One of the creators of dogecoin, Tesla CEO Elon Musk's favoured altcoin, has slammed the cryptocurrency system as "right wing" and "built primarily to amplify the wealth of its proponents".
Jackson Palmer, who originally created the meme-based currency as a joke with fellow software engineer Billy Markus in 2013, returned to Twitter to launch the attack.
Dogecoin is now the eighth most popular cryptocurrency, according to Cryptocap.com, with a total market valuation of nearly US$26 billion.
Palmer announced he was taking "an extended leave of absence from the toxic (and quite frankly, stagnant) space that is cryptocurrency" back in 2015 but has now returned with the thread to deal with the oft-asked question whether he'd "return to cryptocurrency".
"My answer is a wholehearted 'no'," he wrote.
"After years of studying it, I believe that cryptocurrency is an inherently right-wing, hyper-capitalistic technology built primarily to amplify the wealth of its proponents through a combination of tax avoidance, diminished regulatory oversight and artificially enforced scarcity."
He also took a shot at billionaires by claiming this "dangerous free-for-all capitalism" favoured the rich manipulating the market while users who lost their passwords or fell victims to a scam were left with little recourse.
Australian-born Palmer has previously called Musk "a self-absorbed grifter" after he withdrew the option to pay for Tesla cars with bitcoin.
"The cryptocurrency industry is controlled by a powerful cartel of wealthy figures," his most recent thread continued.
"Cryptocurrency is like taking the worst parts of today's capitalist system (eg. corruption, fraud, inequality) and using software to technically limit the use of interventions (eg. audits, regulation, taxation) which serve as protections or safety nets for the average person."
At one point this year, the value of dogecoin was up nearly 1500 percent in value - but it has fallen 75 percent since May 8, when Musk appeared on Saturday Night Live.
He has continued to support it, however, and caused rises in value when he asked his Twitter audience whether they would support dogecoin being accepted as a Tesla payment method and when he tweeted a meme about the altcoin.
In May, Musk said that in the battle between fiat and cryptocurrencies, his support was with the latter. He also affirmed that he hadn't sold any of his dogecoin holdings and wouldn't do so.
