What is Dogecoin (DOGE)?
Dogecoin began in December 2013 as a lighthearted fork of the Litecoin codebase, created by software engineers Billy Markus and Jackson Palmer and themed around the Shiba Inu "doge" meme. What started as a joke grew into one of the longest-running cryptocurrencies, supported by an active community.
- Type
- Layer-1 blockchain (payments)
- Launched
- 2013
- Consensus
- Proof of Work (Scrypt, merged mining with Litecoin)
- Max supply
- No fixed cap
- Swap network
- Dogecoin
- Sector (Messari)
- Cryptocurrency
How Dogecoin works
Dogecoin uses Proof of Work with the Scrypt algorithm, and since 2014 it has allowed merged mining with Litecoin, so miners can secure both networks at once. New blocks are produced roughly every minute, faster than Bitcoin.
What DOGE is used for
People use DOGE for tipping, small online payments and donations, a role the community has promoted since the early days. It is also widely held and traded as a popular speculative asset.
DOGE supply
Dogecoin has no maximum supply. Each block pays a fixed reward of 10,000 DOGE, which adds roughly five billion coins per year, so the percentage inflation rate falls as the total grows.
Before you swap DOGE
DOGE deposits need a number of block confirmations before they are credited, although one-minute blocks keep the wait fairly short. Dogecoin addresses usually start with a D, so verify the destination before withdrawing.