Exploring the Rise of Dogecoin: Is It Still a Good Investment in 2024?”

As an investor what are the possibilities to invest our hard earned money on this particular doge coin or else how can we cultivate the benefits from it? In this blog I am explaining a brief about doge coin including its birth, initial stages, factors that affected its popularity, market capitalization, criticism, its current state and its future.

stay tuned till the end to get a clear idea about the entire story about a widely recognized cryptocurrency which started as a meme coin.

The founders

Billy Markus & Jackson Palmer

Billy Markus , a software engineer & Jackson Palmer, an entrepreneur are the both people who together created the dogecoin.

Lets talk about Jackson Palmer, Australian Entrepreneur and marketer who made this idea into a reality. Palmer was working in adobe system when he co founded the doge coin. He handled the initial branding and promotion of dogecoin, leveraging his background in marketing to help the currency gain its traction quickly. While working in Adobe, Palmer purchased the Domain DOGECOIN.COM and added a splash screen which featured the coin logo and scattered comic sans text. within first 30 days, there were over a million visitors to Dogecoin.com.

Next we can talk about how Billy Markus came into the frame, also known as “shibetoshi Nakamoto” within the dogecoin community. He is from Portland, Oregon. He worked as a software engineer at IBM. He created the original codebase for dogecoin, drawing inspiration from Bitcoin & Litecoin. Markus reached out to Palmer after seeing the site and started efforts to develop the currency. Markus designed the dogecoin’s protocol based on existing Lucky coin & Litecoin and uses “SCRYPT” technology in their proof -of-work-algorithm.

Launch

Together, On December 6th, 2013, Dogecoin was launched. Initially it was developed as a joke or parody cryptocurrency.

Inspired by the Doge Meme featuring “Shiba Inu Dog” : japan hunting dog

Their intention was making a fun and accessible cryptocurrency to create a payment system. it is considered as the first meme coin or the dog coin. Dogecoin quickly gained its traction due to its meme inspired branding and low barrier to entry. The community grew rapidly on social media platforms like “REDDIT” where users tipped each other doge coin for entertaining or informative content

Reddit : American social news aggregation, content rating and forum social network. Registered users can submit contents to the site like link, text, post, images and videos which are the voted up or down by other members.

Dogecoin initially forked from Litecoin and utilized a “SCRYPT ALGORITHM” for mining.

SCRYPT : Dogecoin uses a cryptographic algorithm called Scrypt, which differs from Bitcoin’s Secure Hash Algorithm 256 (SHA-256). In simplest terms, Scrypt consumes less energy and prevents using specialized Bitcoin mining equipment (e.g., ASIC Miners) to mine Dogecoin.

It runs on a proof-of-work network methodology where miners receive payments for validating Dogecoin transactions. Unlike Bitcoin, Dogecoin qualifies as an inflationary coin which means its supply is not limited rather it is indefinite. Currently, there are more than 139 billion Dogecoins in circulation. Relatively fast block time of one minute allowing quick transaction, whereas a bitcoin has 10 minute block time.Dogecoin’s prize remained lower for several years hovering around fraction of a cent.

Journey

Within 2 weeks after launch, Doge coin has established a dedicated blog and forum. Market value reached $8 million and jumped to the seventh largest electronic currency in the world.

On December 19, 2013, Dogecoin jumped nearly 300% in value in 72 hours, rising from $0.00026 to $0.00095, with a volume of billions of Dogecoins traded per day. However, This growth occurred during a time when Bitcoin and many other cryptocurrencies were reeling from China’s decision to forbid Chinese banks from investing in the Bitcoin economy.  Three days later, Dogecoin experienced its first major crash when its price dropped by 80% due to this event and to large mining pools exploiting the small amount of computing power required at the time to mine Dogecoin.

On December 25, 2013, the first major theft of Dogecoin occurred when millions of coins were stolen during a hack on the online cryptocurrency wallet platform Dogewallet. The hacker gained access to the platform’s filesystem and modified its send/receive page to send any and all coins to a static internet protocol address. This hacking incident spiked tweets about Dogecoin, making it the most mentioned altcoin on Twitter at the time, although it was in reference to a negative event. To help those who lost funds on Dogewallet after its breach, the Dogecoin community started an initiative named “SaveDogemas” to help donate coins to those who had them stolen. Approximately one month later, enough money was donated to cover all of the coins that were stolen.

In January 2014, the trading volume of Dogecoin briefly surpassed that of all other cryptocurrencies combined. However, its market capitalization remained substantially behind that of Bitcoin.

Co-founder Jackson Palmer left the cryptocurrency community in 2015 and has no plans to return, having come to the belief that cryptocurrency, originally conceived as a libertarian alternative to money, is fundamentally exploitative and built to enrich its top proponents. His co-founder, Billy Markus, agreed that Palmer’s position was generally valid.

