
Why Dogecoin is Important - bdr
http://www.abcoin.net/post/74401339267/why-dogecoin-is-important
======
rebelidealist
All jokes aside, LiteCoin & Dogecoin(a fork of litecoin) have usage advantage
or Bitcoin because it's transaction confirmation is ~2-3 mins vs 15-20 min for
Bitcoin. 2-3 min is still not ideal, but it makes it better for the retail
environment. The confirmation period checks if there is any fraud in the
transaction. Bitpay for example takes on the risk of Bitcoin's double spend
fraud (sending the same bitcoin to two merchants simultaneously). If there are
some way to reduce the transaction confirmation time to seconds, then
alternative crypocurrency could be widely adopted in brick and motor retail.

~~~
Sambdala
For most purposes, the risk of a double spend is negligible, and it's
perfectly safe to accept an unconfirmed transaction.

However, there are still those purposes for which that's not a good idea...

~~~
JohnTHaller
For in-person, retail purchases, double spend is a big issue since waiting
around for 10-20 minutes while the transaction is confirmed is unworkable.

~~~
ksrm
Smegger, you are hellbanned.

------
ck2
But it does have technical merit.

To repeat what I said yesterday:

    
    
       1. more coins for larger transactions instead of fractions
       2. faster block rate (one a minute)
       3. faster difficulty adjustment time (4 hours vs days or weeks)
       4. faster reward halving time  (every other month or so)
       5. faster time to last block (mid 2015)
       6. faster confirmations on transactions
       7. random rewards
    

So it's not just a meme-coin, it has advantages technically too.

Their blockchain size is going to bite them though next year if not later this
year. It is going to be massive and the client needs to only download block
headers for performance.

~~~
gnaritas
Unless they have the developer and cryptographer attention bitcoin has looking
for flaws, a bunch of technical changes like that is not an advantage, it's a
likely flaw that may make the coin less secure.

Just because someone says this list of things make it better doesn't make it
so, I seriously doubt the implications of those changes on security have
received even a fraction of the attention bitcoin has received by those
looking for attack vectors.

~~~
crazydoggers
Indeed. In fact those changes are known to decrease security. Those aspects of
bitcoin where chosen on purpose and for good reason.

People seem to make it out as though the bitcoin developers didn't know how to
make faster confirmations or quicker difficulty adjustments, and that the
dogecoin devs discovered how to do it better. The truth is that the dogecoin
devs decided to lessen the security in order to make the currency more
attractive on the surface, even thought it undermines the stability of the
coin in the long run.

~~~
makomk
Arguably Bitcoin was a lot more conservative than it should've been in terms
of stuff like the speed of confirmations, though, and in practice this has
actually _reduced_ security since all the popular payment services accept
transactions with zero or one confirmations. With Bitcoin's sluggish design
that's the only way to complete with the speed and convenience users are used
to from services like credit cards and PayPal.

(If anyone here hasn't paid attention to the technical details of Bitcoin, the
number of confirmations is a lot more important than the total amount of time
taken on them. A lot of Bitcoin proponents tend to argue otherwise in order to
encourage people to use it over newer alternatives, but they're fairly
unambiguously wrong and even Satoshi's original white paper explaining Bitcoin
makes this clear.)

------
zwieback
Well said. I'm glad Dogecoin injects some long needed humor into the tiresome
earnestness of the BTC discussion.

~~~
interstitial
This "tiresome earnestness" you speak of is commonly called "talking your
book"
[http://www.investorwords.com/8436/talking_my_book.html](http://www.investorwords.com/8436/talking_my_book.html)

~~~
inoop
Hey, that's a pretty handy expression, thanks.

It even goes beyond that though, Bitcoin enthusiasts actively downvote any
negative stories on HN/Reddit because they don't want the price to go down. I
can't remember the last time I've seen a fair and balanced discussion about
the pros and cons of Bitcoin pretty much anywhere.

------
Dirlewanger
The currency's not even 2 months old and people are ascribing all sorts of
importance to it. Not even in a year and it will be dead with all the other
crypto-currencies.

People get too sentimental about some things on the Internet sometimes.

~~~
azernik
FTA:

    
    
      The long-term success of Dogecoin is beside the point. It
      doesn’t have anything close to Bitcoin’s developer
      backing. And basing a currency on an internet meme
      presents its own risks: for example, the joke might get
      old. Those are two of many reasons that Bitcoin will keep
      its lead for now. But it will be interesting to see where
      and how smarter branding gets incorporated into new
      efforts.
    

It's not about whether Dogecoin stays big, it's about how cryptocurrencies can
or should use clever branding to differentiate themselves, rather than just
technical differentiation.

------
deleted_account
This is like asking my employer to pay me in GBP instead of USD because their
notes are prettier.

~~~
drcode
Hmm... I wonder if I could talk my employer into this...

------
elwell
When I see a title "Why [alternative currency prefix]coin is Important", I
really see: "I have a substantial amount of [alternative currency prefix]coin,
and I want to exchange rate to increase so I put out positive PR for it."

~~~
username223
That's the game: identify a population of suckers with spare cash, appeal to
them with imaginary stuff marketed as "currency," and fleece them for all you
can. Techno-libertarians and Russian mobsters? Bitcoin. People with free time
to look for lulz on the net? Dogecoin. People stuck in a 60s science-fiction
novel? Marscoin.

Is there a -coin yet aimed at replacing multi-thousand-dollar fashion
accessories as a way for rich men to get laid?

------
MysticFear
If you think of each coin, as a startup with a wide distributed team:
Branding, marketing, customer service, and appealing to your customer are a
lot more necessary than "developer backing" or technical features.

~~~
bendoernberg
This concept is called the Distributed Autonomous Corporation, and I think
it's a very good way of conceptualizing cryptocurrencies.

[http://invictus-innovations.com/i-dac/](http://invictus-
innovations.com/i-dac/)

------
novalis78
"Branding" or "narrative" as a differentiating factor for altcoins. Reminds me
of Marscoin (similar to Litecoin) which competes on the meme of implications
for the future of cryptocurrencies on a planetary scale.

------
sstoby
Can someone please tell me where to purchase Dodge coin?

~~~
acangiano
Buy BTC first from a place like [http://coinbase.com](http://coinbase.com)
then exchange it to DOGE on exchanges like
[http://cryptsy.com](http://cryptsy.com). Alternatively you can try
[http://reddit.com/r/dogemarket](http://reddit.com/r/dogemarket) but it's
riskier.

~~~
drcode
...on might even say it's more dogey.

------
caruana
So wealthy Ð 1,000,000 :) To the moon

~~~
SwellJoe
What is that, like, 800 bucks? High rolling.

~~~
timdorr
$1800 at current rates, actually:
[http://dogepay.com/frame_converter.php?v=1000000&from_type=D...](http://dogepay.com/frame_converter.php?v=1000000&from_type=DOGE&to_type=USD)

~~~
SwellJoe
Wow. Doge has gone way up. I sold all mine at 50 satoshi. That may have been
poor judgment on my part. I've mined another 20k since then, maybe, though, so
all is not lost.

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grondilu
Well, it's important because it reminds people that anyone can create his own
cryptocurrency.

When shares of big companies will be exchanged with a cryptocurrency-like
protocol, then we'll be in business.

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ultimatedelman
i clicked on that link expecting an article with the above headline and a one-
sentence body: "It's not."

such disappoint.

------
mbloom1915
SO DOGE - WOW!

