{"id":3250,"date":"2021-02-19T12:13:47","date_gmt":"2021-02-19T06:43:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/aayushbhaskar.com\/?p=3250"},"modified":"2022-02-01T14:08:51","modified_gmt":"2022-02-01T08:38:51","slug":"dogecoin-explained-what-why-how","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/aayushbhaskar.com\/dogecoin-explained-what-why-how\/","title":{"rendered":"Dogecoin Explained","gt_translate_keys":[{"key":"rendered","format":"text"}]},"content":{"rendered":"

Cryptocurrencies have been gaining massive popularity for quite some time now. The cryptocurrency craze is real, and the soaring prices of bitcoins are just enough proof.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Cryptocurrencies<\/span><\/a> are basically digital assets that are designed to work as a medium of exchange, all electronically. There is no paper evidence for the same, and it all happens via the internet and with the help of a robust network system.<\/span><\/p>\n

They used decentralized control, so there is no central authority issuing crypto coins.<\/span><\/p>\n

Dogecoin<\/h2>\n

Like<\/span> bitcoins, Dogecoin is a cryptocurrency invented by Billy Markus and Jackson Palmer, two software engineers from IBM and Adobe.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

They initially invented Dogecoin as a joke to make the payment system fun, instant, and free from banking fees. In 2013, the idea came up, and recently, Dogecoin prices have skyrocketed after becoming Reddit traders’ targets.<\/span><\/p>\n

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History<\/span><\/h2>\n

Dogecoin was first launched on 6th December 2013. The domain dogecoin.com witnessed over a million visitors within the first 30 days. On 19th December 2013, Dogecoin jumped nearly 300 percent in value in a matter of 72 ho9urs. From $0.00026 to $0.00095.<\/span><\/p>\n

However, the skyrocketing did not last long, and Dogecoin saw its first crash after 3 days, dropping down by 80%. The happiness of Dogecoins investors was short-lived.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Christmas of 2013 was when there was a significant theft of Dogecoin, stealing millions of coins through a hack on the online cryptocurrency wallet<\/a> platform – Dogewallet. <\/span><\/p>\n

This spiked tweets around Dogecoin, making it the most controversial and talked about event of that time. The publicity soared, but referring to an adverse event.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The Dogecoin community started an initiative \u2013 SaveDogmas, to help donate coins to the people who lost them in the crypto hack. One month later, there was enough money to cover all the stolen coins.<\/span><\/p>\n

January 2014 was when the trading volume of Dogecoin surpassed that of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies combined. The market capitalization, however, was still behind that of Bitcoin.<\/span><\/p>\n

In April 2015, co-founder Palmer announced an ‘extended leave of absence’ from the cryptocurrency community. And from 2017 to early 2018, Dogecoin peaked at $0.017\/coin, putting the total market capitalization near $2 billion.<\/span><\/p>\n

As the pandemic hit the entire world, Dogecoin prices kept on increasing, pricing it at $0.7376 <\/b>per coin.<\/span><\/p>\n

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How Does Dogecoin Work?<\/span><\/h2>\n

Dogecoin\u2019s coding is almost a direct copy of Bitcoin. Co-founder Billy Markus once stated that it only took 3 hours to create Dogecoin. He described how all he had to do was press the control F function to scroll through Bitcoin’s code and replace it with Dogecoin’s.<\/p>\n

He did make a couple of adjustments, through, to further the concept. The adjustments were majorly like changing the term mining to digging.<\/p>\n

Markus decided on a 1 minute block time for Dogecoin, referring to how often a new ‘block’ of transactions will add to the ‘chain’ of transactions.<\/p>\n

Its\u00a0thread follows a block reward schedule where the first 100,000 blocks get a random reward between 0 and 1,000,000 DogeCoins. Every subsequent 100,000 blocks thereafter halve the reward of the previous reward’s maximum.<\/p>\n

Understanding The Tech Behind Dogecoin<\/h2>\n

Dogecoin uses the Scrypt hashing algorithm instead of Bitcoin’s SHA-256. This is supposed to be ASIC resistant, which means that\u00a0Dogecoin is meant to be mined with computer processors (CPUs) or graphics cards (GPUs).<\/p>\n

This leads to a result in a lower hash, though ASICs like the Antminer L3+ run Skrypt.<\/p>\n

Digging (Mining) Dogecoin<\/h2>\n

Before moving further, let us understand what mining means in cryptocurrency. Crypto mining means gaining cryptocurrencies by solving cryptographic equations through the use of technology\/computers.<\/p>\n

This process involves validating data blocks and adding transaction records to a public record (ledger) known as a blockchain.<\/p>\n

In the Dogecoin ecosystem, you have diggers and not miners. These network nodes validate new transactions and add blocks. However, mining, or let us say, digging Dogecoin, is less competitive than Bitcoin.<\/p>\n

The developers behind this coin never really did a pre-mine. Pre-mines would have helped developers build up reserves before the network went public.<\/p>\n

Some 5.2 billion DOGE are mined each year.<\/p>\n

How Do You Buy Dogecoin?<\/h2>\n

Dogecoin is available on select exchanges currently.<\/p>\n

Both Binance<\/a> and Kraken<\/a>, as crypto exchanges, support this coin. These exchanges are fiat on-ramps. In India, you can use Vaud or WazirX crypto exchanges.<\/a><\/p>\n

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You can purchase dogecoins directly using a debit or credit card.<\/p>\n

However, you need first to fund your account and then convert your fiat money to Bitcoin, ETH, or any other currency with a fiat pairing.<\/p>\n

3 Best Wallets to Store Dogecoin<\/h2>\n

There are a lot of ways to store Dogecoin. However, the following are the top 3 picks to store Dogecoins securely –<\/p>\n