Being one of the original altcoins, Dogecoin was created using the Litecoin blockchain architecture to provide a quick and instantaneous payment method. The idea behind the project was to create a fun, easy-to-use alternative to Litecoin—an already old version of Bitcoin built upon a powerful community of users. By the time dogecoin launched, the concept of cryptocurrency was already well in use with the continuation of reaching new highs in the market, so the dogecoin community quickly developed to represent and support dogecoin, presented as a “meme coin” in its inception. The logo features a famous and trending meme, doge, using the image of a popularized dog breed, Shiba Inu. Against all odds, DOGE has become one of the top cryptocurrencies in the market, principally due to its presence on social media and access to numerous demographics around the world.
What is Dogecoin (DOGE)?
Dogecoin, abbreviated as DOGE, is an open-source peer-to-peer cryptocurrency meant for sending and receiving digital payments processed through the Dogecoin blockchain network. The developers behind Dogecoin were the software engineers Jackson Palmer and Billy Markus who launched it in December 2013 as a decentralized cryptocurrency for instant payments. Dogecoin was initially developed as a hard fork of the now-defunct Lucky Coin, which was a fork of Litecoin (LTC). So as a fork of a fork (of a fork), Dogecoin entered the cryptocurrency scene with a reputation as a “joke coin”—something that has become its very fond identity among its committed following. As DOGE does not have a CEO or official body attached to it, it is basically controlled by its ardent holders, who have made them steadfast over the years.
Year over year, the user base of DOGE is growing, which propels the price higher and also the dogecoin market cap to ever higher levels. While DOGE is mostly used for crowdfunding and tipping online content creators as a “light” crypto asset, an ever-growing list of merchants is accepting it as a means of payment. Born a meme, DOGE, however, has surprised everyone by becoming one of the top cryptos by market cap with 5000% returns in 2021 and is endorsed by millions of users—with notable supporters, including Elon Musk and Snoop Dogg.
Who are the creators of Dogecoin, and how was it created?
The Dogecoin network is powered by the DOGE crypto, which was created by software specialists Billy Markus and Jackson Palmer. Palmer, a software developer at Adobe, and Billy Markus, who worked at IBM, had the same idea: create an entertaining and user-friendly cryptocurrency that differs from conventional banking systems and charges almost nothing for instantaneous transactions.
In order to build a cryptocurrency that would be more accessible than bitcoin, Palmer originally registered the domain name dogecoin.com before developing the project’s official website. This was the beginning of Dogecoin’s journey. After launching DOGE while achieving millions in trading volume within its first days on the market, it easily attracted as many unique visits to the official website as possible. Not even after the launch of DOGE currency as a success did Palmer and Markus take over the title of CEO. The role of the Dogecoin community became even more important to the network. The Dogecoin (DOGE) community proved its strength on more than just a few occasions, with a special accent on collecting enough funds to cover the losses of having millions of DOGE coins stolen in a hack on the now-defunct Dogewallet project.
How does Dogecoin work?
Dogecoin is indirectly based upon the code of the first cryptocurrency, bitcoin. More specifically, it was created as a hard fork of the now-defunct lucky coin that was itself a hard fork of litecoin (LTC). Litecoin became known as the first hard fork ever to be created as it split from Bitcoin. The proof of work (PoW) method of Dogecoin uses Scrypt to prevent miners from using ASICs, the specialized computing devices utilized in Bitcoin mining. In principle, much like Bitcoin, participants within the Dogecoin blockchain use their computing power to safeguard the network and power block creation while verifying transactions.
The key difference is that Dogecoin’s “light” architecture allows it to complete transactions faster than Bitcoin. For instance, dogecoin mining can be done using the computational power of network participants to generate new blocks and validate transactions by solving mathematical equations. With each created block, miners are rewarded with 10,000 DOGE. The developers of Dogecoin, Jackson Palmer, and Billy Markus had originally designed the internet’s favorite coin with a maximum limit of 100 billion DOGE. The team removed it only a couple of months after the launch. After this monetary policy change, Dogecoin has an inflationary supply, producing 5 billion new DOGE annually.
What makes Dogecoin different from others?
Dogecoin marketed its currency as a fun, friendly internet currency; to everyone’s surprise, it gained millions of followers within the first month after its launch in 2013, emerging as a joke coin. Unlike the many cryptos and digital assets that are presented as ambitious and groundbreaking blockchain projects, Dogecoin took a much more casual approach while offering desirable features in return, such as ear-zero fees, instant transactions, a strong yet lighthearted community, and non-competitive mining. Even though dogecoin does have quite some similarities with both Litecoin and bitcoin, it is interesting to approach DOGE as the user-friendly internet currency, ideal for micropayments and perfectly adapted for social media users, content creators, and vendors alike.
What gives Dogecoin the value?
Dogecoin’s value in the market is given and defined by the balance of buying and selling activity, which forms the dogecoin price. The major source of the value it has is directly from the strong and supportive community that has been backing the Dogecoin project right from its inception and the unique approach taken by DOGE as a cryptocurrency created for internet-based payments. Endorsements will also drive Dogecoin value, such as Elon Musk’s tweet about DOGE being one of the most interesting digital assets in the market.
Right after this post, the price of Dogecoin skyrocketed and went “to the moon,” as many spectators like to say. The dogecoin value and DOGE price can also become influenced by major global trends that form the collective momentum of all cryptos in the market. DOGE price can fluctuate due to joint trends, which are often driven by the stronger dog, bitcoin, as it is the most capitalized cryptocurrency. The use case of DOGE also contributes to dogecoin value because the DOGE crypto is primarily used as an incentive on social media sites and to tip content creators, in addition to being used for sending and receiving micropayments with nearly zero fees.
Conclusion
Being a joke, Dogecoin became one of the top cryptocurrencies on the market. Bragging the well-known and easily recognizable DOGE-y logo of Shibu Inu, dogecoin recorded almost 5000% returns in 2021 and also gained celebrities such as Elon Musk and Snoop Dogg, reaching new highs for con price. Dogecoin was born as a fun, user-friendly digital currency for instant payments and cost-efficient transactions. No longer just a joke, Dogecoin has assembled an extremely strong and continually growing community of users, promoters, and endorsers, all hailing DOGE for its simple and straightforward utility.