Dogecoin began life as a “joke currency” but quickly exploded onto the market, harnessing the power of online communities to help it rise.

Dogecoin (DOGE, Ð) began life as a joke. Billy Markus from Portland, Oregon, developed DOGE to be a fun currency, naming it after the Shiba Inu “doge” meme. Soon, it grew in value, with thousands of users and whole Internet communities designed around sharing the currency and posting memes about the coin online. The attention paid off, putting it among the top cryptocurrencies on the market.

Dogecoin is an altcoin designed to reach a much broader demographic than bitcoin. Additionally, Markus, the developer behind it, wanted to keep Dogecoin fresh and fun in order to distance it from the controversial past of bitcoin (for example, being widely used in online black markets like the Silk Road).

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As of September 2017, Dogecoin has become one of the top 10 coins on the market, with several online exchanges offering DOGE/BTC (bitcoin) and DOGE/LTC (Litecoin) trading pairs. While many other altcoins are attempting to become something bigger than a simple currency transaction platform, Dogecoin has stuck to its roots and is now widely used on platforms such as Reddit and Twitter to tip other users for information, funny posts or whatever else is deemed tip-worthy.