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New York City
A symbol of wealth and prosperity for centuries.
Home to Wall Street, where titans of commerce speculate on the economic fortunes of the
world.
Where tourists flock to visit the financial center of the US economy.
Just a hundred feet from the New York Stock Exchange, the Bitcoin Center has opened its
doors.
Inside, a new financial culture is emerging.
[Dance Music plays]
So the idea behind the Dogeparty was is basically a celebration of Doge, a celebration of Dogecoin,
and a celebration of the community that sprung up around Dogecoin.
I don't even care if it works or not; I'm not that invested in it.
But the concept behind it -- like, I'm at a party for a meme-based crypto currency.
The Doge meme is basically a really cute picture of a shiba inu speaking in childish joke tones.
It's a really popular meme.
I think it was originally most popularized in Gawker by a writer named Adrien Chen who
said, "I found a meme that doesn't suck."
My friend Francis just mentioned how odd it is that money seems to be based upon a so-called
meme! Well, here's a dollar bill. And there we see... the EYE on top of the pyramid!
Fiat money is ALSO based on a meme!
It's kinda strange that you can make up money and it has intrinsic value.
It makes fiat seem stranger every day.
So after the holidays, I came back from Christmas and saw on the Internet this thing was taking
off.
So I checked it out. I've never really been into crypto currency before, I thought it
was pretty cool.
I think the fact that a bunch of goofy people with dogs and, like, complimenting each other
over the Internet can become a seventy million dollar currency that's growing really quickly...that's
insane.
Our friend got us really interested and we talked about it.
We invested like one or two dollars, then it went to ten dollars, twenty dollars.
INTERVIEWER: are these your wallet addresses? Your QR codes?
Yeah.
I want to get into mining, that's the thing. I want to get a machine so I can mine my own
coins. I want to get my own rig.
I definitely like the idea of being able to help people with these coins that I got just
by running my computer. Why not share them?
I've got enough coins that I can buy random stuff whenever I want.
I bought this thing.
So the Dogeparty was at the Bitcoin Center.
They call it the New York Bitcoin Center, which is basically something that this guy
named Nick Spanos, who's a real estate developer and has been active in libertarian politics,
he rented out the space and it's a big event space that has Bitcoin related stuff.
INTERVIEWER: So have you ever sent or received a tip in Doge?
I bought a cupcake.
INTERVIEWER: Really? How many Doge did it cost?
175.
I got the Doge miners going nuts. There's a lotta Doge out there, you got these Doge
people. Look at these guys, he's a Doger. Come here a second.
What do you think about Doge, dude?
It's the future.
It's the future, all right, cool.
He's a developer. You like Doge?
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
You own any Doge? I doubt it.
I got 10,000.
Do you?
Yeah.
Finally, you got something!
What's the clock for? Tell us about the clock.
It's how you know when you're gonna reach the moon.
So the Doge is going to go to the moon, like Laika?
We're all going to the moon. All of us are going.
And you're gonna fuel the trip with what?
With generosity.
And? ... the Doge!
I just want to say I love it, I love Dogecoin so much. Dogecoin, to the moon! And I hope
to see you all there.
We're trying to get enough Doge to actually go to the moon.
So we have our QR codes.
You know, the biggest thing that it's all waiting on is a company like Bitpay or Coinbase
for Bitcoin. A company that will say, we'll let your company accept Dogecoin and we'll
just give you US dollars. As soon as that's in place, I honestly think you'll see thousands
and thousands of businesses starting to take Dogecoin.
We've been trying to promote sales through Dodgecoin -- Dogecoin? -- and Bitcoin.
INTERVIEWER: I still don't know how to say "Dogecoin."
Yeah, I was calling it "doggy" at first, I think it's "doughz." But it's a community
that is very awesome and I see it really aligns with the principles I was about before I got
into Bitcoin. So, Doge to the moon!
I'm just in it for the community.
So many people giving, sharing, it's mind-boggling.
INTERVIEWER: Who's this?
Sandy, and we think she's about four, we're not entirely sure.
She was rescued after Hurricane Sandy, after the storm. They found her wandering around
outside of Philadelphia on the Jersey side, she was wandering around with a little pug.
She went to the shiba rescue, the pug went to a pug rescue.
The shibas just made it a million times cuter and it's also, I think, for people who aren't
super social, it's not comfortable for them to walk in and meet three hundred people at
once, it was great to have a chance just to go pet a dog. I think it made everyone happier
and more at ease.
They're so fluffy and cute. And if one's missing at the end of the night, you know it came
home with me.
All right, I believe this is a space octopus but I could be wrong.
No, no, no. Okay, I gotta ask -- any Goldman Sachs employees here?
YES!
All right, unexpected direction.
You know what this is, okay? This is a vampire squid. I'm from Occupy Wall Street. I founded
the movement, okay?
Round of applause for founding something, that's difficult to do.
You know there were a bunch of people from Occupy Wall Street who came, which we were
totally down with.
I think Justin was a little bit more vocal about trying to introduce his views. Doge
tends to be not political. At least...I think there is a politics to Doge, there's like
an ideology of Doge, but not in the sense of specific policies, or banks, or stuff like
that.
My community has been involved with crypto currency since the beginning. Occupy Wall
Street was given several hundred Bitcoin wallets, containing a hundred Bitcoins each.
So there's a lot of people within the Occupy movement that have been engaged with the community
for a while.
But with the seriousness of what's going on with Bitcoin, it's becoming a little bit,
I don't know, stuffy suit!
So Doge seems to be another way to frame the idea, and another way to look at it, and I'm
excited that other people are looking at crypto currency.
I came here about two weeks ago and I talked to the staff. It turned out there were a bunch
of interns here, and I tried to tip one of them, and they didn't have a wallet!
They kind of treated me like I was crazy, but I didn't realize they were interns, they
had just opened.
Well I walked by the day before yesterday, and I checked in on Foursquare left my comment,
and it was a little bit troll-y.
I'm the founder of the Bitcoin Center.
I found out he wrote some *** tweet, that we don't know what Bitcoin is.
Yeah, I found out it was some interns, and I didn't take the time to actually engage
with them.
I'm here to throw him out. I'm here to eject him, right now.
Because he's not gonna occupy here. This is private property.
Awesome!
So...you're gonna leave.
I'm just f---ing around.
It's funny, in the Doge community you see, we play around with each other. I knew he
wasn't serious.
He knows I built a computer in 1978.
I had my own operating system, my own printed circuit board, I soldered all the *** on
there, the Intel 2020.
I wrote my own operating system, I built a paper tape punch-hole reel-to-reel reader,
that was my long-term memory storage device.
I've been in with Bitcoin since the beginning.
Some people have even thought I might be this guy, whatever the hell his name is, and, whatever,
you know?
I have 12,000 domain names, I know everything about Bitcoin, everything. You can't...I know
probably most of the people that own the damn Bitcoin.
I know the miners, I know the software, I've written into it. So don't say I don't know
anything about Bitcoin.
I wouldn't be sitting here, not knowing anything about Bitcoin, that's ridiculous.
YOU might not know anything about Bitcoin. You might have a little wallet. Let's sit
down right now--
Occupy stands with this place
Oh my God!
Yeah, watch out! Erase that, guys! Sorry!
So, you guys have heard of the famous "Bull of Wall Street," right?
What we're gonna do is take the mother of all group pictures. We're going to replace
the bull's head with the Doge's head.
Groucho Fractal, who is this, sort of, crazy artist from Philly had this idea to put a
Papier Mâché doge head on the Wall Street Bull. So, over the course of two days, they
just made it.
And it was awesome.
You guys ready?
(Cheering)
Does everybody know where the afterparty is?
The afterparty at the moon!
(Chanting) TO THE MOON! TO THE MOON! TO THE MOON! TO THE MOON!
All right, let's go to the motherf--ing bull and stuff!
All right, lead the way.
Down with the bull, up with the doge!
Down with the bull, up with the doge!
To the moon...to the moon...to the moon.
Technologies built on the blockchain are definitely the future. I think they're going to revolutionize
everything. And that's one of the reasons that I'm so interested in Dogecoin. I think
it's kind of inevitable that we're going in that direction. And I would much rather live
in a world that's built on the principles of Dogecoin than one built on the principles
of some of these other Bitcoin derivatives that were built purely out of greed.
Tell us about this statue!
The bull was sculpted in 1987. It was an Arturo Di Modica sculpture, and it was a piece of
vandalism! Yes! They sculpted the bull--
To the moon! To the moon! To the moon! (Cheering)
I still haven't found the photos of the shiba inu on top of the Wall Street Bull, I'm super
excited to see that.
Yeah, I had a great time at the parade.
To the moon! To the moon! To the moon! (Aye-yi-yi-yi-yi-yi!)
One of these currencies is going to the moon. And I really hope it's Dogecoin.
Oh wow, much change.