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Dogecoin hit USD $0.40 recently, which means it's time for the Crypto Rant.

TL;DR: Dogecoin is shit and is logically guaranteed to eventually fall unless it is fundamentally changed.

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If you know how Crypto works under the hood, you can skip to the next section. If you don't, here's the general xyz-coin formula:

Money is sent via transactions, which are validated by *anybody*.

Since transactions are validated by anybody, the system needs to make sure you're not fucking it up on purpose.

The current idea (that most coins use today) is called proof-of-work. In short, you're given an extremely difficult task, and the general idea is you wouldn't be willing to do that work if you were just going to fuck up the system.

For validating these transactions, you are rewarded twofold:

1) You are given a fixed-size prize of the currency from the system itself. This is how new currency is introduced, or "minted" if you prefer.
2) You are given variable-size and user-determined prize called "transaction fees", but it could be more accurately called a "bribe" since it's sole purpose is to entice miners to add YOUR transaction to their block.

This system of validation and reward is called mining.

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This smaller section compares the design o f BTC to Dogecoin - which will lead to my final argument

In BTC, the time between blocks (chunks of data which record transactions and are added to the chain, hence blockchain) is ten minutes. Every ten minutes, BTC transactions are validated and new Bitcoins are born.

In Dogecoin, the time between blocks is only one minute. In Theory, this means that mining Dogecoin is about ten times easier, because the system expects you to be able to solve the proof of work in an average of one minute.

The huge difference between BTC and Doge is the block reward (Fixed amount; new coins minted). The block reward for BTC is somewhat complicated compared to Doge: It started as 50 BTC per block and every 4 years it is halved ("the great halving"). Right now it's 6.25 BTC per block. Soon, the block reward will be almost nothing until BTC hits it's max of 21 million bitcoins "minted".

Dogecoin reward is 10,000 coins per block. And it will be that way for the end of time - no maximum, no great halving. And remember, for every 1 BTC block mined, 10 Doge blocks are mined.

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Bitcoin and Dogecoin are now the two most popular coins in pop culture. What makes me angry is the widespread misunderstanding of the differences between the two. It is likely that most investors buy Dogecoin thinking they're getting in "early" because it's so cheap. They think it's cheap because it isn't as popular as Bitcoin yet. They're wrong. It's cheap because of what's outlined in section two of this rant.

Dogecoin is actually not very far off Bitcoin. Do the math: there's a bit over 100 billion Dogecoin in circulation (130b). There's about 20 million BTC. Calculate their total CURRENT values:

130b * $0.40 = 52b
20m * $60k = 1.2t

...and Doge is rising much, much faster than BTC because of the aforementioned lack of understanding.

The most common thing I hear about Doge is that "nobody expects it to reach Bitcoin levels" (referring to being worth 60k a fucking coin). They don't realize that if Doge gets to be worth just $10 a coin, it will not just reach Bitcoin levels but overtake Bitcoin in value ($1.3T).

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It's worth highlighting that Dogecoin is literally designed to fail. Since it lacks a cap on new coins being introduced, it's just simple math that no matter how much Doge rises, it will eventually be worthless. And it won't take centuries, remember that 100k new Doge are mined EVERY TEN MINUTES. 1,440 minutes in a day * 10K per minute is 14.4 million new coins per day. That's damn near every Bitcoin to ever exist mined every day in Dogecoin

Comments
  • 1
    On Growth:

    Returns YTD for BTC: 93.01%

    Returns YTD for Doge: 7,933.99%

    Lots of people are buying Doge, and they don't know shit about it.
  • 2
    Doesn't the gap between consecutive blocks keep increasing, I am pretty sure BTC didn't have 10 minutes gap between blocks in initial days.

    The problem is that we don't need more coins like BTC, BTC is an exception because nobody trusted it initially, now everyone thinks Crypto=Profit.
  • 4
    @theabbie The issue is crypto IS profit. That is, until everyone runs out of hype money.

    Things based solely on public interest crash hardest. There's no tangible value in crypto, it fails as even a currency due to extreme volatility.

    BTC crashed once, and it will crash again for the exact same reason.

    But the argument is BTC may hold it's value. And I mean, maybe. But I would be surprised if it held THIS value (and more) forever.

    Doge on the other hand is literally guaranteed to be worthless eventually. It was DESIGNED that way. It was INTENTIONALLY made to be as useless as a coin could be: infinite inflation, (originally) random rewards, (originally) a ridiculous 100b cap (WHICH HAS BEEN PASSED).
  • 3
    Newsflash: all cryptos are shit and all will eventually become either worthless as they should be, or inflation machines like some already are. They are all inherently flawed by design.
  • 1
    @iiii BTC isn't necessarily flawed it's just overvalued. The only real risk is that once the reward becomes too small and competition dies down, someone just buys 51% of the hash rate and ruins the blockchain for fun
  • 3
    @AlgoRythm it is overvalued because it is worthless. Just like paintings are valued millions just because some rich fucks gauged the price. BTC is no more than a vanity item which is inherently worthless.
  • 1
    Your argument is clear but you miss the point that, in the end, the only thing that counts is not the system design (which you say is flawed for dogecoin), but the willingness of people to buy and sell (trade). That same argument holds for BTC, even stronger in some way.

    In the end, when minting new BTC isn't valuable anymore, the only reason to mine is transaction fees. But if people don't want to trade, then there is no value and BTC would crash.

    The same holds for dogecoin: as long as people trade, the value is greater than zero. The fast minting system makes it more prone to inflation, but it doesn't matter as long as people want to trade. That's the only thing that matters.

    No traders, no miners, no coin.

    It's like religion: as long as you believe, it's true for you. As long as you trade, it has value for you.
  • 1
    Also, as a developer, please say crypto when you mean cryptography in general, and not when talking about a cryptographic applications like cryptocurrency or encryption. Crypto is such a misused word nowadays.... 🤦‍♂️
  • 2
    And btw, if the amount of minted dogecoin is constant, then the relative growth slows down.

    For example (near real numbers):
    If there are 10k dogecoin and a minute later there would be 20k, then that's a growth of 100%.
    But if many minutes later (now) there are 130 billion dogecoin, a minute later there are 100 billion plus 10k, which is a tiny growth of (1/130k)% per minute which boils down to around 4% per year. That's not a strangely high inflation for a market and trading value likely dominates this small decrease in value.

    Furthermore, the inflation percentage is decreasing because the minted amount is constant.

    Not saying that dogecoin is good. Just saying that your argument is not if you don't take the willingness to trade into account. 😻
  • 1
    Wasn't Doge coin developed as a prank to show how easy new coins can be made
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