Dogecoin (DOGE) is a peer-to-peer, open-source cryptocurrency. It is considered an altcoin and was launched in December 2013 with the image of a Shiba Inu dog as its logo. Dogecoin’s blockchain has merit with its underlying technology derived from Litecoin. Notable features of Dogecoin, which uses a scrypt algorithm, are its low price and unlimited supply.
Dogecoin began as a whim but quickly gained a following. By late 2017, it was participating in the cryptocurrency bubble that increased digital coin value significantly.
With losses in 2018, Dogecoin lost much of its value but continues to have a core of supporters who trade it and use it to tip for content on Twitter and Reddit.
Users can buy and sell Dogecoin on digital currency exchanges. They can opt to store their Dogecoin on an exchange or in a Dogecoin wallet.
Jackson Palmer, a product manager at the Sydney, Australia, office of Adobe Inc., created Dogecoin in 2013 as a way to satirize the hype surrounding cryptocurrencies. After receiving positive feedback and interest on social media, he bought the domain dogecoin.com.
Billy Markus, a software developer at IBM, desired to create a digital currency but had trouble promoting his efforts. Markus teamed with Palmer to build the software behind an actual Dogecoin.
Markus based Dogecoin’s code on Luckycoin, derived from Litecoin, and initially used a randomized reward for block mining, although that was changed to a static reward in March 2014. Dogecoin uses Litecoin’s scrypt technology and is a Proof-of-Work (PoW) coin.
Palmer and Markus launched the coin on Dec. 6, 2013. Two weeks later on Dec. 19, the value of Dogecoin jumped 300%, bolstered by China’s policy to forbid its banks from investing in cryptocurrency.
In 2015 the crypto community was established, but Jackson Palmer departed Dogecoin, citing a “toxic community” that had grown up around the coin and the money it was producing.
Alex Green, a.k.a. Ryan Kennedy, is a British citizen who created a Dogecoin exchange called Moolah. Alex Green was known in the community as a lavish tipper who reportedly mistakenly gave $15,000 instead of $1,500 to the NASCAR fundraiser.
Green’s exchange convinced members of the community to donate large sums to help fund the creation of his exchange, but it later surfaced that he had used the donations to buy more than $1.5 million of Bitcoin that in turn bought him a lavish lifestyle. Kennedy was convicted in 2016 of multiple counts of rape and sentenced to 11 years in prison.