Dear Shitposter, Gaut here. Welcome back to all 10,000+ humor enthusiasts of Shitposting Works, a weekly email where I cover the week's best trends, memes, and the topic of shitposts across the internet. I'm incredibly excited to see us pass the 5 figure subscriber number. Welcome to all new subscribers!

You'll notice today's newsletter is considerably longer. I was initially going to gate it to paid subscribers only, but instead decided to leave it open to readers because I really loved this interview with Billy. Some paid-sub exclusive content coming soon:1. What makes content go viral? 2. Breaking down audience building on Twitter.3. Defining and growing your niche.

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Post of the Week: Interview with BillyM2k, creator of Dogecoin

💡 Billy, the co-creator of one of the biggest memes known to modern society: Dogecoin.

Billy is probably one of the most active memers on Twitter, and also happens to be the guy that wrote the code behind Dogecoin, the internet's biggest meme, and a token with a marketcap of $88B at peak in May 2021 – To put things in perspective, Goldman Sachs had a market cap of $84B in September 2021. I had the chance to chat with Billy beyond his Dogecoin era, and tried to unveil who Billy is outside of that identity. Most interestingly, Dogecoin took on a life of its own since 2013, and Billy stepped away from the project in 2015.

But first, some background story on Dogecoin

Dogecoin's inception story is quintessentially aligned with the thesis of this newsletter: memes have power. Dogecoin begins in 2013 with two software engineers, Billy Markus and Jackson Palmer.

The idea for Dogecoin was sparked by the famous Shiba Inu Doge meme, which had already overtaken the internet by 2013. Jackson sparked the idea with a tweet about combining the two worlds of doge and cryptocurrency, mentioning "Investing in Dogecoin, pretty sure it's the next big thing."

Meanwhile, Billy had already thought of creating meme cryptocurrencies, and had tried his hand at "Bells," a meme token he had created based on the "Animal Crossing" video game, but it hardly took off. With a few code changes and a collaboration with Jackson, the Dogecoin crypto was born.

Markus and Palmer released Dogecoin in December 2013, and it gained instant popularity. R/dogecoin was quickly born after that (2.4M "subshibers" today). The community embraced it almost instantly, spiking its value and notoriety, all the way to a peak of $0.73 per coin in May 2021 (it's currently sitting at $0.078 at time of writing), with people like Elon Musk years later becoming beacons of the meme — most recently, even replacing the Twitter logo with Dogecoin's for a day.

Onto the interview

Billy - Everyone knows you for Dogecoin. Who are you *outside* of Dogecoin

That's an interesting question. I consider myself a multifaceted person, but my beginnings could be seen as an example of how one's online persona can differ from their real-life personality. I was a well-behaved, polite kid, but my parents got divorced when I was young, leaving me home alone often. I spent a lot of time in front of a computer on AOL.

In person, I was the nicest kid, but on AOL, I had the freedom to be whoever I wanted. So, I acted differently, sometimes not being as kind as I was in real life. I would interact with people in different ways than I would in person.

There were guides on AOL, and I would find myself in video games chatroom, where people discussed all kinds of topics. I was 11, and I would have bold takes about video games, like claiming Mario was overrated. People would get annoyed and call a guide to intervene.

When the guide arrived, I would revert to my polite, well-behaved self and say others were being mean. The people who had initially called for the guide would be in trouble, and I would get away with it.

So, yeah, basically just kind of grew up as a troll but, not necessarily like the a mean troll, just trying to be funny trying to create funny situations without taking myself too seriously.

I'm basically a shitposter in person too. It's kind of who I am.

I'm curious - Part of your story is that you're an engineer. What made you go down that path?

Growing up, I was a big video game player. When I was young I frequented arcades, where a quarter held actual value, as it translated into gameplay. That passion for gaming shaped my childhood, and my dream was to create games of my own. I went down a career in software development, learning skills like writing music and creating simple art.

Although I made games, I quickly realized that the gaming industry was highly competitive, with a saturated market and high burnout rates. So I chose to work as a regular software engineer instead. I discovered that many of the creative aspects I enjoyed while making games could also be found in software engineering.

I still have a strong desire to be creative and explore other outlets for my imagination. My creativity is often expressed on places like Twitter. In a way, my passion for gaming has had a direct influence on my life and career choices.

What about getting into crypto?

I had a fancy gaming graphics card, and it allowed me to play games like Stardew Valley and other indie games that didn't require high-end graphics. I then learned about Bitcoin and other projects where you could utilize idle CPU for different things. At the time, my graphics card was expensive, and I wanted to find a way to recoup the cost. After mining for a week, I only earned 0.01 Bitcoin, which was worth about a dollar at the time. The electricity cost to mine was more than the value of the Bitcoin I mined. That sucked.

That experience led me to explore other alternative cryptocurrencies, or "alts" and I realized there were so many of them. I thought I could create one myself, and after finding a guide online, I decided to give it a try.

