Crypto Coin Highlight: DOGE

What Is Dogecoin?

Dogecoin (DOGE) is a peer-to-peer, open-sourcecryptocurrency. It is considered an altcoin and an almost sarcastic meme coin. Launched in Dec. 2013, Dogecoin has the image of a Shiba Inu dog as its logo.

While it was created seemingly as a joke, Dogecoin’s blockchain still has merit. Its underlying technology is derived from Litecoin. Notable features of Dogecoin, which uses a scrypt algorithm, are its low price and unlimited supply.

Understanding Dogecoin

Dogecoin started as something of a joke, but after it was created, it gained a following. By late 2017, it was participating in the cryptocurrency bubble that sent the values of many coins up significantly.1 After the bubble burst in 2018, Dogecoin lost much of its value, but it still has a core of supporters who trade it and use it to tip content on Twitter and Reddit.2

The History of Dogecoin

In the Beginning

Jackson Palmer, a product manager at the Sydney, Australia office of Adobe Inc., created Dogecoin in 2013 as a way to satirize the hype surrounding cryptocurrencies. Palmer has been described as a “skeptic-analytic” observer of the emerging technology, and his initial tweets about his new cryptocurrency venture were done tongue-in-cheek. But after getting positive feedback on social media, he bought the domain dogecoin.com.1

 

Meanwhile in Portland, Oregon, Billy Markus, a software developer at IBM who wanted to create a digital currency but had trouble promoting his efforts, discovered the Dogecoin buzz. Markus reached out to Palmer to get permission to build the software behind an actual Dogecoin.3

Markus based Dogecoin’s code on Luckycoin, which is itself derived from Litecoin, and initially used a randomized reward for block mining, although that was changed to a static reward in March 2014. Dogecoin uses Litecoin’s scrypt technology and is a proof-of-work coin.4

Palmer and Markus launched the coin on Dec. 6, 2013. Two weeks later on Dec. 19, the value of Dogecoin jumped 300%, perhaps due to China forbidding its banks from investing in cryptocurrency.5 2

The Rise of Dogecoin

Dogecoin marketed itself as a “fun” version of Bitcoin with a Shibu Inu (Japanese dog) as its logo. Dogecoin’s casual presentation suited the mood of the burgeoning crypto community. Its scrypt technology and unlimited supply was an argument for a faster, more adaptable, and consumer-friendly version of Bitcoin.

Dogecoin is an “inflationary coin,” while cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin are deflationarybecause there’s a ceiling on the number of coins that will be created. Every four years the amount of Bitcoin released into circulation via mining rewards is halved and its inflation rate is halved along with it until all coins are released.

In Jan. 2014, the Dogecoin community donated 27 million Dogecoins worth approximately $30,000 to fund the Jamaican bobsled team’s trip to the Sochi Winter Olympic games.6 In March of that year, the Dogecoin community donated $11,000 worth of Dogecoin to build a well in Kenya and $55,000 of Dogecoin to sponsor NASCAR driver Josh Wise.7 8

By its first birthday, Dogecoin had a market capitalization of $20 million and a loyal fanbase.2

Controversy Takes Some Fun From Dogecoin

The freewheeling fun of Dogecoin lost some of its mirth in 2015 as the crypto community, in general, started to grow more serious. The first sign that not all was well with the Dogecoin community was the departure of Jackson Palmer who has said that a “toxic community” had grown up around the coin and the money it was producing.1

One member of that toxic community was Alex Green, a.k.a. Ryan Kennedy, a British citizen who created a Dogecoin exchange called Moolah. Alex Green (his pseudonym) was known in the community as a lavish tipper who reportedly mistakenly gave $15,000 instead of $1,500 to the NASCAR fundraiser.9

Green’s exchange convinced members of the community to donate large sums to help fund the creation of his exchange, but it later surfaced that he had used the donations to buy more than $1.5 million of Bitcoin that in turn bought him a lavish lifestyle. Separately, Kennedy was convicted in 2016 of multiple counts of rape and sentenced to 11 years in prison.10

Dogecoin During and After the Crypto Bubble of 2017-2018

Dogecoin’s value skyrocketed with the rest of the cryptoverse during the bubble that peaked at the end of 2017, and it fell with the rest of the cryptoverse over 2018. At its height, Dogecoin was trading for $0.018 and had a market cap of over $2 billion.2

https://www.investopedia.com/terms/d/dogecoin.asp

 

 

Crypto Coin Highlight: Ethereum

What Is Ethereum? 

