Dogecoin is a fun meme coin that was launched on December 6, 2013. The coin is a decentralized peer-to-peer currency that tried mimicking the popular Bitcoin, but in an an effort to surpass Bitcoin’s popularity. Doge features a cartoon Japanese character Shiba Inu, that acts as the coin’s mascot. The intention of this mascot is to show the fun part that this coin was intended to be.
Dogecoin’s developer Billy Markus based this coin’s code on Lucky coin, that is based on another coin called tecoin. Litecoin uses the scrypt technology in its proof-of-work consensus mechanism preventing dedicated Bitcoin miners from mining. It is for this reason that Dogecoin was at least originally effectively mined with ordinary PCs instead of the dedicated miners.
While it was introduced as a fun coin, Dogecoin’s community has since grown by a lot. It is now mainly used to tip social media users who contribute great and interesting content on various platforms. Instead of simply liking their content, the contributors get rewards in form of Dogecoins. It is also frequently used for raising funds for charity events, eg. in the case of the construction of a well in the Tana river delta in Kenya.
Apart from Billy Markus, who came up with the original idea, another key individual in the coin’s development is Jackson Palmer of Adobe Systems. It is Palmer who took over this project and propelled it to its current status.
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