Wow. Such currency. Many coins. Much crypto. Featuring a Japanese Shiba Inu dog, the internet meme “Doge” rose to fame in 2013. With its colourful Comic Sans font, it depicts the internal monologue of the dog in broken English. But how did the meme find its way into the world of cryptocurrency?
It all started with a joking tweet by Australian Jackson Palmer parodying the increasing number of alternative cryptocurrencies coming on the market, his tweet read, “Investing in Dogecoin, pretty sure it’s the next big thing.” Shortly after, with a little too much time on his hands, he purchased the domain dogecoin.com. The joke caught the eye of Portland-based software engineer Billy Markus who was in the midst of designing his own digital currency at the time. Markus contacted Palmer and days later Dogecoin was launched.
Cryptocurrency is a digital currency based on cryptography to secure transactions. Bitcoin was the world’s first peer-to-peer decentralized digital currency, invented in 2008 by pseudonymous developer Satoshi Nakamoto. Quickly gaining popularity, it offered people the freedom to transfer money anonymously from person to person without a third party, like banks or governments.
Another aspect is the mining of Bitcoins. It is a process similar to mining for gold, but instead your computer does the work by solving an encryption code. Just like gold, there are a finite number of Bitcoins to be found which is set in the original code. The rarity and tradability of the currency is what gives it its value. To compare, Bitcoin’s cap is 21 million while Dogecoin’s is 100 billion.
Dogecoin is more of a variation on Litecoin (Bitcoin’s top competitor), which boasts faster transaction times and the ability to mine coins on a basic computer compared to the industrial-strength processors needed to mine Bitcoin. Because of its low value (one DOGE is currently worth about $0.002 US), its ease of accessibility, and adorable mascot, Dogecoin has been adopted for use as a tipping currency. This means that if people like something on the internet they can tip a few coins here and there to show their appreciation. This contrasts to Bitcoin, which has become somewhat more expensive and therefore not ideal to be used as a tipping currency.
The struggle for Bitcoin and most other cryptocurrencies is getting people interested and getting them to understand how it works and how it can benefit them. The meme-based Dogecoin is proving to attract new users who would otherwise not explore the world of digital currency. Bitcoin may seem too intimidating or pricey for new users, but Dogecoin is taken more light-heartedly providing a good starting point for people to gain more interest and learn about decentralized virtual currency.
The latest project by Palmer and Markus is the Dogecoin Foundation, a non-profit organization created for the purpose of spreading the use of the currency for charity and other goodwill endeavours. This includes the support for a non-profit community dental clinic, a non-profit AIDS service corporation, and a LGBT shelter.
One of the latest movements involved Jamaicans, bobsleds, and the 2014 Sochi Olympics. News released that Jamaica’s two-man bobsled team had qualified for the Sochi Olympics, the first time for the country’s bobsled team since the 2002 Winter Olympics. Despite the qualification, the team announced that they hadn’t been able to raise the funds needed to travel to Russia. After finding little help from the Jamaican Olympic Association and private investors, the team had to turn elsewhere.
Cue the generosity and support of the citizens of the internet and the power of virtual currency. Over just two days, the Dogecoin community managed to raise the equivalent of $30 000 for the bobsled team. With this effort along with several other fundraising campaigns and outpouring of support, the Jamaican Bobsled team will be able to make its flight to the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympic Games. Now that’s what you call supporting the underDOGEs.
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