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Dogecoin (DOGE) is a memecoin, perhaps the first of its kind. It was created in 2013 as a joke intended to mock and trivialize the process of creating a new cryptocurrency out of thin air. Dogecoin has established itself as one of the largest cryptocurrencies in the world due to the friendly and enjoyable nature of the memes and community surrounding it. Dogecoin went through several large pumps and subsequent dumps before 2020, failing to gain significant traction. But after the memecoin gained steam throughout 2021, Dogecoin has come to be valued at more than $0.01 per coin. This is notable considering that more than 100 billion DOGE exists, and there is no upper limit.
Within Finder's guide to Dogecoin, we explore what makes DOGE one of the most debated cryptocurrencies on the internet.
Dogecoin was founded as a joke in December 2013 by a couple of software engineers from IBM and Adobe. Billy Markus and Jackson Palmer created Dogecoin together. Within 30 days, the price had risen 300% and Dogecoin.com had more than 1 million views. Dogecoin has a volatile history both in terms of price and being in the news. As a memecoin, much of Dogecoin's price action takes place when it is trending on social media.
Dogecoin benefited from the aggressive rise of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies in 2017. During this time, DOGE hit an all-time high of US$0.017. The following years were stagnant for Dogecoin, partially because Dogecoin had no official organization leading its development. The other reason was that all cryptocurrencies in general were in a "crypto winter" where most cryptocurrencies dropped from their all-time highs set at the end of 2017.
New life was given to Dogecoin in 2020 when a social media campaign launched by influencers on TikTok tried to pump Dogecoin to $1.00 per coin. In 2021, a new phenomenon of trading began taking hold. Meme trades such as WallStreetBets gained traction by establishing a large amount of influence on social media platforms such as Reddit. As a result of Elon Musk, Redditors and influencers, Dogecoin was the benefactor of a substantial amount of social media attention that drove its price to increase by more than 800% in January 2021. Later in May 2021, Dogecoin hit an all-time-high value of $0.71 per coin.
This attention has led notable figures in the cryptocurrency community, such as Vitalik Buterin, to join as an advisor to the Dogecoin Organization. A new trail map of development milestones has been planned for Dogecoin. These upgrades are intended to modernize Dogecoin as a cryptocurrency and bring a new level of seriousness to the coin.
Although Dogecoin was created as a joke, many would argue that it has graduated to the status of being a legitimate cryptocurrency. With high-profile supporters such as Elon Musk and Vitalik Buterin aiding in its development, there are reasons to be optimistic about the future of Dogecoin. At the same time, Dogecoin has real criticisms that must also be taken into consideration. Here is everything you need to know about Dogecoin.
First and foremost, the supply of Dogecoin will never stop increasing. Every block (1 minute), 10,000 new Dogecoin are created. Although this trend is inherently inflationary, the amount of Dogecoin being created relative to its already circulating supply is decreasing over time. Because Dogecoin's supply is increasing by a constant amount, not a percentage, it means that its inflation rate is going down over time.
Dogecoin is accepted as payment at a number of merchants and stores around the world such as the Tesla merchandise store and the Dallas Mavericks merchandise store. Although it is unclear whether these companies are just capitalizing on Dogecoin's media attention, the fact remains that Dogecoin can be spent to obtain real goods from these companies.
Dogecoin has come to be one of the largest cryptocurrencies in the world by market cap. It is traded on most of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges in the world such as Coinbase, Binance and Crypto.com. Dogecoin may be traded for BTC, ETH and some fiat currencies, making it one of the most accessible cryptocurrencies.
| Ticker symbol | DOGE |
|---|---|
| Use | Digital Asset |
| Year released | 2013 |
| Origin | United States |
| Maximum supply | Unlimited supply |
| Consensus algorithm | Proof of Work |
| Notable team members | Jackson Palmer (left in 2015) |
| Mineable? | Yes |
Dogecoin has a very simple set of functionality and features. It's a typical cryptocurrency with an ever-expanding supply. It's a proof-of-work blockchain that uses the same mining algorithm as Litecoin. This means that people who are mining Litecoin are typically also mining Dogecoin at the same time. It has a 1-minute block time and gives 10,000 DOGE to the first miner to produce a block. Dogecoin has significantly lower fees than other networks like Bitcoin and Ethereum for a couple of reasons. The first is that it doesn't have nearly the amount of traffic that the aforementioned networks have. The second reason is that it has a shorter block time than Bitcoin and the same block size. This effectively means that it is at least 10x faster than Bitcoin in terms of transactions per second.
As part of the new trail map for Dogecoin, developers are working on 2 new key features.
The first initiative is to bring staking to Dogecoin. This effectively means that Dogecoin will be transitioning from a proof-of-work blockchain to a proof-of-stake blockchain. This will give the blockchain a boost in terms of transactions per second as well as provide additional utility for DOGE. Users will be able to stake their tokens in exchange for a chance to produce the next block. This ends up giving stakers rewards in the form of more Dogecoin. Stakers will lock up their tokens reducing the tradable supply on exchanges.
The GigaWallet is a project that aims to implement a range of features for Dogecoin to be easily accepted as a means of payment. Social media influencers, store owners and game developers will be able to use the GigaWallet to rapidly integrate Dogecoin into their respective businesses.
Globally, roughly 23% of crypto owners say they hold Dogecoin (Doge), according to Finder's Cryptocurrency Adoption Index. Ireland leads the way for DOGE at 26%, whereas just 9% of crypto owners in Venezuela say they own the memecoin.
The percentage of crypto owners who say they own DOGE sits at 19% following the August report, in line with the results from July.
Like any cryptocurrency that rises and falls in price, money can be made by trading Dogecoin. It's also possible to make money with Dogecoin by accepting it as a means of payment for any goods or services that you offer.
Tesla is currently accepting Dogecoin as a means of payment for items within its merchandise store. Dogecoin cannot be used to purchase cars from Tesla.
The all-time high for Doge was $0.73 USD on May 08, 2021.
The original point of Dogecoin was to make a joke out of all cryptocurrencies. The founders intended to trivialize the process of creating a new cryptocurrency out of thin air. The current point of Dogecoin is still being debated. Many believe it better represents the ideals and interests of the general masses, while others maintain that it is still susceptible to pump and dumps as only a few wallets own the majority of Dogecoin.
Five years ago (2017) Dogecoin had virtually no developers and substantially fewer followers and community members. It is difficult to say whether the Dogecoin community will continue to grow. However, due to the new features and improvements coming to Dogecoin, there is a likelihood that the blockchain and thus DOGE will be around 5 years from now.
One of the reasons that Dogecoin is so popular is because it features a picture of a cute Shiba Inu dog on the face of its "coin". It's a coin that self proclaims to not take things so seriously, which is one of the things that some investors may like about it. Another aspect of Dogecoin that contributes to its popularity is the perception that its individual units are "cheap". While this is an example of unit bias, many novice investors invest in DOGE without first understanding the relationship between unit price and market cap.
It is difficult to say whether Dogecoin will ever reach $1. This would mean that the entire market capitalization of Dogecoin is above $100 billion, making it one of the largest assets in the world. While not impossible, it is difficult to justify such a large valuation for Dogecoin.
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