Jan 19, 2022 · 1h 15m · startup-ideas
Memes Rule The World with Dogecoin Creator Billy Markus | Where It Happens
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gold bands on the timeline = statements, start to end. Hover to read, click to jump. CC turns on captions
In this episode of Where It Happens, hosts Sahil Bloom and Greg Isenberg interview Dogecoin co-creator Billy Markus to explore the satirical origins of Dogecoin, the cultural and economic power of internet memes, and Billy's reflections on digital goods and online fame.
How this conversation actually went
Every chapter scored 0–10 on four independent dynamics. Hover any point for the reasoning behind the score. Greg holds 16.7% of the talking time here. How this is scored →
Greg as informed peer 4.0 Guest teaching 4.5 Guest disagreement 1.6 Greg pushing back 1.4
speaking balance: gold is Greg, purple is the guest (3 minute bins)
Sharpest disagreement ▶ 51:39 Billy challenges the meme rollup concept
Billy directly counters Sahil's private equity meme fund pitch by arguing that corporate sponsorship destroys account authenticity and user trust.
Hardest push from Greg ▶ 47:47 Greg insists Billy had calculated community foresightGreg refuses to accept Billy's humble dismissal of his skill, pressing him on his deep understanding of community dynamics and meme virality.
Biggest teaching moment ▶ 26:15 Billy demystifies altcoin creationBilly educates the hosts on how trivial it was in 2013 to fork Litecoin by simply altering seven parameters to create Bellscoin.
Greg holds their own ▶ 8:19 Greg explains trading the LooksRare airdrop into fiatGreg details how he executed an immediate cash out of the LooksRare vampire airdrop to ETH and USD, demonstrating his hands-on crypto market competence.
the scores for every segment, with the reasoning behind each
| Chapter | Topic | Greg as informed peer | Guest teaching | Guest disagreement | Greg pushing back | Why |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Headsets, Drinks, and Episode Banter | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Greg and Sahil exchange casual banter regarding headsets, cold weather, and drinks before launching sponsor messages. | |
| The LooksRare Vampire Attack on OpenSea | 7 | 2 | 0 | 2 | Greg demonstrates strong Web3 mechanics expertise by breaking down the LooksRare vampire attack against OpenSea, sharing his personal experience flipping the airdrop instantly into cash. | |
| Introducing Dogecoin Creator Billy Markus | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | Billy Markus joins the call amid chaotic background audio on his end, followed by lighthearted introductions and playful banter about Twitter follower counts. | |
| Early Crypto Forums and the Creation of Bellscoin | 3 | 6 | 1 | 1 | Billy educates the hosts on the 2013 BitcoinTalk forum culture, GPU mining, and how he easily created Bellscoin by modifying seven parameters from Litecoin based on Animal Crossing. | |
| The Spontaneous Birth of Dogecoin | 4 | 6 | 2 | 2 | Billy explains how Jackson Palmer's website inspired him to turn Dogecoin into a functional coin in a few hours, debunking any idea that they had foresight about mainstream crypto adoption. | |
| Dogecoin's Rise, Selling Early, and the Civic Meme | 3 | 6 | 2 | 1 | Billy corrects the persistent media narrative claiming he bought a Honda Civic with his Dogecoin profits, explaining he merely liquidated around ten thousand dollars to survive unemployment. | |
| Market Cap Realities and Family Relief | 4 | 6 | 1 | 1 | Billy corrects assumptions that he holds billions in wealth, detailing his actual potential stake and explaining how recent NFT sales allowed him to pay off his mother's house. | |
| Memes as the Universal Internet Language | 5 | 5 | 3 | 3 | Greg attempts to frame Billy as a calculated community architect, but Billy pushes back, clarifying that Dogecoin succeeded because it injected humor into a humorless Bitcoin ecosystem. | |
| Rolling Up Meme Accounts and Distribution Power | 6 | 6 | 4 | 3 | Billy directly pushes back on Sahil's proposed holding company roll-up of meme accounts, arguing that corporate commercialization ruins the authenticity that gives meme creators value. | |
| Current Life, Metaverse Skepticism, and Gaming | 4 | 7 | 2 | 1 | Billy details his current life as an educational software engineer, his refusal to hype unreleased crypto projects, and his thesis that virtual reality environments and gaming items will outlive NFT hype. |
Statements from this episode (20)
Bloom: OpenSea Raised Venture Capital at $13.3 Billion Valuation
“OpenSea is like the biggest player in the NFT marketplace space. They just raised money. Mario at the generalist did a great piece on it, but they raised money at like, what, a fifteen billion dollar valuation or some like massive valuation. I can probably pul…”
Bloom Claimed 3,000 LOOKS Tokens and Staked Them at 950% APR
“I think I claimed 3000 looks. And maybe I'm like embarrassing, but maybe that's not many. I don't know how many other people got. But it was worth, like at the time when I did it, I think it was worth Like, so in ETH you know, it was like five ETH and maybe a …”
Isenberg Immediately Sold His LooksRare Airdrop for USD
“I claimed mine, and I sold it right away. Converted it into ETH, which I converted into USD, which I transferred to my account, and I went and bought something.”
