In brief
- Musk proposed a reform for Dogecoin.
- He wants to speed up its block time and block size by 10x, and decrease fees by 100x.
Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk continues to stir the pot. In reply to a tweet comparing Bitcoin to Dogecoin, he said that the meme coin will win against Bitcoin if major network changes are implemented.
Musk, who has jokingly declared himself the “Dogefather,” tweeted, “Ideally, Doge speeds up block time 10X, increases block size 10X & drops fee 100X. Then it wins hands down.”
He further clarified his rationale when a Twitter user, Loshan, argued that larger blocks and low fees would leave the Dogecoin network vulnerable to attacks.
“For those bad at math,” responded Musk, “100X higher transaction volume with 100X lower fees means total fees earned stay same. Low fees & high volume are needed to become currency of Earth.”
Musk: Defender of Dogecoin
Musk, one of the original founders of PayPal, has long touted Dogecoin as the next big thing.
Last week, he announced that his space exploration company, SpaceX, will launch DOGE-1, the first-ever commercial Lunar payload paid for entirely in Dogecoin. “1st meme in space,” he tweeted.
Dogecoin developer Ross Nicoll told Decrypt on Friday that Musk has been in touch with Dogecoin’s development team since 2019 and has already increased the throughput of the blockchain.
Nicoll said his team of four part-time developers declined funding from Musk. Dogecoin’s original founders, Jackson Palmer and Billy Markus, have long abandoned the project.
One of the reasons Musk is plugging Dogecoin is that he believes it can become more environmentally friendly than Bitcoin.
This week, Tesla discontinued payments in Bitcoin on environmental grounds, plunging the price of the coin and the crypto market at large.
Musk’s suggestion for Dogecoin reform today might not be news to Dogecoin developers after all. But for the rest of us, it gives a glimpse into what Musk considered an ideal cryptocurrency.
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