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)

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

Dogecoin (DOGE): What It Is, What It’s Worth and Should You Be Investing?

National Review

Last week, Columbia University, where I am currently a junior, made national headlines over commencement ceremonies demarcated by race, sexual orientation, and socioeconomic status. Such multicultural ceremonies have a history at many schools, but Columbia’s was apparently the one to receive nationwide media attention. Though discussion and discourse are always important, most of the resulting social-media frenzy focused on the wrong ideas. It is not about getting into the weeds and arguing over which historically marginalized group deserves to be recognized or whether these ceremonies are optional. The very creation and existence of such events is fundamentally problematic right out of the gate. To segregate students by race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, and socioeconomic status is inherently harmful to the fabric of college communities and harms the social progress these events ostensibly intend to achieve. The embrace of resegregation in this scenario to combat “inequality” centers on one uncontrollable characteristic of an individual and reduces a person’s identity to superficial stereotypes, neglecting his or her nuanced existence. It also bears more than a passing, uncomfortable resemblance to the racism of decades past. People are multifaceted with their own experiences, talents, interests, and strengths. Failure to recognize that is not only ignorant, but also dehumanizing. A common rejoinder to criticisms of these ceremonies is that those who want to end them do not care about the achievements of the students the ceremonies celebrate. This is not only untrue, but also condescendingly assumes that Black, Asian, “Latinx,” First-Generation/Low-Income, “Lavender” (LGBTQIA+), and Native-American students can only have their accomplishments celebrated through the uplifting of an institution that cannot see past their mere identities. It also assumes that America is so racially bankrupt that those in these groups must depend on an institution to be recognized as human. In this way, the university’s focus on identity reinforces campus division, as students depend more on institutional labeling to define who they are. The result is the undermining of campus unity to an almost irreparable point. Columbia likely started these ceremonies in good faith. But the road to hell is paved with good intentions. Diversity and multiculturalism can be worthwhile aims. However, they cannot be the sole focus of all university affairs. Yet that is increasingly exactly the case, so much so that it is sometimes difficult to identify what else one might learn at these expensive elite institutions. The imposition of diversity as the reigning prerequisite to any action has soiled good intent, and now facilitates the weaponization of multiculturalism to conduct witch hunts on conservatives, quash free speech, and command political correctness in the classroom. As a result, identity politics now runs rampant, such that no objective debate can occur because of overwhelming affectual censorship. Objectivity is outlawed, and everyone is made to believe he must have an emotional investment in a discussion. Everything is now personal to those in any conversation. Besides collapsing discourse in the classroom, the balkanization of historically underprivileged groups is also a complete disaster for campus culture. The purpose of a liberal-arts education is to become assimilated into a student body of all races, backgrounds, creeds, and ideologies. A school that encourages students to choose one characteristic to define themselves establishes tribalism, but also undersells student potential in other areas. This fragmentation polarizes the student body. To the extent it has occurred at Columbia, it is often merely shrugged off as “the culture of New York City.” But that is hardly an excuse. Woke cliques have worsened campus culture, even if nobody, particularly the school administration, wants to admit it. Columbia could be engaging in the hard work of facilitating the meaningful growth of a community. Instead, the school cuts corners, propping up a grand façade marketed toward prospective students. It’s a façade that glosses over the fact that our community is now merely an unorganized conglomeration of factions loosely held together by a woke elitism that steamrolls anything and everything in the name of “multiculturalism.” Academia no longer cares about students finding the common humanity in each other. No longer are we supposed to see past race, for we are instructed to entrench ourselves further in it. To make matters worse, schools can’t actually be bothered to solve racism. These ceremonies only exist so that colleges can give off the perception that they champion progress for the sake of their savior complexes. If universities genuinely cared about structural racism, multiculturalism would not be revered in the toxic manner it is today. Universities would not embrace tokenism as they desperately seek to fill their incoming classes with the most uniquely underprivileged students to parade around as faulty proof of their woke bona fides. Universities would instead work to deconstruct the alarming institutional racism levied against Asian Americans in the admissions process. In reality, the reputation of the school is more important than the fight against racism. This is exactly why Columbia, instead of directly defending their multicultural ceremonies, simply used obfuscation tactics and changed the name of the events to “celebrations” once it was clear that criticism of the events outweighed praise. To institutions such as Columbia, all convictions are flexible if the school’s name is on the line. Racism is a great cause to fight against when it’s convenient. Columbia’s voluntarily segregated graduation ceremonies are not pragmatic steps to solve discrimination and real-world disparities. They are nothing more than smoke and mirrors to attempt to “one-up” other schools in their quest for wokeness. If schools actually solved racism, how would the diversity–industrial complex survive? How would our universities prove that they’re better than the one down the street? By truly looking for ways to innovate learning, improve their graduation rates, or develop niche academic specialties? Perish the thought. Instead, a woke arms race is stirring across the academy, and whichever institution proves it can win the “Oppression Olympics” comes out on top. It is with a heart of gratitude and love for Columbia University that I express my grievances. No institution is beyond reproach, including the most prestigious this country has to offer. Diversity is important, but respectable civil discourse must be restored. They are not mutually exclusive. Criticism over graduation events cannot simply be dismissed with staple calls of “racism,” “sexism,” or whatever laundry list “-ism” is convenient to hurl on a given day. Students and faculty of all ideologies must reflect on their tolerance toward opposing ideas and how they approach conversations with others. To those who have become so overwhelmingly afraid to share their ideas out of fear of “cancellation,” humiliation, or underappreciation, it is time to gather your own courage and galvanize the spirits of others, for you are not alone. We must all do our part to rehabilitate the integrity of academic freedom. Without it, academia’s powerful influence in molding some of the best and brightest American minds will fall to an advancing illiberal hegemony that will continue to blow until the flame of academic freedom dies. Then, graduation ceremonies will be the least of our problems.

