Bitcoin and cryptocurrency prices across the board have struggled this week since a sell-off sparked by Tesla TSLA billionaire Elon Musk and ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin helped wipe $300 billion from the market .
The bitcoin price has lost 20% over the last seven days, dragging down the wider crypto market.Dogecoin, the “joke” meme-based cryptocurrency that’s recently rocketed into the crypto top five by value, has also lost ground ( even with a surprise Coinbase bombshell ).
Now, Musk, the self-appointed technoking of Tesla who was once voted dogecoin’s CEO, has indicated Tesla might have sold more of its bitcoin holdings and proposed a radical dogecoin upgrade that he claims is “needed [for dogecoin] to become the currency of Earth”—and will mean it beats bitcoin “hands down.”
MORE FROM FORBES Why Bitcoin Could Rocket To A $250,000 Price Within Five Years By Billy Bambrough “Ideally, doge speeds up block time 10X, increases block size 10X and drops fee 100X.Then it wins hands down,” Musk said via Twitter in response to a post made by a dogecoin fan account.
MORE FOR YOU Coinbase Reveals Dogecoin Bombshell As Bitcoin And Crypto Price Fears Grip The Market Ether Classic Prices Surged More Than 40% In Less Than 24 Hours Elon Musk Claims He Is “Working With Doge Devs” On Potential Improvements “For those bad at math, 100X higher transaction volume with 100X lower fees means total fees earned stay same,” Musk added .”Low fees and high volume are needed to become currency of Earth.”
The proposal is similar to one previously made by some bitcoin developers and enthusiasts that culminated in the bitcoin network splitting in 2017, leading to the creation of bitcoin cash, a so-called “fork” of bitcoin that is better suited to a far larger number of smaller transactions.
“The 10,000 alts tried all manner laughable physics and comp sci failed things,” Adam Back, a crypto pioneer and chief executive of bitcoin development company Blockstream, replied to Musk.”There are multiple issues with large blocks.
Bitcoin has at this point the most hyper-optimized, algorithmically and hand tuned assembler fastest ECDSA [Elliptic Curve Digital Signature Algorithm] signature verification code for a reason.”
Later, Musk indicated Tesla might sell the remainder of its more than $1 billion worth of bitcoin it bought earlier this year .
Tesla has already sold some of bitcoin but claimed it was only to test market liquidity .
“Bitcoiners are going to slap themselves next quarter when they find out Tesla dumped the rest of their bitcoin holdings,” posted an anonymous cryptocurrency Twitter account with the handle CryptoWhale.”With the amount of hate Elon Musk is getting, I wouldn’t blame him.”
“Indeed,” Musk replied , sending the bitcoin price sharply lower.
The dogecoin price, which Musk’s tweets had pushed higher over the weekend, also fell back.
Musk, who said in February none of his dogecoin-related posts should be taken seriously, had already boosted the dogecoin price this week with a Twitter poll asking whether Tesla should accept dogecoin as payment —shortly before sending shockwaves through the bitcoin and cryptocurrency community with the surprise cessation of customers’ use of bitcoin to buy Tesla cars.
MORE FROM FORBES Ethereum Price Prediction: ‘Major Upgrades’ Could Help Ethereum Hit $20,000 By 2025 By Billy Bambrough Musk’s latest dogecoin Twitter posts have invoked the ire of many bitcoin and cryptocurrency supporters who fear the Tesla and SpaceX CEO’s irreverent approach risks damaging the burgeoning technology.
“The perfect troll is one where people don’t know whether it is a troll or not,” Peter McCormack, the host of the What Bitcoin Did podcast, posted to Twitter , tagging Musk.”Your recent poorly informed criticism of bicoin [and] support for doge may be the perfect troll…or you might actually believe this.”
“Obnoxious threads like this make me want to go all in on doge,” Musk replied, criticizing bitcoin as “highly centralized.”
“A single coal mine in Xinjiang flooded, almost killing miners, and bitcoin hash rate dropped 35%.Sound ‘decentralized’ to you,” Musk asked , adding: “ever heard of PayPal? It’s possible… maybe… that I know [more] than you realize about how money works.”
Billy Bambrough
I am a journalist with significant experience covering technology, finance, economics, and business around the world.
As the founding editor of Verdict.co.uk I reported
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I am a journalist with significant experience covering technology, finance, economics, and business around the world.As the founding editor of Verdict.co.uk I reported on how technology is changing business, political trends, and the latest culture and lifestyle.I have covered the rise of bitcoin and cryptocurrency since 2012 and have charted its emergence as a niche technology into the greatest threat to the established financial system the world has ever seen and the most important new technology since the internet itself.I have worked and written for CityAM, the Financial Times, and the New Statesman, amongst others.
Follow me on Twitter @billybambrough or email me on billyATbillybambrough.com.Disclosure: I occasionally hold some small amount of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.
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