Dogecoin Developer: The Brains That Legalize DOGE

Over the past few years, Dogecoin (DOGE) developers have had the unenviable task of trying to transform this ‘joke’ meme coin into a token that can be taken seriously.

As many of you know, Dogecoin was originally designed to be just a parody of cryptocurrencies. As a result, no one could have predicted that it would become so popular, especially so quickly.

But while Dogecoin is and will remain a memetic coin at its core, have the developers done enough to present Dogecoin as a legitimate and significant token alongside competing crypto tokens?

Why Dogecoin Needs Developers

Dogecoin was originally designed as a humorous experiment and was not built to survive in the long term.

Dogecoin has grown by nearly 300% in value in just two weeks since its launch in December 2013, and has attracted over a million customers to its website.

The early days of the project were quite chaotic as traffic volumes increased rapidly.

Not only did Dogecoin experience its first major crash the month it was founded, but it was also hacked, losing millions of user tokens in the process.

Clearly, this ‘joke’ token was taken much more seriously than people realized, and it needed a team of developers to guide it in the long run. The Dogecoin Foundation, a group of developers and community members, attempted to do this themselves. However, the focus on charity ultimately led to criticism, and the group was disbanded in early 2015.

Leading Dogecoin Developer

In August 2021, the Dogecoin Foundation returned, this time taking a much more serious and focused approach to developing the Dogecoin ecosystem.

New developers have joined the effort to make Dogecoin a more authentic, trustworthy, and real cryptocurrency, while veteran developers have shifted their focus to keep up with this new approach.

Timothy Stebbing

Throughout the 1990s, Timothy Stebbing worked as a F/OSS development engineer, regularly holding development conferences and meetings to encourage people to get involved in coding.

His technical prowess led to his recruitment to the Dogecoin Foundation in 2022 as Head of Product. According to Stebbing on the Dogecoin Foundation blog, his primary task was to “understand and help lead a meme project that was an accidental success.”

After talking to community members and realizing how seriously they take it, Stebbing made it clear that he does not view Dogecoin as a “joke.” He also immediately set out to develop an action plan to help Dogecoin become sustainable in the modern era, such as expanding the developer ecosystem and establishing proper defenses against government regulation.

Stebbing’s job is primarily to identify the remaining technical issues with Dogecoin and find ways to solve them. One such example is the RadioDoge project, which aims to make Dogecoin accessible to people without internet access, presenting it as a token that anyone can use.

Instead of mocking Dogecoin as some might expect with Memecoin, Stebbing is brutally honest about Dogecoin’s shortcomings and always tries to find ways to fix them. For example: In 2024 He tweeted that “Dogecoin is sick right now,” and highlighted the best ways to get Dogecoin back on track, so that users don’t lose faith in it.

Mitch Lumin

Mitch Lumin had nothing to do with cryptocurrencies before she was acquired by the Dogecoin Foundation. In fact, she was the lead developer of Ruskwood, the largest furry-themed digital space on the internet, starting in 2003.

She knew a thing or two about the development of most of the characters, locations, and features of Luskwood, which explains why the Dogecoin Foundation was looking for her: she was the developer who could help take Dogecoin to the next level.

She joined the foundation as a senior engineer in 2021 and has spent most of her time building LibDogecoin functionality. LibDogeCoin is a C library that allows people to create Dogecoin wallets and nodes without having in-depth blockchain knowledge.

So this is a tool to encourage more developers who see Dogecoin as an experimental network that offers creative freedom.

Like Timothy Stebbing, Michi Lumin is very active on social media, regularly answering community questions about what is and isn’t possible to develop. This candid communication helps to keep Dogecoin from being an unpolished project that changes on the fly.

For example, when there were long-running rumors that Dogecoin would switch to PoS, Lumin put an end to them by tweeting, “It is not possible, nor is it planned, for any individual, organization, or entity to ‘transfer’, ‘convert’, or ‘change’ Dogecoin to PoS.”

Patrick Loader

As a core developer at the Dogecoin Foundation, Patrick Lodder has also supported several other technology projects, including as a technical architect at Corio NV, an advisor to the blockchain-focused organization Block.io, and even as the Chief Technology Officer at Scheidt & Bachmann.

Loader’s technical expertise has made him a key member of the Dogecoin team, and his hidden achievements cannot be ignored.

In July 2022, Loader led an upgrade that lowered Mimecoin’s dust cap from 1 DOGE to 0.01. The dust cap is the minimum amount required to use the network, and lowering it makes the token seem less restrictive and less accessible.

Whenever a new upgrade is coming up, Loader always keeps Dogecoin users informed about what he and his team are working on and when it will be released on the live network.

Ross Nicole

Ross Nichol is what many would call a “veteran” developer. He has been working on Dogecoin since its inception. After founders Billy Markus and Jackson Palmer stepped down, Nichol took over ownership of the Dogecoin website and Twitter page.

