Dogecoin creator says crypto industry financially exploits the vulnerable

Sowmya Ramasubramanian
JULY 16, 2021 




Palmer noted the industry’s practices no longer align with his politics or belief system, and hence will keep out of engaging with the industry and its people. | Photo Credit: Reuters

Jackson Palmer took to Twitter to explain why he would not return to the cryptocurrency industry, stating it is built to amplify the wealth of the rich by exploiting the poor.

Jackson Palmer, co-founder of meme-inspired Dogecoin, has called the cryptocurrency industry a “right-wing, hyper-capitalistic technology” built primarily to amplify the wealth of the rich by extracting money from “the financially desperate and naive”.

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Jackson Palmer and Billy Markus created the meme-based token Dogecoin in 2013 as a joke, with no intention of making it one of the top cryptocurrencies.

The co-founders quit the project few years later, and sold their holdings before the cryptocurrency's sudden rise earlier this year.


“I’m no longer part of the Dogecoin project, I left around 2015 as the community started to strongly shift from one that I was comfortable with. I don't currently own any Dogecoin except what has been tipped to me recently, I gave away and/or sold all the crypto I had back in 2015 after being laid off and scared about my dwindling savings at the time, for about enough in total to buy a used Honda Civic,” Markus wrote in a Reddit post earlier this year.


Palmer took to Twitter on Wednesday and explained why he would not return to the cryptocurrency industry in a series of tweets.

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The industry is built to amplify wealth of its proponents through a combination of tax avoidance, diminished regulatory oversight and artificially enforced scarcity, he noted.

“Despite claims of 'decentralisation', the cryptocurrency industry is controlled by a powerful cartel of wealthy figures who, with time, have evolved to incorporate many of the same institutions tied to the existing centralised financial system they supposedly set out to replace,” he added.

Palmer described cryptocurrency as taking the worst parts of today’s capitalist system like fraud, corruption and inequality and using software to technically limit the use of interventions including audits, regulations and taxation which serve as protections or safety nets for the average person.

The dogecoin co-creator also pointed at the inherent lack of accountability in the industry, stating that it will always be the crypto owner’s fault if they lose their savings account password or fall victim to scam. “This is the type of dangerous “free for all” capitalism cryptocurrency was unfortunately architected to facilitate since its inception,” he noted.

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Palmer noted the industry’s practices no longer align with his politics or belief system, and hence will keep out of engaging with the industry and its people.

“There’s a lot of terrible people who are involved in the crypto space, and I completely understand why he (Palmer) would feel negatively about it,” Dogecoin co-creator Markus noted in a separate tweet.