Dogecoin Can Have Real-World Uses: Ethereum Cofounder Charles Hoskinson

Charles Hoskinson, the co-founder of Ethereum, has said that Dogecoin is a reasonable target for someone to fix it up and make it an interesting cryptocurrency. This comes after billionaire Elon Musk has been hyping the cryptocurrency, including calling himself the “ultimate” holder who won’t be selling off his tokens. Hoskinson also says that the coin has potential, and said that if developers get on board, it could see more real world uses that make it more viable.

In a podcast with AI researcher Lex Fridman last Friday, Hoskinson, also the creator of Cardano, a public blockchain platform, said that he hoped for a compromise wherein real developers could come in and work on Doge to create some use and utility for it. “So, at least it has a value floor and won’t collapse,” Hoskinson said in the podcast. In the last six months, the price of Dogecoin in INR has been hugely volatile, and investors can’t be sure how long the current value will last.

The Cardano creator also said that it could take somewhere between two and three years for Dogecoin, which was once a parody digital currency to function as a modern cryptocurrency. Hoskinson was not even against the idea of a collaboration between Cardano and Dogecoin, saying working together would be “a lot of fun”.

But the 33-year-old had a word of caution too. He said that the Tesla CEO’s influence over Doge’s value may hurt retail investors significantly someday if the currency’s code-base wasn’t improved.

Musk, on the other hand, has single-handedly dominated the digital currency arena and now possesses the power to influence their value with his tweets.

Earlier this month, the Tesla and SpaceX CEO tweeted: “Found this pic of me as a child.” The picture included a picture of an old computer and other gadgets and that was enough to raise the value of Dogecoin by 15 per cent. 

But it’s not that Musk has always been a vocal supporter of the dog-themed currency. In May, the billionaire, on a talk show, said that Dogecoin was a “hustle”.

In March, Tesla started accepting Bitcoin as a mode of payment to purchase their cars only to suspend it in May. Musk put out a statement from Tesla that it was “concerned” about the rapidly increasing use of fossil fuels for Bitcoin mining and transaction, and hence was suspending vehicle purchases using the cryptocurrency.