How Dogecoin Became a Crypto Phenomenon

For the past few years, cryptocurrency has been very much in trend. But one of the most popular cryptocurrencies is bitcoin. Dogecoin is one cryptocurrency that has gained popularity after bitcoin mostly because of the tweets by Elon Musk, the maverick billionaire.

What is a Dogecoin?

An open-crypto currency was Started by Billy Markus and Jackson Palmer in the year 2013, known as dogecoin. It started initially based on a popular meme that featured a Japanese dog breed- Shiba Inu. The proof-of-work technology dogecoin cryptocurrency has is Litecoin based. People invest in this crypto because there is an unlimited supply, the price is low as well as it uses a scrypt algorithm. At present, there are more than 129 million dogecoins in circulation which would become unlimited as a new block would be available every year to mine.

Despite starting from a meme, this digital currency participated in the cryptocurrency bubble in 2017, where the price went up for other crypto coins significantly. It was in 2018 that this bubble burst and the value was reduced for the dogecoin price. But despite the loss in value, dogecoin had many supported it by trading and using it for Reddit and Twitter tip content. At present, the dogecoin price is around 3 dimes which is very low when compared to bitcoin which values around USD 33,000

Dogecoin Journey from Starting As a Joke to Becoming the Most Talked-About Cryptocurrency

• The beginning- From where it all started

A product manager of Adobe Inc., from Sydney named Jackson Palmer, created dogecoin to satirize the cryptocurrency hype. A “skeptic-analytic” emerging technology observer is what everyone thought Palmer is and his tweets about the new crypto were tongue-in-cheek. Dogecoin.com domain was bought by him after receiving positive feedback on Twitter.

At the same time, in Portland, a city in Oregon, USA, Billy Markus, who worked for IBM as a software developer was facing troubles trying to promote his efforts of creating a digital currency. It is then, Markus came across the dogecoin buzz and contacted Palmer, asking if he can build an actual dogecoin software.

The code for the dogecoin software that Markus made was luckycoin based which was obtained from litecoin. To block mining, it used randomized reward initially but in March 2014 changed to a static reward. It was on 6th December 2013, when the two people launched dogecoin and on the 19th of the same month, the dogecoin price jumped by 300 percent. This rise was mainly due to the Chinese banks being forbidden from investing in crypto.

• The rise

Dogecoin promoted itself as the bitcoins “fun version”, whose logo was that of a Shibu Inu. The casual presentation of dogecoin was well suited for the growing crypto community. Its unlimited supply and scrypt technology were known as a consumer-friendly, adaptable and faster version of bitcoin. It is an inflationary coin as there is no limit to the number of coins that would be created and circulated. 27 million dogecoins were donated in January 2014 by the dogecoin community to fund the “Jamaican bobsled” for the “Sochi Winter Olympic games” trip. Further dogecoin worth USD 11000 was donated for building a well in Kenya and worth USD 55,000 for sponsoring Josh Wise, a NASCAR driver in March 2014.

• Controversy and the losing of dogecoins fun

In 2015, the mirth of the dogecoin freewheeling fun was lost due to the crypto community becoming serious. It all started when Palmer departed from the dogecoin community regarding it and the money made from it as toxic.

Moolah, a dogecoin exchange was created by a British member named Alex Green, who was known to be toxic as well. Green by mistake instead of donating USD 1500 donated USD 15000 to the fundraiser of NASCAR and was known as a lavish tipper of the doge community since then. He even convinced the community member for helping him with the creation of his exchange by donating larger amounts. Green later used around USD 1.5 million to buy bitcoins to live a lavish life but in 2016 got a sentence of 11 years of imprisonment.

• 2017-2018 Crypto Bubble

In 2017, during the bubble, the price of dogecoin skyrocketed along with other crypto-verse and even decreased along with them in 2018. The market cap was over USD 2 million whereas USD 0.018 was the trading amount back then. In 2019 summers, this crypto along with others saw a bump again. The people who use to invest in dogecoin got very happy when this crypto got listed by Binance. Many enthusiasts thought that Elon musk through a cryptic tweet endorsed dogecoin.

The Elon Musk Effect on DogeCoin

The 49-year-old investor and the CEO of Space x and Tesla- Elon Musk is famous for revolutionizing whatever he touches including the crypto market. The dogecoin value was boosted because of the brand power of Elon Musk.

The above tweet was the first-ever doge tweet by Musk. The price doubled for dogecoin because of this tweet.

Then there was another time when musk just tweeted three emoticons, i.e the three droplets, rocket, and an arrow pointing towards the moon. The investors took out a meaning that the price of adult-themed crypto is going to increase and post that the crypto price rose around 400 percent.

“How much is that Doge in the window?” on May 20, 2021. He tweeted this immediately after a fall in the crypto market after the Chinese government banned cryptocurrency trade.

It is believed that Elon Musk tweeting about doge makes a rise or fall in its price immediately.

Even on July 1, 2021, he tweeted the famous nursery rhyme, “Baby Shark Do Do” but added doge at the end of it. “Release the doge”, “My Shiba Inu will be named Floki” etc are some other tweets regarding doge made by the billionaire.

 How to buy Dogecoin?

Here are few steps that will help one to buy a dogecoin.

• A dogecoin wallet needs to be opened 

There are many dogewallets available. Depending on security, usability, or uses one can select from ledger, trezor, exodus, and coinomi. One can choose between a hardware wallet and a software wallet. 

The address of the dogecoin needs to be located post opening the wallet.

• A doge exchange needs to be found

There are no many reputable options available when it comes to the exchange of doge. Binance, BitPanda, EToro, CoinBase, Bittrex, Gemini, Kraken, and Changelly are the only options available. But before investing, one must be aware of the risk they are taking.

• Buy and withdraw the doge

After Buying any crypto be it dogecoin, it is safer to move it to a wallet rather than keeping it on exchange as the control is given to someone else as well, and one might lose everything if the exchange gets bankrupt or hijacked.

While not, many are ready to take a risk by investing in cryptocurrencies, it is still gaining popularity. Not only are people investing in Bitcoins but Dogecoins as well.