Ethereum is a blockchain platform with its own cryptocurrency, called Ether (ETH) or Ethereum, and its own programming language, called Solidity.

As a blockchain network, Ethereum is a decentralized public ledger for verifying and recording transactions. The network’s users can create, publish, monetize, and use applications on the platform, and use its Ether cryptocurrency as payment. Insiders call the decentralized applications on the network “dapps.”

As a cryptocurrency, Ethereum is second in market value only to Bitcoin, as of May 2021.1

  • Ethereum is an open-source blockchain-based platform used to create and share business, financial services, and entertainment applications.
  • Ethereum users pay fees to use dapps. The fees are called “gas” because they vary depending on the amount of computational power required.
  • Ethereum has its own associated cryptocurrency, Ether or ETH.
  • Its cryptocurrency is now second only to Bitcoin in market value.

Understanding Ethereum 

Ethereum was created to enable developers to build and publish smart contracts and distributed applications (dapps) that can be used without the risks of downtime, fraud, or interference from a third party.

Ethereum describes itself as “the world’s programmable blockchain.” It distinguishes itself from Bitcoin as a programmable network that serves as a marketplace for financial services, games, and apps, all of which can be paid for in Ether cryptocurrency and are safe from fraud, theft, or censorship.2

Ethereum’s Founders 

Ethereum was launched in July 2015 by a small group of blockchain enthusiasts. They included Joe Lubin, founder of ConsenSys, a blockchain applications developer that uses the Ethereum network. Another co-founder, Vitalik Buterin, is credited with originating the Ethereum concept and now serves as the company’s CEO and its public face. Buterin is sometimes described as the world’s youngest crypto billionaire. (He was born in 1994.)

The Ether cryptocurrency was designed to be used within the Ethereum network. However, like Bitcoin, Ether is now an accepted form of payment by some merchants and service vendors. Overstock, Shopify, and CheapAir are among the online sites that accept Ether as payment.3

 

Ethereum’s Continuing Evolution 

The founders of Ethereum were among the first to consider the potential of blockchain technology for uses beyond the secure trading of virtual currency. Its ETH cryptocurrency was created primarily as a medium of payment for apps built on its platform.

Its invulnerability to hackers and other snoopers has opened up possibilities for the storage of private information from healthcare records to voting systems. Its reliance on cryptocurrency opened up opportunities for programmers to create and market games and business applications on the network.

The Hard Fork 

A blockchain may be invulnerable to hacker attacks, but it’s not for lack of trying. In 2016, a malicious actor stole more than $50 million worth of Ether that had been raised for a project called The DAO, a set of smart contracts created by a third party and originating from Ethereum’s software platform. The successful raid was blamed on a third-party developer.

The Ethereum community opted to reverse the theft by creating a “hard fork,” invalidating the existing blockchain and creating a second Ethereum blockchain. The original is known as Ethereum Classic.

Ethereum 2.0 

As of May 2021, Ethereum was the second-largest virtual currency on the market, behind only Bitcoin.1 The number of ETHs in circulation crossed the 100 million mark back in 2018.9

Unlike Bitcoin, there is no limit to the number of ETHs that can be created.

Ethereum is currently undergoing a long-awaited upgrade known as Ethereum 2.0, which is intended to allow the network to scale up while addressing congestion problems that have slowed it down in the past.10 (In 2017, a game called CryptoKitties single-handedly slowed down transactions on the platform.)