Which Crypto with "No Future" Has Been Around for 8 Years? DOGECOIN.

By this time, everyone with a Hive account is familiar with the origins of another altcoin, Dogecoin: memecoin, joke, satirical commentary on crypto circa 2013, a Shiba Inu mascot named Kabosu, etc. Many Hivers, no-coiners, some-coiners, and what?-coiners know this history, and that informs their opinions of Dogecoin regardless of milestones it achieves or how much further it extends it reach. As far as they're concerned, Dogecoin has "no future" since it has no "use cases." A crypto with "no future" doesn't stick around for 8 years. Maybe those 8 years have been a long present, in which case that's not a bad thing, either. Some uses must have been found during those 8 years, even if it's just variations of paying for goods and services.

Without rehashing the motivations behind the creation of Dogecoin, here are some things to keep in mind regarding Dogecoin:

Dogecoin Is Forked from Litecoin (Itself Forked from Bitcoin)

When Bitcoin was launched in 2009, few if any people knew what to make of it. Aside from people using their old home computers to mine Bitcoin, for everyone else it was a curiosity ("WTF is this?"), a joke (WTF good is it in the real world?"), or a waste of time ("WTF am I going to do with this?").

Bitcoin proved to be a good enough concept to spin off versions of itself. Among these was Litecoin, launched in 2011. Mostly similar to its direct ancestor, Litecoin is known for 3 key differences:

• It generates blocks 4 times faster than Bitcoin;
• Its hash algorithim is Scrypt rather than Bitcoin's SHA-256d;
• Its MAX supply is 4 times greater than the famous 21M BTC for Bitcoin.

In late 2013 Dogecoin came on the scene. Based mainly on Litecoin (with some influence from Luckycoin), Dogecoin is known for two technical features:

• Like Litecoin, it uses Scrypt;
• Unlike either Litcoin or Bitcoin, the initial MAX supply of DOGE reached into the hundreds of billions (and its current MAX supply is effectively infinite).

Dogecoin Is Older Than Ethereum

The original purpose of Bitcoin was to be a decentralized, trustless, and permissionless digital currency beyond reach of central banks. It was meant to be used as money, and all future development was centered around that most basic of use cases. The hard forks which branched from Bitcoin carried on that legacy. Dogecoin held on to that legacy.

Crypto changed dramatically when Ethereum went live in 2015. Ethereum's claim to fame and first mover advantage is smart contracts. Smart contracts made it possible for programmable money to become reality, and that programmable money made it possible for a host of use cases to become available to holders of cryptocurreny; among them DeFi, NFTs, Play2Earn, and social media. These altcoins made it possible for digital money to do more than just be money.

Given that Dogecoin pre-dates Ethereum-- and, therefore, programmable money-- it maintains its most fundamental use case as the people's crypto. Compared to the bells and whistles of altcoins such as Ethereum and THORChain, Dogecoin doesn't sound like much. However, being money may be all it needs to be. After all, simple wristwatches are still useful even in the era of smartwatches connected to smartphones via Bluetooth.

Dogecoin's Network Is More Secure Than People Think

In response to a hack it suffered within its first few weeks after release, Dogecoin upgraded its network to use a modified Proof of Work consensus mechanism called AuxPOW (Auxiliary PoW). Also known as "merged mining," Dogecoin co-creator Billy Markus stated in an interview with Benzinga.com that

“I think after Dogecoin implemented AuxPOW, it became one of the most secure coins on a Proof of Work blockchain.

While we've heard about hacks involving Bitcoin, Cardano, and a host of ERC-20 tokens, the word "hack" has not been connected to Dogecoin since December 2013. Despite its history and reputation for being a memecoin and a joke, security for Dogecoin is as serious as a heart attack. With security that serious, it makes it possible for members of the Dogecoin community and outsiders alike to have fun with the altcoin.

Is Merged Mining the Future of Cryptocurrency? Dogecoin Was Ahead of the Curve by 7 Years.

Earlier I mentioned the switch of Dogecoin from standard PoW to AuxPOW. Aside from making the Dogecoin network more secure, it also takes advantage of available processing power to make mining more energy efficient. More energy effificent mining means more "carbon-friendly" mining. When comparing Dogecoin with Shiba Inu, months before recently discovering the altername name AuxPOW, this is what I wrote about merged-mining:

Merged-mining lets a low-hash cryptocurrency take advantage of the higher hash rate of its partner cryptocurrency so that more of the low-hash cryptocurrency can be mined.

While Bitcoin and other energy-intensive blockchains have been looking for more energy-efficient forms of mining, Dogecoin has beeing using one since at least 2014. Given the disposition of Dogecoin and its community, the other blockchains can expect to be greeted with "Welcome to the party, pal!"

Speculation on Possible Upgrade Options

If Bitcoin can have the Lightning layer added to it, and Ethereum can have its myriad of Layer 2 solutions and sidechains, maybe Dogecoin san serve as the base layer for a new generation of cryptocurrencies and dApps? Not imitators or killers of Dogecoin (of which there are at least 140), but partners and associates similar what operates on Ethereum. With Dogecoin merge-mining with Litecoin thanks to Scrypt, broadening the cooperation concept isn't as far-fetched as it seems.

Like Bitcoin, Dogecoin can keep its core more or less as-is. Like Ethereum, some enterprising developers can add functionality to Dogecoin by utilizing a Layer 2 strategy. I'm not saying that Dogecoin will do things at Layer 2 which Ethereum does at Layer 2; that's not the point. The point is to find ways of extending Dogecoin functionality in ways which make sense for Dogecoin.

• Marketplace;
• Classifieds;
• Play2Earn;
• Social Media using blockchain.

Even without smart contracts or NFTs, Dogecoin can offer people enough to make the altcoin worth having, holding, and using.

Just My 2 Sats

Despite being one of the oldest altcoins in crypto-- only a handful of cryptos are older-- Dogecoin strikes a nerve in many people when the name is mentioned. Much of that is due to its origins as a satirical commentary on the state of cryptocurrency in 2013. Dogecoin was made as the crypto which doesn't take itself seriously, and it is marketed as a fun internet currency for everyone.

The Doge meme language which preceded Dogecoin by years became an overnight sensation because of the crypto. Doge was all over the place, and it's understandable how it could annoy some people.

Then there is the hype machine surrounding Dogecoin. The community kept Dogecoin alive for many years, and it took off in popularity because of celebrities and major social media influencers. Once the USD billionaires discovered Dogecoin, sub-cent DOGE became a thing of the past.

For a crypto with no future, it came to occupy a Top 10 place in market capitalization. That's no guarantee of stability or permanence, but it will take a major black swan event to wipe out Dogecoin. Astronomical bodies slamming into Earth, coromal mass ejections, erupting supervolcanoes, nation-state-induced thermonuclear war-- anything which turns the electrical grid to colored goop would do it, and if that happens, then Dogecoin will have the same worth and value as Bitcoin.

If Dogecoin disappeared and came back with a different name and logo and origin story, maybe some people would treat the crypto differently and judge it on its fundamentals or its upside. This new crypto would still have its detractors and haters; however, it would be hated and criticized purely on its merits or lack thereof, as most cryptos are. Then again. some other crypto would have burst on the scene as a memecoin, and we know how that turned out.

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