Alpacas: The Bitcoin (BTC) Mascot that Helped Bring Recognition to Cryptocurrency

The alpaca is a strange mascot, to say the least, but it’s one that Bitcoin (BTC) desperately needed early in its lifespan. 

Though Satoshi Nakamoto , Bitcoin’s founder, never created a mascot design for his cryptocurrency, the community quickly embraced the alpaca as the symbol of their favorite token. 

Bitcoin and alpacas may not be as intimately connected anymore. Still, anyone who has been following cryptocurrency for a while will be well aware of just how inescapable these cuddly animals were in the early years. 

Really, an Alpaca?

At first, an alpaca can seem like a pretty random choice for a mascot, but animals being the faces of crypto isn’t exactly a new phenomenon. 

These days, animal mascots are very common and can be seen being used for popular cryptocurrencies like Dogecoin (DOGE) and Shiba Inu (SHIB) . What many people don’t know, though, is that Bitcoin started this trend with the alpaca, which became a symbol of recognition that the cryptocurrency was legitimate and not just another internet gimmick. 

History of the Unofficial Bitcoin Mascot

The alpaca wasn’t a mascot conjured up by the Bitcoin developers. Instead, it became a symbol of the cryptocurrency because it was related to one of the first niche items that could be purchased with Bitcoin. 

Origins

For the first time in February 2011, people were granted the opportunity to use their Bitcoin to buy goods when a link was sent to a social news website known as Slashdot. The link directed users to the Grass Hill Alpacas farm. This seemingly random farm immediately caught the attention of aspiring Bitcoin enthusiasts, allowing them to buy alpaca goods and services with their Bitcoins. 

David Forster and Grass Hills Alpacas

Grass Hill Alpacas decided to sell items for Bitcoin because David Forster, the son of the owners, convinced his parents to accept it as a form of payment.

Forster made the bold decision to make Bitcoin an eligible form of payment for multiple products, but one in particular caught the eye of consumers: wooly alpaca socks. 

Wooly Alpaca Socks

The wooly alpaca socks sold like hotcakes once Bitcoin holders discovered them, and word of them spread like wildfire across social media. Thanks to their comfortability and heat insulation, these socks were already the farms’ most popular item, but making them available to Bitcoin enthusiasts opened the floodgates for a whole new audience. 

By June 2011, it had reached the point where Forster was able to lower the price from 75 to 5 Bitcoins, thanks to the token’s extreme appreciation and the socks’ skyrocketing popularity. 

Though Bitcoin’s price finally reached $1 in April 2011, its harsh volatility caused many people to hoard their tokens due to market unpredictability. 

As a result, since this was one of the very first items on the market, the alpaca inevitably entered the Bitcoin zeitgeist from then on. 

Becoming a Mascot

Rather than disappearing after its shining moment, the alpaca remained relevant within the Bitcoin community thanks to word of mouth. 

A popular meme at the time, commonly spread around crypto forums and blogs, was people asking, “Do alpacas really wear socks?” Sure, this was a playful way to reminisce on the Grass Hills incident, but it also showed that people were still connecting alpacas to items that could be bought with crypto. 

Later, in 2011, the buzz was still riding high as a “Bounty for Bitcoin” mascot drawing competition was announced to gather potential ideas for a Bitcoin logo. Though the competition never settled on a final idea, the alpaca became a prominent logo design proposed by many people, which showed how much the community had fallen in love with the animal.

That same year, the “Alpaca Socks” Bitcoin song was uploaded to YouTube. The song covers topics like decentralization and crypto mining. 

The alpaca even began making occasional appearances at conferences, such as the 2013 Bitcoin Conference in San Jose, where it appeared during a “Bitcoin kid” interview . 

Modern Day 

Today, the alpaca has taken on a life of its own, and though it still isn’t officially recognised by the Bitcoin developers as a mascot, the community clearly sees things differently. 

There are plenty of examples of how the alpaca has been used for Bitcoin projects in recent times, but here are a few of the most popular:

• CryptoAlpaca: An online browser game that teaches crypto newcomers about Bitcoin and the nature of decentralization.
• Alpaca.markets: An API brokerage that handles Bitcoin alongside Ethereum (ETH) and Dogecoin (DOGE).
• Alpaca Worlds: An NFT game that also supports Bitcoin.

The Importance of the Alpaca for Bitcoin

Early on in Bitcoin’s lifespan, people needed to recognize that it would be viable as a long-lasting and legitimate currency, and the alpaca socks proved that it could be by being one of the first purchasable items. 

As a result, the alpaca became a sign of acceptance by the community that Bitcoin could be used for acquiring everyday items, proving its capabilities as a leading form of currency for the future. To many people who still praise the unofficial mascot, this is what the symbol of the alpaca means behind all the goofy faces and smiles. 

Being Used as a Symbol of Resistance

Alongside bringing recognition to Bitcoin, the alpaca would also become a symbol of crypto resistance against the government and authorities through strange events. 

