狗狗幣Dogecoin是什麼?讓Elon Musk也瘋狂 狗狗幣的起源、用途介紹 #虛擬貨幣 (160001)
GME軋空事件震撼了美國金融圈,除了股票市場動盪之外,虛擬貨幣也連帶受到了影響。日前台灣中央銀行粉絲專頁發表了一篇介紹「狗狗幣」的貼文,狗狗幣(Dogecoin)又稱為「多吉幣」或「旺旺幣」,和比特幣(Bitcoin)同樣屬於虛擬貨幣的一種。2021年初GME事件發生,狗狗幣在美國Reddit鄉民和Elon Musk的連帶鼓吹之下達到超過800%的漲幅,出乎意料地再度成為了金融圈的話題焦點。雖然狗狗幣如今已成為世界上流通的主要虛擬貨幣之一,但事實上,狗狗幣的起源只不過是一句玩笑話,它的建立也可以歸因於網路迷因的流行。為什麼狗狗幣叫做「狗狗幣」?和網路迷因有什麼關係呢?讓我們繼續看下去。
相較於比特幣起源於一篇嚴肅的學術論文,狗狗幣的誕生可說是非常「獨特」,它的創造可以說是網路流行話題的結合,也因此狗狗幣的代表圖案就是知名的迷因Doge。相信大部分的人都曾經看過柴犬Doge(狗狗的實際名字為Kabosu,醋橙,但迷因稱之為Doge)的梗圖,1隻日本柴犬配上特定的文字說明,在台灣尤其以「關於感情的問題我一律建議分手」為最主要的流行。
2013年正逢比特幣興起,許多跟風的山寨虛擬貨幣也像春筍般冒出,而同時鋪天蓋地的Doge梗圖也直接或間接造成了網路使用者的精神汙染。狗狗幣的創始人之一,Jackson Palmer當時是Adobe的員工,他用一種諷刺的幽默感將Doge梗圖和虛擬貨幣結合,製作了一張有著Doge頭像的貨幣。Jackson Palmer將這張惡搞圖案放上Twitter,寫著「投資狗狗幣吧!這將是下一件大事(或譯為『一定可以大賺一筆』)」的貼文內容,在發佈之後,這則貼文很快地受到廣大網友們的迴響,於是Jackson Palmer在網友們的鼓吹之下,買下dogecoin.com網域,並在網站留下訊息,徵求想要讓狗狗幣成真的夥伴。
事實上,Jackson Palmer對於加密貨幣一竅不通,狗狗幣也真的只是一個玩笑話,從來沒有想過會真的實現。然而,IBM的工程師Billy Markus在偶然下看見了狗狗幣的訊息,Billy Markus一直都有研究加密貨幣,希望能夠創造出一款讓人們可以廣泛使用,而非單純使用於投資的虛擬貨幣。於是Billy Markus在見到狗狗幣網站後,聯繫了Jackson Palmer,二人的合作讓狗狗幣正式誕生,並且在網路迷因的散播之下,dogecoin.com網站短短30天之內就有超過百萬名訪客。
▲狗狗幣介紹。創造於2013年12月,由萊特幣(Litecoin,比特幣的改進)中派生出來。狗狗幣將挖礦(mining)改成挖洞(diging),並且將字體改成Doge迷因中使用的Comic Sans字體。
狗狗幣的創辦人Jackson Palmer曾經提過,狗狗幣和比特幣最大的不同,在於狗狗幣並非為了投資而生,因此它擁有更低的挖礦(挖洞)門檻、更方便的購買方式、以及更低的交易費用。在理想的情況下,狗狗幣被設定為一種輕鬆詼諧的虛擬貨幣,它站在虛擬貨幣投資的對立面,一開始設定為1000億個,後續則改為數量無上限,保護狗狗幣的價格。
因為狗狗幣並不值錢,它最常使用在小費和打賞的情況,網友可以在網路上用狗狗幣表達感謝、支持,且因為一般人無法擁有比特幣等其他虛擬貨幣,狗狗幣正好填補了這樣的空缺,讓對虛擬貨幣有興趣的人更容易參與。狗狗幣也常被使用在慈善行為,在2014年,當狗狗幣社群見到牙買加雪橇代表隊沒有經費參與冬季奧運的時候,他們建立了募款活動,最終成功讓雪橇隊可以出國比賽。
對於雪橇隊的比賽支持讓狗狗幣多出了一種俠義的形象,接下來狗狗幣還完成了肯亞水井挖掘募資計畫、以及在2014年3月成功募集了6780萬狗狗幣(當時約5.5萬美元),贊助NASCAR駕駛員Josh Wise比賽。Josh Wise讓賽車使用狗狗幣的贊助塗裝,這讓狗狗幣在比賽過程中被評論員提起,車體亮相的同時也為狗狗幣宣傳。
▲狗狗幣塗裝賽車,後來美國狗狗幣鄉民的力量也讓Josh Wise在粉絲投票比賽中勝出。(圖片來源:Wiki)
Good to see @Josh_Wise bring back the @dogecoin helmet last weekend! That was such an awesome deal to be apart of pic.twitter.com/VaLUt3LssY
Elon Musk says he’s going to put Dogecoin on ‘the literal moon’
It might be April Fools' Day for a few more hours, but this is no joke.
