Dogecoin is a fork of Litecoin (LTC) derived from a no longer-existent cryptocurrency called Luckycoin.

The Dogecoin network of computers came to consensus on its previous transactions using a Scrypt-based consensus method from this previous design.

In exchange for the chance to be rewarded with new money, users of the Dogecoin program, like Bitcoin, can contribute computer power to providing this service - a process known as "mining".

However, Dogecoin's most significant experiment was its monetary policy. Dogecoin can now be generated in an unlimited amount using the program, for example.

Prior to its inception, Dogecoin's supply was limited to 100 billion DOGE, but developers removed this restriction in order to make the currency inflationary.

Litecoin's mining process was linked to Dogecoin's in 2014 due to oversupply, which dissuaded miners from protecting the blockchain. Anyone mining Litecoin can also mine Dogecoin without any additional effort.

Over 113 billion DOGE have been mined as of February 2018, and 5 billion DOGE are issued every year as a result of the software.