During the 2017 to early 2018 cryptocurrency bubble, Dogecoin briefly reached a peak of $0.017 on January 7, 2018, putting its total market capitalization near $2 billion. In July 2020, the price of Dogecoin spiked following a TikTok trend aimed at getting Dogecoin to $1.

On May 9, 2021, SpaceX announced a rideshare mission to the Moon completely funded by Dogecoin, thus becoming the first space mission funded by a cryptocurrency. Elon Musk confirmed this news via Twitter.   This launch has since been delayed to February 2024. it hat has been repeatedly postponed by Intuitive Machines’ launch provider SpaceX, which in turn postponed DOGE-1’s planned launch from 2022 to the now-targeted 2024.

In April 2023, a Dogecoin increase was attributed to Elon Musk temporarily changing the logo on the Twitter app to a Doge logo.

In June 2023, Musk was accused of insider trading by investors based on a series of stunts including the change of logo.

Use and exchanges

Dogecoin is an altcoin with a large userbase, and is traded against both fiat currencies and other cryptocurrencies on several reputable cryptocurrency exchanges and retail investment platforms. Trading physical, tangible items in exchange for Dogecoin takes place on online communities such as Reddit and Twitter, where users in such circles frequently share cryptocurrency-related information.

Dogecoin has been used in an attempted property sale, and it has been used in the pornography and gambling industries.

Online tipping

One major mainstream commercial application of the cryptocurrency has been Internet-based tipping systems, in which social media users tip other users for providing interesting or noteworthy content.

Doge tip bot

Doge tip bot was a cryptocurrency transaction service used on popular sites like Reddit and Twitch. It allowed users to send Dogecoins to other users through commands via Reddit comments. In May 2017, Doge tip bot was discontinued and taken offline after its creator declared bankruptcy; this left many Doge tip bot users losing their coins stored in the Doge tip bot system.

My Doge Wallet

My Doge Wallet is a self custodial Dogecoin wallet which can also be used to tip Dogecoin on the X platform

Current Status:

Current Market CAP of doge coin is 25 Billion USD. The reason behind this spike is the spike that is happening in the overall crypto market when the SEC has introduced 11 Bitcoin ETF’s which led a bitcoin rally along with which the other cryptocurrencies are also having a spike. About the rally, I have already done a detailed video which is given below.

Negative Part:

Dogecoin’s origin as a “joke”, which makes it the first meme coin, has made it difficult to be taken seriously by mainstream media and financial experts The cryptocurrency has had a long and problematic history of scams. Similar to many other cryptocurrencies, Dogecoin has been described by some commentators as a form of Ponzi scheme. Critics allege that Dogecoin investors who purchased Dogecoins early on, have a large financial incentive to draw others into purchasing more Dogecoins in order to drive the price up, therefore benefitting the early investors financially at the direct expense of later purchasers.

Positives:

While the price of Dogecoin is volatile, this volatility has its benefits. It allows investors to use strategies such as cryptocurrency day trading or scalping to profit from fast, short-lived price swings.

Future :

The future of Dogecoin is uncertain and subject to various factors that can influence its trajectory. Here are a few potential scenarios: Continued Community Engagement: Dogecoin’s strength lies in its vibrant and engaged community. If the community remains active, continues to promote the currency, and finds new use cases, Dogecoin could continue to thrive.

Integration into Mainstream Payment Systems: If Dogecoin gains wider acceptance as a form of payment and is integrated into mainstream payment systems and platforms, its adoption could increase significantly.

Market Speculation and Volatility: Dogecoin’s price has historically been highly volatile, influenced by social media trends, celebrity endorsements, and market speculation. This volatility may continue in the future, making Dogecoin attractive to traders but potentially risky for long-term investors.

Technological Developments: Dogecoin’s development team may implement technological improvements to enhance security, scalability, and utility. These developments could increase its appeal and competitiveness within the cryptocurrency ecosystem.

Regulatory Environment: Regulatory developments and government policies regarding cryptocurrencies could impact Dogecoin’s future. Clearer regulations and widespread acceptance by regulatory bodies could provide stability and legitimacy to Dogecoin, while unfavorable regulations could hinder its growth.

Competition from Other Cryptocurrencies: Dogecoin faces competition from thousands of other cryptocurrencies, each vying for market share and adoption. The emergence of new, innovative projects could challenge Dogecoin’s position and influence in the cryptocurrency space.

Overall, the future of Dogecoin will depend on a combination of community engagement, technological advancements, market dynamics, regulatory factors, and its ability to differentiate itself and maintain relevance in a rapidly evolving landscape. So one should consider all these factors in order to invest in the dogecoin in the coming days.