Dogecoin has inadvertently created a machine of greed that could hamper the growth of cryptocurrency
In the 1980s, video games were on the forefront of everyone’s mind, both kids and entrepreneurs alike. Arcades were booming, new consoles and bizarre peripherals were being released, legendary franchises such as Donkey Kong and Zelda were born and companies such as Nintendo were starting to become household names. For a brief moment in time, it seemed like there was no stopping a medium that was once considered a fad and a bit of a joke. Then came the video game crash of 1983. It lasted until 1985 but the effects were detrimental to everyone involved. The crash occurred due to a number of reasons, but many would agree that the overabundance of new companies pushing out knockoff consoles and peripherals played a crucial part. The market was oversaturated with too much useless tech and with the advent and growing acceptance of personal computers, people were beginning to lose interest in the traditional game console.
In 2009, Bitcoin was released by the mysterious Satoshi Nakamoto. Since then, cryptocurrency has taken off. Bitcoin is currently valued over £28,000 and there are thousands other cryptocurrencies currently in existence. Most go nowhere, but a few manage to thrive. A few notable ones are Ethereum, Ripple, BNB, BUSD, Cardano and of course, Dogecoin. In the last few months, Doge has grown in popularity and this popularity has given rise to a lot of copycat coins which seems to serve no purpose other than to make money. Like the video game crash of 1983, I believe that if meme-based pump and dump coins continue to flood the market, cryptocurrencies will dip to staggering levels that could very well take years to recover from.
As many enthusiasts know, Dogecoin started as a joke. A way to playfully poke fun at Bitcoin and cryptos in general. It was never meant to be a way for investors to make money. Society embraced it and put their stamp on it through word of mouth and tailor-made memes. Business magnate Elon Musk joined in on the fun and would tweet about it from time to time (mostly in the past few months). Now Dogecoin is a money-making scheme, thanks in no small part to “Dogefather” Elon Musk. Now it is an investor’s dream. It’s an opportunity for those that missed the bitcoin wave to potentially make some money in the future. This is where the problem starts. A lot of individuals have seen the dogecoin hype and have now decided to make their own coins or tokens. Some notable copycats are:
Shiba Inu (which was marketed as the Dogecoin killer)
Safe Moon
Shiba Pup
Kishu
Doget
Doges
Australian Shepherd Token (trades under ASS)
Astro Doge
Doge Elon
Both Safe Moon and Shiba Inu appear to be slightly more legitimate, but all of them are undoubtedly capitalising on the success of Dogecoin. This is a problem because just like the video game crash of ’83, when the market is saturated with too much of the same thing, people become overwhelmed and disinterested. A few days ago, the crypto market crashed after Beijing banned banks and payment firms from providing services related to crypto-currency transactions. Most coins have recovered somewhat but Shiba Inu, which was recently listed on Binance and may be listed on Coinbase in the next few months, has yet to fully recover. One SHIB now sits at £0.000007. One week ago it was £0.000015.
Bitcoin will always be here. It is the gold of the crypto market and was the first one to arrive. It has the backing of the Winklevoss brothers, Elon Musk, Brian Armstrong (Coinbase), Michael Saylor and countless other billionaires. Can the same be said of the copycat clone coins? Not really. Do these coins have staying power? I’m not so sure. Although if you asked me about dogecoin in 2013, I probably would have laughed and thought nothing of it. Whatever happens down the line, I just hope that no one loses their life savings to these random, pump and dump coins. FOMO can drive people to do things that they’re unable to take back and that’s a big problem when money is involved.
