Elon Musk Responds to Dogecoin Founder’s Drastic Income Reduction

Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, recently responded to a tweet from Billy Markus, also known as Shibetoshi Nakamoto, the founder of Dogecoin, regarding a drastic reduction in his social media earnings. This interaction gains significance against the backdrop of Musk’s controversial influence on Dogecoin and allegations of market manipulation.

Markus’s Earnings and Musk’s Response

On September 2, 2023, Billy Markus disclosed that his recent social media earnings had plummeted to about one-third of what they were in the previous two weeks. The tweet quickly gained traction, stating,

my 𝕏 paycheck is about 1/3rd of what it was compared to the previous two weeks, and i want to say… …that it’s all magic bonus money to me that i greatly appreciate and it’s absolutely crazy and amazing that i get paid anything at all to shitpost on this app

In response, Elon Musk tweeted that the fluctuation was likely due to the “beta code” nature of the revenue-sharing algorithm on the platform. He also added that only verified users counted towards ad revenue, hinting at the complexities of monetization algorithms.

Sorry, this should be more stable over time. Revenue share is still very much beta code. Worth noting that only verified users (aka X Premium subscribers) count for ad revenue, otherwise it’s trivial to game.

Implications for Social Media Monetization

The interaction between Markus and Musk serves as a microcosm of larger issues surrounding social media monetization, including high-profile figures of cryptocurrency. It raises questions about the fairness and stability of revenue-sharing models, especially for content creators who rely on these platforms for income. Moreover, it brings into focus the ethical considerations of influential figures like Musk affecting market dynamics.

Musk’s Influence on Dogecoin

Elon Musk has been a polarizing figure in the cryptocurrency world, particularly when it comes to Dogecoin. His tweets have often led to wild price swings, as reported by Blockchain.News, earning him both admiration and criticism. Musk has even faced legal action for allegedly manipulating Dogecoin prices, although these allegations have yet to be substantiated.

Recent Revelations from Wall Street Journal

A recent Wall Street Journal article titled “The Real Story of Musk’s Twitter Takeover” adds another layer of complexity to this narrative. The article, based on an excerpt from Walter Isaacson’s upcoming biography on Elon Musk, reveals that Musk has been quietly funding Dogecoin’s development. It also discusses failed negotiations between Musk and Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF), the CEO of cryptocurrency exchange FTX, over a potential $5 billion investment. Both parties reportedly considered the other “crazy.”

Conclusion

The sharp decline in social media earnings experienced by Dogecoin founder Billy Markus and Elon Musk’s subsequent response have opened up a Pandora’s box of questions related to social media monetization and market influence, a sentiment echoed by other key figures. This issue gains urgency as Meta’s new Twitter-style app, Thread, intensifies competition and challenges Twitter’s operational model.

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Dogecoin Founder Criticizes Memecoin Creators as Get-Rich-Quick Schemes Proliferates

Billy Markus, the iconic founder of the Dogecoin (DOGE) meme coin, has lashed out on his Twitter handle as he called out a new generation of developers looking to get rich quick through meme coin creations.

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The origin of the lashing out was centred on the attempts by unknown followers flooding his page with adverts of memecoins whom Markus, popularly known as Twitter as Shibetoshi Nakamoto, says the host of tokens being paraded are not memecoins as their motives are clearly different from that of Dogecoin in its early days.

“Spam advertising, lying about who is involved in a project, making up ridiculous promises, desperately trying to get Elon’s attention to promote you, etc. are not clever or amusing,” he said in the tweet, adding;

“Remember Dogecoin was made 8 years ago. As Satire making fun of the idiotic coins, irony. Satire, current “meme” coins aren’t even memes. they’re made by people trying to get rich off of other people trying to get rich. to each their own, but it is indeed a different thing.”

Markus’ complaints reverberated with some of his 1.1 million followers, with comments that suggested the meme coin “invasion” is invariably a growing trend in the digital currency ecosystem.

Memecoins are generally established as a joke-at least, that was what Dogecoin was known for in the early days. However, the tendencies for these digital assets to print enormous growth rates, especially with promotional tweets from Elon Musk, have made many think the launch of related memecoins can be an avenue to cut out of the crypto pie. Memecoins are now very ambitious, with projects like Floki Inu storming the streets of London and the transport system in a bid to generate some publicity.

While the digital currency ecosystem is evolving quickly, emphasising utility beyond memes, Billy Markus pleaded that at least ambitious developers should stay out of his Twitter threads for selfish gains.

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DOGE co-founder sets sights on Ethereum bridge and NFTs for mass adoption

Dogecoin (DOGE) co-founder Billy Markus has set his sights on nonfungible tokens (NFTs) and an Ethereum-to-Dogecoin bridge to help bring about for mass adoption of the meme coin.

In a Sept. 30 tweet, Markus emphasized the importance of completing the Ethereum-Dogecoin bridge so that the asset could be integrated with top Ethereum-based NFT platforms such as OpenSea, enabling non fungible purchases with DOGE.

Markus said that there is “high demand” to purchase NFTs within the crypto community and that enabling NFT purchases with DOGE “greatly increases its utility.”

The in development DOGE-ETH bridge would enable users to send DOGE from the Dogecoin blockchain to the Ethereum blockchain, and transact with the asset in sectors such as decentralized finance (DeFi) and NFTs via ERC-20 DOGE token contracts.

The bridge would provide extra utility for DOGE, as it could provide a fun alternative to Ether which dominates NFT payments, while also ramping up transaction levels and usage via circulation in various DeFi protocols on Ethereum.

In an interview with podcaster Lex Fridman on June 4, Ethereum co-founder and DOGE investor Vitalik Buterin also emphasized the bullish potential that an Ethereum-bridge could have for DOGE, noting that:

“If DOGE wants to somehow bridge to Ethereum, and then people can trade DOGE thousands of times a second inside a loop ring, then that would be amazing.”

In Markus’s Twitter thread, he was asked if the bridge is in the works, and responded that “people are working on the DOGE-ETH bridge, yes,” without naming names.

Organizations such as DogeLabs — a collaboration of developers focused on the Dogecoin chain — announced on June 18 that it was exploring the idea of building a Doge-ETH bridge that would enable hodlers to use the asset in Ethereum-based DeFi staking.

DogeLabs also stated that it was looking to the development of a DOGE burn wallet where developers can build “applications that send a small portion of Doge to a public burn wallet to assist in building a deflationary mode around DOGE inflationary growth.”

Markus stepped away from working on Dogecoin in 2015 — selling his stash for the equivalent of a used Honda Civic — however the co-founder is a member of the advisory board of the Dogecoin foundation that was re-established in August. Buterin is also a member of the advisory board.

Related: Crypto is impossible to destroy, says Tesla CEO Elon Musk

The non-profit foundation supports and advocates for the development of Dogecoin, while also protecting its trademark from the likes of copycats such as Dogecoin 2.0.

Cointelegraph reported on Sept. 2 that the Dogecoin Foundation demanded the “Dogecoin 2.0” project change its name and had hired brand protection lawyers to contact the knockoff’s developers in a bid to “protect the Dogecoin community from being misled and to protect the Dogecoin name from possible misuse.”