Last year Doge was taking over the internet as the ridiculously photogenic Shiba Inu with dodgy grammar. Such wow.
But now doge is making strides in business circles, with a digital currency "Dogecoin" created last year- originally for a joke. Now Dogecoin has taken off, following bigger digital currencies like Bitcoin, famed for its notoriously volatile value.
One Bitcoin can be worth hundreds of pounds - currently hovering at around £300, 1 Dogecoin is worth much less. For nearly 3,000 Dogecoin, you could get £1.
With a total Dogecoin market cap at around £25 million and around 100 billion Dogecoin in circulation, the currency's users are anticipating going "to the moon!"
HuffPostUK caught up with the currency's co-founder Jackson Palmer to find out more about its future, as fans meet today in San Francisco for the first "Dogecon" conference.
Why did you create Dogecoin?
I created Dogecoin back in December 2013 after following the alt coin scene fairly closely, specifically Litecoin and Feathercoin, and noticing the large number of new alt coins hitting the scene.
As a bit of a joke, I tweeted “investing in Dogecoin, it’s going to be the next big thing”, or something to that effect, having just read Gawker's Adrian Chen’s popular article on the doge meme. I went to sleep that night and didn’t think anything of it really, but then it just spiralled into an actual currency and the community you see today. It’s quite an amazing phenomenon.
Why Doge?
Who isn’t a fan of doge?! Doge is definitely my favourite meme. It’s pure, light-hearted and always brings a smile to people’s faces.
What's your favourite Doge thought?
If I had to choose a particular doge thought to reflect Dogecoin it’d either be “such currency” or “much community".
Doge
Dogecoin, much wow or not wow?
Definitely wow, with a touch of moon, no doubt. I think Dogecoin is fighting the good fight for digital currency as a movement, helping bring in an entirely new demographic of users and educating them in the process. Cryptocurrency is quite a daunting topic to explain, so removing that barrier to entry is Dogecoin’s strength.
As Josh Mohland (creator of Dogetipbot) would say, it’s also a lot of fun to throw change at people at people across the internet, too.
How much Dogecoin do you have?
My co-founder Billy and I hardly had any time to mine Dogecoin ourselves when we first launched it (there was no pre-mine), so we only hold a modest amount in the vicinity of a few million.
A lot of what we held has gone to help charities and projects that the community are working on. I also bought a massive jar of Nutella with Dogecoin, so there’s that.
Will we one day see Dogecoin millionaires?
The USD price isn’t the biggest concern of Dogecoin users, and it shouldn’t be for any emerging currency.
Really, a currency's viability is pegged to mass adoption and an ecosystem of users willing to trade the currency as a store and exchange of value.
Dogecoin is really taking off in the micro-transaction space online, so that’s exciting to see. It also has a massive tipping scene that’s growing every day.
Will people be buying yachts with their Dogecoin riches some day? Probably not. But are we having a lot of fun, helping great causes and spreading the digital currency word in the process? Yes we are. And perhaps if we pool our Dogecoin together we can build a Dogeyacht and sail the world, just saying…!
Could Dogecoin one day overtake Bitcoin?
It’s not really a competition, and I think the two communities are working really nicely next to one another. I think Dogecoin could potentially secure itself as the default altcoin, but we’ll have to wait and see.
A nice way I like to put it is that if Bitcoin is the large bank notes you have safely in your wallet or hidden under your pillow, then Dogecoin is that jar of change you keep filling up when you get home at the end of the day - the cash you tip people with, and eventually save up to buy some cooler things with.
If I could be tipped with Dogecoin then buy a video game or rent a movie online, I think that’s a really nice place for Dogecoin to sit. As a pitstop on it’s way to the moon, of course.