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Is Dogecoin Dead? Key Things Investors Need To Consider

 

By Daniel Asikpo Jul 24, 2023

 

From a meme joke coin to hitting an all-time high of $ 0.75 in 2021, can one actually say that dogecoin has ended its turn with an ever-depreciating value after then?

 

 

what Is Dogecoin?

 

Dogecoin, just like Bitcoin and Ethereum, is a cryptocurrency that can be used for transactions and investments. First viewed as a joke coin and the first meme coin with a Shiba Inu dog symbol.

Dogecoin is based on the same technology as Bitcoin, utilizing a decentralized blockchain to enable secure and transparent peer-to-peer transactions. 

 

Created in December 2013 by two software engineers Billy Markus and Jackson Palmer. The reason why both abandoned this project for the community is what we will also be looking at in this post. 

Despite its initial comedic and non-serious origins, Dogecoin has garnered significant attention and support over the years. Indeed dogecoin was created as a parody of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. 

 

Many users then picked interest in dogecoin which attracted a dedicated community of supporters. 

 

Dogecoin transactions are validated and added to the blockchain through the efforts of volunteer miners. This is due to its underlying technology - a decentralized, open-source blockchain network with a Proof of Work (POW) consensus algorithm. One main advantage of dogecoin over Bitcoin is block time; it has a faster block time compared to Bitcoin's blockchain. This makes transactions quicker to confirm as blocks are mined every minute. 

 

the team behind Dogecoin

 

The development of dogecoin is open and participatory. After Billy Markus and Jackson Palmer bowed out of the project, there is still a strong group of key developers who maintain and contribute to the Dogecoin blockchain and ecosystem. According to GitHub, "The OG Dogecoin Core Team formed shortly afterwards comprised Max Keller, Michi Lumin, Patrick Lodder, Ross Nicoll, and Sporklin (RIP), who have maintained Dogecoin Core for the past 8 years. 

 

Today this also comprises a range of amazing volunteers, including Ed Tubbs and Bluezr.

 

The Dogecoin Foundation Development Team consists of OG Developers including Michi Lumin and Ross Nicoll, and includes Timothy Stebbing as Product Lead, and a multitude of volunteers, including teenagers from the much amazing Hack Club." 

 

Billy Markus: known to co-found dogecoin in 2013 but abandoned the project sometime later. He left the Dogecoin project citing harassment from the project’s community, realizing that it had begun to deviate from its original message and intention. 

 

When he lost his job in 2015, he sold his doge holding and bought a Honda Civic. His net worth is currently estimated at about $10 million. Billy Markus uses his online nickname Shibetoshi Nakamoto which mimics Bitcoin’s founder Satoshi Nakamoto on his social media and community platforms, where he interacts with the community. 

 

Jack Palmer was quoted to say“If all we’ve done with Dogecoin at the end of the day is grow awareness in a decentralized currency such as Bitcoin, then I think we’ve done a good job.” 

 

Jackson Palmer: Jackson Palmer is an Australian software engineer and entrepreneur who is best known as one of the co-founders of Dogecoin. Jackson Palmer, in particular, played an important role in shaping the early community and promoting the idea of using Dogecoin for positive causes. 

 

However, he eventually became disillusioned with the cryptocurrency space and the emerging toxic behaviour within some parts of the community. Consequently, in 2015, Palmer announced that he would be taking an indefinite leave of absence from the Dogecoin project and the cryptocurrency community as a whole.

 

Since then, Jackson Palmer has largely withdrawn from the public eye and has not been actively involved in the ongoing development of Dogecoin or other cryptocurrency projects. In 2018, he tweeted about the toxic culture of the cryptocurrency community and the "scammy" behaviour that he witnessed, which may have influenced his decision to distance himself from the project.

 

Dogecoin Total Supply

 

One of the factors that must be put into consideration is the 'near to limitless' supply of Dogecoin. When a cryptocurrency is scarce, it adds more value especially in price to it as in the case of Bitcoin. Basically created for tippings in community and blogs, becoming very valuable may not have been in the inventors mind. 

