what is dogecoin

What Is Dogecoin and What Can I Do With It?

They say you can’t teach an old dog new tricks. What about a new doge teaching others new tricks and laughing all the way to the bank? But what if the bank was a crypto currency wallet?

What if you combined a joke with money? What’s the lesson there?

Maybe it’s to teach us not to take money so seriously. When you treat money as a power source, it takes the fun out of earning, spending, and buying, doesn’t it?

Dogecoin has done exactly that. Maybe you’ve heard of the meme. Perhaps you know about the crypto currency.

Have you been pondering, “what is Dogecoin?” Below we’ll answer just that and then some!

What Is Dogecoin?

This crypto currency has quickly caught steam in recent months. With the likes of Elon Musk giving it attention on Twitter and SNL, people are curious about this pooch. The term doge derives from the internet meme. As a way to poke fun at the crypto industry, many are wondering who’s laughing now. Jackson Palmer created the crypto in 2013 as a joke when he saw how many altcoins there were. What once started as a tweet became a reality after teaming up with programmer Billy Markus.

What makes this a top doge?

A strong community on Reddit, r/dogecoin, formed around Dogecoin. There are 300,000+ users. They are also a philanthropic bunch and get behind good causes. For example, before the 2014 Olympics, they raised over $25,000 in Dogecoin to help the Jamaican bobsled team get there.

Dogecoin is very fast and affordable with low transaction fees. The supply is unlimited which keeps the price pretty stable. This wasn’t always the case as the original cap was 100 billion coins (which is a nod to Dr. Evil from Austin Powers).

What Can You Do With Dogecoin?

There are a few ways you can use Dogecoin. In some ways, it is a lot like Bitcoin or Ethereum, but in others not so much. Learn what sets this doge apart below.

Tipping

Now that you have some idea of what Dogecoin is, what can you can do with the “jokecoin”? Dogecoin has a reputation for being a tipping system. Specifically on Reddit, if you like someone’s post you can throw them some doge!

The Dogecoin Reddit community is a friendly one—especially for new shibes. If you’re a good doge, you’ll likely be rewarded with Dogecoin. Much wow!

Aside from the tipping system, you can exchange the crypto for another if you desire.

Buying

If you’re looking to learn how to invest in Dogecoin, you’re in the right place. As mentioned, if you’d like to buy, sell, or trade you’ll need to hop on an exchange like Binance or Kraken. With these exchanges, you’ll fund your account with fiat ($USD) or cryptocurrency.

Once funded, you’ll be able to buy Dogecoin and other altcoins as well. Once you have bought some Dogecoin to move them off the exchange to a Dogecoin wallet as soon as possible. There have been too many exchange hacks in the past—the most notorious being Mt. Gox.

Always remember the mantra, not your keys not your crypto. Keys refers to private keys. If you do not have access to your private keys, someone else is in control of your money essentially.

This is why it is imperative to move the crypto off of the centralized exchange!

Mining

Rather than buying Dogecoin, wouldn’t you like to earn the crypto? What is Dogecoin mining? If you think of regular mining, miners are rewarded for extracting the Earth’s natural resources such as coal or oil.

Blockchain miners are rewarded crypto currency for maintaining the network’s transactions.

Dogecoin uses Proof of Work (PoW). Compared to Bitcoin, Dogecoin doesn’t take as much computing power when mining.

This means that it is a lot easier to mine. You can expect to receive a reward significantly less than Bitcoin though. To get started you’ll need a computer and a mining application.

As an alternative to going solo, you ought to consider a mining pool. This way, you will pool your resources together with other users. The rewards may shrink in size but will be steadier as a trade-off.

Spending

Once you have some of the “memecoin”, you might want to try spending Dogecoin. One way to do so in the real world is to use the BitPay (recently partnered with MasterCard) prepaid crypto card.

First, you’ll want to fund your BitPay Wallet with a crypto currency such as Dogecoin. From there, you are free to use the BitPay card or wallet anywhere Mastercard is accepted online or in stores. BitPay is now supported with Apple Wallet as well. This means that you can store the BitPay Card on your iPhone and spend Dogecoin via Apple Pay.

There are other services such as Bitrefill where you can purchase gift cards in exchange for Dogecoin. That is one happy doge! Dogecoin is a lot more comparable to DASH or Bitcoin Cash, which are spending crypto currencies. This is because there is no limit to the amount of Dogecoins. Every day there will be new Dogecoins on the market.

This is one reason why it may not make sense to hold Dogecoin long-term.

What Can’t You Do With Dogecoin?

Coinbase, the most well-known crypto exchange in the U.S. doesn’t support Dogecoin. “The Coinbase Effect” is a great deal in the crypto space. Once a crypto currency is on the exchange, the price will see a substantial rise.

To date, Coinbase only offers 53 crypto currencies and 90 crypto assets. This is less than 1% of the 7,500 crypto assets out there. Coinbase is a lot more strict with its vetting process.

This poses a potential problem if you’re considering investing in Dogecoin. 

The Last Laugh

You’re such a good doge for reading our article. Now if anyone asks you “what is Dogecoin?” you’ll know where to send them.It’s best to do your research and due diligence with anything involving crypto currency. Always follow the best practices regarding safety and security.For much more information on crypto and finances, read the articles you’ll find on our blog. Before you know it you’ll have a diversified portfolio!

Priyanka SINGH

I am an author at DoTricky for the past 1 years. I like to share information and knowledge. I love expressing my thoughts through my articles. Writing is my passion. I love to write about travel, tech, health, fashion, food, education, etc. In my free time, I like to read and research. My readings and research help me to share the information through my thoughts.

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