Mark Tencaten | Learn all about the DOGE cryptocurrency

The cryptocurrency Dogecoin (DOGE) was created in 2013 based more on comic inspiration than pressing the necessity to serve a particular use case. The "Doge" meme, which depicts a sitting Shiba Inu — a Japanese dog breed — with its paws crossed, served as the model for the cryptocurrency.

According to Mark Tencaten, Dogecoin was inspired by the quirky and hilarious culture of the larger cryptocurrency ecosystem, which initially emerged in 2009 with the introduction of Bitcoin (BTC). Following Bitcoin, a blockchain-based asset with the ability to move and store value, dozens of other crypto assets appeared, each claiming to have additional advantages like increased privacy.

Since the technology for Bitcoin is open-source, other projects have exploited it to develop their blockchains and digital assets. Software developers Billy Markus and Jackson Palmer created Dogecoin in hours using the Luckycoin code. In the years following the creation of Dogecoin, Palmer and Markus left the project.

Why can't Dogecoin be used as a standard form of payment?

Per Mark Tencaten, the supply of Dogecoin may be the key factor. The coin's maximum coin supply is unrestricted. Dogecoin is mined at a rate of 14 million more every day, inflating the value of the asset. In contrast, Bitcoin, for instance, has a predetermined maximum supply of 21 million coins, creating a specified scarcity.

However, Dogecoin has the potential to be used as a medium of exchange for online or offline tipping and payments. Users may operate with full numbers rather than trading in fractions of BTC, thanks to its relatively lower unit pricing in U.S. dollars than those of other crypto assets like BTC.

In terms of transaction speeds, Dogecoin significantly outperforms Bitcoin due to its technical structure. On the blockchain of Bitcoin, blocks are mined once every ten minutes. On the Dogecoin blockchain, blocks are generated in just one minute. As a result, even if each block on the blockchains of Dogecoin and Bitcoin is one megabyte in size, Dogecoin's blockchain produces more blocks in the same period.

How to purchase and trade DOGE?

Trading Dogecoin is similar to trading the majority of other well-known crypto assets. The market provides a wide range of cryptocurrency exchanges, including several exchanges that accept U.S. customers, on which one can purchase or sell this dog-themed coin. It is necessary to transfer fiat money (such as U.S. dollars), stablecoins, or other cryptocurrency assets to a cryptocurrency exchange before purchasing DOGE with those funds. Users can also send money or cryptocurrencies out of the exchange by selling their DOGE.

How to store Dogecoin?

MarkTencaten addresses another important topic: how to store your Dogecoin holdings. Users can keep their DOGE on the cryptocurrency exchange from which they bought it, although doing so may give owners less control over their money.

Owners of Dogecoin can also save their currency in a private, self-hosted wallet. These wallets provide users more flexibility when holding their money but also provide additional security and accountability. Two potential choices are hardware and local wallets. However, a user's preferred wallet must be able to store Dogecoin. When storing DOGE away from a cryptocurrency exchange, the exchange must deliver the coin to the requested wallet.

Where to use DOGE?

Selling it, sending it to the crypto exchange, and withdrawing or transferring the money are two options. In a sense, users can spend Dogecoin earnings by selling their DOGE for fiat while transferring it to their crypto card. The National Basketball Association's (NBA) Dallas Mavericks also permitted Dogecoin payments for merchandise and tickets starting in 2021.

DOGE price history

Dogecoin has generally been sold for less than 0.01 dollars per coin since 2013. Early in 2018, Dogecoin's price reached about $0.018 before tumbling below a penny in the following months and years.

Dogecoin's price briefly climbed back above $0.01 starting in January 2021. The commodity also had a significant price increase in late January, when Dogecoin soared up to almost $0.07 per coin in just two daily candles.

The asset eventually reached a price of approximately $0.088 per coin a few days later. The coin's price stabilized for weeks following a drop to the $0.04 area before beginning a sharp price rise. Dogecoin traded at a rate that was a little below $0.74 in May 2021. This quick price increase appears to have been mostly influenced by the asset's buzz and the community of interested parties.