 

Starting with a supply limit of 100 billion which by 2015 had already been mined. The mine rate of dogecoin is 10,000 dogecoin per block every minute. Every year, 5 billion dogecoins are added to the circulation with the already mined 100 billion.

 

This increases the inflation rate of this coin as more and more coins will continue to be mined into circulation in the absence of a supply cap. Research shows that within 20 years, the number of dogecoin in the market will double with another expected doubling to occur in the year 2075.

 

Dogecoin Market Capitalization

 

Dogecoin(DOGE) had its highest market cap on May 8, 2021, during the bull run with a market cap of $88.8 billion and a price of $0.68/DOGE. The market capitalization for any cryptocurrency is calculated as the current number of coins or tokens in existence and the current price of the cryptocurrency. 

 

Dogecoin had a market capitalization of $3.5 million on December 15, 2013. As of July 23, 2023, Dogecoin has a market cap of $10.19 billion with $0.07 per doge in price with over 140 billion Dogecoin in circulation according to coinmarketcap. 

 

Dogecoin has given back its gains just like other cryptocurrencies due to several underlying factors after the 2021 bull run. 

 

Some things to consider are the Ukraine-Russia war which sparked fear in many investors, there have been multiple cases of major crypto businesses like FTX and Celsius failing and filing for bankruptcy, the Luna crash and even the government pressure on the crypto space.

 

Price Trail with Elon Musk

 

Dogecoin's price track comes from Coinmarketcap, which reported that the currency opened at a price of $0.0005588 on 15th of December, 2014 before closing at $$0.00029. It wasn't until April 2017 that Dogecoin saw a sustained increase in price, hitting in 2017, the price of DOGE increased impressively by over 4,000% from $ 0.0002 to $ 0.009. 

 

With the price of Dogecoin spiking by roughly 3,000% in 2021, thanks to the influence of the world's richest man by then Elon Musk, the token reached an all-time high of $0.7 during the second quarter of the year. The digital coin quickly grew to become the most talked-about cryptocurrency available: not necessarily for its price after the comment by the Tesla CEO.

 

The Shiba competition

 

With the lack of viable use case and the introduction of new meme coins, the Shiba Inu (SHIB) token to be precise. Many saw it as a perfect replacement for Dogecoin. Branded as the “Dogecoin killer” due to its supply of one quadrillion coins, making it far cheaper than Dogecoin. 

 

The meme coin sector is quickly becoming crowded and dogecoin will be expecting a lot of competitors even if another bull run market comes sooner. Is Dogecoin going to stay the biggest meme coin on the market or is another meme coin going to explode instead?

 

So Is Dogecoin actually dead? 

 

This depends on the community's level of enthusiasm for the coin and its project. There is a popular saying 'hope is not a strategy'. Dogecoin was down by more than 80% by January 2022. As of 23rd July 2023 dogecoin was trading at $0.07 another massive drop the succeeding year after its all-time high of $0.7 in 2021. 

 

Another thing to note is that dogecoin is recorded to be last updated in 2019. With new technologies coming up and investors looking for where to grow their finances, it is easy to say 'dogecoin may be dead behind in terms of technology'. 

 

How long will the meme fun continue? 

 

From the first day, I set my eyes on this coin I will be sincere with you I admired it even to this day. I have always longed to see dogecoin take new territories but its use case and lack of new innovations to be built upon the chain may be the breach. 

 

I believe it will stick around for as long as possible but to attract the attention of investors as means of storing value and making long-term investments is a risk that educated investors may not want to take especially when looking at its inflationary characteristics. There have been speculations of Elon Musk accepting dogecoin as Twitter's parent coin. 

 

To all the dogecoin lovers I will say 'HODL' as anything is possible and if only for the fun, much better for you.

 

Editor's note: This is not finance or investment advice - DYOR.