Dogecoin (DOGE) is a cryptocurrency inspired by a famous internet meme. Its logo represents an illustration of a Shiba Inu dog breed. The cryptocurrency was created by Billy Markus and Jackson Palmer in December 2013 and was forked from Luckycoin, which itself is Litecoin's fork.
Initially, Dogecoin was built as a joke as Billy Marcus didn't believe in crypto much. The cryptocurrency aimed to attract more people due to its funny concept. DOGE’s goal was achieved and now it holds a big community of supporters that have organized different initiatives through the years. Multiple companies began to allow Doge payments and the records it has been making are far from being a joke.
How does Dogecoin work?
When the coin first entered the market, Dogecoin miners executing high-speed computers received the cryptocurrency in return for finding answers to mathematical puzzles. The mining process has undergone changes since then. In March 2014, rewards became static. Then the processes of mining DOGE and LTC were merged.
Similar to Litecoin, DOGE uses the Scrypt algorithm to carry out mining. It implements the Proof of Work (PoW) mechanism. Miners check activities across the blockchain and get payments. When they find a solution to a mathematical puzzle, they add a new block.
In comparison to BTC mining which uses the SHA-256 hash function, Dogecoin is based on Scrypt, which makes its mining easier and allows the integration of computers with different powers. The mining can be done through operating systems Windows, Mac, or Linux, and with a GPU.
DOGE has a block time of 1 minute. Its total supply is uncapped, so there is no limit to the number of Dogecoins that can be mined.
Major events
The Dogecoin community is famous for realizing various initiatives, among them charitable contributions. It started as a tipping practice on Reddit and other platforms. There, users would send to one another small amounts of Doge to reward content creators.
Trending: Smart Contracts Audits Startup Hexens Closed $4.2 M Seed Funding
Later bigger fundraisers were organized. In 2014 the community collected more than $30,000 worth of Dogecoin for the bobsled team from Jamaica so that it participated in the Sochi Winter Olympics. Jamaican team got qualified but couldn't afford to get to Russia.
That very year the community organized two other fundraisers. One of them, the Doge4Water contributed $30.000 to drill wells in Kenya.
The other one was sponsorship for NASCAR driver Josh Wise after Reddit's members started a discussion about his participation. The community raised $50.000 for that purpose. In appreciation, Wise painted the Dogecoin logo on his car.
On July 6, TikTok users formed a motion due to which Doge's price saw significant growth. It started when a user encouraged others to join him in trading DOGE. His idea was to sell the coins after the price hit $1. Many users shared the message. TikTok's movement caused a 2.5X price increase.
Businessmen Supporting Dogecoin
Among Dogecoins' major supporters is Tesla CEO Elon Musk and Dallas Mavericks' owner Mark Cuban.
Elon Musk has mentioned Dogecoin in his tweets a lot of times. In April 2019, he announced that DOGE is probably his favorite cryptocurrency and that it's pretty cool. Musk also referred to DOGE as "people's crypto" and promised to place a physical Dogecoin token on the moon.
Dogecoin might be my fav cryptocurrency. It’s pretty cool.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 2, 2019
Doge Barking at the Moon pic.twitter.com/QFB81D7zOL
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 15, 2021
Different other publications by Musk have followed his first tweet about DOGE. After them, Doge sees essential price growth. Musk even is called the CEO of the coin.
Trending: Finder: Bitcoin could hit $80,000 by 2025
Another Forbes billionaire Mark Cuban also supports the coin. In March 2021, the basketball team Dallas Mavericks owned by Cuban became the first merchant to enable Dogecoin as a payment method for tickets and goods.
Cuban said that the coin's supply and demand are “undefeated.”
When a Forbes reporter asks me about #dogecoin and whether it’s a bad look for crypto when people are buying it pic.twitter.com/YGs27Vdsxo
— Mark Cuban (@mcuban) February 8, 2021
Musk and Cuban are not the only famous people that have shown interest in dogecoin. Rapper Snoop Dogg, musician Gene Simmons, and Kevin from "Jonas Brothers" have also supported Dogecoin.
Final Thoughts
Dogecoin is one of the biggest cryptocurrencies. While launched in December 2013, the coin was traded at $0.00026. The price increased about ten times in a month and reached $0.002306 in January 2014.
Through multiple ups and downs over the years, DOGE managed to enter the top 5 cryptocurrencies. On April 16, 2021, the coin reached a new all-time high of $0.45. Four days later DOGE's market cap surpassed $50 B making it the fifth-largest cryptocurrency.
Trending: German Digital Bank N26 Launches Crypto Trading
This year more companies began to accept DOGE payments. Among them are NBA team Dallas Mavericks, luxury hotel group The Kessler Collection, Latvian Airline airBaltic, and electronic retailer Newegg.