If you’re a Dogecoin enthusiast who has ever wondered what the “official” visual representation of Dogecoin might be if its creator had to decide, your pondering days are over. Billy Markus, the creator of Dogecoin, just dropped an NFT collectible called “Capped Dogecoin”, and it’s pretty amazing.
The NFT is called “capped” because unlike the Dogecoin fungible asset, which does not have a capped supply, there was only a limited number of Capped Dogecoin non-fungible tokens minted. Fittingly, the Shiba Inu displayed on the coin is wearing a cap to signify the capped supply. As always, Billy incorporated memes and symbolism at all levels.
All three tiers were minted on June 8. Tiers 1 and 2 were sold on Rarible for .008 and .08 ETH each, respectively. Tier 3, the 1 of 1, was auctioned on Foundation. A lucky fellow named swaggmire won the auction.
Unfortunately, I didn’t learn about Capped Dogecoin until after the Tier 3 auction was over and Tier 2 was sold out, but as soon as I learned about Tier 1, I grabbed a few and then decided I would work towards consolidating all three tiers into a single portfolio, starting with Tier 3.
I mentor a lot of folks in crypto investing and I always tell them “only invest in projects that allow you to sleep at night”. As my wife would tell you, this Tier 3 NFT had the opposite effect on me — I couldn’t sleep for many nights as I chased it around. It was put up for auction on OpenSea, then taken down. Then offered for sale for 420 ETH on Rarible (which almost made me fall out of my chair), then taken down, then put back on, then down again — a couple more times. Then it was transferred into another wallet with so many NFTs in it, I assumed it was gone forever. Then it was transferred back to swaggmire. All of that within the first few days of the NFT’s existence. When it finally appeared for sale again at a much lower price, I pounced, only to discover an odd bug in Rarible’s “Buy ” feature that prevented me from completing the purchase. After 6 failed attempts from Metamask (and a good bit of lost ETH gas), I moved the funds to Coinbase Wallet and tried to purchase it from there. More failures. At that point, I started studying the wallets of some other Tier 3 Rarible bidders to see if anyone had similar failed purchase attempts. I spotted another user with 5 failed attempts as well. Finally — at 6am on the morning of my birthday (June 12) — I came to the conclusion that the “Buy” button wasn’t gonna work, so I decided to place a bid equal to swaggmire’s asking price and went to bed, hoping I’d wake up with that beautiful diamond-encrusted coin in my collection. A few hours later, I woke up a damn happy man.
So now I had a few Tier 1s and the only Tier 3, and my next mission was to capture Tier 2. It was listed by a user named Sultans of Stonks. I waited and watched, checking back a few times per day to see if the price dropped a bit or if one of the other Tier 2 holders placed theirs up for sale. Finally, two days later, the price dropped and I pounced.
Here’s the full collection:
So why was I so interested in the Capped Dogecoin NFT?
I am a true Dogecoin believer — so true, that my wife and I recently added an adorable Shiba Inu pup to our growing family. I’m software engineer, crypto enthusiast, and a big supporter of everything that Dogecoin stands for. I grew up in a small, poor, uneducated, bi-racial family and made many mistakes early in life that caused most folks to write me off as a joke or lifelong loser. Subsequently, I spent almost two decades devouring every book I could get my hands on, diving deep into mathematics, computers, software engineering, and many other subjects with the unwavering belief that I would make a tremendous comeback in life and have a positive impact on my family and ultimately millions of other people.
The last decade has been the most productive and meaningful period of my life, and a period where I’ve had the pleasure of lifting my family out of poverty and helping hundreds of other people in many ways — mentoring high schoolers and college students preparing for careers in software engineering, helping professional engineers find meaningful work (especially remote work during COVID), helping people learn about crypto investing and build more solid financial foundations for themselves and their families, helping guide many people into college and others start businesses. I’ve worked for some of the most well-known companies in the world during that time, including Apple, Deloitte, Cisco, HP, Lenovo, Mozilla, and many others. My comeback is still a work in progress, but I can tell you one thing. No one regards me as a joke anymore, the same way no one regards Dogecoin as a joke. Dogecoin is one of my greatest crypto investments so far, and for me it is also a symbol that represents the power of good will and a commitment to creating positive impact in this world. It reminds me of a quote by Gandhi that has stuck with me for years:
Capturing all three tiers of Capped Dogecoin was just something I had to do. I love what Billy Markus has created. I also love that despite the fact that he is no longer involved in the project and didn’t benefit from it as much as he should have, he nevertheless remains extremely supportive and he continues to project the values that the Dogecoin community was founded on. He is a strong believer in charity, community, and positivity. No other cryptocurrency inspires more art, music, or love than Dogecoin, or has a community that is more passionate and loyal. While Dogecoin suffers from the same price volatility that plagues the rest of the market, it has created enormous wealth for many people who were once poor or struggling, and for many young people who embraced it early on. It inspires hope for a better future, and it makes us smile and laugh. We love the irony of something that was once considered a joke now occupying a seat at the top— being accepted as a form of payment by many major retailers, being embraced by some of the most influential people in the world, and headed to the literal moon.
The Capped Dogecoin NFT was the first visual representation of Dogecoin, by the creator of Dogecoin, and it reminds me of my own life trajectory.
Much fate? Such destiny? Who the hell knows. I’m not much of a mystic. All I know is it was inevitable — inevitable that Billy Markus would create Capped Dogecoin, and inevitable that the full collection would fall into my hands! 😃
Thank you Billy, Laura, and Steven!
Z
