DigiByte(DGB)

Launched on Jan. 10, 2014 by Jared Tate, popularly known as the ‘DigiMan’, DigiByte (DGB) claims to be the most decentralized open-source, Proof-of-Work blockchain in the world. It is based on the Bitcoin codebase and has undergone multiple soft and hard forks. Those forks  enhanced its capabilities and deliver improved security, functionality, scalability and transaction speeds, as compared to its parent chain. Unlike its predecessor, DigiByte blockchain can be used for multiple purposes including the creation of smart contracts, digital assets, secure authentication and decentralized applications (dApps). 

DGB, the native coin of DigiByte is a highly scalable and faster digital currency which comes with industry-leading transaction finality and negligible fees, a reason why it’s widely used for making digital payments.

DigiByte has never been funded through pre-mined coins or an ICO (Initial Coin Offering) and there’s no single organization or CEO controlling its functioning. The blockchain’s development is overseen by volunteers, including its founders, developers and community members, as well as a volunteer organization named DigiByte Foundation. 

DGB price

DigiByte, being a hard fork of Bitcoin, means the DGB coin's price movements are quite in alignment with that of Bitcoin. The DGB price remained well under a cent from the time of its launch in January 2014 till late May 2017, when the crypto market was prepping for a major boom. During that time DGB coin broke out of multiple resistance levels and crossed 6 cents on June 8, 2017. According to our DGB live price chart, it further rallied towards the end of that year and reached 13 cents by Jan 2018. 

The DGB price fluctuated between 2 to 5 cents for most of 2018, closing the year at 1 cent. 2019 didn’t bring much cheer for it either, as it consistently failed to break out of $0.02 resistance. It was a bearish year overall for the DGB coin as it returned back to under 1 cent by year-end. 

2020 brought some change of fortune for the price of DGB as it sustained an upbeat sentiment throughout that year, and stood at around $0.025 on Dec. 31, 2020. DigiByte reserved its best price action for 2021, when supported by the broader crypto market, it rallied on to register its all-time high of $0.18 on May 1, 2021. DGB’s fully diluted valuation was around $3.78 billion at that price point. It has since been in a bearish trend, however, and has receded to its pre-2017 price of under a cent, in Q2, 2022.

How DGB works

Like Bitcoin, DigiByte also works based on the Proof-of-Work consensus mechanism. However, it uses 5 different cryptographic algorithms – Odocrypt, Sha256, Qubit, Skein and Scrypt – thus allowing all kinds of miners, including with GPU, FPGA, ASIC or any other compatible mining hardware, to participate and contribute to its decentralization. Besides enhancing network security, this MultiAlgo feature prevents hash power fluctuation and malicious mining centralization.

New DigiByte blocks are generated every 15 seconds, which is 10x and 40x faster than Litecoin and Bitcoin respectively. DigiByte adopted the SegWit (Segregated Witness) protocol via a soft-fork in 2017, becoming one of the first prominent blockchains to have taken such a step, well before Bitcoin and Litecoin. With SegWit implementation, combined with its blockchain rigidity, DigiByte is capable of processing up to 1066 on-chain transactions per second, at very low fees.

DigiByte blockchain operates in three layers: a) Applications/DigiAssets top layer which facilitates the creation of digital assets, decentralized applications and smart contracts, b) The DigiByte/Public Ledger middle layer that comprises an immutable public ledger and involves the creation of new DGB coins, and c) The Core Protocol/Global Network bottom layer that enables blockchain communication and operation with the help of DigiByte nodes, running in all parts of the world.

DigiByte believes in delivering on-chain scalability to its users, rather than resorting to the use of Layer 2 solutions for increasing transaction capacity and throughput. You can use the DGB coin to pay for transactions conducted on the DigiByte blockchain. A total of 21 billion DGB can be mined till 2035, with block rewards reduced by 1% each month. 

DGB news, updates and highlights

DigiByte founder Jared Tate stepped down from the network’s daily operations in May 2020, and took a sabbatical, citing a crypto culture centered around profiteering. He blamed the short-term profit mindset of 90% of investors who use such emerging technologies for their immediate benefit, putting others’ long-term vision at risk. This happened on the heels of DGB registering a two-month rally, having appreciated by over 900% in that time.

In more recent DGB news, the members of the DigiByte blockchain community formed a DigiByte Alliance in December 2021, to work towards accelerating innovation and development on the DigiByte blockchain.

Frequently asked questions about DGB

• Can you stake or mine DGB coins?

Yes, you can mine DGB coins through any of the five mining algorithms supported by it.

• What are some of the best DGB wallets?

DigiByte recommends using wallets like Coinomi, Exodus, Atomic, Trust Wallet, Guarda, Ledger, Trezor and D’cent for DGB storage.

• What can you do with DGB coins?

You can use your DGB coins to pay transaction fees on the DigiByte blockchain, or can hold them for the long-term, in a crypto wallet of your choice. Many crypto exchanges also allow DGB trading against other popular cryptocurrencies.

• How to buy DGB cryptocurrency?

The best way to buy DGB is through trading pairs like DGB/ETH, DGB/BTC, DGB/ADA, DGB/SOL, etc., on established crypto exchanges.