Dogecoin is a cryptocurrency created by software engineers Billy Markus and Jackson Palmer.
So let’s find out some trivia and facts about this cryptocurrency.
- Dogecoin is a cryptocurrency
- It was created by software engineers Billy Markus and Jackson Palmer
- They decided to create a payment system as a “joke”
- Making fun of the wild speculation in cryptocurrencies at the time
- It is considered both the first “meme coin”, and, more specifically, the first “dog coin”
- Despite its satirical nature, some consider it a legitimate investment prospect
- Dogecoin features the face of the Shiba Inu dog from the “doge” meme as its logo and namesake
- It was introduced on December 6, 2013
- It quickly developed its own online community
- Reaching a market capitalization of over $85 billion on May 5, 2021
- As of 2021, it is the sleeve sponsor[b] of Watford Football Club
- Dogecoin.com promotes the currency as the “fun and friendly Internet currency”, referencing its origins as a “joke”
- Software engineers Billy Markus and Jackson Palmer launched the satirical cryptocurrency as a way to make fun of Bitcoin and the many other cryptocurrencies boasting grand plans to take over the world
- With the help of Reddit, the site became an instant hit
- Within two weeks, Dogecoin had established a dedicated blog and forum, and its market value has reached US$8 million, once jumping to become the seventh largest electronic currency in the world
- Dogecoin is based on Scrypt algorithm, and the transaction process is more convenient than Bitcoin
- Dogecoin takes only 1 minute to confirm, while BTC takes 10 minutes
- Dogecoin is an altcoin with a large userbase
- It is traded against both fiat currencies and other cryptocurrencies on several reputable cryptocurrency exchanges and retail investment platforms
- Trading physical, tangible items in exchange for DOGE takes place on online communities such as Reddit and Twitter
- There users in such circles frequently share cryptocurrency-related information
- Several cases of people using their employers’ or universities’ computers to mine Dogecoin have been discovered
- Dogecoin has also been used in an attempted property sale
- And has been used in the pornography and gambling industries
- DeFi (decentralized finance) is a form of finance that does not rely on middlemen such as brokerages, exchanges, or banks to offer financial instruments
- This is accomplished using “smart contracts” which are automated enforceable agreements that do not need intermediaries like a bank or lawyer, but use online blockchain technology instead
- While Dogecoin cannot interact with smart contracts directly given that it operates on its own chain, the coins can be “wrapped” so that they can be locked into a state that is interoperable with a contract until it is later released
- The Ren Project has enabled Dogecoin (renDOGE) to be used on the Ethereum blockchain and access the DeFi network. Most DeFi coins use the Ethereum blockchain network
- DeFi linked coins use decentralized applications (“dApps”) to transact and trade on decentralized exchanges (DExs)
- An example of a Dexs is Uniswap; these are entirely peer-to-peer exchanges, without any company or other institution providing the platform
- Dogecoin’s implementation differs from its predecessors
- It was originally forked from Litecoin, then refactored to Bitcoin. Dogecoin’s target block time is 1 minute
- As opposed to Litecoin’s 2.5 minutes and Bitcoin’s 10 minutes
- Elon Musk frequently uses his Twitter platform to express his views on Dogecoin
- This has led some to claim that his actions amount to market manipulation because the price of Dogecoin frequently experiences price movements shortly after Dogecoin-related tweets released by Elon Musk
- Nevertheless, because cryptocurrencies are not regulated like stocks, these actions are not illegal
- Musk and his promotion of Dogecoin have been criticized by Dogecoin co-founder Jackson Palmer, who called Musk a “self-absorbed grifter”
- Musk’s first Dogecoin-related tweet occurred on December 20, 2020. Musk tweeted “One Word: Doge”
- Shortly after, the value of Dogecoin rose by 20%
- This was followed by a series of Dogecoin-related tweets by Musk in early February 2021 captioned “Dogecoin is the people’s crypto” and “no highs, no lows, only Doge”
- Following these tweets, the value of Dogecoin rose by roughly 40%
- On April 15, 2021, the price of Dogecoin rose by more than 100% after Musk tweeted an image of Joan Miró’s Dog Barking at the Moon painting captioned “Doge Barking at the Moon”
- The message whch was taken by some as a reference to the industry slang term “to the moon”
- Meaning a hoped-for increase in a cryptocurrency’s value
- On May 8, 2021, Dogecoin fell as much as 29.5%, dropping to US$0.49 during Musk’s Saturday Night Live appearance
- The price of Dogecoin rose by 11% on May 20, 2021
- Shortly after Musk tweeted a Doge-related meme
- In May 2021, the price of Dogecoin was up 10% in the hours after Musk tweeted a Reddit link for users to submit proposals to improve the cryptocurrency
- On December 14, 2021, Dogecoin spiked more than 20% after Musk said that Tesla will accept the currency as a means of payment for Tesla merchandise
- On June 16, 2022, Elon Musk was named in a complaint seeking damages of $258 billion
- The complaint was filed in federal court in Manhattan by plaintiff Keith Johnson
- Johnson cited Musk’s repeated use of his massive social influence to promote the altcoin, which he claims artificially inflated the price
- On October 27, 2022, Elon Musk completed a deal to take Twitter private for $44 billion
- This led to a sustained rise in Dogecoin from the 25th to the 29th, with the highest increase of 45.51%
- It was reported back in 2013 that Musk thinks dogecoin can be used for Twitter transactions
- On April 3, 2023, Twitter’s bird logo was replaced with an image of the Doge meme for desktop users, leading to a rise in Dogecoin prices
- No reason was given for the icon change, with some speculating that it was a late April Fool’s joke, or an attempt to troll investors over the Dogecoin lawsuit that Musk was seeking to end that week
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