Dogecoin Roadmap Recruits Vitalik Buterin for Staking

Key Takeaways

Dogecoin has published a roadmap announcing a suite of new features to be developed in 2022.
The plans include a proposal Proof-of-Stake, which Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has contributed to.
Dogecoin has had an eventful year, thanks in part to endorsements from Elon Musk.

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The development team behind Dogecoin has created a roadmap, as published on the project’s website this month.

Dogecoin Roadmap Includes Proof-of-Stake

Dogecoin has published a roadmap for the first time in eight years.

Published on the Dogecoin website, the plan notably includes a proposal for Proof-of-Stake that will allow investors to earn interest by staking their DOGE tokens.

The proposal is called a “uniquely Doge proposal” that will allow “everyone, not just the big players to participate.” The feature will also dedicate a portion of staking rewards to charity.

According to the roadmap, the proposal is being developed in collaboration with Vitalik Buterin, creator of the Ethereum blockchain, which itself is currently preparing to switch to Proof-of-Stake as part of its Ethereum 2.0 roadmap.

Vitalik Buterin initially suggested that Dogecoin should introduce Proof-of-Stake in September. He explained that this would probably not replace Proof-of-Work, which currently provides 5 billion DOGE worth around $970 million in rewards to miners per year.

The roadmap also suggests that Dogecoin will receive a newly redesigned site along with an encyclopedic FAQ section.

Other goals mentioned in the roadmap include radio and Starlink-based Dogecoin nodes and a point-of-sale app produced in partnership with a yet-to-be specified Layer 2 project.

Developers will also gain several new tools according to the plans laid out. The Dogecoin team is aiming to provide a C library (Libdogecoin), a written specification (Dogecoin Standard), an SDK (Dogecoin Keyring), and a transaction API (GigaWallet).

Though the roadmap does not provide precise dates, development on most of these features will begin in 2022.

Dogecoin and Elon Musk

Though Dogecoin was initially dismissed as a meme coin that copied many of its features from Bitcoin and Litecoin, the coin gained more legitimacy this year as the retail market took a greater interest in the project.

By far the biggest influence behind Dogecoin’s rise was Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, who frequently took to Twitter throughout the beginning of the year to post memes endorsing the project. Musk’s tweets caused sudden jolts in the price of DOGE on multiple occasions. At the height of the mania for Dogecoin and other dog-themed meme coins, he appeared on Saturday Night Live, where he described it as “a hustle.” It crashed from highs of $0.77 shortly after.

Besides memes, Musk has also taken an interest in the blockchain’s technology. In May, he said that he was working with developers to improve its transaction efficiency and followed up by supporting a fee reduction proposal in June. This week, during discussions with Jack Dorsey over venture capitalists’ involvement in Web3 and Ethereum, Musk appeared to agree with Dorsey’s concerns. “That’s why I’m pro Doge,” he said. Musk has previously stated that he holds Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Dogecoin.

Dogecoin creator Billy Markus, who is no longer directly involved with development, noted that this month’s publication is the first roadmap that the project has had since it launched in 2013.

“For the first time in 8 years, Dogecoin has a roadmap that isn’t a drawing of a road with the word wow,” Markus wrote on Twitter.

A more robust suite of features should help Dogecoin differentiate itself from the earlier cryptocurrencies that it was derived from.

Disclaimer: At the time of writing this author held less than $100 of Bitcoin, Ethereum, and altcoins.

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