With the revival of the foundation in 2021, Nicole has been involved in this new direction by working on upgrades and systems that will help Dogecoin become more like Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH). The most notable of these was when Nicole tweeted about the “fee reduction code” in 2021. He actually gave an example of how lower fees could be implemented.

This caught the attention of Elon Musk, a prominent Dogecoin supporter. Who commented “This is a significant improvement,” he said, as lower fees are always a big draw for traders looking to take cryptocurrency tokens seriously.

However, the effort and time required to upgrade Dogecoin was clearly not easy, as Nicole announced that she would be leaving Dogecoin in February 2022. She is confident that her colleagues will continue to prove that Dogecoin is more than a one-time joke, and that they will be able to “take Dogecoin to the next level with a mindset that I cannot do.”

Aren’t founders still developers?

Dogecoin founders Jackson Palmer and Billy Marcus have only been mentioned in passing so far. But why? Aren’t they developers too?

In fact, the development of Dogecoin was a joint effort between the two, but they never thought it should or would become a truly serious and respected token.

Jackson Palmer

Jackson Palmer has developed a very critical view of cryptocurrencies since leaving Dogecoin in 2015. Palmer’s partnership with Billy Marcus began when he created the meme page Dogecoin.com, and Marcus took it a step further by creating the Dogecoin token.

Since Palmer’s departure, he has expressed a lack of trust in cryptocurrencies, which is probably what prompted him to create a parody token in the first place. In an H3H3 interview, he claimed that the only thing many crypto enthusiasts care about is “making money,” and was also very critical of Elon Musk’s involvement, saying, “I think his ego is more important than money.”

Palmer also stated that he views cryptocurrencies as “an inherently right-wing, extreme capitalist technology” that benefits the wealthy and harms “ordinary” investors. When asked if he would return to cryptocurrencies on X, Palmer said “absolutely not,” arguing that the ecosystem is “controlled by a powerful cartel of wealthy individuals” and that this goes against the spirit of crypto.

Like Marcus, Palmer seems to have never imagined that Dogecoin would become a long-term project with real value, as his comments make clear.

Billy Marcus

Before creating Dogecoin, Billy Marcus worked as a senior software engineer at International Business Machines (IBM) Corporations.

Marcus was a talented developer who launched Dogecoin almost on time. In his words, “I put it together in a matter of hours, launched it, and then it took off, and a lot of crazy things have happened since then.”

However, the following months were not easy for Marcus. He started to receive a lot of backlash and negativity from the Dogecoin community, as many believed that he would never change his stance on cryptocurrencies, including Dogecoin, as a joke.

These ideological differences led to Marcus stepping down. “I am no longer involved in the Dogecoin project. I left around 2015 when the community started to become very different from what I was comfortable with.”

Although Marcus’ vision for Dogecoin was different from what the community wanted, he has since become an advisor to the Dogecoin Foundation, providing guidance and advice in recent years.

Developing Dogecoin from the outside – Celebrity influence

While the developers are certainly the main people who have taken Dogecoin to new heights, outside influencers have also helped Dogecoin gain more serious recognition.

The most obvious example is Elon Musk, who tweeted about Dogecoin numerous times, causing its value to skyrocket in the short term. Calling it the “people’s cryptocurrency” and introducing it as a means of payment for TESLA, many people took notice of Dogecoin when it was still considered a fad.

Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban has also supported the token, speaking out about its longevity and allowing people to use it to purchase Mavericks merchandise and tickets.

Gene Simmons, Snoop Dogg, and Kevin Jonas are just a few influential figures who have helped popularize Dogecoin as something worth exploring for cryptocurrency enthusiasts and beginners alike.

Is Dogecoin Now Considered a Serious Token?

So, can Dogecoin be considered a full-fledged token since it was first introduced to the world in 2014?

It’s not an easy question to answer, but it’s clear that Dogecoin is definitely being taken seriously, and that’s thanks to its developers. Since the foundation’s revival in 2021, Dogecoin has received frequent updates, new features, and roadmaps, just like its competitors.

Additionally, Dogecoin has consistently been included in the top 10 cryptocurrencies by market cap, proving that it has a lot of real awareness and user activity. It also runs on the proof-of-work model that Bitcoin still uses.

But the biggest argument that is not considered ‘serious’ is that Dogecoin has no intrinsic value as a memecoin. All value comes from the community and external influence. But thanks to the developers, the perception of Dogecoin has now moved far beyond the original perception that it was nothing more than an empty parody.

On the other side

• Shiba Inu may have contributed more to the popularity and acceptance of Memecoin than Dogecoin.
• Built-in features like ShibaSwap, Shiba Inu Incubator, and Shiboshis have allowed projects to achieve meaningful results in a much shorter period of time.

Why this matters

Crypto developers often don’t get the love they deserve. This is especially true for the Dogecoin developers, who did their best to respond to the community’s call to develop a Memecoin that would be supported and presented in the same way as other ‘legitimate’ altcoins.

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