Doge to the moon and back
A look at Doge, the motivations of people, and the ridiculousness. Sadly this is just the beginning. r/WSB and Gamestop were just the start
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I have been fascinated by Doge, which started out as a joke which as of this writing is, uh, well a $63B joke which no one could have imagined. I mean what the hell kinda reality are we living in? I mean is this even real?
I am quite honestly not sure what I want to write about but I guess I just wanted to write about the absurdity of Doge more than anything else. The only real part of the story is the real Shibu Ina, who’s name is Kabuso!. The link also contains a detailed history and its a cool story
What’s money after all?
Imagine if you will, describing to your grandparents not 30 years ago that one day we’d just create money out of thin air, people will believe in it, use it to buy things (not Tesla’s anymore though) and we can go on creating more as we need. They’d have thought you are batshit crazy or that you have a fake money printing machine. This is a government charter right? Printing presses and all that stuff?
But I ask you, what is the difference between “real” money and Bitcoin for example (not to pick on Bitcoin, which I believe in) and the only real difference is that people believe in it. In as much as Tamagotchi’s were a “real” pet so are all these alternative currencies real.
When Dogecoin launched the rules were to launch with 100B coins and no supply cap (unlike Bitcoin which has a cap of 21M, currently at 18.7M). So as of today according to Coindesk there are 129B dogecoins and that supply is only continuously increasing. Remember this all was supposed to be a JOKE, not a real thing. I mean in some ways this reminds me of the Dutch Tulip Bubble and someone’s gotta lose … or are they really losing?
I personally don’t own any Doge but I sit and wonder why people want to buy Dogecoin. There are potentially a few reasons that someone would wanna buy this
A big joke
Guess the joke is on you. Yeah in the grand scheme of things most of us can buy a few Dogecoins and speculate. Damn by $5 investment is now worth $50! Bragging rights and this makes me part of the biggest f**** you to the government. Cool!
The other side to this is that the ~100+ people that control Doge are gonna get rich and a million poor suckers like you and me will spend $5 bucks and forget about it (Why didn’t I do this first man!). This is the greater fool theory.
The Greater fool theory states that “the price of an asset is determined by whether you can sell it for a higher price, at a later point in time.”. In other words it states that there is a bigger freaking idiot out there than you.
FOMO
When everyone is spending a few bucks buying Dogecoin (given that it's so easy to buy these now) why the hell not get into the fun and make this a diversified portfolio? I mean those few bucks, in the grand scheme of things can be made back with another stock and either way they are tax deductible so why the hell not!
Superheroes
Today’s superheroes are no longer movie stars but people like Elon Musk. And for good reason. Look at what he has created but let us also look at how he has played with the crypto currencies. He has the power/following to move *coin (Bit/Doge) prices dramatically with the cool memes (and I wonder when he has the time to do all this!). He has exercised his superior abilities a few times leading to drastic price swings in the prices of both currencies! He can afford to buy, tweet, tweet again, get the prices up and then sell (he HASN’T sold any Bitcoin, as clarified)
Even if he does he really does not have any real time disclosure obligations (I think he probably has to report it to SEC but I assume that it's not an immediate requirement)
He doesn’t need the money so he is likely either trolling the internet or just flexing his muscles, both of which would have been unimaginable back in the day (and so would a cryptocurrency). He has exercised this power with both Bicoin and also with Dogecoin after he tweeted that he was “ “Working with Doge devs to improve system transaction efficiency. Potentially promising.”
Now tell your grandparents this. In the 2021’s I will likely be able to use this:
To buy this:
Can’t believe that I am writing that! Of course he has written that his “Doge” tweets should not be taken seriously! But I don’t think people read those tweets!
Financial Planning
Serious question. I wonder if any of you have asked your financial planning guy/girl (and NO Robinhood is not a “financial planner” if you should buy DogeCoin. I can’t wait to hear the answer from the diversify-your-money-financial-planner saying, Hell NO! And then Doge goes back up. I’d be pissed too!
Now imagine if your financial planner was a bot that buys more Doge when Musk tweets about them (Ha!) That's what financial planning has come down to?
So why is this happening. I think part of this has to do with people being fed up. Boredom and doing this kinda stuff which you think might be stupid is fun! People are just plain tired of how the government runs and this seems like a fun way out? I don’t know. I invested a little in BitCoin mostly cos of uh well FOMO. This goes back to friction. Should we have removed the friction from trading? I still think so! It's an emphatic yes. This removal of friction helps people who are busy!
What’s next?
Hmm good question. I think this absurdity will continue. This “fun” with NFT’s, CryptoKitties, DogeCoin’s and such are all just a toy now. But as well all know the next big thing will start out looking like a toy
Good reads on this topic:
Great reads this week from around the web
What Is an Entertainment Company in 2021 and Why Does the Answer Matter? — MatthewBall.vc
Building love as an entertainment company, the importance of transmedia, how gaming fits into transmedia and the future moats that entertainment/story-telling companies need to tell. As always a very insightful post from Matthew Ball
A good read from Dror Poleg on how white collar (think tech) jobs will be more remote and will create a more level playing field
The NFT Gold Rush: How Cryptoartists Kick-Started a Boom
A good read on how the entire gold rush started; reached a fervor and now seems to be downhill. I’m not much for buying uh well “a piece of the internet” that everyone else can copy even though I might be the one “true” owner. However I am Web3.0 bullish and there are definitely real world cases that can use the tech!
The Six Stories of Mercado Libre
Awesome coverage of Mercado Libre; key points are identifying and pattern matching what is happening around the world (or technology) and figuring out how that will impact YOU
How the Personal Computer Broke the Human Body (vice.com)
I don’t know. I mean how do you compare let's say an Amazon worker that has to lift stuff for 8 hours a day with someone who is sitting in a chair all day. Strained eyes, strained back etc are definitely signs of overuse of technology but so what?
Ximalaya and the Economy of Ears
Good read on Ximalaya, china’s largest … uhhh .. AUDIO platform. The thing about a lot of these Chinese apps is they do it all and at the same time. Fail fast, fail many times!
Rappi Co-Founder Sebastian Mejia on Building for Multi-Verticality in On-Demand
A good read on Rappi, Latin America’s superapp and their growth.
A take on how clubhouse might “still” win. Before the conversation was all around how it’s gonna be the new killer; now it's about how it might win. Wait up for the articles that speak about why it might die …
Live streaming and why it won't go away and the superior financial aspects for a creator using livestreaming
A good Robinhood profile. I mean if people want to trade let them ….