4 ms·

The fact that people are buying Dogecoin simply because it is a fun internet meme kind I think the point is that people do not buy Dogecoin because it's fun in

by highCs 13y ago

The fact that people are buying Dogecoin simply because it is a fun internet meme kind I think the point is that people do not buy Dogecoin because it's fun in itself but because it's the currency of fun, in other terms, their currency. "Their" meaning "a slice of the population" as a country is a slice of the population too. "Before", currencies were determined by geopolitic, now it's up to the people proximity in the wider sense. It's not happened yet but that's what the success of Dogecoin suggest.

firebones 13y ago
Bingo. There's not really much overhead to creating a new cryptocurrency, so worries about deflationary pressures should be removed since new currencies can emerge. The currencies will emerge out of specific cultures, in this case the meme culture, but as we've seen in the past, through various gaming cultures and as someone else suggested "Bieber-coin". (Exercise for the reader: is this much different than dot-com bubble paper millionaires with thousands of options?) Think of who is in the 1% of a country's wealth--a mix of capitalists who were good at acquiring that currency and folks who inherited it. In the cryptocurrency world, the moneyed are the creators, the miners and in the case of dogecoin, the creative-meme class who serve as a marketing arm. Many of them are in it for the lulz, and consequently have great upside with little downside, since it will always retain an intrinsic value as a karma proxy. The speculators may inadvertently make real-world millionaires out of this class. It would not surprise me at all in the next year to see companies with large social subcultures at least attempt to launch their own cryptocurrencies, or extend their in-game currencies to become linked to a cryptocurrency.
- hmsimha 13y ago
  In-game currencies are already a thing, but I suspect the reason they never caught on as viable liquid currency is their centralized nature.
  - gojomo 13y ago
    For in-game currencies so far, the centralization has meant two strikes: one, fear of the proprietor's control; two, the risk other entities (governments) could exert control via pressure on the proprietor. Emergent decentralized currencies address both – and might also improve centralized-proprietor currencies by competition and precedent. (Proprietors will accept more community input, and win greater tolerance from governments, because of pressure from alternatives.)
    - firebones 13y ago
      Exactly. In-game currencies showed the potential since they broke out to have value in the real world, but could never really catch on beyond those gaming subcultures due to the friction involved. Dogecoin's light attitude is a great marketing tool and will help further reduce the friction involved in using it. The thing to watch for: when another online community embraces the dogecoin tipbot culture. That would be a strong indicator of long-term stickiness. The OP joked about having no /u/dogetipbot on HackerNews, but that's exactly the kind of feature that I suspect will start turning up in a number of communities. With regard to games, Valve hired an economist some time ago. I'd love to see if they have anything planned with regard to innovating in this space. Could you have an in-game currency backed by a cryptocurrency?

by highCs 13y ago

firebones 13y ago

Bingo. There's not really much overhead to creating a new cryptocurrency, so worries about deflationary pressures should be removed since new currencies can emerge. The currencies will emerge out of specific cultures, in this case the meme culture, but as we've seen in the past, through various gaming cultures and as someone else suggested "Bieber-coin". (Exercise for the reader: is this much different than dot-com bubble paper millionaires with thousands of options?) Think of who is in the 1% of a country's wealth--a mix of capitalists who were good at acquiring that currency and folks who inherited it. In the cryptocurrency world, the moneyed are the creators, the miners and in the case of dogecoin, the creative-meme class who serve as a marketing arm. Many of them are in it for the lulz, and consequently have great upside with little downside, since it will always retain an intrinsic value as a karma proxy. The speculators may inadvertently make real-world millionaires out of this class. It would not surprise me at all in the next year to see companies with large social subcultures at least attempt to launch their own cryptocurrencies, or extend their in-game currencies to become linked to a cryptocurrency.

hmsimha 13y ago
In-game currencies are already a thing, but I suspect the reason they never caught on as viable liquid currency is their centralized nature.
- gojomo 13y ago
  For in-game currencies so far, the centralization has meant two strikes: one, fear of the proprietor's control; two, the risk other entities (governments) could exert control via pressure on the proprietor. Emergent decentralized currencies address both – and might also improve centralized-proprietor currencies by competition and precedent. (Proprietors will accept more community input, and win greater tolerance from governments, because of pressure from alternatives.)
  - firebones 13y ago
    Exactly. In-game currencies showed the potential since they broke out to have value in the real world, but could never really catch on beyond those gaming subcultures due to the friction involved. Dogecoin's light attitude is a great marketing tool and will help further reduce the friction involved in using it. The thing to watch for: when another online community embraces the dogecoin tipbot culture. That would be a strong indicator of long-term stickiness. The OP joked about having no /u/dogetipbot on HackerNews, but that's exactly the kind of feature that I suspect will start turning up in a number of communities. With regard to games, Valve hired an economist some time ago. I'd love to see if they have anything planned with regard to innovating in this space. Could you have an in-game currency backed by a cryptocurrency?