5 things about Dogecoin that almost nobody knows:
1. Dogecoin's block rewards used to be pseudo-random.
For blocks 1–99,999, miners received anywhere from 0 to 1,000,000 DOGE per block. Blocks 100,000–144,999 were still random but capped at 500,000 DOGE. Fixed rewards didn't start until block 145,000.
2. Jackson Palmer didn't just suggest the name - he shaped the early project.
Palmer's flippant tweet sparked the idea, but he also built dogecoin website and became the early public face. Billy Markus threw together the code and was the solo developer for the first four releases.
3. The Dogecoin community crowdfunded a NASCAR sponsorship.
In 2014, the Reddit community raised 67.8 million DOGE - about $55,000 at the time - to sponsor Josh Wise's existing #98 Ford at Talladega. The Dogecoin/Reddit.com paint scheme actually raced. On national television.
4. Kabosu, the real Shiba Inu behind the Doge meme, passed away on May 24, 2024.
Her owner Atsuko Sato announced it on her blog that day. Kabosu had been adopted from an animal shelter in 2008. The 2010 photo that became the meme - and helped launch a multi-billion dollar cryptocurrency - was of a real rescue dog.
5. Dogecoin adopted merged mining with Litecoin in 2014 - a turning point that rarely gets mentioned.
Charlie Lee proposed it, warning that Dogecoin's mining economics were weakening. Dogecoin's developers and community implemented it. AuxPoW activated on mainnet at block 371,337 on September 11, 2014. It remains one of the most consequential decisions in DOGE's history.
How many did you know?