Dogecoin, originally started as a joke, has pulled itself into the limelight by proving its worth as a serious blockchain that now processes more transactions than big players like Ethereum and Bitcoin. In the past week, the memecoin network has handled more than 7.9 million transactions, up nearly 11% on Ethereum’s 7.2 million and over double Bitcoin’s count. A development that might make Ethereum supporters uncomfortable, Dogecoin’s transaction fees are much lower, at $0.00096 compared to Ethereum’s $1.62.
The reason behind this surge in transaction count lies in Bitcoin Ordinals, a layer-2 solution with similarities to Ethereum’s non-fungible tokens (NFTs), which allow developers to mint digital collectibles. This NFT-like feature has caused a massive surge of interest in Bitcoin Ordinals, driving transaction counts and fees higher and effectively turning Bitcoin into the number-two NFT blockchain behind Ethereum.
Dogecoin owes its success in transaction counts to the similarities it shares with Bitcoin. Since the coin is essentially a code fork of Bitcoin, it didn’t take long for developers and opportunistic crypto fans to create Dogecoin tokens based on the same concept as Bitcoin Ordinals and the BRC-20 standard. However, Dogecoin still lacks a dedicated platform for exchanging these tokens and its tokens do not have the security of being minted under a unique standard or name, making it difficult to form a legitimate market around them.
Despite the abundance of spam transactions, Dogecoin has proven its robustness time and time again. Historically, it has served as a profitable alternative for Bitcoin miners during non-profitable mining periods and as a merge-minable protocol with Litecoin, allowing miners to share hash rates between the two coins. The recent surge in Dogecoin’s transaction count and its lower fees showcase the potential of this so-called joke currency in supporting a multichain future.
While Ethereum and other layer-2 platforms such as Arbitrum and Optimism process millions of transactions and play important roles in the growth of decentralized finance (DeFi) and Web3 sectors, Dogecoin challenges them with its impressive performance. In the course of just a few weeks, the coin has managed to flip the transaction counts of prominent blockchains despite many dismissing it as a means to lure new investors into meme coins.
The rapid adaptation of Dogecoin to include NFT-like features, its competitive transaction fees, and high transaction volume demonstrate the potential of this underestimated memecoin. Even though considered by many as a joke to entrap crypto newbies, Dogecoin has defied odds and now stands as a serious competitor in the future of blockchain technology.
Source: Blockworks