Elon Musk Says You Can Buy a Tesla With Bitcoin, Twitter Wants to Know About Dogecoin

Elon Musk on Twitter just announced that you can now buy a Tesla car with Bitcoin. Musk’s announcement comes almost a month after Tesla said in a filing the decision was part of its broad investment policy as a company and was aimed at diversifying and maximizing its returns on cash. It said it had invested an aggregate $1.5 billion in bitcoin under the changed policy and could “acquire and hold digital assets from time to time or long-term”. Bitcoin also surged more than 10% the day after to a record high of $43,625 after Tesla’s disclosure. Bitcoin, which has set new record highs in recent months after a rollercoaster ride over the past decade, has also drawn support from major financial institutions this year. The world’s biggest money manager Blackrock recently changed a handful of investment mandates to allow some of its funds to invest in the currency.

Musk’s tweet on the development came with new additional inputs, for example – it is currently only limited to the US, but will open up to other countries soon.

You can now buy a Tesla with Bitcoin— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 24, 2021

Pay by Bitcoin capability available outside US later this year— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 24, 2021

And also with a disclaimer.

Tesla is using only internal & open source software & operates Bitcoin nodes directly.Bitcoin paid to Tesla will be retained as Bitcoin, not converted to fiat currency. — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 24, 2021

Twitter, however, wanted to know if Tesla accepted the Internet’s favorite currency: Dogecoin.

Dogeeee— 🎶 One word 🎶 (@globaldogecoin) March 24, 2021

what about dogecoin— emilie (@uwu_orii) March 24, 2021

I wanna buy it with Dogecoin 😂— AUG | Lucas (@CreaTioN_o_0) March 24, 2021

While there is no confirmation on dogecoin yet, Tesla buying Bitcoin by the billions has arguably been the biggest news in the crypto world of late. Even as the Indian government continues to be bearish on cryptocurrencies apart from those controlled centrally, Tesla spending $1.5 billion on Bitcoin to keep the digital currency on its sheets is the first such move by a big corporation, underlining a faint presence of Bitcoin’s everyday applications in its regular discourse. However, Tesla’s investment in Bitcoin is unusual for a publicly listed company, particularly given the most common risks of cryptocurrencies. This very unusual move may have actually put the entire blockchain and cryptography technologies at a key crossroad.

Read more about why Tesla Buying Bitcoin May Have Put Blockchain Tech, Cryptocurrencies at a Key Junction.