Who Let The Doge Out?
Did Elon help create Dogecoin, or does he just like the coin?
Hey everyone,
Last week, Elon made an enigmatic tweet: “High time I confessed I let the Doge out.”
We he admitting to creating Dogecoin?
Or is he just a regular guy who likes the coin?
Let’s break it all down.
Confession
Early Wednesday morning, Elon tweeted a confession:
The post harkens back to a tweet from February 2021, at the start of the first big Dogecoin Rise.
The two tweets may just have been expressions of fondness for the 2000 Summer anthem by the Baha Men, with an added Dogely twist.
Or, Elon may have been admitting, in his own sly way, that he played a role in the creation of Dogecoin.
There are a couple possibilities for this latter line of thinking: 1) Elon may have been indirectly involved in the creation of Doge, 2) he may have actually been the mastermind behind Dogecoin, or 3) he might just be a fan of crypto who uses his platform to bring Dogecoin to the masses.
Let’s take a look at the evidence for each and see where we end up.
1. Elon was INDIRECTLY involved in Dogecoin’s creation
The creation of cryptocurrency itself is shrouded in mystery.
Bitcoin popped onto the scene in 2009, during aftermath of the Global Financial Crisis.
From a technological standpoint, it was unlike any form of money before it: digital cash whose ownership was recorded on a decentralized ledger, secured by a worldwide network of autonomous computer “miners” that competed for coins by solving math problems.
Bitcoin’s creator was an individual or group that went by the pseudonym “Satoshi Nakamoto.”
The evidence that Elon is Satoshi is more suggestive than concrete, but at this point, the possibility can’t be ruled out.
The possibility came up last year, when Elon posted a meme hinting at the origin of the name.
It wasn’t the first time he broached the subject. In this intriguing exchange from 2014, he (jestingly?) hinted at being Satoshi.
For the record, Elon has repeatedly denied being Satoshi, most recently in an interview with Lex Fridman.
When asked, he has stuck to the assertion that cryptographer Nick Szabo is the most likely candidate.
Still, other bits of circumstantial evidence have led some folks to connect the dots between Elon and Bitcoin’s creator.
Coding chops: Bitcoin’s source code is written by someone with mastery of C++, a language Elon understands and uses for his companies
Area of expertise: Elon founded X.com and PayPal, both of which specialized in peer-to-peer digital payments
Linguistic quirks: Both Satoshi and Elon used the phrases “order of magnitude” and “bloody” in their writing, and both have a habit of double spacing after periods
Interest: Elon’s original x@x.com email address was active on the original Cypherpunk email list in 1998, where the ideas that coalesced into Bitcoin were first discussed
Geography: Satoshi’s IP address was once connected to LA’s Van Nuys airport, also used by Elon and less than an hour away from SpaceX’s Hawthorne, CA HQ; DHS agent named Rana Saoud said her department reportedly met with a group of four people behind the creation of Bitcoin in California.
If Elon is behind Satoshi, then by extension he would also be involved in the creation of Dogecoin.
Here’s why: the code for Dogecoin is a fork of Luckycoin, which was a fork of Litecoin, whose code is derived from the original Bitcoin code.
Without Bitcoin and its subsequent imitators, there could be no Dogecoin. Doge may have started as a “joke”, but it boasts a royal lineage that traces back to the king crypto itself.
So perhaps that’s all there is to it: Elon could’ve been involved in the creation of Bitcoin, which, by chance, led to Dogecoin some years later.
Or maybe there’s more to the story.
2. Elon was DIRECTLY involved in Dogecoin’s creation
There’s less outward mystery surrounding Dogecoin’s creation than with Bitcoin.
As the story goes, two computer programmers—Billy Markus and Jackson Palmer—conceived the idea during the height of the Doge meme’s 2013 virality.
They wanted to parody the speculative bonanza that crypto had become by making one that was impossible to take seriously, and hit on the idea of a coin based on the Doge meme.
Billy made a few modifications to Bitcoin’s code, the concept of a dog-themed tipping crypto caught fire on Reddit, and the rest was history.
But did Elon have a hand in Doge too?
There isn’t much evidence, but given the enigmatic nature of crypto, it’s not hard to imagine a series of events that went something like this:
Speculation aside, there are some aspects of Dogecoin that seem just a little too good to be product of mere coincidence.
The biggest is Dogecoin’s “soft deflationary” issuance schedule, which complements Bitcoin perfectly.
No one wants to spend Bitcoin because it is perfectly scarce: there will only ever be 21 million Bitcoins, full stop.
But for crypto to reach the broader public, it has to widely circulate as money. People have to want to spend it, rather than just hoard it.
This is where Dogecoin comes in: there’s no hard cap on the number of Dogecoins in existence, which nudges people to spend it. But over time, the rate of inflation trends toward zero, giving it an advantage over the unpredictably inflationary US dollar.
This combination encourages Dogecoin holders to view it more like dispensable cash than precious gold.
