The Rise of the Doge: Part-I [Explained]
If you aren’t living in a cave far away from the internet, you have probably heard of Dogecoin. The cryptocurrency with a picture of a dog has been crushing the crypto market for the past few months.
After the incident of GameStop, where we got to see the power of average folks, Doge made a similar move. With a whopping 14000% surge in price, it went on to become the most exhilarating news for the crypto-enthusiasts and similarly shocking for the economists, financial analysts, and other traditional finance people.
The proverbial moonshot was now becoming a reality. In the coming weeks, news of new Doge-millionaires went all over social media. People started seeing Dogecoin as a shortcut to big bucks.
But the question is, how a cryptocurrency that initially started as a joke, as a meme, become so valuable? How come something that anyone outside of the crypto-circle didn’t even know of became a household name?
The Beginning
Contrary to what many people think, Dogecoin isn’t a new altcoin. It has been there since 2013, from the dawn of cryptocurrency.
Its journey to the top is as interesting as the beginning days. Two software engineers named Billy Markus and Jackson Palmer created Dogecoin. Their goal was to create a silly cryptocurrency to have some fun. But soon their small idea assumed a much larger shape.
The Early Days of Doge
It was the time when a Shiba Inu dog was an extremely popular meme. As it was huge joke material, Palmer thought it would be a good idea to make a meme cryptocurrency. As he shared his idea on Twitter, Markus joined his venture and the initial roadmap of Doge was laid on.
The duo launched Dogecoin on December 6, 2013. Within days, their website started getting huge amounts of traffic. It was an instant hit on Reddit as the subreddit gained thousands of members. Markus and Palmer even set a dogebot that would give out free coins to the members.
Soon, Dogecoin started fundraisers to help other people. In 2014, it amassed $25,000 to help the Jamaican Bobsled team to participate in the Winter Olympics. The community also donated $30,000 to build a well in Kenya and $55,000 to a NASCAR driver named Josh Wise.
However, at this point, dogecoin was becoming more of a serious investment option than a meme or a friendly pat on the back. The creators didn’t appreciate the transformation. But it happened anyway and they chose to distance themselves from the whole thing.
A few years have gone by.
Having survived several dips and bad days in the market, it is now one of the most popular cryptos in the world with a market cap of $40+ billion standing sixth on Coinmarketcap’s list (at the time of writing).
Dogecoin’s Journey from a Meme to an Asset
What initially was a meme, a mere joke in the crypto world is now experiencing an investment frenzy. People are going on a doge spree, investing thousands of dollars.
Crypto enthusiasts are cheering for it — trying to get doge’s value to $1. Billionaires like Elon Musk and Mark Cuban are openly promoting the coin.
Clearly, there is something that is fueling this exponential growth. But what is it?
Dogecoin doesn’t have an upper limit like Bitcoin, it has already crossed 120 billion in supply. Also, it isn’t backed by any sort of company or asset so the value of dogecoin is entirely of its own.
According to experts, after the GameStop short by the Redditors the next target was to spike the value of Dogecoin, beating the riches in their own game. As a result, the cryptocurrency surged over 14,000% year-to-date in 2021. Maybe this is the craziest version of goldrush ever seen in the history of capitalism.
With the crypto bull market in its favor, Dogecoin touched its highest peak of 72.23 cents on May 8, 2021.
But the question remains, is it just a gamble that is giving air to a bubble that would burst sooner or later? Or can it be considered as a viable long-term asset like Bitcoin or Ethereum?
Billionaires choose Dogecoin because THEY CAN
Doge enthusiasts are extremely hopeful that it is going to touch $1 and maybe even $1.5 soon enough. But does that mean it’s free of critics? Absolutely not.
People directly involved with the crypto industry are openly criticizing it, let alone mainstream finance people.
Adam Zadikoff, COO of BRD, says:
My guess is that [doge rally] won’t last…yes, you can make a quick buck if you time it right, but timing the market is a terrible thing to try to do. It does not work.
Ben Weiss, the CEO and Co-founder of CoinFlip warns investors in a similar way saying “Never invest anything you aren’t willing to lose.”
Similarly, you can find both traditional finance people and crypto people who’re very bullish about doge. They think it’s got huge potentials.
Billionaire Mark Cuban, the owner of Dallas Mavericks, took to Twitter earlier in March to declare that Mavericks’ merchandise can be bought using dogecoin because “because we can, we have chosen to do so.”
In another tweet, he said that due to the predefined inflation rate of Doge, it has the capacity to act as a valid payment mechanism.
Elon Musk, the world’s second-most richest person and the coolest CEO is undoubtedly a very important person behind Doge. Having shown his support publicly, he is now going to literally send it to the moon.
The Space-X has announced that their next mission namely ‘DOGE-1 Mission to the Moon’ is fully funded by dogecoin. The mission is to carry a satellite to the moon on a Falcon 9 rocket. Also, the company associated with Space-X, the Geometric Energy Corporation has also declared that Dogecoin will be used as a payment process on their future missions to the moon as well.
