3 min read

Initially introduced in 2013, Dogecoin (DOGE) had the intention of being a much friendlier and light-hearted alternative to Bitcoin, in an otherwise serious and at times negative industry.

Despite being launched for fun and primarily as a meme, Dogecoin- and its iconic logo of the Shibu Inu dog breed- has gained a massive and dedicated community, which has resulted in an increasingly serious nature to the coin’s development and progress. This has contributed to a unique standing in cryptocurrency for the project and a rise in the value of DOGE.

Created by Billy Marcus and Jackson Palmer, Dogecoin hit a peak marketcap of $2 billion in early 2018, and currently holds a market cap of approximately $246 million.

Dogecoin has surprised cryptocurrency analysts in the way it challenges an individual’s concept of money and value. Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) are understandably very serious projects, but the fact that people can be paid via an internet meme, i.e., DOGE, which has sustainable value, is a fascinating development in our understanding of what money is.

Dogecoin is a fork from the Bitcoin code base, making it a decentralized platform. The coin runs on the secure script-based hash with one minute block times and currently a 10,000 DOGE block reward. The initial circulation of DOGE is presently 116 billion, with an additional 5.562 billion DOGE created every year, with an infinite total supply.

The average transaction fee for DOGE is under a penny, which makes it very competitive in terms of adoption against other cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin (BTC), Bitcoin Cash (BCH) or Litecoin (LTC).

Dogethereum was released last year and is a demo of a “bridge” between the Ethereum network and Dogecoin. How this will stand up versus atomic swaps, in the long run, remains to be seen, but it is certainly a curious development and shows that Dogecoin is continuing to develop its platform.

Despite the positivity of the project, there are some challenges. This includes aspects such as the Dogecoin GitHub hasn’t been updated since January 2018. GitHub commits seen as a reliable way to gauge projects current development progress.

There also remains the question of whether a meme coin can thrive in an ecosystem filled with serious teams who have massive partnerships and increasing merchant adoption. Privacy features remain an issue as well as how it will fare against Bitcoin as the Lightning Network continues to evolve.

Despite this, there are great opportunities for Dogecoin. It has substantial liquidity, being listed on several cryptocurrency exchanges. The project has a passionate and robust community of Dogecoin enthusiasts, which in the past have sponsored things like the Jamaican bobsled team, a race car, and building a well in Africa.

Dogecoin is fun and unserious, but is highly efficient, i.e. money, and proves that the internet works in mysterious ways. Dogecoin currently enjoys a higher marketcap, than several highly hyped and funded cryptocurrency projects, which goes to show the power of the community and having working tech.