dogecoin
Dogecoin is a version of Luckycoin (now defunct), which itself is a ‘fork’ of Litecoin (which is also a fork of Bitcoin). A fork happens when a blockchain diverges into two potential paths and can lead to a complete change in protocol and eventually a completely new cryptocurrency. For example, in 2017, Bitcoin Cash was created after a hard fork in the Bitcoin blockchain.
The Dogecoin blockchain can process around 30 transactions per second, which is much higher than Bitcoin. It uses a proof of work consensus algorithm called Auxiliary Proof of Work, which allows those who mine other proof of work cryptocurrencies (primarily Litecoin) simultaneously to mine DOGE at no additional cost. This process is known as merged mining.
Dogecoin’s initial block rewards were designed to be random and vary between zero and one million DOGE and this continued until it reached a supply of 100 billion, which occurred in February 2018. Since then, each mined block yields a reward of 10,000 DOGE.
One block is mined every minute and Dogecoin has no supply cap. Palmer has stated that this was a mistake, and that the supply cap should have been set at 100 billion. It was left ‘unfixed’ on purpose as it keeps the cost of DOGE low.
Like Litecoin, Dogecoin uses Scrypt technology, which has lower hashrates (a measure of computational power per second) and uses less energy than Bitcoin’s SHA-256 mining algorithm. Overall, Dogecoin is quite different from Bitcoin, which has a supply cap of 21 million coins, of which over 18.5 million have already been mined.