BEGINNERS GUIDE - WHAT IS DOGECOIN?

Dogecoin is a cryptocurrency, like Bitcoin or Ethereum—although it’s a very different animal than either of these popular coins. Dogecoin was originally created at least in part as a lighthearted joke for crypto enthusiasts, and took its name from a once-popular meme. Software engineers Billy Marcus and Jackson Palmer created Dogecoin in late 2013. Palmer branded the cryptocurrency’s logo using a meme popular at the time that featured the deliberately misspelled word “doge” to describe a Shiba Inu dog. The joke is on Wall Street this time,” said Mati Greenspan, portfolio manager and founder of Quantum Economics. “What you have is a situation where teens on TikTok are outperforming even the smartest suits by thousands of percentage points.

They called it dogecoin – pronounced “doje coin” with a soft “g” sound – after the once-popular “doge” shiba inu meme. Its purpose?

Unlike bitcoin, which has set 21 million as the finite amount of the digital currency, dogecoin has 129 billion coins in circulatIon and will continue to make new blocks of coins available to mine each year. That's part of the reason one dogecoin is currently valued at about three dimes and a bitcoin is worth about $62,000.

"Dogecoin is not so much an alternative deflationary numismatic instrument as it is an inflationary leisured exploration of community-building around a cryptoasset," wrote Usman Chohan, economist at the University of New South Wales Business School, in a paper updated in February about the digital currency.

Billy Markus, an IBM programmer from Portland, Oregon, set to differentiate his crypto from bitcoin, which was steeped in mystery with an anonymous creator and at the time attracted a small, niche group of miners. Markus wanted his cryptocurrency to be open to the masses, according to Chohan.

DOGE cryptocurrency is booming at the moment, just take a look at how the price jumped within only a few days! By December 2013, one Bitcoin was worth $1,083.14. The world was starting to take cryptocurrency seriously. Billy Markus and Jackson Palmer thought that cryptocurrency was being taken too seriously. They thought that crypto should be about fun, and not just about money. Now you know a little about what is Dogecoin, let's see how it's used. The Dogecoin community uses its size to support good causes all over the world.

In 2014, the Dogecoin community raised $50,000 to help send the Jamaican Bobsled Team to the Sochi Winter Olympics.
For World Water Day (March 22nd, 2014), loyal Shibes raised $30,000 to help build clean-water wells in the Tana Valley, Kenya.
Shibes have even tried NASCAR (North-American Stock Car Auto Racing). In March 2014, Shibes paid $55,000 to sponsor a driver named Josh Wise. Wise raced in a Dogecoin themed car!
Dogecoin has a large following on social media too. Reddit hosts a lively Shibe group that can tip each other with Dogecoin for posting good content. They can also use the platform to raise money for good causes. Dogecoin charities that use Reddit as a platform include SocksForTheHomeless and DogePizza.

The short answer is, not very much. Today (08/19/2020), one Dogecoin is worth only $0.003410!

However, Dogecoin has no supply limit. This means that there is an endless amount of Dogecoin and so the price will not increase as much as other coins like Litecoin and Bitcoin which have limited supplies.

There will only ever be 21 million Bitcoins. However, there are nearly 114 billion Dogecoin in circulation right now. This makes Dogecoin great for small transactions, which is why it is used for tipping and donations.

Blockchains are huge digital databases (sometimes called ledgers) that store transaction information. Every transaction that’s made with Dogecoin is stored on the Dogecoin blockchain. Blockchain information isn’t stored in one place though, it’s stored across thousands of computers called nodes. This is why blockchains are called decentralized networks. Blockchains don’t operate on a centralized server.

When a node attempts to confirm a Dogecoin transaction, it is entered into a kind of lottery. This lottery involves guessing a code that is given to the newest block of transactions that’s added to the blockchain. In which the prize (or reward) for the node that works out the correct code is 10,000 DOGE. This Dogecoin lottery happens once every minute. This means that a new set of Dogecoin transactions are confirmed every minute. Dogecoin’s transaction time is much faster than either Bitcoin or Litecoin. This is another reason why it has become so popular as a quick online tip or donation.

A crypto wallet is not like a real wallet where you keep paper money and metal coins. Cryptocurrencies are digital, which means they only exist on computers. Crypto wallets are where you store the information you need to use your cryptocurrency. This information includes public keys and private keys. A public key is like an email address where cryptocurrency can be sent. Everyone on the network can see it. A private key is like the password for that email address. It’s very important that you keep your private keys safe!

Software wallets: Dogecoin offers two software wallets for download.
Dogecoin Core: This contains the whole Dogecoin blockchain. It can take a long time to download. With this, your computer becomes a Dogecoin node.
MultiDoge: This is light. This means it stores enough information to use Dogecoin, but your computer won’t become a full node.
Online wallets: Wallets like Dogechain allow you to use the Dogecoin blockchain without storing any of it on your computer.
Paper wallets: These are printable wallets that you can hold in your hand. This is a secure way to store your Dogecoin. You can make a paper wallet at sites like the net.
Hardware wallets: These are removable hardware devices, like USB sticks. They can be quite expensive, a Keepkey is $68 and a Ledger Nano is $96. Again, these are a secure way to store your Dogecoin.

Cryptocurrency exchanges are websites where you can buy and sell cryptocurrencies. You can buy and sell Dogecoin on most crypto exchanges. So, what is Dogecoin's best exchange? The exchanges that have the highest Dogecoin 24-hour trading volumes are Bit-Zand Bittrex. Having said that, though, the best place to purchase Dogecoin is still seen as Binance.

Binance is often considered to be one of the best crypto exchange platforms, in general. It offers some amazing security features, and hosts a lot of different crypto coins for you to trade and exchange.