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Elon Musk says creating a new cryptocurrency would be a 'big pain in the neck'

Elon Musk recently opined on why he's not interested in his companies developing a cryptocurrency that would better fit their needs than Dogecoin or Bitcoin.

TJ Denzer

May 17, 2021 10:06 AM

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Throughout the previous year, Elon Musk and Tesla have caused some chaos among the cryptocurrency community. Much of it has been due to Tesla’s actual investment into currencies like Bitcoin, but reportedly, Musk’s companies have also worked directly with the developers of Dogecoin in some capacity. Even so, there’s seemingly some trepidation in Musk about the whole market. While he seems to be leaning harder into Dogecoin these days, Musk also shared some of his ideals of what it should be, and when asked why his companies don’t just develop a cryptocurrency of their own that meets those ideals, he shared that it would be too much work.

This exchange took place fairly recently in a Twitter conversation in which Musk was tagged regarding his involvement with Dogecoin. In said conversation, Musk shared some specific thoughts on how he wants Dogecoin to improve. When asked why his engineers and developers don’t just develop a cryptocurrency of their own that meets Elon’s exact needs, the Tesla and SpaceX CEO seemed to imply that it would be too much effort.

Only if Doge can’t do it. Big pain in the neck to create another one.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 16, 2021

That said, there’s a lot of weight in the statement of “only if Doge can’t do it.” On the other side of things, it seems to imply that Musk might consider the possibility if the field of cryptocurrency, as it is, can’t meet his specific needs. Musk has had a heavy hand in the matter of cryptocurrency lately. It was earlier this year that Tesla revealed it made a large investment in Bitcoin and would begin accepting it as payment. This was soon walked back as Musk shared concern over the environmental strain of the crypto-mining process, though Musk claims Tesla hasn’t sold off its Bitcoin investment. Seemingly simultaneously, it was revealed that Musk has been working with Dogecoin to reduce its environmental footprint and energy consumption since 2019.

With the firsthand effort Musk has seemingly put into Dogecoin, it's likely that he might know full well how hard it is to maintain it and oversee it. While the idea of Muskcoin might sound appealing to many, it would seem it’s not coming down the pipeline anytime soon.

TJ Denzer

Senior News Editor

TJ Denzer is a player and writer with a passion for games that has dominated a lifetime. He found his way to the Shacknews roster in late 2019 and has worked his way to Senior News Editor since. Between news coverage, he also aides notably in livestream projects like the indie game-focused Indie-licious, the Shacknews Stimulus Games, and the Shacknews Dump. You can reach him at tj.denzer@shacknews.com and also find him on Twitter @JohnnyChugs.