Dogecoin(DOGE)

The first-ever meme-inspired cryptocurrency or "memecoin" to gain worldwide popularity, Dogecoin (DOGE) was hard-forked from Litecoin in 2013, which itself was a fork of Bitcoin.

Created as a light-hearted joke with a Shiba Inu dog image on its logo, Dogecoin has garnered “much wow” over the years.  Social media growth, unending memes, a loyal community and Elon Musk's support have all made DOGE one of the leading cryptocurrencies both in terms of popularity and market capitalization.

In fact, DOGE coin's success resulted in the emergence of an entire niche of dog-themed cryptocurrencies, the most notable of which is Shiba Inu coin (SHIB). However, none of these memecoins are related and exist independently of each other.

DOGE coin was launched by two software developers - Billy Markus from the U.S. and Jackson Palmer from Australia. Its initial maximum supply was limited to 100 billion coins but was later changed to an infinite supply.

Despite DOGE's position as a top crypto asset today, it was never intended to serve a specific purpose. However, having gained much prominence and value appreciation, usecases for DOGE are being developed right now, and Elon Musk even plans to send a mission to the moon named after the dog coin.

Meanwhile, Dogecoin’s development, trademark protection and governance are all taken care of by a not-for-profit organization called the Dogecoin Foundation, which has key figures like Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin and Elon Musk as advisors.

DOGE price 

According to our DOGE live price chart, the dog coin’s first big jump came right after its release when it appreciated by 1,000% to reach $0.0023 from $0.0002. 

The next noteworthy surge in DOGE price occurred in March 2017, amidst the early stages of a market-wide bull run. At the time,  DOGE coin price rallied to breach the $0.004 mark in May 2017, and another uptrend later that year catapulted it to nearly $0.02 by January 2018.

DOGE price, however, couldn't sustain the $0.01+ level for long and tanked with the rest of the crypto market thereafter. Dogecoin's price witnessed a prolonged lull for almost 3 years as the hype around memecoin waned.

Spurred on by celebrity supporters, particularly Elon Musk, as well as favorable market conditions, DOGE coin peaked at an all-time high of $0.74 on May 8, 2021. It has been in a gradual downtrend since then and has continued to trade below $0.20 in Q2 2022. There’s no way to ascertain DOGE’s fully diluted valuation as the coin has no maximum supply, and while $1 is an oft-quoted price prediction for DOGE, detractors don't believe the memecoin will see that price level ever.

How DOGE coin works

Dogecoin transactions are validated using the proof-of-work (PoW) consensus mechanism, much like Bitcoin. The Dogecoin protocol sets a complex mathematical problem that needs to be solved to verify transactions. Volunteer nodes (computers) from the Dogecoin network called miners compete to solve this problem. The fastest miner to solve the mathematical problem verifies the transactions in the respective block and adds it to the Dogecoin blockchain. 

Dogecoin uses Litecoin’s Proof-of-Work hashing algorithm called Scrypt, which is faster and easier as compared to Bitcoin’s SHA-256. Its network has a block confirmation time of 1 minute as opposed to 10 minutes on Bitcoin. Furthermore, unlike Bitcoin's SHA-256 PoW mechanism which requires high processing power, Scrypt requires high-speed RAM. As a result, specialized equipment is not needed to mine DOGE.

To reward miners for their work, Dogecoin network gives miners 10,000 DOGE per successful block added to the network. This is how new Dogecoins are added to circulation.

DOGE news, updates and highlights

Being closely associated with Bitcoin and Litecoin, the DOGE price chart often mirrors their performance. 

The surge in Dogecoin’s popularity, especially over the past one year, can be credited to Elon Musk’s support for the memecoin. He began tweeting about it in February 2021, initiating a noteworthy DOGE price rally. His appearance on the Saturday Night Live show on May 8, 2021, wherein Musk and his mother talked about DOGE, catapulted DOGE coin's price to its ATH of nearly $0.74 that day.

In more recent DOGE coin news, Dogecoin Foundation announced the coin’s first-ever roadmap via a detailed post on its official website. The roadmap, referred to as a trailmap, talks about Dogecoin taking a more community-driven and consensus-based development approach going forward. Vitalik Buterin, the co-founder of Ethereum, has been roped in to create a ‘uniquely Doge proposal’ that will shape up into a community staking variant of the Proof of stake (PoS) system, enabling Dogecoin community members to earn staking rewards.

Frequently asked questions about DOGE

• Can you mine or stake DOGE?

Yes, you can mine DOGE as it is a proof-of-work cryptocurrency. You can mine DOGE using your personal computer or use specialized mining equipment called ASIC miners. 

• What are some of the best DOGE wallets?

Some of the best DOGE wallets include Ledger and Trezor hardware wallets as well as software wallets like Jaxx, Atomic, and Dogechain wallet. 

• What can you do with DOGE?

You can use DOGE to pay for online/offline goods and services. For example, you can order food from Menufy or buy Dallas Mavericks tickets and merchandise with DOGE. 

• How to buy DOGE?

You can instantly buy DOGE on popular cryptocurrency exchanges including HitBTC, Nexo, MEXC and eToro. To buy DOGE with minimal slippage, buy DOGE with high-liquidity pairs such as DOGE/USDT, DOGE/BTC, DOGE/ETH or using fiat currencies like USD, GBP, EUR, etc.