The joke cryptocurrency that became more attractive than bitcoin

Like all cryptocurrencies, dogecoin is a digital currency that can be bought and sold as an investment and spent as money. Although each crypto is unique, dogecoin shares some similarities with its best-known companions (its code is based on the litecoin script, for example). But it does have a couple of key differences.

Unlike bitcoin, which has set the number of coins available on the market at 21 million, dogecoin has 129 billion coins in circulation and will continue to make available new blocks of coins for mining each year. That is part of the reason why a dogecoin is currently valued at just under 40 cents and a bitcoin is worth about $62,0000.Although cryptocurrencies are gaining acceptance as a currency to buy goods, dogecoin does not have much use in the real world. It has some niche markets, such as tipping online artists.

Dogecoin was created as a joke on December 6, 2013 by a couple of software engineers. Billy Markus, an IBM programmer from Portland, Oregon, set out to differentiate his cryptocurrency from bitcoin, which was steeped in mystery thanks to its anonymous creator and at the time attracted a small group of miners. Markus wanted his crypto to be open to the masses, according to Chohan. Markus sought help to make his strange dream come true and found Jackson Palmer, who worked for Adobe. Palmer bought the domain dogecoin.com, a nod to the meme “doge” that was everywhere on the internet at the time. The website makes a nod to its origins of joke at the top: your pet Shiba Inu is the first image of the page, imitating the meme he was inspired by, featuring the same dog surrounded by lots of text in Comic Sans in poorly spelled english. On dogecoin.com, your pet has a title: “Dogecoin is a digital currency between peers open source that is favored by Shiba Inus around the world”.

Why is it suddenly so popular?

Dogecoin is no longer a joke. Its popularity has soared — astronomically this year — partly due to widespread adoption of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. But Elon Musk is the most notorious and prominent supporter of dogecoin. One of his tweets to his 50 million followers can cause cryptocurrency to skyrocket. That's what happened on Friday, when Musk tweeted “Doge barking at the moon” and shared a picture of a painting by Spanish artist Joan Miró, titled “Dog barking at the moon”.

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