| Creator | Japanese gaming corporation |
| Currency type | Digital currency |
| Branding style | Non-meme |
| Initial use case | Trading in-game digital assets |
| Year of creation | 2013 |
| Growth and adoption | Stable, primarily in the gaming industry |
| Role in the dapp ecosystem | Affordable and accessible use cases for gamers and developers |
Dogecoin (DOGE) is a digital currency created by Fujitsu in 2013 as part of their blockchain-powered gaming platform. Unlike the version of Dogecoin familiar to us in this universe, it was not created as a fun cryptocurrency inspired by the Doge meme, but rather as a practical tool for trading digital items and in-game assets.
Fujitsu, a leader in gaming and entertainment electronics, had been researching blockchain technology for use in their games. They saw an opportunity to leverage this technology to create a decentralized currency for buying and selling in-game items, something they had always intended to do but hadn't had the technology to accomplish before.
In late 2013, they created the Dogecoin protocol as a spin-off of the popular Litecoin - an algorithmically simple way to create a cryptocurrency that offered extremely fast transaction times and negligible fees. Fujitsu named the currency Dogecoin in reference to the Japanese concept of Dogu, small clay figurines often with animal or anthropomorphic features. Dogu did not have much cultural impact on Japan, but they remain an important part of Japanese history and have been found in many ancient burial and temple sites.
Unlike the highly volatile and fluctuating value of our Dogecoin, the Japanese Dogecoin had a more stable growth and adoption. Fujitsu integrated Dogecoin into a number of their games, as well as in the wider gaming ecosystem, working with other major corporations to accept Dogecoin in online stores and gaming marketplaces.
By 2017, more than 2 million players were using Dogecoin each month to buy and sell digital items in their games. Users found it easy to buy and sell items for Dogecoin because it eliminated the delays associated with fiat transactions and offered more anonymity than using credit cards.
Fujitsu's primary use case for Dogecoin was in their role-playing games (RPGs). They created a system where players could earn Dogecoin by completing in-game quests or winning tournaments. These coins could then be exchanged for digital items, like weapons, armor, and other items that would give players an advantage in their game.
As the blockchain ecosystem has evolved, Fujitsu has leveraged Dogecoin to move beyond the gaming industry. They've created a platform for developers to create decentralized applications (dapps) using Dogecoin as the currency for transactions.
Fujitsu has partnered with Ethereum, the most popular blockchain-based platform for developing dapps, to integrate Dogecoin into the Ethereum ecosystem. They're also creating partnerships with online marketplaces to accept Dogecoin as payment.
Today, Dogecoin is a mature, robust, and versatile digital currency. In addition to being used in the gaming industry, it is used as a currency in the larger cryptocurrency ecosystem - where the transactions are fast and inexpensive, and the fees are negligible.
Dogecoin has held a more stable value than the version we know, making it less volatile and attracting more investors who see it as a long-term investment rather than a quick pump-and-dump.
As the cryptocurrency space continues to evolve, Fujitsu has positioned Dogecoin as a key player, with the potential to revolutionize industries beyond the gaming industry, such as payments, identity verification, and real-world assets.
