What Bitcoin Can Learn from the Dogecoin Community

It’s easy to write Dogecoin off as a joke, largely because (in a lot of ways) it is. Dogecoin is a weird little altcoin without much to recommend it technically that has somehow found itself a lasting position in the top ten cryptocurrencies, long after the meme behind it has become so passe and irrelevant that the government is using it to promote Obamacare.
When something that confusing happens, it’s worthwhile to take a moment and figure out which of your fundamental assumptions are wrong. What exactly does Dogecoin have going for it that gives it any kind of value? It’s definitely not because the currency is innovative, or going anywhere technologically: There is no plausible future in which Dogecoin is a serious, legitimate means of payment for the general population. What Dogecoin does have, though, is something that the Bitcoin community can learn from: its community.

This post was published at Coin Report on 03 Sep 2014.