Why AMC can’t accept dogecoin for movie tickets yet, according to Elon Musk

Dogecoin is one of the cryptocurrency highlights of the year, but not because the digital token is actually useful. The meme coin reached new highs earlier this year, with Elon Musk partially responsible for the price increase. The currency rose more than 22,500% in the first five months of the year, from well under a cent to over $0.70 per coin. And Musk contributed to doge’s tumble as well. The Tesla exec’s tweets helped tank the bitcoin price in the process, and the entire market fell in mid-May. But fast-forward to mid-September, and theater chain AMC is thinking about allowing customers to pay for tickets using the well-known meme coin. Unsurprisingly, Musk has an opinion about doge payments for movie tickets.

Doge is trading at around 22 cents at the time of this writing after a few days of high volatility that impacted the entire market. Doge’s rally topped out at 35 cents in mid-August and has been tumbling or ranging ever since. There’s no telling if or when doge will reach its all-time high valuation, but there’s certainly interest from consumers around the coin.

AMC CEO Adam Aron posted a poll on Twitter asking whether the theater chain should accept doge payments. He followed up, saying that his Dogecoin poll was his most popular Twitter post, getting 4.2 million views and 140,000 votes. Some 77% of respondents told Aron that AMC should accept doge payments.

SO FASCINATING! Dogecoin Poll was by far my highest ever read tweet. In 24 hours, 4.2 million views, my most ever retweets, most ever replies. 140,000 votes 77% yes 23% no. It’s clear that you think AMC should accept Dogecoin. Now we need to figure out how to do that. Stay tuned! pic.twitter.com/tkClzgMBMO

— Adam Aron (@CEOAdam) September 22, 2021

The problem with using doge for AMC payments

Musk has often been criticized for his meme approach to bitcoin and doge trading, with some claiming that Musk has been manipulating prices this way to meet his own goals. Tesla, for example, bought bitcoin earlier this year and then briefly accepted bitcoin payments for cars. But Tesla soon reversed course on bitcoin support, with Musk explaining that bitcoin mining is harmful to the environment.

Twitter trolling aside, Musk does have some expertise when it comes to online payments. After all, he is one of the cofounders of PayPal. Like Aron, Musk also looked at doge as a means of payment for goods. He said earlier this year that the project needs improvements to work as an alternate payment method. He suggested a drop in transaction fees, among other things.

Musk made the same point this week, responding to a comment that explicitly mentioned AMC’s interest in doge payments. The Tesla exec said that it’s “super important for doge fees to drop to make things like buying movie [tickets] viable.”

Super important for Doge fees to drop to make things like buying movie tix viable

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 22, 2021

While the AMC CEO seems to welcome doge payments, Aron did not offer any timeline. He said the company needs to figure out how to accept Dogecoin payments, telling customers to “stay tuned.”

It’s not just transaction fees that need to be acceptable to both companies like AMC and their customers. Settlement times have to be instantaneous, just as it happens with fiat. Both parties involved in doge payments will want it confirmed just as it happens.