Sunday 9 February 2014

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.

27 comments:

  1. I actually already have DOGE. (Also, still on the side that says it's pronounced [though-guh] (with a soft [guh]).) Tips would be very much appreciated though! DM7tXvREoy75T9wtwwsGTHT99EfwjW95Yu
    CHOO CHOO, TO THE MOON!

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  2. WAT THE HELL...Is this thing forreaaaaaaal!!??!!!

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  3. I've heard of bitcoin and dogecoin (and the great dogecoin hack), but it's still hard for me to "get," you know what I mean? Mining? Is that stealing bitcoins from people? Is it legal? I'm confused.

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    Replies
    1. You're not stealing it from anyone when you mine. When you mine, you're getting your computer to decode/solve a theoretical problem, and when it's solved, you are rewarded with a random number of coins.

      It is completely legal, though some governments are scared of it so they are trying to ban it. But trying to ban a cryptocurrency is like trying to ban the Internet.

      Delete
  4. I have heard a lot about Dogecoin but I hadn't heard of the stuff involving all their charity work. I kinda want to help out now. I'm quite a charitable fellow. I'll be back if and when I get a doge wallet. I do have problems with all those Cryptocurrencies though. To be honest when Bitcoin first came out, I thought it would be interesting to have one world wide currency. That's something the world really needs for unity. Then people produce all these other different ones.

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  5. Welp I have myself a wallet, now to find a good old fashioned miner. The wallet is DQEkqGx65L7mH9jvAFxQH8DC35ZhyotT2a

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    Replies
    1. Be careful if you're use a laptop. Quite a few people have accidentally fried them due to poor circulation.

      TO THE MOON.

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    2. Right now my biggest problem seems to be my miner connecting, but I did hook a desktop fan next to my laptop to keep it safe. I think the miner might have finally connected. The pool's site is up, and the thing worked fine yesterday, so I don't know what's happening there.

      Delete
    3. I recommend using Rapidhash or if that's down, Shibepool. I've had good results from them. Once you make an account with either place, you can check your stats to see if your miner is actually mining, and if not, the people in IRC will be more than willing to help.

      Also: http://www.reddit.com/r/dogecoin/wiki/index/mining

      Delete
  6. I've heard of Bitcoin and I'm familiar with Doge but this is the first time I've been introduced to Dogecoin! It sounds great although I can't pretend to understand it in any way. You might say you can't teach an old Doge new tricks.

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  7. Working on something of the like at the moment, may have to give dogecoin a go as a back up though. Wish like hell I would have grabbed on to bitcoin.

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  8. Ha! I heard about the Dogecoin but thought it was just a joke. And you know, a friend of mine was telling me about Bitcoins about 8 months ago, but it sounded like too much of an investment by getting a really, really beefed up computer to run these algorithms nonstop. If the Bitcoin is now truly worth $700... maybe I should have made that damn investment.

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  9. That is cool. I actually just started a wallet, but I haven't figured out how to mine yet. Is there any way you could explain the mining process or point me towards a good guide? D7GwbRCtm46oerjkLYmmXX2Cw5oMir1cwi wow

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    Replies
    1. This should be a good starting point for you:

      http://www.reddit.com/r/dogecoin/wiki/index/mining

      TO THE MOON.

      Delete
  10. I had heard about Bitcoin but nothing about Dogecoin, quite amazing!

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  11. I'm uh.. I'm gonna have to research. But thanks for making it all clear to me.

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  12. I would but I'm already investing in this sweet deal in Nigeria.

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  13. Nice. I am not sure if I have time though to let my computer idle as I do most of my work on it, but it sounds like an amazing idea.

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  14. Should have went with Coinye instead of dogecoin

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  15. I'm still not following you. Is this like buying points in Farm Town?

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    Replies
    1. Nope. This is Internet currency that is not owned by any one group, is actively being traded and used online for real-world services and goods, and can be mined by anyone with a computer.

      Delete
  16. I know nothing and got nothing in this dept. maybe I should do research lol.

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  17. new private currency which is not legal any many nations

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  18. Time to getcha some penny stock? :)
    http://moneymorning.com/2014/02/07/bitcoin-penny-stock-hits-market/#

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  19. I'm with Evelyn...know nothing, got nothing. Sounds crazy, but glad you're getting some cash from little work!

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