To The Moon

How many of you have heard of the cryptocurrency Bitcoin? It is essentially Internet money, with no single organization or group of people controlling it, Bitcoin has garnered the attention of many as a way to avoid banks, government control, and other economic nonsense that I don't really understand.

How is Bitcoin produced? In the simplest way possible, they are locked within mathematical equations of various difficulty that people get their computers to solve. This process is called "mining" and often, many people join forces to solve the problem. Once the problem is solved, the block rewards the users with X number of Bitcoins which is stored in a wallet application. In 2011 a single Bitcoin was worth as little as $0.30 USD.

As of this post, a single Bitcoin is valued at over $700 USD.

One my greatest regrets is not buying Bitcoin several years ago.

Some of you may ask, why not just start mining Bitcoin now? See, the problem is that as more Bitcoins are mined, the mathematical equations become exponentially more difficult. And as you have more people mining, the Bitcoin reward is further split up. Add in the cost of electricity and unless you have something dedicated to just mining Bitcoins it simply isn't worth the effort.

As people began noticing Bitcoin's rise to power, they began to create their own cryprocurrencies. Feathercoin, Peercoin, Litecoin, amongst many others began to be developed, but none of them ever could come to close to rivaling Bitcoin's power.

Until now.

In late December of 2013, someone decided to create a joke coin. But within a matter of weeks, it became apparent that this was no joke, and this coin skyrocketed in popularity.

I present to you, DOGECOIN.

Pronounced "Doh-j".

I'm certain most of you have seen this meme around. Pictures of Shiba Inu images with poor grammar superimposed on top. Welp, someone decided to make an Internet currency off of it. I can't wait to see Dogecoin being studied by future economists.

But what's so special about Dogecoin? The biggest thing is the community. If you're lucky, you'll have a community like Bitcoin filled with angry and disgruntled individuals who hate newcomers, if you're unlucky your cryptocurrency simply won't have a community.

Dogecoin stands out because it does nothing but welcome the new, with members actively helping one another out, no matter how often a question is asked or how silly it is. Discussions will be half serious and half nonsense, often ending with people yelling "TO THE MOON" or "TIME TO PANIC BUY".

But more newsworthy is the charities and fundraisers that the community does. What did they do when they found out the Jamaican bobsled team couldn't afford to go the to Winter Olympics?

Raise over 25 million Dogecoin (valued at ~$25,000 USD) and donate it to them. The Dogecoin community has also successfully fed numerous homeless people, raise money for service dogs, cancer, and much more more.

CHOO CHOO!

On a more technical level, because of Dogecoin's youth, people are still able to mine coins with relative ease. Sure, you can drop several hundred dollars on a rig, or you can just use your normal computer.

Which is actually what I'm doing. I've calculated the costs, and after deducting fees from electricity, I'm making about $20 a month, just by letting my computer idle. My friend is making more than double that, but I see people who are making roughly a $100 a day.

Does that bother me? Not really. I'm seriously doing this just for fun. I think it's hilarious that Internet money based on a silly dog is being taken seriously and has real world repercussions. Also, because I failed to jump onto the Bitcoin hype train, a small part of me is hoping that I'm sitting on a fortune.

Must. Keep. Mining.

If any of my followers are actually considering getting a Dogecoin wallet after reading this post, leave your wallet address below and I'll tip you some. And together, we shall go to the moon.