Forums about the virtual currency dogecoin are getting excited about the fact that more dogecoins have been traded in the last 24 hours than bitcoins. In fact, the number of unique transactions in dogecoin â€" recently 94,310 in the last 24 hours â€" is more than all other virtual-currency transactions tracked by bitinfocharts.com.
Or, in the words of one Reddit user, “so astound.â€
Dogecoin is a virtual currency that takes its name from a viral Internet meme featuring a Shiba Inu and his grammatically incorrect thoughts. It is a derivative of the virtual currency litecoin, which in turn is a bitcoin derivative. That’s possible because bitcoin and litecoin are open-source projects, which allow for copies but also allow for improvements on the originals from those copies.
Here’s why the above statistics aren’t so surprising:
When converted into U.S. dollars, the value of dogecoin transactions doesn’t come near the value of bitcoin transactions. About $518 million was sent in bitcoin in the last 24 hours, compared to approximately $9.92 million in dogecoin, according to bitinfocharts. One dogecoin recently fetched less than one U.S. penny, or $0.00031, according to coinmarketcap.com. The price of bitcoin was recently $824.18 on trading exchange Bitstamp and $917 on Mt. Gox, another exchange.
Digging deeper, it’s evident that the average transaction value in dogecoin is much less than in bitcoin. An average bitcoin transaction is worth about $9,339 compared to an average dogecoin transaction of $105.80. So it would would appear that dogecoin is being used to send smaller amounts of money around the world.
The creators of dogecoin have emphasized that their virtual currency should be used for transactions rather than held as an investment, which is what some people do with bitcoin. “If you hoard all the coins you have in the hope that the value will increase and you will get rich quick you’ll be both disappointed, and hurting dogecoin,†reads a post on the Dogecoin Foundation website, set up by the creators. â€We hope that through this foundation we can encourage the growth and use of dogecoin as the premier currency of the Internet, rather than it existing as a fiat equivalent commodity.â€
Charlie Lee, the creator of litecoin, told MarketWatch in November that ease of transactions was one of the reasons he created litecoin. “I wanted to create something that was a bit cheaper in value and easier to transact,†Lee said.
Here’s a chart that shows the difference in the number of daily unique transactions, in thousands, between bitcoin and dogecoin:
- Saumya Vaishampayan
Follow Saumya @saumvaish
Follow The Tell @thetellblog
 Read more about bitcoin on MarketWatch:
Five virtual currencies other than bitcoinÂ
Here’s what could happen to bitcoin in 2014
