When Atsuko Sato, a Japanese kindergarten teacher, posted several pictures online in February 2010 of her Shiba-inu dog named Kabosu, whom she had adopted from an animal shelter, she certainly did not expect such a stir. In particular, one of the pictures of the dog sitting on the couch and squinting at the camera with raised eyebrows has become a meme.
In 2013, IBM programmer Billy Marcus and Adobe developer Jackson Palmer picked up the hype around the Shiba Inu meme. They called their cryptocurrency Dogecoin. The digital asset was conceived as a parody of bitcoin.
Like the digital currency Shiba Inu, which was launched later, Dogecoin made it into the top ten most important cryptocurrencies – not least thanks to the massive support of Ilon Musk.
Dogecoin founder criticizes Ilon Musk
Dogecoin is known to have a particularly well-known fan: Elon Musk has repeatedly made Dogecoin rise in value. However, Palmer left the cryptocurrency industry a few years ago and has been considered one of the harshest critics of the segment ever since. In interviews, he constantly settles scores with Ilon Musk and his questionable influence on Dogecoin.
For him, Elon Musk is a classic con man. All this became clear to Palmer when he came into contact with the billionaire a few years ago. At the time, Palmer developed a bot and wrote a corresponding program that could be used to automatically detect cryptocurrency fraud. Musk contacted him because he also wanted access to the software.
The head of Tesla pretended to be well versed in programming. However, his knowledge was much less developed at the time.
Palmer created a furor a year ago when he shared his opinion on the crypto industry on Twitter. The Dogecoin co-founder completely disagrees with the way the cryptocurrency industry pitches its coins and services.
The industry is a dubious network of business relationships, bought-in influencers and paid media reports. This will lead to a proliferation of the cult mantra of “get rich quick,” which is used to extract money from the financially desperate and naïve.
For him, cryptocurrencies are a combination of the worst features of today’s capitalist system with corruption, fraud and inequality. According to Palmer, the cryptocurrency industry is controlled by a powerful cartel of wealthy individuals.
How Musk’s takeover of Twitter pushed up the rate of meme-cryptocurrency again
But how does Musk affect the rate of Dogecoin (DOGE)? The meme-cryptocurrency rose in value by more than 35% in the fall. The reason – how else could it be – is Ilon Musk. The CEO of Tesla and SpaceX has long described himself as a fan of DOGE and constantly provoked the Dogecoin’s rise. The prehistory of the rate increase is the completed takeover of Twitter.
The market suggests that Dogecoin could also benefit from this. Musk has indicated in the past that he wants to integrate DOGE into Twitter – for example, as a way to pay for Twitter Blue’s subscription service. But it’s worth stating right away: there are no concrete plans for this at the moment.
Of course, one can argue the following: Dogecoin is currently a cryptocurrency with very little real use. At the same time, however, there are some very rich people who find DOGE fun and want to promote it – besides Musk, there is Mark Cuban or Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev.
If DOGE is integrated into a platform with access to Twitter, it should have a positive impact on usage, and thus on the rate. DOGE is more likely to be integrated with the service.
The growth was so strong that the market capitalization of DOGE increased by several billion dollars. This is, to put it mildly, a lot, especially since there are no concrete plans to integrate the asset yet.
And even if Musk does integrate DOGE with Twitter (which is likely in one form or another), that doesn’t necessarily mean that Dogecoin usage will actually get a significant boost from it. Twitter, for example, has already integrated BTC payments via the Lightning network – a feature that is not widely used at the moment.
Ultimately, we will have to wait and see what Musk’s plans are for DOGE (or other cryptocurrencies) on Twitter. We can expect Dogecoin to move one way or the other in 2023.
Kabosu
But let’s get back to Kabos, because, unfortunately, the dog is doing very badly. According to her owner Sato, the siba inu suffers from cholangihepatitis and chronic lympholeukemia.
A few days ago Sato wrote that Kabosu had lost her appetite and stopped drinking water. But after a visit to the vet, she got better.
The results of the liver tests are worrisome. In addition, Kabosu had developed jaundice. In all likelihood, the dog will unfortunately not live too long.
However, at the age of 17, Kabosu had reached an advanced age for the Shiba-inu. The lifespan of the Japanese dog breed is 12 to 15 years.
Pesuke, who in 2010 entered the Guinness Book of World Records as the oldest living dog in the world, was at least in part a shiba inu. The mutt died in Japan in 2011 at the age of 26 years and nine months.
The oldest dog in history is the Australian shepherd dog Bluey, who died in 1939 at the age of 29.
It’s hard to say whether Dogecoin’s illness will affect the prices of the two most famous meme-cryptocurrencies. In any case, Dogecoin recorded the highest percentage pullback in a 24-hour period among the top 15 currencies.
Upd. The dog is on the mend: he is eating again and even go for walks 🙂