Was there anyone you looked up to?

Not anyone in particular. But I did look up to Blizzard Entertainment. I was a big World of Warcraft player and Starcraft II player at the time.

Twitter is obviously a huge part of your identity today, and you have 2.1M followers. What value do you see spending time on there?

I think it starts with a legitimate addiction to Twitter. That explains most of it.

When you have a popular account, the dopamine rush you receive from engagement, like getting an Elon reply can be super addictive. It can almost make other parts of life less engaging. Sometimes I need a dopamine cleanse.

I also think that Twitter needs more humorous and rational voices. Twitter often hosts emotional, obnoxious, and divisive conversations. Comedians, social commentators, or anyone with a more nuanced perspective can contribute to a less black-and-white view of the world, making it seem more lighthearted and reminding people not to take themselves too seriously.

From my perspective, I feel there are enough people who resonate with this approach and are tired of the typical discourse. They want to hear alternative viewpoints. This helps me justify tweeting, because I think I'm offering something valuable that encourages others to be more centered, curious, and thoughtful. At least, that's what I tell myself.

I love how you discovered the power of memes. What do you think makes memes so powerful?

Well, going back to the old days, kings had court jesters, who were the only ones allowed to speak the truth without facing severe consequences. In a way, comedy can serve a similar purpose, allowing people to express truths in a more palatable way.

Memes can be like a form of comedic expression, similar to Black Mirror, which presents exaggerated but relatable truths about the dangers of tech.

Memes have the power to convey complex ideas with one image, and they can resonate with a wide audience, basically influencing people's perspectives.

A good example is the meme of Elon Musk where someone shields him from criticism. This meme struck a chord with many people, making them dismiss anyone defending Musk as an obsessive fan. The meme arguably had a negative impact, because it oversimplified the situation and influenced people's views. I think memes can be used for good and evil — but there power to change minds is obvious.

You bring up Elon. Why do you think he loves memes too?

Elon takes the things he's passionate about extremely seriously. He is genuinely dedicated to ensuring the future of humanity. When it comes to everyday discourse or things he considers less significant, he'll embrace the meme.

I'm sure he grew up in his own very nerdy world. I don't know his history but I'm sure he grew up surrounded by nerds, and maybe also isolated on the internet, and figured out you can unveil truths through satire.

I think he resonates with people that can think in satire. When people engage in satirical and observant humor, it means that they're able to perceive reality in a unique way and add a twist to it. It just shows these people get it.

On the Dogecoin stuff – Do you try to distance it from your identity?

Yeah, I think there is a distance. When Jackson and I created Dogecoin and it caught fire, we were suddenly in this weird position where we felt responsible for something that started as a silly joke, and we were way out of our element.

We didn't have much Dogecoin ourselves, so it was strange that people who owned more than us were expecting us to do everything. Those first six months when I was responsible for Dogecoin and its first five releases were probably the worst six months of my life. It was really stressful, and the people I dealt with were pretty entitled and obnoxious.

When we eventually handed off the project to more competent people, I kind of disappeared from the internet for six or seven years. I only came back because people were yelling at me on Twitter to cap the supply of Dogecoin, which was really annoying. So, I went on Twitter to tell everyone to F off, but I found that people were just not knowledgeable about cryptocurrency. When I started explaining how things work, I set some strong boundaries and made it clear that I'm not responsible for Dogecoin.

Now, I represent myself and not Dogecoin, even though I can't escape the fact that I created it. That's why my profile picture is still a doge, but it's more of a representation of me since I wear glasses. So that's how I've managed to strike a balance between my personal brand and my connection to Dogecoin.

What are you up to today?

I work on educational apps, and I've always been passionate about that because I didn't learn well through lectures. I was more of a hands-on, learn-by-doing person.

When I was younger, I learned how to type really fast and playing the piano online. So I always learned by doing.

I think it's really cool to be in a field that allows me to create things for kids and teenagers that help them learn by doing. It's a rewarding experience since it's how I preferred to learn too.

And give a shoutout to your newsletter!

Yep! I write Musings From A Cartoon Dog Wearing Glasses, a weekly newsletter where I unpack my thoughts that initiated as tweets.

🐦 Tweets of the Week

Smart people just use notes.

All the fancy stuff is just filler.

Unlimited pocket space.

The half phone got me most.

Don't hurt me like that, Soren.

If a girl didn't save your number, I don't think it will work out.

Elon revealed how many subs he has.

He's making $1.2M a year, or per Greg's math...

Don't trust anything you see on the internet.

It really is that simple. Aren't you learning?

The celebrities cried about losing their blue checkmarks.

Europeans hate ice.

Americans can't go a day without it.

Apple entered the banking game.

And Facebook is... copy pasting Linktree.

Oh no, where will Gen Z go?

Guess they won't be getting good advice anymore.

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Keep on Shitposting,

– Gaut