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How Dogecoin changed my perspective on cryptocurrency

words.steveklabnik.com

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Re: How Dogecoin changed my perspective on cryptocurrency

#21

Post by steveklabnik »

gojomo wrote: post #12

Totally agree, as a Bitcoin fan who also sees Dogecoin as a positive sign. Some Bitcoin boosters believe "there can be only one" winning digital currency, and hope/predict it will be Bitcoin. I instead expect many to be tried, most to fail, but a wide variety to survive and live in strange, ever-changing symbiosis. They're just so easy to bootstrap, now, and the possibility/exploration space is so large. Bitcoin migh…

Yup. The lighthearted nature of both the coin and the community is drawing a lot of attention from people who haven't cared about cryptocurrency before, including myself.

It shouldn't be that surprising to anyone on Hacker News: marketing is important. Bitcoin was all "we're going to destroy fiat currency, fuck the government." Dogecoin is "hey lol isn't this silly? Have some coins." It's no wonder that people are reacting to it in a completely different way, even though they're (basically) the same thing.

> They're just so easy to bootstrap, now, and the possibility/exploration space is so large.

I saw a tweet that said "Hottest Christmas gift 2013: build your own cryptocurrency kit." Since all of this is open source, it should be really interesting to see what happens once you can basically alter a configuration file and get your own currency, wallet (online and off), exchange, HFT bot, faucet, poker site...

Not to mention the more 'serious' altcoins, like Sexcoin. I haven't investigated that coin in serious detail, but coins trying to take on a specific vertical are _very_ interesting.

And that's not even getting into things like Namecoin, which build legitimately new tech on top of the blockchain.

It's all terribly interesting.

Re: How Dogecoin changed my perspective on cryptocurrency

#22

Post by jmount »

If I had before me a fly and an elephant, having never seen more than one such magnitude of either kind; and if the fly were to endeavor to persuade me that he was larger than the elephant, I might by possibility be placed in a difficulty. The apparently little creature might use such arguments about the effect of distance, and might appeal to such laws of sight and hearing as I, if unlearned in those things, might be unable wholly to reject. But if there were a thousand flies, all buzzing, to appearance, about the great creature; and, to a fly, declaring, each one for himself, that he was bigger than the quadruped; and all giving different and frequently contradictory reasons; and each one despising and opposing the reasons of the others—I should feel quite at my ease. I should certainly say, My little friends, the case of each one of you is destroyed by the rest. I intend to show flies in the swarm, with a few larger animals, for reasons to be given.

AUGUSTUS DE MORGAN A BUDGET OF PARADOXES http://www.gutenberg.org/files/23100/23100-h/23100-h.htm

Re: How Dogecoin changed my perspective on cryptocurrency

#23

Post by CryptoJunky »

Personally I think Dogecoin is hilarious. I put together a guide for anyone that is interested in playing around with it.

http://cryptojunky.com/blog/2013/12/19/getting-started-with-...

Regardless the intention of Dogecoin, it seems to be working as an introductory cryptocurrency for a lot of new users. Can't tell whether or not it will stick around yet, but I've heard a lot of responses from users saying it is the first cryptocurrency they've wanted to try out.

Re: How Dogecoin changed my perspective on cryptocurrency

#24

Post by AndrewBissell »

If you go back and read what people thought about money in, say, 1870, there was a time that the notion of purely paper currencies was widely held to be the same sort of absurd folly that cryptocurrencies are accused of exhibiting today. Yet, they eventually wound up conquering the global financial landscape. They got their start by being convertible into the prevailing forms of money (gold & silver), just as BTC relies on convertibility into USD now.

None of which is to say that BTC will necessarily be the next Big Thing in the world of currencies, but just that the ideas in the world of money which are widely held to be ridiculous today could very well be commonplace in 4 or 5 decades.

Re: How Dogecoin changed my perspective on cryptocurrency

#26

Post by amark »

vezzy-fnord wrote: post #4

Basically, the author is saying that the absurdity of Dogecoin made him realize that most currency is intrinsically worthless, with the only reason that it has value being a state power or arbitrary group of people (as in the case of cryptocurrency) has assigned it one... also known as fiat. A very old and evident observation. Not exactly enlightening, but there you go.

Yep. Pretty silly to write a whole article about it.

Re: How Dogecoin changed my perspective on cryptocurrency

#27

Post by natural219 »

There is one other aspect here I find very interesting, and it has to do with the efficient market hypothesis. The fact that people are buying Dogecoin simply because it is a fun internet meme kind of flies in the face of people who still view the price of financial assets as mostly rational, value-based prices, that can be deconstructed along the lines of asset-based valuation, financial ratios, available information, et cetera.

Dogecoin kind of shits all over that. If people will buy a financial asset literally because it was a funny meme they saw on Reddit, then it kind of untangles the notion that prices really must have anything to do with reality. Someone might rightfully ask the question, "Should I invest in Dogecoin?", and at this stage of our financial markets, I really don't have a good answer for that.

Re: How Dogecoin changed my perspective on cryptocurrency

#28

Post by amark »

Jack000 wrote: post #9

there was a spike in dogecoin prices last week, making it the 9th most valuable cryptocurrency: http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/bitcoin-alternative-dogecoin-soars-... though it's dropped back to 14th since. with the viral aspect of it, I can see dogecoin actually gaining some traction. It would be funny if it unseats the likes of namecoin, primecoin or other serious cryptocurrencies.

The power of dogecoin comes from the community. If it can become the "default" crypto for redditors and the like, it will see huge success. No other currency has launched with such a strong community backing.

It's one of the reasons I think Dogecoin is such a good bet.

Re: How Dogecoin changed my perspective on cryptocurrency

#29

Post by belluchan »

steveklabnik wrote: post #5
vezzy-fnord wrote: post #4

Basically, the author is saying that the absurdity of Dogecoin made him realize that most currency is intrinsically worthless, with the only reason that it has value being a state power or arbitrary group of people (as in the case of cryptocurrency) has assigned it one... also known as fiat. A very old and evident observation. Not exactly enlightening, but there you go.

To be clear, _I_ already knew this. I'm saying that I think that it might lead _other_ people to reflect upon the nature of money.

Why dogecoin? Why not megacoin, that's also pretty absurd.

Re: How Dogecoin changed my perspective on cryptocurrency

#30

Post by steveklabnik »

belluchan wrote: post #29
steveklabnik wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To be clear, _I_ already knew this. I'm saying that I think that it might lead _other_ people to reflect upon the nature of money.

Why dogecoin? Why not megacoin, that's also pretty absurd.

> Megacoin , Your Global Currency. Your Modern Wallet. Global, Anonymous, Secure.

Sounds pretty serious business to me.

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