It should be noted that this is not the first time Vitalik has mentioned Dogecoin, and he does so under different pretexts. For example, in May this year, Buterin criticized Ilon Musk's comments about the "dog" cryptocurrency. Recall that the world's richest man then proposed to significantly increase the popularity of the digital asset by lowering fees, increasing the size of the block and speeding up the time it takes to create it.

Vitalik didn't appreciate the initiative because such a scheme would lead to more centralisation of the project. After all, the larger the blocks, the more powerful equipment is needed to create and process the blocks in a particular cryptocurrency network. Accordingly, increasing the block size in this case would significantly limit the list of people who could help develop the Dogecoin network. Read more about the story in a separate article.


Vitalik Buterin

Buterin also talked about Dogecoin over the summer – and as his investment. It turned out that he invested $25,000 in DOGE, and he did so in 2016. As a result, the amount of investment increased tenfold, and Vitalik received more than $4 million on the sale of half of his position. At the same time, he sent the money to charity.

What will happen to Dogecoin

Late last week, the organisation published a development plan called the Dogecoin Trailmap, or as it’s also known as the “dog walk”. The Dogecoin Foundation is working with Buterin to create a “unique Doge offering” for the Proof-of-Stake (PoS) algorithm with “community steaking” capabilities.


As a reminder, blockchain is a procedure for blocking cryptocurrencies in a smart contract. In this case, the volume of blocked coins acts as a mining facility in the network based on the Proof-of-Work consensus algorithm. Through their steaks, users gain the right to offer a block for creation, which results in a reward. The more steaks, the greater the earnings over a longer period of time.

In doing so, the steaks themselves are proof of the positive intentions of the network's participants. Still, they each have an interest in the security of the blockchain, as in a reverse situation the asset would depreciate, directly affecting the dollar value of their blockchain coins.


Dogecoin price

The update will allow all Dogecoin users to send their DOGEs to the stack and receive additional tokens, while participating in the validation of altcoin transactions. Here’s a quote from project representatives sharing details of what’s happening. The replica is cited by Cointelegraph.

The new version of PoS will allow everyone – not just big investors – to participate in staking in a way that rewards them for contributing to the network, while giving back to the entire community through charitable causes.

The DOGE developers resumed actively publishing updates about their project only in August this year after several years of silence. The reason for “coming out of hibernation” was a huge haip around the coin, created by billionaire Ilon Musk. According to CryptoPotato, DOGE ranked third in social media mentions this year due to this hype.

Coin ranking by popularity

Another similar record was earned by the altcoin Shiba Inu, whose development was inspired by the success of Dogecoin. SHIBA has demonstrated the highest rate of growth in popularity among all cryptocurrencies this year, with the mentions of the project growing by 16 thousand percent in the last 12 months.


We think that Dogecoin's developer activation could be good for the project's prospects. Still, right now the cryptocurrency is perceived solely as something humorous and without much meaning. Accordingly, expanding DOGE's functionality will surely increase the value of the asset in the eyes of investors and make them treat the coin differently.