April 1 is a day for jokes, and this year was no exception. Dogecoin, the cryptocurrency that started as a joke, launched a poll for who should be their imaginary CEO. Elon Musk won by a landslide.
What followed next amounts to proof that neither Dogecoin, which admits to be silly, nor Musk, should be taken seriously by crypto space. Musk proclaimed that the crypto might be his favorite, setting off a wave of hype, speculation, and memes. The Tesla CEO wasn’t too proud to participate in the memes himself, tweeting a picture of a dog and captioning it “Dogecoin rulz.”
He then updated his Twitter bio to indicate he was the CEO of Dogecoin, and retweeted an article from The Onion from late 2017 which satirized the industry, mocking its “imaginary internet money.”
One outlet then tied Musk’s brief stint as CEO to a 30% rise in the cryptos price, which is fun to say, but is much more likely just part of a bigger bump in crypto prices. What that outlet, and many others miss, from this whimsical story, is the serious consequences it has on the greater goal of cryptocurrency adoption.
The big goal in the crypto space is to convert the world over to cryptocurrency. That could be for Bitcoin Core (BTC), Bitcoin SV (BSV), or one of the many other altcoins on the market. None of that is helped by courting a CEO who just plain doesn’t care about the industry, and instead makes a mockery of it.
Musk has a huge social following. Many of his fans like Tesla cars, are excited about space travel with SpaceX, or find his Boring company amusing. A large number of his followers are not well informed cryptocurrency enthusiasts. What does it mean to them when he becomes the declared CEO of a joke coin, and shares a satirical article mocking all cryptos?
What the cryptocurrency space needs is a true champion, who will show the world that with a digital currency, the world can be made a better place. Musk might have faith that cryptos will do that, but this recent silliness goes to show that he’s a terrible spokesperson for the cause. That seems to be the case when he takes any interest that isn’t electric cars or space travel, as the Thai cave rescue ordeal showed.
After the price of Dogecoin increased this week, Musk changed his Twitter bio to “Former Dogecoin CEO,” before recently removing the reference entirely. That’s for the best. The cryptocurrency space would be best served if Musk sticks to the things he does best.
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