Elon Musk is back at it again, specifically trolling Bitcoin maximalists.
By ‘maximalists’ we mean those who support Bitcoin in a radical way, rejecting any compromise, going so far as to define all other currencies, including altcoins and fiat currencies, as ‘shitcoins’.
They may be considered extremists to some extent, or just supporters who only aim at the maximum result and do not consider intermediate or partial solutions acceptable.
For instance, one of the goals of the most convinced maximalists is to replace all currencies with bitcoin.
After Elon Musk’s criticism of bitcoin in May, the reaction of the maximalists was not long in coming, and a sort of ‘war’ broke out on Twitter between Musk and his supporters and the Bitcoin maximalists.
Musk, to tell the truth, did not take it well at all, so much so that at one point he even seemed to threaten to want to sell the BTC held by Tesla (a threat that was later dismissed) precisely because of the constant attacks suffered by the bitcoiners, and in particular by the maximalists, i.e. the most extremists among the bitcoiners.
This sort of ‘saga’ seemed to have been interrupted in early June, but yesterday it was Elon Musk himself who resumed the discussion.
The war between Elon Musk and the Bitcoin maximalists
How many Bitcoin maxis does it take to screw in a lightbulb?
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 25, 2021
This time he directly addressed the maximalists with an insulting joke that effectively calls them stupid.
To tell the truth, this does not seem to be a very mature attitude at all, but it must also be said that Musk himself has made it known that he suffers from Asperger’s Syndrome, and that this condition sometimes leads him to tweet without thinking about the consequences, and then often regretting it.
It is worth noting the curious response given to Musk by the CTO of Bitfinex and Tether, Paolo Ardoino, who is not among the true Bitcoin maximalists.
Poor Nicolas Tesla. The guy owning a company in his name obsessed by Edison's screw design for lightbulbs.
— Paolo Ardoino 🍐 (@paoloardoino) June 25, 2021
Ardoino points out a curious connection between Nikola Tesla, whose name Musk’s company is inspired by, and the light bulbs of his arch-rival Thomas Edison, mentioned in Musk’s offensive remark, arguing that Tesla himself would probably not have liked this at all.
But that’s not all. Musk also started tweeting about altcoins again, with a tweet this time apparently directed at Shiba Inu (SHIB), Dogecoin’s de facto rival token.
My Shiba Inu will be named Floki
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 25, 2021
In fact, this tweet generated a simultaneous price increase for both SHIB and DOGE, but while for SHIB it was a real small spike that led to a gain, for DOGE it was only a small and brief rise followed by a fall.
Such interventions, although in theory they could be motivated by goliardic purposes, are not at all healthy for the crypto market, because they actually generate false expectations that then, if unfulfilled as often happens, lead to more problems than the benefits generated in the short term.
It should be noted that a similar dynamic, but in any case very limited, also occurred on the price of BTC after the publication of the offensive joke against the maximalists: the price in a few minutes went from $35,100 to $35,425, and then fell back in a few minutes to $35,032.
Perhaps, at least as far as bitcoin is concerned, investors are starting to give less and less weight to Elon Musk’s tweets.
