• Dogecoin is an open-source cryptocurrency that was created in 2013
• The coin was founded by Billy Markus and Jackson Palmer
• This project initially started as a joke based on a popular meme at the time that featured a Shiba inu.
• The technology behind it is based on Litecoin and uses proof-of-work
• Over time it gathered one of the biggest communities and supporters

What started out as seemingly a joke, turned into a billion-dollar project, that is fueled by rocket emojis, Shiba Inu images, and Elon Musk in some cases. Twitter is obviously one of the most influential platforms ever, as recently, when Elon Musk tweeted about Dogecoin, its value rose up by 359% in four weeks. So, what’s next for Dogecoin?

The cryptocurrency industry can be quite odd at times, and the Dogecoin is a representation of something truly unique, an exclusive club of sorts, something that a lot of people didn’t think would matter, but is constantly on the top charts of many cryptocurrency exchanges, so how did all of this happen?

Before we can dive deep into the answers to these specific questions, we first need to take a trip, back to the past, where we can see how this “memecoin” was invented, and hopefully get a grasp of what exactly is happening within its own little ecosystem.

Origins of The Dogecoin

A long time ago, on planet earth, a product manager at the Australian office of Adobe Inc. known as Jackson Palmer created Dogecoin as a satire coin that delved into the world of cryptocurrencies.

He had this unique yet comedic aspect to him, especially his tweets, but after getting some really solid feedback on social media platforms, he actually purchased the domain name dogecoin.com, and that’s where this story starts.

Now, we move the story to Portland, where a software developer known as Billy Markus, who at the time was a software developer at IBM, wanted to make a digital currency.

As destiny foretold, Markus reached out to Palmer to get permission to build the software that would power the Dogecoin.

Now if you want to get a little bit more in-depth, the Dogecoin code is based on Luckycoin, which is derived from Litecoin. It was used as a randomized reward for block mining, and it was changed to a static reward in March of 2014. Dogecoin uses Litecoin’s scrypt technology and is a proof-of-work coin.

Scrypt is a password-based key derivation function that was created by Colin Percival and was for the Tarsnap online backup service. The algorithm was designed with the intention of making it costly to perform large-scale custom hardware attacks, where they required a large amount of memory to efficiently execute.

Proof-of-work describes a system that requires a non-insignificant, but feasible amount of effort in order to deter frivolous or malicious uses of the computing power. The concept was adapted to money by Hal Finney in 2004.

Moving on to December the 6th of 2013, this is the time where Palmer as well as Markus decided to fully launch the coin. Now, and notice this, two weeks later on December the 19th, the value jumped by 300%.

On the Flipside

• Dogecoin marketed itself as a fun and satirical version of Bitcoin with a Shibu Inu
• Dogecoin is an inflationary coin.
• In January of 2014, the Dogecoin community managed to donate 27 million Dogecoins, which were worth $30.000 at the time, to fully fund the Jamaican bobsled team’s trip to the Sochi Winter Olympic Games.
• In March of 2014, the Dogecoin community also donated $11.000 of Dogecoin to build a well in Kenya, and $55.000 more to sponsor a NASCAR driver known as Josh Wise.

How Reddit Helped

Now, imagine that we are in 2013, and Dogecoin explodes on Reddit, bringing in a market value of $8 million. This is mostly due to the fact that it became popular for giving tips, which was a way for repaying people on the internet for performing good deeds, and this included sharing ideas as an example.

Now, the important thing we need to look at here is the mentality most of the Dogecoin users had, as it was not used by people who took it seriously, and people did not buy it with the hopes of becoming rich one day through it as they did with Bitcoin for example.

Dogecoin and the Crypto Bubble

The value of Dogecoin significantly increased with the rest of the cryptocurrencies throughout the bubble at the end of 2017, and it fell throughout 2018. At its original height, Dogecoin traded for $0.018 and had a market cap of $2,000,000,000.

At the time of writing, Dogecoin is trading for $0.056 and has a market cap of $7,305,760,023.

Dogecoin Explained

Now, Dogecoin or DOGE, is based on the popular “doge” Internet meme that features a Shiba Inu on its logo. It is also an open-source digital currency and was forked from Litecoin.

Dogecoin differs from Bitcoin’s proof-of-work protocol, and it uses Scrypt technology. This altcoin has a block time of 1 minute, and the total supply is uncapped. This means that there is no limit to the number of Dogecoin that can be mined. And you can also mine Dogecoin on your own, or by joining a mining pool. Any doge miner can mine it on Windows, Linux, or Mac, and through the usage of a GPU.

Now, Dogecoin has primarily been used as a tipping system on Reddit and Twitter, and this was in order to reward the creation or sharing of high-quality content on the platforms. You can get tipped in Dogecoin through participation in a community that uses digital currency, or you can get it from a Dogecoin Faucet.

The Dogecoin Faucet is a website that gives you smaller amounts of Dogecoin at no charge as an introduction to the currency, and you can begin interacting with the Dogecoin community this way as a beginner.

Dogecoin and its Media Attention

Dogecoin was developed and meant to be used on social media. This meme-based coin saw a surge in value all the way back in 2018 as a number of media outlets began to pick it up, due to the fact that they shared stories about it having a market cap passing $2 billion.

Dogecoin got even more media attention in early 2021 due to the Wallstreetbets GameStop development.

Now, due to all of this, a lot of people are optimistic about the value of Dogecoin.

It is a popular currency discussed among celebrities, including Elon Musk, Lil Yachty, Snoop Dog, and many more.

As such, the story around the internet goes that Dogecoin has the potential of getting to $1 towards the end of 2021. The main reason as to why this might happen is due to the fact that it has quite a large community that seemingly grows on an everyday basis. Now, keep in mind that any prediction is entirely based on an ideal trading environment, and cryptocurrencies are constantly suffering from news all the time, however, Dogecoin is looking optimistic.

“To The Moon” is a Reddit community effort to sky-rocket the value of Dogecoin. The forum SatoshiStreetbets has featured scores of users calling for a dogecoin rally throughout the past week, and for seemingly hours, the page was flooded by memes as well as images of Shiba Inu dogs. Investors in Europe, as well as India, were called to help prop up the virtual currency during US night hours.

Now, while the Dogecoin is a “memecoin”, or in other words, it came out as a joke, it has truly exceptional community backing. And it seems to be getting supporters across the entire globe. It is one of those coins worth paying attention to, no matter who you are in this industry.

To answer the final question, what’s next for Dogecoin, well, It’s going to the moon! If you haven’t gotten it by now, this is an ironic coin, and its future lies within the fact that it will be used for tipping, sharing memes, and generally embraced by celebrities as a cool joke that actually holds some value attached to it, something nobody expected, and especially not the two founders of the coin itself.

While we can predict the coin’s value to go up to $1 over the years, at the end of the day this is a coin made for entertainment purposes, and as the heat around it dies down, the value will drop, up until the point where another celebrity will joke about it, or the Reddit community comes together to bring its value astronomically high overnight.

Like all other cryptocurrencies, Dogecoin is characterized by high price volatility, which means that its value soars, then drops seemingly overnight, and it is not a stable investment for the time being to say the least.