Dogecoin Developers: The Brains Making DOGE Legit

Over the past few years, Dogecoin’s (DOGE) developers have had the unenviable task of trying to turn this ‘joke’ of a memecoin into a token that can be taken seriously. 

As many people know, Dogecoin was initially designed to be nothing more than a parody of cryptocurrency. As a result, no one ever anticipated it would grow to such immense popularity, especially as rapidly as it did. 

However, though Dogecoin will and always will be a memecoin inherently, have the developers done enough to present it as a legitimate and serious token alongside its crypto competitors?

Why Dogecoin Needed Developers

Because Dogecoin was designed as little more than a humorous experiment, it wasn’t exactly built to survive in the long term. 

Just two weeks after its debut in December 2013, Dogecoin’s value rose almost 300% and attracted more than a million customers to its website.

This meteoric rise in traffic resulted in a fairly messy period for the project early on. 

The same month it was founded, Dogecoin would not only experience its first major crash but also be hacked, losing millions of user tokens in the process. 

Evidently, this ‘Joke’ of a token was being taken far more seriously than people realized, and a team of developers would be needed to guide it in the long term. The Dogecoin Foundation, a group of developers and community members, would attempt to do this themselves. Still, their focus on charity work ultimately led to criticism, which saw the group disbanded in early 2015. 

Key Dogecoin Developers

In August 2021, the Dogecoin Foundation returned, and this time, they were taking a far more serious and focused approach to developing the Dogecoin ecosystem. 

New developers were brought on board as part of the revival to make Dogecoin more authentic, reliable, and genuine cryptocurrency. Meanwhile, veteran developers shifted their focus to keep up with this new approach. 

Timothy Stebbing 

Throughout the 1990s, Timothy Stebbing worked as an engineer in F/OSS development, where he regularly ran dev conferences and meet-ups to encourage people to get into coding. 

His technical prowess saw him be hired by the Dogecoin Foundation in 2022 where he became the Product Lead. According to Stebbing on the Dogecoin Foundation blog, his central assignment has been to “Make sense of a joke-meme project that’s accidentally become a success, and help steer it”. 

Stebbing clarified that he doesn’t see Dogecoin as a “Joke” after he spoke to community members and realized how seriously they were taking it. He also took it upon himself to immediately set out a plan of action to help Dogecoin be sustainable in the modern age, such as expanding the developer ecosystem and establishing a proper defense against government regulations. 

Stebbing’s job primarily involves acknowledging Dogecoin’s lingering technical issues and finding ways around them. One such example is the RadioDoge project, which enables people without internet access to interact with Dogecoin, therefore presenting it as a token that anyone and everyone can use.

Rather than mocking Dogecoin as some would expect with Memecoins, Stebbing is also brutally honest about Dogecoin’s faults and will always try to find a way to fix them. For example, in 2024 when he tweeted “Dogecoin is currently sick”, he proceeded by highlighting the best ways to get it back up to speed, ensuring users didn’t lose confidence in it. 

Michi Lumin 

Michi Lumin had nothing to do with cryptocurrency before being picked up by the Dogecoin Foundation. In fact, she had been the main developer of Luskwood, the largest furry-themed digital space on the internet, since 2003. 

She knew a thing or two about development, having programmed most of the characters, areas, and features of Luskwood. This explains why the Dogecoin Foundation went out of its way to seek her out, as she’s a developer who could contribute to taking Dogecoin to the next level. 

She joined the foundation as principal engineer in 2021 and has dedicated most of her time to building the LibDogecoin feature. LibDogeCoin is a C library that allows people to create Dogecoin wallets and nodes without needing in-depth blockchain knowledge. 

It’s a tool that, therefore, aims to encourage more developers to see Dogecoin as an experimental network that offers creative freedom.

Like Timothy Stebbing, Michi Lumin is very active on social media, regularly answering community questions on what is and isn’t possible for development. This honest communication ensures Dogecoin doesn’t become an unrefined project that changes on a dime.

For example, after long-running rumors of Dogecoin moving to Proof of Stake, Lumin put this to bed by tweeting, “It is not possible for, nor is it planned for, an individual, organization, or body to “move” or “shift” or “change” Dogecoin to PoS.”

Patrick Lodder

As a core developer at the Dogecoin Foundation, Patrick Lodder has also supported several other technological projects. Examples include being a technical architect at Corio NV, an advisor at the blockchain-centered Block.io organization, and even the Chief Technological Officer for Scheidt & Bachmann. 

Lodder’s technical expertise has made him a crucial member of the Dogecoin team, and his work behind the scenes can’t be ignored. 

In July 2022, Lodder spearheaded an upgrade to lower the memecoin’s dust limit from 1 DOGE to 0.01. Dust limit refers to the minimum amount needed to use the network, and lowering this helps the token seem less stringent and inaccessible. 

Any time a new upgrade is on the horizon, Lodder always alerts Dogecoin users about what he and the team have been working on and when it can be expected to drop on the live network. 

Ross Nicoll

Ross Nicoll is what many people call a “Veteran” developer in the sense that he’s been working on Dogecoin more or less since the beginning. After founders Billy Markus and Jackson Palmer stepped away, Nicoll assumed ownership of the Dogecoin website and Twitter page.

