Very Currency, Such Philosopical

Dogecoin was the original memecoin, a joke currency. Its initial design featured random rewards for mining blocks in its chain, just to drive this home. But its memetic power built a community based around a form of ironically promotional virtue ethics (tipping, "making it rain", dogespeak). With this responsibility behind it, the coin's protocol settled on a more standard mining reward scheme of reducing rewards over time. Its ongoing existence and security was eventually assured by merging its mining with Litecoin, just in case the joke ever got stale.

The ancient Greek word for dog is "kyon". It's the root of the word "cynic", which comes from the equally ancient Greek philosophical school of the Cynics: the Kynikos . To call someone a dog is an insult in many languages, and kynicos is an insult meaning "dog-like", although there are other etymologies for the name. This didn't concern the Cynics, and there is evidence that they - look, just go and read the Wikipedia page:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cynicism_(philosophy)

Take note of the ancient Greeks' emphasis on virtue ethics and the Cynic's hedonism.

Then read the page about Diogenes, because then you'll really see where this is going:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diogenes

Diogenes was born to a prosperous family in Sinope. His life took a dramatic turn following a scandal involving the debasement of coinage, an event that led to his exile and ultimately his radical rejection of conventional values.

Debasing currency means lowering the value of coins by reducing their quality, size, or weight. Scholarship is divided (you read the page, you know this) on the nature and historical accuracy of the scandal affecting Diogenes. The version of it that interest us here is this one:

A related legend recounts that, seeking guidance from Apollo's oracle at Delphi (or Delos) on how to gain renown, Diogenes was told to "adulterate the currency". Misinterpreting the phrase, he took it literally without realising its figurative sense.

And regarding Diogenes' behaviour:

He openly engaged in behaviours [...] as a means of teaching virtue and an investigation into what is natural and what is conventional. It has also been suggested he did this to drive publicity towards his philosophical sect.

Diogenes's attitude towards the rich has given the word "cynicism" its modern meaning of a sneering disbelief in others' virtue.

The technical feature of Dogecoin that I haven't mentioned yet is that it has a shorter block time than Bitcoin. It mines, or digs in Dogecoin parlance, a new block of transactions to add to its ledger on average every sixty seconds rather every ten minutes for Bitcoin. If we take the vulgar labour theory of value explanation of proof-of-work cryptocurrencies' value, it is the electricity expended in mining/digging that gives cryptocurrency its value.

This shorter block time means that less power is required to dig Dogecoin blocks than to mine Bitcoin blocks. It is therefore intrinsically worth less than Bitcoin. It is an adulterated currency.

All of this means that Dogecoin was, almost too perfectly, a cynical currency.

It had a dog as its mascot. It was an adulterated currency created as a joke to shake up notions of value and propriety (economic rationality). Its adherents' behaviours (up to and including NASCAR sponsorship) taught virtue, treated wealth and aspiring towards it ironically, and drove publicity towards their coin.

And then, like Alexander encountering Diogenes (only cringe), Elon Musk encountered Dogecoin and envied its grandeur of spirit.

Wow.

(Cover image by likeaduck licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license. )