Markus Sold 10 Bitcoin for a $20 Profit in 2013
“I also have very embarrassing trades on Coinbase that are like me purchasing like 10 Bitcoin. And then, like, three days later, me selling the 10 Bitcoin for, like, 20 dollar profit”
Markus: In 2013, Crypto Utility Was Primarily Illicit Trade and Speculation
“The primary utility in Of cryptocurrency was illegal gambling or illegal purchase of drugs and weapons and whatever other terrible things. And yeah, and you know, just speculation in general. So that was like the scene in 2013.”
Markus Created Only Two Cryptocurrencies: Bellscoin and Dogecoin
“And I released bells coin. This is my first cryptocurrency. My only other one, other than doge coin.”
Billy Markus: Dogecoin was forked directly from Bellscoin
“It does exist in the form of Dogecoin cause a Bitcoin or a Dogecoin is forked directly from Bell's coin.”
Markus Built Dogecoin in Hours by Modifying Bitcoin With Comic Sans
“I just took the next couple hours, and like, all I wanted to do was change the regular bitcoin client to Be Comic Sans font, and then, like, have some custom stuff on it, like, instead of mining, it was, like, dig, and other stupid things like that, and, like,…”
Markus and Palmer Expected Dogecoin to Die Within Days of Launch
“Oh, no, we had no foresight whatsoever. And not only that, it was just a complete joke. It was just like, this thing's gonna die in like a couple days. It's obviously stupid. No one's gonna buy this. Like, this is just a gag because it was funny.”
Markus Sold All His Crypto in 2015 After Getting Laid Off
“So I sold all my cryptocurrency in 2015. Like when there's this big bear market included. Yeah, Bitcoin. I had a bunch of Bitcoin, a bunch of light coin, and I was just like, whatever like this is a bear market was like three years. At that point. So, you know…”
Markus Denies Viral Story That He Sold Crypto for a Honda Civic
“So the Honda Civic thing is hilarious, because it's usually a picture of Jackson, my co-founder, and then saying, like, Billy Marcus sold all his holdings for a Honda Civic, and that was, like, kind of a misquote, because I didn't want to say the exact amount,…”
Dogecoin Beat Apple and Amazon in Retail Trading Volume Last Year
“Doge was the, over the past 12 months, the fourth most traded asset across all retail brokers and exchanges. And it was, it beat out by the way, it beat out Apple, Amazon, and the SPY index, the S&P. It was literally behind Tesla, Bitcoin, and Ethereum”
Markus's Peak Dogecoin Holdings Would Have Maxed Out at $6 Million
“My personal stake would have like at max out about six million this because of like when those articles came out, they're like, oh let's take the entire market cap of dogecoin and attribute it to Billy Marcus. It's like, yeah, that's not how it works.”
Markus Paid Off His Mother's House Using NFT Sales
“Fortunately, I was able to make it up by, Selling NFTs and stuff and was able to pay off her house. And so that was like everything I would have ever wanted.”
Billy Markus: Dogecoin on-boarded more users to crypto than Bitcoin alone
“So it actually, this is true in my opinion is that Dogecoin has done an amazing, Service to the cryptocurrency community of like getting more people into cryptocurrency than ever would have if Bitcoin was just Bitcoin and like those people that were really int…”
Markus: Corporate Shilling Tanks the Value of Meme Accounts
“What attracts people to accounts like that are they aren't trying to do anything specific other than be funny. And if one of those accounts like just decided to like, okay, my, you know, my riffs that I do all the time that are funny are now Ford. And I will j…”
Doing Things Media Consolidates Meme Accounts Like Middle Class Fancy
“They own, like, middle class fancy, Shithead Steve like a bunch of these brands, Trash Can Paul, I'm looking at Cats Doing Things they have a similar model where they buy the accounts, and what they do is they keep, usually it's like a 15 year old guy in his b…”
Dogecoin Co-Creator Billy Markus Works as an Educational Software Engineer
“I just work in, like, you know, I'm working at home as a software engineer. I make software, or educational software for kids. So that's my day job”
Billy Markus: Gaming NFTs Will Gain Adoption Rebranded as 'Digital Goods'
“The gamers tend to hate NFTs. So I think they're just gonna be rebranded to like digital goods, and then people decide that they like them not knowing that behind the scenes is blockchain tech and NFT tech and stuff.”
Blizzard Nerfing a WoW Warlock Spell Inspired Vitalik to Create Ethereum
“Vitalik the creator of Ethereum he was a warlock in World of Warcraft, and Blizzard nerfing Siphon Life was one of the reasons that he decided to make Ethereum. He was like mad that the centralized group, like had the control to nerf something. So he was like,…”