Alongside the foundation’s revival in 2021, Nicoll partook in this newfound direction by working on upgrades and systems behind the scenes that would help Dogecoin be more comparable to the likes of Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH). The most notable of these was in 2021 when Nicoll tweeted out about a “Fee reduction code” where he would show an example run-through of how cheaper fees could work in practice. 

This even caught the attention of famed Dogecoin supporter, Elon Musk, who commented “This is an important improvement” since low fees are always a huge draw for traders who want to take a crypto token seriously. 

However, the effort and time needed to upgrade Dogecoin were clearly far from easy, as Nicoll announced his departure from Dogecoin in February 2022. He remained confident that his colleagues could continue to prove that Dogecoin was more than a one-time gag, stating that he believed they could “Steer Dogecoin into the next phase, in a way that I do not have the mindset for.” 

Aren’t the Founders Still Developers Too?

Jackson Palmer and Billy Markus, the original founders of Dogecoin, have only been mentioned in passing until now. But why is that? Aren’t they developers, too?

The truth is, while the development of Dogecoin was a joint effort between them, they didn’t exactly feel that it should, or even would, become a genuinely serious and respected token.

Jackson Palmer

Jackson Palmer took a very critical view of crypto after he left Dogecoin in 2015. His partnership with Billy Markus began when Palmer created a meme page called Dogecoin.com, prompting Markus to take this a step further by creating the Dogecoin token. 

Since Palmer’s exit, he has revealed his lack of faith in cryptocurrency, which is perhaps what prompted him to create a parody token in the first place. During a H3H3 interview, he argued the only thing many crypto enthusiasts care about is “Making a buck” and he’s also been very critical of Elon Musk’s involvement, saying “I think ego matters to him more than money”.

Palmer has also revealed that he sees cryptocurrency as an “inherently right-wing, hypercapitalistic technology ” built to benefit the rich while harming the “Average” investor. When asked on X whether he would ever return to crypto, Palmer replied, “My answer is a wholehearted no,” arguing that the ecosystem is “Controlled by a powerful cartel of wealthy figures,” which he says goes against the ethos of cryptocurrency.

Similarly to Markus, Palmer seems to Have never envisioned Dogecoin becoming a long-term project with genuine value, as his comments clearly show. 

Billy Markus

Prior to creating Dogecoin, Billy Markus was a leading software engineer at International Business Machines (IBM) Corporations.

Markus was a talented developer who pushed Dogecoin through the door in barely any time. In his own words, “I threw it together in a few hours, and we launched it, and then it took off, and lots of crazy stuff happened since”.

However, the following months wouldn’t be easy for Markus. He began receiving a lot of backlash and negativity from the Dogecoin community, primarily because many believed that he wouldn’t change his stance on seeing crypto, including Dogecoin, as a joke. 

This difference in ideologies resulted in Markus stepping down “I’m no longer part of the Dogecoin project, I left around 2015 as the community started to strongly shift from one I was comfortable with”.

Markus’ vision of Dogecoin became different from what the community wanted, though he has since become an advisor for the Dogecoin Foundation to provide guidance and advice in recent years. 

Developing Dogecoin From the Outside – Celebrity Influences  

Of course, developers are primarily responsible for pushing Dogecoin to new heights, but some external influencers have also helped it garner more serious recognition. 

Elon Musk is the most obvious example, having made numerous tweets about Dogecoin, prompting its value to skyrocket in the short term. Calling Dogecoin the “People’s crypto” and introducing it as a form of payment for TESLA got a lot of people to take notice of Dogecoin when it was still being seen as little more than a fad. 

Mark Cuban, owner of the Dallas Mavericks, has also supported the token, being very vocal about its longevity and allowing people to use it when purchasing Mavericks merchandise and tickets. 

Gene Simmons, Snoop Dogg, and Kevin Jonas are just a few other examples of influencers who have helped popularize Dogecoin as something worth exploring for crypto enthusiasts and newbies alike. 

Is Dogecoin Now Considered a Serious Token?

So, since it was first unveiled to the world in 2014, can Dogecoin now be considered a serious token?

This isn’t an easy question to answer, but what is clear is that Dogecoin is certainly being presented as serious, and that’s thanks to the developers. Since the foundation’s revival in 2021, Dogecoin has received frequent updates, new features, and roadmaps, just like its competitors. 

Additionally, Dogecoin consistently remains within the top 10 cryptocurrencies for market cap, proving that it’s gained a lot of genuine recognition and user activity. It also runs on the Proof of Work model, which Bitcoin still uses.

The biggest argument against it ever being seen as ‘serious’ though, is that Dogecoin doesn’t hold intrinsic value as a memecoin. All of its value comes from the community and outside influences. However, thanks to the developers, the perception of it is now far removed from its origins of being nothing more than a hollow parody. 

On the Flipside

• Shiba Inu has arguably done more for making memecoins recognised and accepted than Dogecoin.
• Having built-in features like ShibaSwap, Shiba Inu Incubator, and Shiboshis allowed the project to make a serious statement in a fraction of the time. 

Why This Matters

Crypto developers often don’t get the love they rightly deserve. This especially applies to the Dogecoin developers, who have done all they can to answer the community’s calls to develop Memecoins that are supported and presented the same way as other ‘legitimate’ altcoins.

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