What’s happening in the altcoin community this week? Though the market volume doldrums of the past few months don’t seem to be clearing away too quickly, development on many projects continues to move forward and the ecosystem diversifies even further.

Read on to see some of the latest happenings from around the altcoin space.

Litecoin and dogecoin team up for charity

A joint effort to raise money ahead of the holiday season is currently underway, combining the crowdfunding capabilities of both the litecoin and dogecoin communities.

The LiteShibes 4 Christmas campaign follows previous efforts to raise money to provide holiday gifts to impoverished children in the Philippines. Organized by several moderators of the dogecoin subreddit, the group – comprised of both dogecoin and litecoin donors and supporters – has raised roughly 290,000 DOGE and 267 LTC. Combined, this amounts to nearly $1,000 that has been raised at press time.

The project represents the latest crowdfunding initiative from the digital currency community. Previous efforts to raise funds for African well projects have been successful, although the debate over using the technology as a vehicle for donations continues today.

The organizers said in a message on the dogecoin subreddit that the effort is the first joint donation drive since dogecoin instituted auxiliary proof-of-work and merge mining with litecoin began.

“This is a milestone in crypto history, to show that we can bridge the gap between communities to really make a difference and help those less fortunate,” the organizers wrote.

Feathercoin hardforks to new mining algorithm

Late last month, feathercoin officially switched over to NeoScrypt, a new type of memory-intensive hashing algorithm that supporters say will protect the coin from the influence of ASIC miners.

The move, announced at the beginning of the summer, comes amid both the broadening deployment of second-generation scrypt ASICs and a shift away from coin projects based on litecoin’s approach. According to a post on the official feathercoin forum, founder Peter Bushnell outlined why the team wanted to push out the new algorithm.

Beyond the risk of network disruption by big mining players with ASICs, Bushnell noted that the project benefits in the long-run by taking proactive steps to stem future issues:

“As the majority of people buying Scrypt ASICs are not doing so to mine feathercoin and the fact that some very large ASIC suppliers will be releasing products soon it seems sensible to move algorithm now before we face the challenges that hit many SHA-256 alts when the SHA-256 ASICs hit. We are moving to a new tier of hashing where feathercoin can be the leading coin.”

As outlined in the NeoScrypt press release, the algorithm seeks to make it economically impractical to develop mining products that can generate large hash rates. Other algorithms like X11 and Scrypt-N seek similar aims, although some reports indicate that ASICs for these algorithms are in the process of being developed and built.

Strange alt of the week

The rising tide of scamcoins and pump-and-dump schemes has led to suggestions that altcoin investors need to be more proactive in their research, scrutinizing of new coin launches and, in general, more careful about what they do.

Despite the risks, some continue to invest in coin launches and initial coin offerings that carry all the warning signs, including inflated returns and unrealistic expectations of public acceptance. Other initiatives that can be seen, like rektcoin, go in the opposite direction and make no bones about the risks involved.

With the slogan “Got rekt? Get rekt!”, rektcoin previously sought to serve as an example of why investors need to be better at what they do. After an initial hype period, the price of rektcoin has collapsed, with the developer suggesting on The Bitcoin Talk Forum that such an outcome was not only expected, but intended.

Claiming they lost money in the process, which began with a high-volume mining launch that saw as much as 35 GH/s in hashing power, the developer said that those who bought in were likely aware that they might be left holding the bag, so to speak:

“All bagholders just bought rektcoin and hoping for a pump and quick profit, just like all other shitcoins you are buying: it doesn’t matter what the coin brings….you are just hoping for a whale who will pump it and you can make a quick profit. I guess no whale pumped rekt so you all got rekt! Including us!”

At press time, the price of REKT is down roughly 75% from 24-hour highs. Some investors have taken to social media, noting wryly that the project, for better or for worse, has at least lived up to its name.

$Rekt keeps rekking people, lol. Finally a coin that delivers as promised. — Dennis (@Dennahz) November 8, 2014

Have a tip about a notable happening in the altcoin world? Email CoinDesk at stan@coindesk.com.

Disclaimer: This article should not be viewed as an endorsement. Please do your own extensive research before you consider investing in the altcoin space.

Image via CoinDesk

Correction: a previous version of this article referenced the NeoScrypt whitepaper, this has been updated to the NeoScrypt press release.