It’s important to understand that before Bitcoin arrived in 2009, cryptocurrency and cryptography, in general, had been largely criminalized by governments. This was especially the case during the chaotic Crypto Wars of the 1990s .

Therefore, Bitcoin would be looked down upon and scrutinized upon its release. It also didn’t help the case that the anonymous network, the Silk Road, was discovered to be allowing users to buy illegal items in exchange for Bitcoin. 

Cryptocurrency was considered a dangerous and immoral form of currency, but the alpaca Bitcoin mascot was used to criticize these views. The most obvious example of this can be seen in the Bernard Von NotHaus criminal case. 

The Bernard von NotHaus Case

In 1998, Bernard von NotHaus created the Liberty Dollar, a physical currency that could be used to buy select goods and services. 

Over a decade later, though, in 2009, Von NotHaus was arrested for counterfeiting after the government claimed that he was trying to compete with or even replace USD. 

U.S Code Sec. 486

Von NotHaus’ arrest fell under the U.S Code Sec. 486 , which, in short, states that anyone attempting to “pass any coins or gold or silver or other metal, intended for use as a current money, whether in the resemblance of coins of the US or foreign countries, shall be fined under this title, or imprisoned not more than five years.” 

This law was written in 1994, during the peak of the crypto wars. Many felt it was old-fashioned and that it should be rewritten to clarify that counterfeiting is only a crime, not competition with the US dollar. 

What’s especially important here, though, is that NotHaus was being labeled as a “domestic terrorist” under the law, which certainly rubbed a lot of crypto enthusiasts the wrong way. 

Reaction From the ‘Crypto Terrorists’ 

Though Von NotHaus’ Liberty Coins are physical and not digital like cryptocurrency, this development still sparked outrage from the crypto community, considering how similar the two are in concept. 

As part of the reaction, a now iconic slogan would be born in defiance of the government’s actions, which goes “Yeah, we’re alpaca-sock-wearing crypto terrorists”. 

This is a call back to the alpaca socks, but the central aim was to demonstrate to the authorities how old-fashioned their viewpoints were. People like Von NotHaus and the Bitcoin users weren’t using their currencies for criminal activities; they bought simple everyday items like alpaca socks. 

Using “alpaca” and “terrorist” in the same sentence was a clever way to force authorities to recognise that the ‘big bad crypto’ wasn’t quite as dangerous as the 90s had predicted it would be. 

The slogan quickly caught on, and would even become its own token appropriately named “We Are Alpaca Sock Wearing Crypto Terrorists” . 

Modern Day

It can be difficult to gauge how much of an influence the alpaca mascot had on changing government and authority perceptions of crypto. However, some examples out there suggest that it’s increasingly being seen as more of a normal and less criminal activity, partly thanks to the alpaca.

One major example of this comes from a recent conversation between reporter Jeff Guo of PlanetMoney, and FBI agent Chris Wong. 

Once the conversation inevitably turns to crypto, Wong reveals a very unexpected secret. He claims that the alpaca has become an “inside joke” for the FBI whenever they’re dealing with crypto and has even been given his own name, “J. Edgar HODLer.”

He explains that the name is a mashup of J. Edgar Hoover, and a play on the word “HOLD”, as in, “Hold on for dear life, never sell your crypto”.

The fact that an FBI agent is talking so casually and openly about crypto could never have been seen in the 1990s. He also makes specific mention of the alpaca, demonstrating that it’s been picked up and noticed by authority figures, too, and has transcended beyond just Bitcoin. 

Bitcoin’s Other Unofficial Mascot

The alpaca may be the most well-known unofficial Bitcoin mascot, but another critter is closely associated with the cryptocurrency: the honey badger. 

It all started with a video titled “The Crazy Nastyass Honey Badger,” which shows a honeybadger running past several predators without a care. Not long after the video aired, a billboard between El Camino Real and Highway 101 showed a honeybadger with the word “Bitcoin” above it. 

It turns out that the company behind the billboard was Memorydealers, a computer parts reseller that became the first company to accept Bitcoins in 2011. 

Similar to the alpaca, many people began relating the honeybadger to the popular cryptocurrency. For example, Bitcoin kiosks in Canada became known as ‘HoneyBadgers,’ and there was even a Bitcoin HoneyBadger conference back in 2018. 

On the Flipside

• The developers have yet to recognize the alpaca as Bitcoin’s legitimate mascot officially.
• As a result, the alpaca’s relevance for years to come isn’t set in stone; it will depend on the community whether it lives on into the future. 

Why This Matters

Though Bitcoin still would have existed without the alpaca becoming an unofficial mascot, it’s unlikely it would have reached its peak popularity so quickly. The alpaca made it clear to all onlookers that Bitcoin was much more friendly and accessible than they initially might have thought, and for that, it deserves some credit. 

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