Dogecoin – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Dogecoin Date of introduction December 6th, 2013 User(s) International Inflation Limited release, production rate before this limit re-evaluated with the production of every block (at a rate of approximately 1 block per minute) based on the difficulty with which Dogecoins are produced, eventually leading up to a final total of 100 billion. Subunit 0.001 mDOGE (millidoge) 0.000001 DOGE (microdoge) Symbol D, Nickname Doge Plural DOGE, Dogecoins

Dogecoin (/do.kn/,[1] code: DOGE, symbol: and D), is a Litecoin-derived[2]cryptocurrency that features the Shiba Inu from the "Doge" Internet meme on its logo.[3][4][5][6] Of the 100 billion total, 36,244,688,154 (36.24%) Dogecoins have been mined as of the 25th of January 2014.[7] While there are currently few commercial applications for Dogecoin, the currency is gaining traction as an Internet tipping system, in which social media users grant Dogecoin tips to other users for providing interesting or noteworthy content.[8] Dogecoins are associated with the motto "To the moon!".[9][10][11]

Dogecoin was created by programmer and former IBM engineer Billy Markus of Portland, Oregon. He was originally trying to tinker with an existing cryptocurrency of Markus's called "Bells" based on Nintendo's Animal Crossing. His hopes were reaching a broader demographic than the investors who made up Bitcoin's economy and something that wouldn't be involved with the controversial history behind Bitcoin (namely its association with the Silk Road).[12]

At the same time, his friend Jackson Palmer, a worker for a marketing department in Sydney, Australia for Adobe Systems, and the original individual who first conceived of the idea for Dogecoin, was encouraged by a student at Front Range Community College on Twitter to make the idea reality.[13]This led Palmer to reach out to Markus.[14]

After getting several mentions on Twitter, Palmer bought the domain dogecoin.com, which was shown to Markus and quickly began the partnership between Markus and Palmer, launching the coin shortly after the development of Markus' Dogecoin wallet was done.[15] Within a couple weeks of launching the currency, a significant portion of available DOGE had already been mined. Over 6% of the total amount of 100 billion DOGE was already mined by December 17, 2013,[16]. On December 19, Dogecoin had jumped more than 300 percent in value, rising from $0.00026 to $0.00099,[17] with a volume of hundreds of Bitcoins per day[18] during a time when Bitcoin and many other cryptocurrencies were reeling from China's decision to forbid Chinese banks from investing Chinese Yuan into the Bitcoin economy.[2] On the 22nd of December, Dogecoin experienced its first major crash by dropping by 80% due to large mining pools seizing opportunity in exploiting the very little computing power required at the time to mine the coin.[19]

On December 24, 2013 The Reserve Bank of India cautioned users of Dogecoin and other virtual currencies on the risks associated with them.[20] On Christmas of 2013, the first major theft attempt of Dogecoin happened when millions of coins were stolen during a hacking attempt on the online wallet platform Dogewallet,[21]. The hacker gained access to the platform's filesystem and modified its send/receive page to send any and all coins to a static address.[22][23] By January 2014, the trading volume of Dogecoin surpassed that of Bitcoin and all other crypto-currencies combined.[24]

Markus based Dogecoin on the existing currency Litecoin,[2] which also uses scrypt technology in its proof-of-work algorithm, meaning that miners cannot take advantage of specialized Bitcoin-mining equipment to mine at higher speeds. The Dogecoin network was originally intended to produce 100 billion Dogecoins.[25][26][27] Despite Dogecoin's original purpose as a proof-of-concept and a play on the internet meme of the same name, there are communities dedicated to it and several minor exchanges that trade it for other established crypto-currencies like Litecoin or Bitcoin. The currency's popularity and value are rapidly growing;[28] the baseline price on January 7, 2014 was approximately 4600 DOGE to 1 United States dollar. As of January 20, Dogecoin is trading on cryptocurrency exchanges at an average high of approximately 0.00000260 BTC per DOGE, or about 500 DOGE to 1 USD.

On January 19, a fundraiser was established by the Dogecoin community to raise $30,000 for the Jamaican Bobsled Team, which had qualified for, but could not afford to go to, the Sochi Winter Olympics; $30,000 was donated by the second day,[29] and the Dogecoin to Bitcoin exchange rate rose by 50%.[30]

While there is only one DOGE/USD [31] and one DOGE/CNY [32] exchange, there are several online exchanges that handle DOGE/BTC [33] and DOGE/LTC [34] trading. The price is highly volatile due to the relatively short existence of the currency. As of Dec 19th 2013, the price for one DOGE was $0.00095,[17] although this hasn't been a deterrent for exchange since people are trading real-world items in exchange for DOGE on major online communities such as Reddit and Twitter.[35][36]

As of January 25, 2014, 1,000 Dogecoins are valued at $1.78[37]

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Dogecoin - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia