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Dogecoin visualization
Photo: Yuriko Nakao / imago images / AFLO
In the beginning there was the realization that something could not be entirely kosher.
"A little shady," a bit dodgy.
The American Jackson Palmer once told how he came up with the idea of creating Dogecoin, a crypto currency that is currently making headlines.
A sensation that the inventor should not be entirely happy with.
Palmer is a product manager based in San Francisco.
In 2013 he noticed that more and more of his colleagues were talking about Bitcoin, about cryptocurrencies.
And all the money that can be made with it.
Palmer wedged himself behind his computer, read in - and was not convinced.
He found the whole scene a bit dubious, "a litte shady" as he once told the radio station NPR.
He took the name of a popular Internet meme ("Doge"), hung a "coin" on it and built up the crypto currency Dogecoin with a few acquaintances.
"It was a joke," said Palmer.
A parody.
Price jump of 14,000 percent
The joke has now developed a life of its own. In the wake of the ever-growing crypto currency boom, the price of Dogecoin has also reached new highs over the years. The project quickly became so popular that Palmer even raised $ 30,000 using Dogecoin to enable a bobsleigh team from Jamaica to travel to the Olympic Games in Sochi.
But what has happened to the course since the beginning of the year dwarfs everything.
The plus of Dogecoin since January 1, 2021 has meanwhile been up to 14,000 percent, according to the Reuters news agency.
This also catapulted market capitalization far beyond the billion mark.
The cryptocurrency, which actually started as a joke, currently has a capitalization volume of more than 60 billion euros.
Dogecoin is now one of the biggest cyber currencies that it was supposed to parody.
Jackson Palmer doesn't have much of that anymore.
He says he gave away all of his Dogecoins to charities years ago.
trembling