Cryptocurrency remains a technologically involved industry. The purchase and trade of Bitcoin is still a remarkably niche interest, despite a large market cap and increased use cases. This is partially the result of a sharp learning curve, requiring a high degree of tech literacy just to enter the market. Further, the process can be intimidating – something that Dogecoin (DOGE) attempts to mitigate. Started as a ‘joke’ coin in 2013, Dogecoin is now anything but. DOGE’s market cap is sitting at $560 million USD, which places it within the top 50 cryptocurrencies – despite existing solely as a friendly face for new investors.
Certainly, Dogecoin’s publicity proved itself successful. While other altcoins may have a higher market cap or greater individual value, Dogecoin is almost universally known in the blockchain community. The Shiba Inu face that they’ve used as an icon graces most chats and forums. Further, discussions of cryptocurrency value almost always contain a reference to Dogecoin’s mantra, “1 DOGE = 1 Doge.”
More Transactions than Bitcoin Cash
As Bitcoin’s individual price became unwieldy for purchasing, a small subset of the community performed a hard fork and created Bitcoin Cash. Supposedly, this new cryptocurrency would be more usable as a digital currency. While BCH remains in a solid 4th place by market cap, there’s a trend that should be distressing for supporters – and promising for those invested in Dogecoin. Both Dogecoin and Litecoin have maintained a higher transaction rate than Bitcoin Cash. That means that more people are trading the supposed ‘joke’ coin than the strongest Bitcoin derivative.
There are several factors in play, including several controversies related to the Bitcoin Cash hard fork. However, something that the cryptocurrency market frequently forgets is the psychological impact of owning full integers. Fractionalization is great for allowing investors to get involved but owning a thousandth of a Bitcoin is less impactful than owning tens of thousands of Dogecoin. Although a percentage gain is the same, regardless of per unit price, new investors often hope that smaller coins will go up more easily.
Dogecoin based Smart Contracts?
Smart contracts are becoming ubiquitous in the crypto-sphere, as decentralized applications gain more traction. As a result, an upcoming fork of the Dogecoin blockchain will introduce smart contract functionality – dubbed Dogethereum. Still in the future, there’s not much information about the new project. DOGE succeeded in attracting the average person to cryptocurrency through levity. Dogethereum may be able to do the same for smart contracts and decentralized applications.
Article By: Adam Stone
