Elon Musk’s Tesla Testing Dogecoin Payments Under 'Shiba' Code-Name, Source Code Allegedly Reveals

As of now, no official confirmation from either Tesla or Musk has been made.

By Radhika Parashar | Updated: 9 November 2021 17:25 IST

Elon Musk’s Tesla Testing Dogecoin Payments Under 'Shiba' Code-Name, Source Code Allegedly Reveals

Earlier this year, Musk had asked his Twitter followers to vote for or against DOGE payments

Highlights

Tesla cars and services could soon be purchased using Dogecoin
Dogecoin is presently trading at $0.2754 (roughly Rs. 20)
Musk has neither confirmed nor denied the development as yet

Tesla might have been testing Dogecoin as a crypto payment option. An analysis of Tesla's source code showed the options to “Order in SHIBA” listed in between the existing choices — Order with Card and Order with Bitcoin. On Twitter, a user did some digging, and said that this could actually refer to Dogecoin, and not the Shiba Inu (SHIB) cryptocurrency. This makes sense as Musk has expressed his support for Dogecoin, and gently snubbed the Shiba Inu token. However, the latter has emerged as the 11th-biggest cryptocurrency by market value at the time.

As part of an eight-part thread, a Twitter user going by the handle @Tree_of_Alpha revealed that the “Order with Shiba” page works redirects into a “processing” page when DOGE payments are attempted, but not SHIB.

The tweets carried screenshots explaining that the SHIBA name mentioned on the Tesla page is actually Dogecoin.

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A few days ago I decided to simulate a purchase on Tesla's website, and dig through the source code to find any mention of #Bitcoin. There it was, naturally, but alongside it was another coin, "SHIBA" (ticker SBA).

In a matter of hours, the $SHIB rumour spread through CT. pic.twitter.com/NGQHnVZ4zy
— Tree of Alpha (@Tree_of_Alpha) November 4, 2021

If I wait for the 30 minutes to expire, nothing happens.
However, here's the interesting part: if I actually send the DOGE to the address, I immediately get redirected to the previous page with an error message.

This clearly indicates that the payment has been detected on-chain. pic.twitter.com/8zUwap8Dif
— Tree of Alpha (@Tree_of_Alpha) November 4, 2021

It seems that Tesla is referring to the Dogecoin as “SHIBA”, probably a code-word inspired by the real dog face on the Dogecoin. The dog belongs to the Japanese breed of Shiba Inu

Musk's reaction or acknowledgement to the development remains awaited as of now.

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In May this year, Musk had posted a Twitter poll asking people if Tesla should include DOGE as a mode of payment, to which, 78.2 percent responders had said a “yes”. There has been no substantial development on that front as yet though. The meme-based coin is presently trading at $0.2812 (roughly Rs. 20) per token, according to CoinMarketCap.

Do you want Tesla to accept Doge?
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 11, 2021

At a time the hype around DOGE and SHIB tokens is gathering momentum, US' whistleblower Edward Snowden recently advised meme coins investors to be “careful”.

“If you got talked into exchanging your hard-earned savings for some new dog money because a meme said you'd get rich, please carefully consider your odds,” Snowden wrote on Twitter – making the Dogecoin vs Shiba Inu face-off even spicier.

i say this with love:

if you got talked into exchanging your hard-earned savings for some new dog money because a meme said you'd get rich, please carefully consider your odds of outsmarting a market that sold to you its stake in *not even dog money but a CLONE of dog money*
— Edward Snowden (@Snowden) October 31, 2021

Interested in cryptocurrency? We discuss all things crypto with WazirX CEO Nischal Shetty and WeekendInvesting founder Alok Jain on Orbital, the Gadgets 360 podcast. Orbital is available on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music and wherever you get your podcasts.

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Further reading: Elon Musk, Tesla, Dogecoin, Shiba Inu, Bitcoin

Radhika Parashar

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Radhika Parashar is a senior correspondent for Gadgets 360. She has been reporting on tech and telecom for the last three years now and will be focussing on writing about all things crypto. Besides this, she is a major sitcom nerd and often replies in Chandler Bing and Michael Scott references. For tips or queries you could reach out to her at RadhikaP@ndtv.com. More