Youth Incorporated Magazine

Elon Musk’s tweets lately have been taking the internet by a storm which isn’t surprising considering his stature. First with the “GameStonk!!” tweet and now about Dogecoin, Musk, one richest in the world, has got almost everyone talking about bitcoins. Since everybody is talking about the new cryptocurrency, we definitely don’t want to be oblivious. So let’s jump on the bandwagon and get to know all about Dogecoin. 

Dogecoin is a type of cryptocurrency just like Bitcoin, Litecoin or Ethereum. If you think Dogecoin is a newer kind, it’s not. It was developed and introduced in the year 2013 by IBM software engineer Billy Markus and Adobe engineer Jackson Palmer merely as a joke. Since the development wasn’t supposed to be a serious one, the two engineers decided to choose a quirky symbol for the coin. They joined the two most trending concepts of that time together, i.e Bitcoin and Doge (a dog meme), coining the term Dogecoin. Thus came the dog sign on the coin that we are today seeing on our social media handles. The dog is a Japanese breed called Shiba Inu. 

The two developers of the coin decided to go ahead with this sign for branding the coin, marking the start of multiple jokes and memes. Little did they know that an unpopular cryptocurrency will one day make its way to the list of the top 10 most popular cryptocurrencies in the world. 

Well, all thanks to Musk! 

Dogecoin is similar to other crypto coins. It makes use of password-based scrypt technology. However, unlike Bitcoin, Dogecoin does not have a limit on the number of coins that can be produced in the system. Though this coin currently has tough competition from Bitcoin and Etherum, it had attracted over a million unique visitors to its website, dogecoin.com, within one month of its launch. Reddit, an online social network also contributed immensely in generating a market value of $8 million in 2013. Further, it was much easier for people to invest in Dogecoin as compared to Bitcoin due to lesser entry barriers. 

Why is it making headlines and creating a buzz now suddenly after 7 years?

When one of the rich men in the world tweets about something, it is sure to create a buzz, and if that ‘one’ is Elon Musk, he is obviously going to create much more than just buzz. Since we all lookout for the next thing that Musk might say, him speaking about Bitcoin or Dogecoin led to the rise in their demand thereby boosting their value in the market.

For quite some time now, the billionaire has been speaking in support of Bitcoin. He put out multiple tweets telling people about the perks of transacting in Bitcoin. Needless to say, Bitcoin’s value rose to $38,000 or Rs. 27,70,000. He then moved to Dogecoin and picked it as his favorite one. A tweet coming from a personality like his, stating, “Dogecoin is the people’s crypto” made a landslide difference leading to a huge 50% growth of the cryptocurrency. Musk did not just tweet but also invested in Dogecoin. Now, who wouldn’t want to be a part of Elon Musk’s investment? 

Such tweets gave reignited Dogecoin’s popularity soaring its market value to $10 billion (approximately Rs. 72,901 crores) as of Monday, the CoinMarketCap data mentioned. Currently, there are 128 billion Dogecoin units in circulation. 

If you too want to become a part of this buzz, you can purchase a Dogecoin considering its ease in doing so. Indians can purchase Dogecoins through any online platforms or cryptocurrency wallets like BuyUcoin, Bitbns, or Zebpay. You will only need to complete a KYC process and provide your details, like your full name and contact details.