Developers for dogecoin, the meme-based cryptocurrency that somehow has parlayed cuteness into a more than $6 billion market value, are trying to make sure that the Shiba Inu-represented coin's technology is just as good as its hype.
- The developers announced Sunday evening they've released a new version of the protocol's core that promises improved synchronization speed and reduced default mempool expiry time.
- Developers say they've significantly improved the speed at which a DOGE node can upload blocks, by removing expensive integrity checks that were performed each time a block is sent to another node.
- In addition, the new core also cut the default time that transactions are cached in the mempool from 336 hours to 24 hours.
- It's the first significant update since July 2019.
- DOGE, which was released as a joke back in 2013, periodically had grabbed the the crypto-buying public's imagination, prompting surges in its price before falling back down to trade at less than a penny a coin.
- Recently, though, the coin has become part of the crypto zeitgeist after capturing the imagination of Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who has made a side business of tweeting DOGE's praises at almost every turn. Rocker Gene Simmons, who describes himself as "God of Dogecoin," Snoop Dogg (or DOGE), and even a porn star have also become DOGE lovers.
- In its most recent run-up DOGE moved well into the top 10 list of most valuable cryptocurrencies with a market cap of more than $10 billion, overtaking much more "serious" coins. And while DOGE has given back a lot of those gains, it's well ahead of where it had fallen to in the past. It's still the 14th-most valuable crypto with a market cap of $6.27 billion and a per coin price of just under five cents at press time.
- That increase in price has incentivized its developers to make the technology underpinning that adorable Shiba Inu more robust and not just be about a pretty face.
- “People say it’s a joke coin but we’re very careful to take care of the code. When it took off there was a resurgence in attention and we want to keep the currency operational,” DOGE lead maintainer Ross Nicoll recently told CoinDesk.
Update (March 1, 14:30 UTC): Adds context about DOGE's code development history.