Dogecoin is an altcoin that can be bought, sold, traded, and even mined much like Bitcoin. The algorithm for mining Dogecoin is known as Scrypt and the Block Reward (in terms of the number of coins rewarded) is much higher than Bitcoin (Source 1). If you want to get started mining Dogecoin then a Scrypt ASCI Miner, a piece of hardware specifically designed for mining Scrypt based currencies, is recommended.
Jackson Palmer and Billy Markus founded Dogecoin in 2013, hoping to create a more fun and friendly cryptocurrency coin (Source 1). Online communities, celebrities, and memes have all worked together to bring Dogecoin to the place it is today.
Elon Musk and Dogecoin
Elon Musk has had a major influence over the recent price fluctuations of Dogecoin. Last month the price of Dogecoin rose from $0.01 to almost $0.10 last month thanks to influencers like Elon Musk (Source 2). Elon Musk's tweets about Dogecoin seem to usually cause percentage jumps in Dogecoin's value. Elon Musk's tweet below caused the value of Dogecoin to jump almost 20% (Source 3).
Elon Musk does not stop there in promoting Dogecoin, he continues to positively impact Dogecoin adoption and value through memes and tweeting. Elon Musk seems to be quite aware of his impact on Dogecoin, as evidenced by the below tweet.
After a short twitter break, Elon Musk breaks his silence with a barrage of tweets about Dogecoin last month. Elon Musk causes around a 63% increase in the price of Dogecoin with his below tweets (Source 4).
A recent meme, posted by Elon Musk, pertaining to Dogecoin "on the moon" caused the cryptocurrency value to jump 25% (Source 5).
The influence Elon Musk has had on Dogecoin seems overall well received. A Dogecoin Twitter community, which at the time of this writing has around 650,000 followers, voted for Elon Musk to be the new "CEO" of Dogecoin.
Elon Musk's Dogecoin memes have inspired some to make memes of their own. The community seems to really be enjoying themselves along with Elon Musk.
Those who sold and made capital gains from the Dogecoin bulls are most likely pleased by Elon Musk's influence on Dogecoin. Long-term holders of Dogecoin may be disappointed and aggravated with Elon Musk if the Dogecoin craze dies off and a reduction in value follows.
Elon Musk and Scrutiny over Dogecoin Comments
Not everyone has been a fan of Elon Musk's influence on Dogecoin. Critics have accused Musk of tweeting about certain stocks and cryptocurrencies to deliberately benefit his friends (Source 4). This isn't the first time Elon Musk's statements have influenced the market, in January Musk tweeted "Use Signal" and caused shares of Signal Advance to soar 1,500% in 24 hours (Source 6). The irrelevant Signal Advance stock was influenced despite Elon Musk mentioning WhatsApp rival Signal, so in this case, Elon Musk certainly did not deliberately influence the market.
After Elon Musk added the word Bitcoin to his Twitter bio in January, Bitcoin's value elevated more than 20% (Source 7). In the case of both Dogecoin and Bitcoin, it is safe to say that Elon Musk meant to influence the market, or at least create more awareness about both cryptocurrencies.
Speculations have arisen that the SEC will investigate Elon Musk over his Dogecoin-related tweets despite no such investigation being confirmed by the SEC (Source 8). Elon Musk seems to be unphased, even welcoming of an SEC investigation as evidenced by the below tweet.
This would not be the first time Elon Musk has been in trouble with the SEC, in 2018 Elon Musk was fined 20 million dollars and made to step down as Tesla's board chairman after tweeting that he would take Tesla private (Source 8).
The Future of Elon Musk and Dogecoin
Elon Musk stated through the Clubhouse app that his comments about Dogecoin "are really meant to be jokes" (Source 8). Recently Elon Musk uploaded to Twitter about "Regretamine" that could remove all your regrets with one dosage (Source 9).
While the true intentions of Elon Musk's tweet are unknown, many in the comments drew their own interpretations. One is that those who sold Dogecoin too early or did not invest in it early enough would need "Regretamine" to drown out the regret of not purchasing Dogecoin. Elon Musk, in response to his own tweet, signifies that memes defend the value of Dogecoin.
Despite Elon Musk saying that his posts about Dogecoin are simply jokes, he states "The most entertaining outcome is often the most likely. Arguably the most entertaining outcome, and most ironic outcome, would be that Dogecoin becomes the currency of Earth in the future." (Source 9). Based on this statement, it seems that his posts are not fully comical. Maybe Elon Musk wanted more people to adopt Dogecoin to push Dogecoin one step closer to being Earth's future currency or at least a prominent one. Elon even bought some Dogecoin for his youngest child and supposedly set up some mining rigs for mining Dogecoin. I believe that both of these actions display the faith Elon Musk has in the future of Dogecoin.
Critics of Dogecoin have argued that Dogecoin does not have any real value or usage. Most of Dogecoin's value has seemingly come from meme culture and celebrity promotion. Meme culture has proven to be a powerful market force as evidenced by meme stocks and now meme-driven Dogecoin.
Final Thoughts and Remarks
Online communities have joined together to have a powerful impact on the value of Dogecoin. If the people want Dogecoin to have value, then it is certainly in their hands to give it value. If the value of Dogecoin ever does start to drop significantly, perhaps we can be assured that Elon Musk will drive up the price once again. https://www.reddit.com/r/dogecoin/ has a whopping 1.2 million members and this is where many come to talk, discuss, and meme about Dogecoin. If you found this article helpful or interesting, please show some support. You can find me on Publish0x by the same username as this account "Tupi", you can also support me by using my affiliate link (when signing up for Publish0x) https://www.publish0x.com?a=zPdy8VLzbQ
Source 1 - https://www.bitdegree.org/crypto/tutorials/dogecoin-mining#:~:text=Note%3A%20In%202014%2C%20Litecoin%20and,now%20linked%20with%20Litecoin%20mining.&text=Mining%20Dogecoin%20is%20a%20lot%20faster%20than%20mining%20Litecoin%20or%20Bitcoin.
Source 3 - https://medium.com/an-idea/how-one-tweet-from-elon-musk-spiked-a-cryptocurrency-by-20-1d31edc5c2ad
Source 4 - https://news.bitcoin.com/doge-token-pumps-after-elon-musk-tweets-dogecoin-is-the-peoples-crypto/
Source 8 - https://www.foxbusiness.com/markets/elon-musk-sec-probe-dogecoin-tweets-would-be-awesome
Source 9 - https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/elon-musk-regretamine-twitter-b1811623.html
