Pros & Cons of Dogecoin

By Sumedha Bose

Dogecoin, as unbelievable as the name sounds, is a real digital currency that currently has a thriving community of users. It is a decentralized, peer-to-peer digital currency that enables monetary transactions on the interent.

The name of the currency comes from the internet ‘doge’ meme involving Shiba Inu, which is a Japanese dog breed. This dog is the currency’s fun and friendly mascot. It started out as a ‘joke currency’ on 6 December 2013, but quickly amassed a huge following worldwide, as an altcoin.

The fact that Elon Musk reached out to Dogecoin founders for help in fighting off Twitter Scambots, is a testament to its increasing popularity. The currency was created by programmer Billy Markus from Portland, Oregon. He wanted to create a fun crypto which could be used by more people.

So what are the pros and cons of using Dogecoin? Find out below:

Pros of Dogecoin

1. One of the main benefits of Dogecoin is the fact that it is significantly faster than other altcoins. The currency has a block time of 60 seconds which is faster compared to other cryptocurrencies. The difficulty retarget time is four hours.
2. Dogecoin is the apt choice for small transactions, owing to its less value. It has a large number of coins that are individually of lesser value, which makes it more accessible with a low entry barrier.
3. Dogecoin has a low transaction fees which makes it more suitable for regular use.
4. Due to its low value, it has emerged as an ‘online tipping currency’ or gaming currency, which has resulted in more and more people joining the dogecoin community.

Cons of Dogecoin

1. It is a coin of lesser value and is relatively less stable and mature than other coins in the market.
2. It has lesser security compared to other altcoins. However, since the transactions are of small amouts, the security threat should not be much of an issue.
3. It is not profitable to mine Dogecoin since it is a Proof of Work (PoW) coin.

All things considered, the currency has a lot of potential as a tipping currency on the internet, but will probably remain limited to that.