Since the onset of digital currencies, many crypto coins have been introduced into the market. Dogecoin is one such cryptocurrency, which was initially created as a joke. Featuring the face of the Shiba Inu dog from the “Doge” meme, which became the crypto token’s namesake and logo. However, Dogecoin facilitates faster transactions when compared to Bitcoin. Where a Bitcoin transaction takes 10 minutes, a dogecoin transaction takes only a minute. Also, the transaction costs are very low compared to bitcoins.
Dogecoin was invented by Billy Markus and Jackson Palmer. The duo wanted to create a fun, instant payment system with the objective of no banking fees, thus, Dogecoin. Both Billy Markus and Jackson Palmer are software engineers, and at the time of Dogecoin’s invention, Markus was associated with IMB while Palmer was an Adobe engineer.
Dogecoin was officially released on December 6, 2013. Within a month, the coin attracted more than a million visitors to its official website, Dogecoin.com. During 2017 & early 2018, Dogecoin was traded at $0.017 per coin as of January 7, 2018, with a market cap of 2 Billion USD.
Following Elon Musk’s encouragement and the support from celebrities like Gene Simmons and Snoop Dogg, Dogecoin reached a market cap of $5,382,875,000, as reported on January 28, 2021. Dogecoin’s market cap reached an all-time high of 9.1 billion.
What is Dogecoin, and should it be taken seriously?
Dogecoin is a P2P or peer-to-peer cryptocurrency. What makes it different from Bitcoin and other blockchain-based cryptos like Litecoin is that the transactions are much faster. As stated earlier, where a Bitcoin and Litecoin transaction take 10, and 2.5 minutes respectively, a dogecoin transaction takes 1 minute.
As an Altcoin, Dogecoin finds several uses in the mainstream. One such application is as a tipping system for social media content. Dogecoin is used in cryptocurrency gambling, and in one reported incident, it was also used for selling a house.
Elon Musk and Dogecoin
Elon Musk is believed to be the reason behind Dogecoin’s rise in its market capitalization. Dogecoin surged in its price by 50% following Musk’s tweet supporting Dogecoin. As suggested by experts, the surge was recorded at $0.05798. Elon Musk first tweeted “One word: Doge,” followed by a second tweet that stated, “Dogecoin is the people’s crypto.”
Previously, Elon Musk has influenced the price surges of many companies and digital currencies. And, the Tesla Chief’s tweets supporting Dogecoin have sent the shares in GameStop, Etsy, and CD Projekt soaring high.
Elon Musk also tweeted where he claimed Doge as his “fav currency.” He also tweeted that “Dogecoin is underestimated.” In fact, in his latest tweet, Musk states, “If major Dogecoin holders sell most of their coins, it will get my full support. Too much concentration is the only real issue IMO.”
Is Dogecoin a Good Investment in 2021?
Cryptocurrency analysts and experts believe that 2021 is a good time for investing in Dogecoin. According to experts, Dogecoin was a high-value buy-in in 2021. Many claims that Dogecoin will become the default digital currency for shipper installments. Check out a detailed price prediction and analysis of Dogecoin by clicking here.
With the broadscale adoption of Dogecoin in the mainstream, the value of the cryptocurrency will only rise. Moreover, if the price continues to surge, Dogecoin’s value will surpass that of Litecoin in 2021. That said, Dogecoin is indeed a good investment in 2021.
According to experts, the Shiba Inu dog’s namesake crypto has overtaken bitcoin with a market cap of $10 billion in less than a month. In fact, so far, Dogecoin is the most talked-about cryptocurrency on Twitter, surpassing Bitcoin.
Conclusion
What started as a joke, soon became a cheap, instant payment system considered to be faster than Bitcoin. Similar to blockchain technology-based cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Litecoin, Dogecoin uses use proof-of-work algorithm. However, the similarities end there. Instead of Bitcoin’s SHA256, Dogecoin uses Scrypt. And instead of ASIC, Dogecoin uses GPUs for mining.
Experts consider the year 2021 the best time for investing in Dogecoin. While several factors are attributing this, the main reason is the support and encouragement of Tesla’s Chief, Elon Musk. Following Musk’s tweets, there was a reported surge in Dogecoin’s value, as mentioned in this article. Considering the coin’s active application in the mainstream, experts believe that Dogecoin is here to stay.
