We’ve expressed before that Bitcoin, while fascinating, is ridiculously volatile and probably not something you should invest in. That hasn’t stopped legions of Bitcoin knockoff entrepreneurs from taking the software and creating their own versions of it. And now, yes, the Juggalos are getting in on the action with, what else, JuggaloCoin. The sad thing, though, is that this might actually be how Bitcoin, going forward, stays a viable currency.
The A.V. Club has all the details, but really, like everything about Juggalos, JuggaloCoin is all about the poor life decisions:
JuggaloCoin is all about keeping it in the Juggalo family, ensuring every one of its users that their funds are going to someone who is “down with the clown,” and not to businesses whose positions on the clown are, at best, vaguely defined. In the short term, Nutt is hopeful that both vendors at the annual Gathering and the official ICP online store will begin accepting JuggaloCoin, eventually to be followed by “Juggalo charities.” and soon, “the entire Juggalo universe dealing in JuggaloCoins.” And of course, there’s the more immediate satisfaction of “sending coins to a Juggalo in need,”
The full article will probably give you a headache, but this isn’t the worst idea. Yeah, most business will never accept something called “JuggaloCoin,” out of self-respect if nothing else.
But this particular subculture is so absurdly self-involved and obsessed with its own authenticity that the concept might actually work. The problem with Bitcoin is and always has been that the value is based, quite literally, on faith. Bitcoins are worth absurd amounts of money, even after repeated thefts and exchanges collapses, because Bitcoin enthusiasts believe with all their adorably naive little hearts that strings of code built around obsolete economic principles is the future of money. Human beings being who they are, that belief will only be reinforced.
In other words, Bitcoin is perfect for Juggalos; it’s a small community, profoundly self-involved, and built entirely on a belief that it clings to like a rabid raccoon no matter how much evidence piles up that they’re wrong. For them, the value of JuggaloCoin is that it makes them Juggalo-ier than thou. This is likely the future of Bitcoin; the most literal example of putting your money where your mouth is.