What is Dogecoin and how many DOGE exist in circulation?
The news of the pump that saw Dogecoin, the twelfth cryptocurrency by marketcap, soar +300% in 24 hours, is at the centre of the crypto scene.
Dogecoin, born for fun in 2013, is a crypto in its own right: it has its own blockchain using the Proof of Work protocol, also known as PoW, and is based on Litecoin’s Scrypt technology.
Just like other cryptocurrencies, Dogecoin is a decentralized, open-source, peer-to-peer digital currency that makes it easy to send money online. What characterizes it is its community, which, over the years, has proven to be an important part of the project.
According to the official website, the Dogecoin meme cryptocurrency is mostly used for “tipping” fellow Internet users, who create or share great content. A sort of ‘like’ or a more meaningful upvote, with a real value that can be used across the network.
Also, as a bit of trivia, its name, ‘Doge’, is inspired by a breed of a Japanese dog, the Shiba Inu, which has been popularized as an online meme and as a mascot of Dogecoin.
How many DOGE exist: the mining and circulation supply of Dogecoin
To understand how many Dogecoin exist, it is usual to refer to the Dogecoin blockchain mining system that generates and distributes DOGE.
In practice, in exchange for the miners processing and confirming transactions, the network issues and allocates new DOGE to the corresponding miner.
At the moment, there are over 128 billion Dogecoin in circulation and it seems that no upper limit has been implemented, unlike Bitcoin which has a limit of 21 million coins issued in its circulating supply.
Initially, however, the decision had been to have a supply limit of 100 billion coins, which would already have been far more than the top digital currencies have allowed.
However, in February 2014, Dogecoin’s founder, Jackson Palmer announced that the limit would be removed in an attempt to create a steady reduction in its inflation rate over time.
The issue of not having a limit in the supply has been a source of debate on the very subject of inflation and deflation in the meme cryptocurrency.
