We are thrilled to announce that we are now accepting Dogecoin payments! Originally created as a joke, Dogecoin has gained massive popularity as a digital currency.

What is Dogecoin?

Dogecoin is a cryptocurrency, like Bitcoin or Ethereum—although it’s a very different animal than either of these popular coins. Dogecoin was originally created at least in part as a lighthearted joke for crypto enthusiasts, and took its name from a once-popular meme. Despite this unusual origin story, it has exploded in popularity in 2021—as of writing, Dogecoin has become the fifth largest cryptocurrency by market cap.

Software engineers Billy Marcus and Jackson Palmer created Dogecoin in late 2013. Palmer branded the cryptocurrency’s logo using a meme popular at the time that featured the deliberately misspelled word “doge” to describe a Shiba Inu dog.

“Doge was really started to poke fun at Bitcoin,” said Pat White, CEO of Bitwave. In its early days, a community of enthusiasts arranged publicity stunts to raise Dogecoin’s profile, gathering funds to send the Jamaican Bobsleigh team to the 2014 Olympics, for instance, or sponsoring a NASCAR driver.

In early 2021, Dogecoin gained cult status on Reddit’s WallStreetBets message board—the prime instigator behind the GameStop affair in January—where enthusiasts had promised to propel its value “to the moon” (that was before all discussion of crypto was banned on the subreddit).

Today Dogecoin is no joke, having exploded in value and gained more than 5,000% in 2021. Among its boosters is Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who called Dogecoin his favorite cryptocurrency. Musk also named Dogecoin the “people’s crypto,” and promised to plant a physical Dogecoin token on the moon.

Dogecoin vs. Bitcoin

Dogecoin has a few significant differences compared to Bitcoin. First, it’s quicker and easier for miners to complete the mathematical equations that complete and record transactions on the transactions, which makes Dogecoin somewhat more efficient for processing payments.

“Where it takes 10 minutes for the process to ratify new blocks on the Bitcoin blockchain, it takes only one minute on the Dogecoin blockchain,” said Gary DeWaal, Chair of Katten’s Financial Markets and Regulation group.

Another significant difference is the absence of any lifetime cap on the number of Dogecoins that can be created, as we noted above. There is a lifetime cap of 21 million Bitcoin that limits the maximum possible number of coins that can be created. This means that miners are forced to work harder and longer over time to earn new Bitcoin, and to a degree it helps guarantee Bitcoin’s ability to hold and grow its value over time.

How to Buy Dogecoin

You can buy Dogecoin on a cryptocurrency exchange like Binance or Kraken. The exchanges require you to set up and fund an account with U.S. dollars or crypocurrency. You then are able to buy and exchange cryptocurrencies, including Dogecoin. Notably, leading crypto exchange Coinbase does not support purchases of Dogecoin.

As with other cryptocurrencies, once you’ve purchased Dogecoin it’s best to move your coins to a crypto wallet. Wallets take many forms, from online services offered by exchanges like Coinbase (while you can’t buy Dogecoin on Coinbase, you can store it in your Coinbase wallet), to apps on your mobile device or even a physical hard drive. You secure the wallet with a private password. Since your coins are held outside of an exchange, there’s an extra layer of protection against hacks.