It has been revealed that Elon Musk's lunar satellite launch to the moon is being funded entirely with Dogecoin, a cryptocurrency that was started as a joke and has a dog meme as a mascot.
Musk's SpaceX is sending the satellite to the Moon in 2022 and carrying out research on behalf of the Geometric Energy Corp. The 40kg satellite will be launched from a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. Musk has previously called himself the 'Dogefather' after heavily promoting the currency on twitter.
While the cryptocurrency was started as a joke in 2013, it has risen in popularity after being backed by the likes of Musk, as well as other celebrities and entrepreneurs such as Mark Cuban, Snoop Dogg and Gene Simmons. In the past 12 months alone, the currency has risen in value by 21,000%. It is based on the same blockchain technology as the better-known Bitcoin and Ethereum.
SpaceX launching satellite Doge-1 to the moon next year
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 9, 2021
– Mission paid for in Doge
– 1st crypto in space
– 1st meme in space
To the mooooonnn!!https://t.co/xXfjGZVeUW
It has not been stated how much Dogecoin is being used to pay for the flight, but Musk's Tesla corporation bought over $1 billion worth of Bitcoin last year as part of its wider investment strategy and, in just 2 months, it earned more from the appreciating value of cryptocurrency than from an entire year's worth of car sales.
Geometric said in a statement:
"DOGE has proven to be a fast, reliable, and cryptographically secure digital currency that operates when traditional banks cannot and is sophisticated enough to finance a commercial Moon mission in full. It has been chosen as the unit of account for all lunar business between SpaceX and Geometric Energy Corporation and sets precedent for future missions to the Moon and Mars."
However, Dogecoin could also be in trouble after Musk made a statement as host of Saturday Night Live, in which he called Dogecoin a 'hustle'. The currency immediately fell by almost a-third of its value. It is unclear how this will impact on the lunar satellite mission.
In the same tv appearance Musk also stated that he suffered from Asperger's syndrome and this sometimes led to strange or unusual behaviour.
[h/t: Bloomberg]
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