The Dogecoin co-founder has a hard on for regulation and he's somehow in talks with supposed VC people about getting them involved about doing some too secret to talk about serious business. He also thinks Bitcoiners are assholes. Very classy from the leader of the friendliest and most loved up group on the internet.
http://www.techly.com.au/2014/02/17/dogecoin-founder-turned-half-million-dollars-f/
Dogecoin founder Jackson Palmer has thrown down the gauntlet to the cryptocurrency community declaring that neither he nor his digital currency are for sale, despite huge offers of investment from Australian venture capitalists.
At an Australian meet-up on Thursday night organised via Reddit, where Dogecoin’s community was started, the Sydney-based founder told Techly he is also calling for government regulation of cryptocurrencies – a move that’s unlikely to make him any friends in the Bitcoin community.
Palmer characterised Bitcoin types as “an elitist little group you have to ask for an invite to, whereas Dogecoin is more a grassroots community thing.”
“You can go to a Bitcoin meet up and meet people who are like ‘I have 100 BitCoins, I’m a multimillionaire’,” he said.
“Dogecoin is the community’s currency, open to everyone, and that’s how I want to keep it.”
The big end of town wants in – but Palmer isn’t interested
It’s clear Palmer is totally disinterested in any short-term gain Dogecoin could afford him. A purist, he believes Dogecoin is “the internet’s currency” and end users will decide its success or failure.
In fact on Thursday, Palmer told Techly he turned down half a million dollars from two venture capitalist (VC) firms.
“I’ve been approached by VCs lately who want to cash in on this Dogecoin thing and they’re offering me what in reality is ridiculous amounts of money.
“And I’m sitting there quietly with them saying ‘I want to throw X amount of dollars at this’ and I’m like, ‘take a step back, it’s a dog on a coin’. Has the world gone mad?”
Techly can confirm Palmer met with one Australian VC firm, which shall remain nameless. A spokesperson did not discuss how much money the firm offered Palmer for Dogecoin but confirmed to Techly a meeting did indeed take place.
“The firm’s inquiries into Dogecoin are in the preliminary stage,” the spokesperson said.
Palmer claims a second meeting was held with a US firm, which has failed to return Techly’s emails for confirmation.
And if that throw down wasn’t already enough, Palmer has laid down the gauntlet to the Bitcoin community – which is fiercely anti-regulation – advocating for the Australian government (and others) to regulate and legitimise cryptocurrencies.
“I do ultimately think we need to regulate around this stuff otherwise you will not gain the trust of the average Joe who wants to put $100 into whatever digital currency they’re using.
“That said, we shouldn’t be putting all our faith in centralised institutions because that gets us to where we have landed today.
“The Canadian Government has already decided to regulate against cryptocurrencies and I think that’s absolutely awesome. The fact that a government is even talking about cryptocurrency in the first place is like, booyah. That’s a massive boon for the whole thing.”
Mr Palmer’s hope is that governments will learn about virtual currencies like Dogecoin, understand how they work and eventually see it’s a currency that is facilitating good.
