Dogecoin (symbol: Ɖ and D), is a Litecoin-derived cryptocurrency that features the Shiba Inu from the “Doge” Internet meme on its logo. It was introduced on 8 December, 2013. Dogecoin has a fast initial coin production schedule, compared with other cryptocurrencies. There will be approximately 100 billion coins in circulation by the end of 2014. Thereafter, 5.2 billion coins will be produced per year. As of the 1st of February 2014, 40,578,746,592 Dogecoins have been mined.
Dogecoin was created by programmer and former IBM engineer Billy Markus of Portland, Oregon. He was originally trying to tinker with an existing cryptocurrency of Markus’s called “Bells” based on Nintendo’s Animal Crossing. His hopes were reaching a broader demographic than the investors who made up Bitcoin’s economy and something that wouldn’t be involved with the controversial history behind Bitcoin (namely its association with the Silk Road).
At the same time, his friend Jackson Palmer, a worker for a marketing department in Sydney, Australia for Adobe Systems, and the original individual who first conceived of the idea for Dogecoin, was encouraged by a student at Front Range Community College on Twitter to make the idea reality. This led Palmer to reach out to Markus.
After getting several mentions on Twitter, Palmer bought the domain dogecoin.com, which was shown to Markus and quickly began the partnership between Markus and Palmer, launching the coin shortly after the development of Markus’ Dogecoin wallet was done. Markus based Dogecoin on the existing currency Litecoin, which also uses scrypt technology in its proof-of-work algorithm, meaning that miners cannot take advantage of specialized Bitcoin-mining equipment to mine at higher speeds. The Dogecoin network was originally intended to produce 100 billion Dogecoins.
