Last weekend the price of Dogecoin (a meme-inspired cryptocurrency that was developed "in about two hours" in 2013) fell sharply after Elon Musk said on Saturday Night Live that cryptocurrency is a "hustle." Now, possibly confirming that statement, Musk has followed up his announcement that Tesla is "suspending" accepting payments in Bitcoin because of its inefficiency, by tweeting about "potentially promising" improvements in Dogecoin.
Working with Doge devs to improve system transaction efficiency. Potentially promising.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 13, 2021
Naturally, his tweets have increased speculation that Dogecoin could have a future use and Coinbase reports its value shot up 18 percent, before falling again. The Tesla reveal indicated the company would look for more energy efficient options than the "insane" usage trend shown by Bitcoin, although Musk's apparent surprise at this widely known fact made the whole thing feel like a stunt. Like Bitcoin, Dogecoin relies on less efficient "proof of work" blockchain technology, and more efficient cryptocurrencies are already available, but that hasn't stopped speculators from chasing the dream of Tesla, SpaceX and Doge.