What is Dogecoin?

Based on the popular ‘Doge’ internet meme and featuring a Shiba Inu on its logo, Dogecoin (DOGE) is a cryptocurrency that was forked from Litecoin in December 2013. This popular and original canine-themed meme coin was created by Billy Markus from Portland, Oregon, and Jackson Palmer from Sydney, Australia. Both had envisioned Dogecoin as a fun cryptocurrency that would have greater appeal beyond the core Bitcoin audience.

A brief history of Dogecoin

Since its inception in December 2013, DOGE quickly developed a strong online community and eventually captured mainstream attention, especially in 2021, when Tesla founder and billionaire Elon Musk expressed public support for the coin. On May 8, 2021, DOGE recorded an all-time-high market cap of nearly US$90 billion at a price of $0.70, rising nearly 141,000% since its inception in 2013 and briefly making it one of the world’s top 10 cryptocurrencies.

In early 2022, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin confirmed that he was helping Dogecoin migrate from the current proof of work (PoW) to proof of stake (PoS) crypto consensus mechanism in a bid to lower its energy consumption and increase transaction speeds.

How Dogecoin works

Dogecoin has its own blockchain and a mining system similar to Litecoin’s. While this means that DOGE can be considered a spinoff of Litecoin, which in itself is a spinoff of Bitcoin, DOGE differentiates itself from the two other crypto tokens in several ways. Unlike Bitcoin, which is designed to be scarce and resistant to inflation, Dogecoin was created to be abundant. There are about 130 billion DOGE circulating, and miners produce another 10,000 every minute. It is worth noting that the developers of Dogecoin haven’t made any major changes to the coin since 2015.

What is Dogecoin used for?

Dogecoin has been used primarily as a tipping system on Reddit and Twitter to reward the creation or sharing of quality content. People can gain DOGE through solo mining or participation in a mining pool, as well as through websites that function as ‘faucets’ for the token.