallet provides you access to over 300 cryptocurrencies through a decentralized platform built on a sophisticated architecture that keeps your investments safe. With Atomic Wallet, you can securely manage, earn, stake, and buy many cryptocurrencies and build your investment portfolio. Install the user-friendly Atomic Wallet App now and enjoy using your Dogecoins (DOGE).
Final Considerations
Without any pretense of completeness, the above was a concise synopsis of how one of the most extravagant, yet undeniably brilliant, business personalities of our times & one of the most loved meme cryptocurrencies in the crypto space managed to get acquainted, intertwine fates, and somehow shape many of the most eventful, recent happenings in the cryptocurrency universe.
Many fateful readers would recognize most of the previously described Elon-Doge events as “signs” – part of a broader «Butterfly Effect» design – that would lay the path to the «cryptocurrency-as-the-new-paradigm» future, with Elon Musk playing the Deus-Ex-Machina role.
Whether that is something that will be true or not, it will surely be worth watching closely. And in any case, the chances are that Shibe will be remembered as the catalyst of the future, unfurling events. In retrospect, it *will* be inevitable.
