What is Dogecoin? A basic history. (1/5)

Founded in 2013, Dogecoin (pronounced DOJH) is a cryptocurrency created by Billy Markus (@BillyM2k) and Jackson Palmer and by their own words started as a joke.

Back in 2013 these two founders collaborated to create a Bitcoin alternative, or “altcoin” to get in on the action of the booming altcoin market. In Markus’ own words when asked about Dogecoin in relations to all the new coins coming out (at the time):
“I thought it was silly, and also thought that, considering there were so many coming out, it was probably easy to make.”

It turns out that it was easy, for Markus anyway, and Dogecoin was launched by Jackson Palmer and Billy Markus in 2013. Christening the launch of their project with the Dogecoin.com domain, they were off and running.

The project is full of humor and an air of not taking oneself seriously. Even today, the website is pretty simple and sports the Shiba mascot in all the right places.

Seven years and thousands of memes, Reddit posts and extreme price action later, Dogecoin has currently gone from being basically worthless to a peak price of over .40 – leaving many early Dogecoin adopters barking, “Who’s laughing now?”