Elon Musk has just made a claim that has some crypto holders ecstatic and others groaning and rolling their eyes. Responding to a Tweet by Billy Markus, co-founder of Dogecoin (who is no longer on the project), who asked why Dogecoin can’t be both a joke but also useful, Musk earlier today wrote: “The most entertaining outcome is the most likely.”
This comes days after Tesla announced it would begin accepting Doge as payment for some of its merchandise in its online shop.
Also, according to u.today, “Recently, several major and small businesses have begun to accept payments in the largest meme cryptocurrency, Dogecoin” including “the large U.S. chain of cinemas AMC, gaming behemoth Nexon, Gamestop, [and] the Mark Cuban-owned Dallas Mavericks.”
The most entertaining outcome is the most likely
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 17, 2022
Video: Elon Musk & Mark Cuban Discuss The Potential Applications Of Dogecoin
Since Elon Musk made this comment (15 hours ago from the time of writing this article), Dogecoin’s price has fallen. So maybe he’s lost his touch? Or maybe its only his individual Tweets that drive speculative investors crazy.
This isn’t the first time Musk has made this “entertaining” remark or thrown his support behind Dogecoin. In August last year Musk said Dogecoin is the best cryptocurrency as a medium of exchange – a remarkable claim given the massive price swings it is known for.
So why does he say such things?
It could just be that he finds playing with the market fun. But still: as Business Insider reports, skeptics struggle to see what figures like Musk and Cuban “see in Dogecoin,” because it’s super volatile and “more complicated to use for purchases than mainstram payment methods.”
Neither of the men have provided a solid reason as to why Dogeoin is the best coin to be used as a medium of exchange on the market. Musk has previously talked about the potential to develop it into something more ready to be used as a currency, last year hinting he is in talks with Dogecoin developers to see if Tesla could potentially start accepting Dogecoin as payment (and recently confirming that news, at least in terms of online store merchandise).
However, more than anything, it seems Musk’s faith in Dogecoin being able to be used to buy and sell good and services is based on his perception that Dogecoin is the coin with the most love for it, and arguably with the largest community ‘feel’. Or more accurately, just, in his view “the most entertaining outcome” because it would be the most absurd, or the biggest f*ck you.
That said, that popularity could (and perhaps to a degree already) gives Dogecoin’s developers the power and resources they need to develop it. So maybe we shouldn’t be too quick to sneer. There could be a skerrick of truth in there somewhere. Who knows: when everyone is driving around in ‘lambos’ and spelling when ‘wen’, maybe we’ll be eating our words…
Musk has also previously said Dogecoin is significantly quicker at processing transactions and uses less energy than Bitcoin. That’s not hard though, given how slow Bitcoin is. It’s also not a huge claim to fame as there a bunch of other coins which were made specifically to fill this niche (rather than being made as a parody of Bitcoin).
So: does being a joke (originally) mean Dogecoin can’t be engineered into something useful? Only time will tell. What’s for sure though is that it does appear to have a barking mad fan base who would be keen to see it happen (but then, so do most of the new breeds of Ethereum killers like Cardano, Solana, Nano and Terra).
The problem with that way of thinking is that it omits the tens of thousands of hours of human ingenuity that has flown into optimizing and improving bitcoin since the “joke” started. That makes a difference that cannot be replaced with just being the “most entertaining outcome”
— Giw Zanganeh (@gzanganeh) January 17, 2022
Not to mention: some people believe Bitcoin has been engineered to be far better than Dogecoin could ever catch up to (despite its slow transaction times). As one Twitter user recently wrote: “The problem with that way of thinking is that it omits the tens of thousands of hours of human ingenuity that has flown into optimizing and improving bitcoin since the ‘joke’ started. That makes a difference that cannot be replaced with just being the ‘most entertaining outcome.'”
Who will end up top dog is anyone’s guess. It certainly isn’t me though, as my $1,000 crypto experiment still has me licking my wounds…
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