Is the Dogecoin joke really aimed at us experts trying to make sense of the whole thing?
This is essentially today’s recording of Bloomberg’s Joe Weisenthal. The Shiba-Inu phenomenon has nothing to do with decentralization or storage of value or any other high-minded crypto concept like Bitcoin, he writes. It is beyond serious explanation.
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“Nobody can speak with a straight face when it comes to Dogecoin,” he writes. “… Really, at DOGE all topics of conversation go out of the window.”
“Bitcoiners who have made an extraordinary amount of money in a short period of time love to talk about how they take on that [Federal Reserve] or take over the banks or enable a kind of peaceful revolution … Basically, Dogecoin is like Bitcoin that is deprived of the signaling of virtues. “
The ultimate meme coin went from less than $ 0.02 in late January to over $ 0.40 last night. According to the numbers from CoinDesk, its market cap is now more than $ 50 billion. And the momentum shows no signs of slowing down. Today is #DogeDay on Twitter and the coin should win more internet friends.
Brands notice it. Last week, the meat stick manufacturer Slim Jim presented its Dogecoin “strategy” and thus advanced another ATH. And today the confectionery manufacturer Mars advertises its brands Snickers and Milky Way with the label “Dogecoinrise”.
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There have been many attempts to explain DOGE, also on these pages. CoinDesk’s Emily Parker said it was a victory for “collective belief” and a yearning for a purer form of crypto (i.e., Bitcoin before it went mainstream).
The story goes on
Adam Levine, our podcast editor, said last week that in light of the Slim Jim news, DOGE has become “the joke currency to beat”.
“Just as Bitcoin is the consensus choice for people looking for ‘predictable monetary value’ in their currency, Dogecoin looks like the consensus choice for people who want ‘meme-y-wackiness’ in their currency,” he wrote.
He added, “Everyone wants to be part of the joke, which drives up the price, which makes the joke bigger. It is a self-reinforcing cycle. A bit like Bitcoin, but for the Luls. “
See also: Michael Casey – Meme Mean Money
Weisenthal has none of this refinement because the sense of DOGE is essentially anti-intellectual.
This may be hard to bear for people who believe in the potential for improvement in crypto. But Weisenthal is certainly right that you can spend too much time understanding the mind of the internet. Dogecoin is a joke and funnier because the price gets higher and more people are laughing about it. That’s it.
Whatever the long-term business and social impact of meme culture (including the scary notion that memes can be as important today as product development, for example), let’s leave the intellectualizing for another time. On Dogeday, all you need to do is sit back and enjoy the fun of this runaway train passing through another station.
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