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk tweeted on Thursday (April 1) he would put “a literal Dogecoin” (pronounced “dohj coin”) on the “literal moon.”
SpaceX is going to put a literal Dogecoin on the literal moonApril 1, 2021 See more
Although some questioned whether Musk was joking in light of it being April Fools' Day and his reputation for making off-the-cuff remarks, others, including CNBC space reporter Michael Sheetz, suggested Musk could very well be telling the truth.
“I know it’s April Fool’s but I don’t for a second question that he means this,” Sheetz tweeted, to which Musk replied: “After all, SpaceX’s first payload to orbit & back was a wheel of cheese.” (SpaceX did in fact deliver a wheel of cheese to orbit in 2010, during a test flight of its Dragon cargo spaceship.)
After all, SpaceX’s first payload to orbit & back was a wheel of cheese …April 1, 2021 See more
The self-proclaimed “techno-king of Tesla,” Musk, 49, is an ardent supporter of cryptocurrencies, including Dogecoin and bitcoin. In February, Tesla announced that it had purchased $1.5 billion worth of bitcoin. One month later, Musk said Tesla would accept it as payment for its vehicles.
You can now buy a Tesla with BitcoinMarch 24, 2021 See more
SpaceX has not yet made a similar announcement.
Related: SpaceX founder Elon Musk is now the richest person in the world
Dogecoin, which originally started as a joke, was created in 2013 by software engineers Billy Markus and Jackson Palmer. The cryptocurrency, which uses a Shiba Inu as a mascot, is “an open source peer-to-peer digital currency, favored by Shiba Inus worldwide,” a description on Dogecoin.com states.
The cryptocurrency can be obtained in several different ways: purchased, traded on an exchange or “mined.”
This is not the first time Musk has mentioned Dogecoin’s presence on the moon. In February, Musk tweeted a meme of a Shiba Inu in a spacesuit on the moon holding a Dogecoin flag.
Literally pic.twitter.com/XBAUqiVsPHFebruary 24, 2021 See more
The price of Dogecoin skyrocketed following Musk’s tweet, as its value rose nearly 30% to $0.70 just minutes after Musk’s proclamation.
It’s unclear if Musk was serious about sending Dogecoin to the moon, but the company could potentially make that happen, given its lunar exploration plans.
In August 2020, Space.com reported that SpaceX’s Starship spacecraft could reach the lunar surface with NASA payloads as soon as 2022. And in February, NASA said it would use SpaceX to provide launch services for parts of its ongoing Gateway project, an upcoming outpost that orbits around the moon.
As Business Insider notes, the physical coins are sold as memorabilia but do not function as currency.
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Dogecoin Jumps After Musk Promises ‘Literal’ Moonshot
Cryptocurrency markets have matured in the past 12 months, with macroeconomics and blockchain-technology developments influencing prices more than ever and new Wall Street firms buying in seemingly every other day.
So it’s refreshing that dogecoin (DOGE), which was created in 2013 as a joke, continues to be a source of amusement even as it, too, shows signs of leaving its playful puppy days behind.
The digital token, symbolized by the Shiba Inu dog breed, shot up to a six-week high Thursday after a tweet by Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, the billionaire entrepreneur whose DOGE-friendly announcements earlier this year have also led to rapid price increases.
“SpaceX is going to put a literal dogecoin on the literal moon,” Musk tweeted at around 10:25 UTC (6:25 a.m. ET) today. Musk’s tweet did not explain how this seemingly impossible feat would be accomplished, as by definition digital currencies have no physical structures and therefore aren’t literal anythings. Perhaps the tweet being sent on April Fool’s may have had something to do with it.
April Fool’s Day joke or not, the tweet by the noted DOGE whisperer sent the cryptocurrency bounding from roughly $0.053 to $0.070, according to data provider CoinGecko. The 32% rise took the cryptocurrency to the level last seen on Feb. 13 and marked the end of a week-long slumber in the range of $0.050-$0.055. The token’s market capitalization is now $8.2 billion.
Dogecoin 5-minute chart Source: TradingView
Musk has previously called dogecoin “the people’s crypto” and the cryptocurrency of Mars.
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The billionaire investor also warned of too much concentration in the cryptocurrency in February, triggering a price drop. Last month, Musk supported the idea of DOGE’s listing on the U.S.-based Coinbase exchange.
While it appears as though the price of dogecoin is at the mercy of Musk’s usually humorous tweets, largely because of the publicity he’s given it, the digital token is now actually being used for purposes that are not just about speculation and yuks.
Companies such as medical-supplier CovCare, sports brand Wooter Apparel and basketball team Dallas Mavericks have adopted dogecoin as an alternative means of payment. Meanwhile, the surge in the token’s price has caused technical development on the cryptocurrency to resume, threatening to turn the lighthearted token into a much more serious breed of DOGE.
Should that happen, the world of crypto will have a little less joy in it.