Samuel Wan
Dogecoin defied the ongoing market downtrend with a 31% swing to the upside on April 25 after Elon Musk’s acquisition of Twitter was confirmed. It closed the day at $0.1622, moderately lower than the peak price of $0.1721.
Musk is widely expected to integrate Dogecoin (DOGE) with Twitter in some capacity. However, other than hearsay, the is no confirmation of this.
Unfortunately for DOGE investors, this catalyzing event was transitory as the meme coin gave up almost all of the gains on April 25. It was down 18% on April 26 to $0.1358. This is amid broader market moves that point to resurging dollar strength as investors cycle out of risk-on assets.
Nonetheless, with Dogecoin battling to recapture former glories, the Twitter deal counts as another potential vector with which to do so. But with talk of Twitter already moving to a decentralized protocol, is there room for Dogecoin?
Dogecoin and Twitter, the future of decentralized social media?
Before Musk bought Twitter, the platform had already disclosed plans to decentralize — and therefore facilitate free speech — via the “Bluesky” initiative.
“Twitter has provided funding to an independent initiative called Bluesky, dedicated to creating standards for decentralized social networks.”
Bluesky originated from Twitter in 2019, and, thanks to funding from Twitter, it established itself as an independent company focused on decentralized social network research and development in 2022.
According to Bluesky, this setup favors serving the “broadest possible interests.”
Bluesky has received $13 million to ensure we have the freedom and independence to get started on R&D. Former Twitter CEO @jack is on our board, & a former Twitter security engineer has joined the team. https://t.co/S8vzObfc3u
— bluesky (@bluesky) April 25, 2022
Bluesky recently published a report on its “Self-Authenticating Social Protocol.” The report focused on conceptual frameworks, in particular the idea of incorporating portability, scale, and trust.
There were some technical reveals, but the main takeaway was the team describing the social media protocol as a “hybrid federated network with p2p characteristics.”
Over the past few weeks, Musk has said he wants to open-source the existing Twitter code. This would reveal how engineers control the platform. Potentially, this may forego the need to adopt Bluesky technology since removing these controls would automatically create a more balanced platform.
As such, the future direction of Twitter is unclear at this time. This uncertainty spills over to Dogecoin integration, as the Bluesky report did not mention a currency element in their research.
Musk on a mission
Earlier in April, news broke that Musk had purchased a 9.2% stake in Twitter for $2.9 billion. The move was seen as the first step in bringing free speech to the platform.
This stems from accusations that Twitter is left-leaning and “woke,” with an active agenda to silence those with opposing views.
According to the Wall Street Journal, it also suffers from bots, terrorist propaganda, and “noxious harrassments.”
Musk has put his money where his mouth is and bought the platform in a bid to change this. However, at this stage, there are more questions than answers.