When Dogecoin circulates (either as payment or tips), crypto reaches more people, enhancing its network effect—the more people use it, the more valuable it grows.
Dogecoin functions like a fast, cheap, fun version of Bitcoin for onboarding people into digital finance. In this light, Doge (and not Bitcoin) is the ideal vehicle for making crypto go mainstream.
So Dogecoin’s issuance schedule is like its special sauce. Was it by design?
Nope. Billy has said Dogecoin’s was made by accident. Similarly, Elon told Lex Fridman that Dogecoin works as a transactional currency “just by accident.”
Wow.
Then there’s the timing of Dogecoin: it emerged as a serious contendor to the crypto throne in 2021, right after Bitcoin’s incredible rally past $30k.
No doubt, a lot of people took one look at Bitcoin’s price and thought, “not for me.”
At the time, a single Dogecoin cost mere pennies—as it does today—giving people a second chance to get in on the ground floor of Bitcoin-like phenomenon.
The whole time, Elon was promoting Dogecoin with a barrage of tweets and memes, plus a memorable SNL appearance.
Did he just recognize a great opportunity at the right time, or was it the result of well-laid plans?
The fact that a dog-meme cryptocurrency exists at all is pretty improbable.
Then, out of tens of thousands of cryptocurrencies, it just happens to be the one to capture what’s best about Bitcoin while perfectly balancing its weaknesses—more improbable still.
And that it attracted the support of one of the most magnetic entrepreneurs in history, who used it for his electric car, rocket ship, and tunneling companies…what are the odds?
Or maybe it’s just another case of Fate Loves Irony.
3. Elon is just a fan and supporter of the Dogecoin community
All of the stuff above is just speculation and circumstantial evidence.
Sometimes it’s best to stick to the facts. Right now, only one thing is certain: Elon seems to like Dogecoin a lot, and his support for it has been escalating over the last few years.
He first started tweeting about Doge in 2019, when he briefly changed his Twitter bio to Dogecoin CEO.
In July 2020, during the market’s pandemic rally, he posted an iconic meme of a Dogecoin sandstorm descending on the global financial system with the prophetic text, “It’s inevitable.”
Then, when the meme stock phenomenon exploded in late 2020/early 2021, Elon put his full weight behind Doge, culminating with his SNL appearance.
Since then, he has been very precise in his language, insisting that he “support[s] Dogecoin” while refraining from making predictions, guarantees, or anything else that could be construed as financial advice.
His companies accept Doge, but these forays into crypto are typically characterized as experiments with digital money rather than any sort of final verdict about it.
Still, all the while, the sense has lingered that Elon has big plans for Dogecoin. It’s just a vibe.
Or maybe there’s nothing deeper here. As the meme goes, he might just like the coin.
So what do you think: did Elon really let the Doge out? And what does that even mean?
Dogey Treats: News Bites
MyDoge founder Bill Lee tweeted, “twitter is human consciousness. it’s only been about 4 months since [Elon Musk] and team jumped on a grenade. the best is yet to come. the twitter of today is not going to be the tiwitter of tomorrow.”
Kabosu continues her recovery.
DogeArmy member (and host of the All-In Podcast) Jason Calacanis tweeted, “DOGECOIN ISNT A SECURITY ITS A PHILOSOPHICAL RIDDLE”.
Crypto has lost the battle to fiat, according to head of the Bank of International Settlements Agustin Carstens. Edward Snowden disagreed.
Esther Crawford, Twitter’s Head of Payments, was let go on Saturday.
Sam Bankman-Fried was hit with four additional criminal charges relating to securities fraud and wire fraud. An Unusual Whales report traced campaign donations from SBF to nearly 200 US politicians.
A federal court said that tweets containing the rocket ship, stock chart, and money bag emojis can be considered financial advice and the emoji’s use could result in legal consequences.
Advertisers are returning to Twitter.
Thank You!
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Disclaimer: This is not financial advice and I am not a financial advisor. The article above references an opinion for entertainment purposes only and it is not investment advice. Always assume that the author of the article is actively trading and that the opinions expressed may be biased towards the author’s holdings. Do your own research and consult with a licensed financial adviser before making any investment decision. Do not treat any opinion expressed in this newsletter as a specific inducement to make a particular investment. Content, news, research, tools, and securities symbols are for educational and illustrative purposes only and do not imply a recommendation or solicitation to buy or sell a particular security or cryptocurrency or to engage in any particular investment strategy. The information provided is not warranted as to completeness or accuracy and is subject to change without notice. The projections or other information regarding the likelihood of various investment outcomes are hypothetical in nature, are not guaranteed for accuracy or completeness, do not reflect actual investment results and are not guarantees of future results. All investments involve risk, losses may exceed the principal invested, and the past performance of a security, industry, sector, market, cryptocurrency, or financial product does not guarantee future results or returns. Dogecoin is a speculative and highly volatile asset susceptible to pump-and-dump schemes.
At the time of publication, Dogecoin is around $0.08 per coin.