Dogecoin is a peer-to-peer internet currency that allows instant payments to anyone in the world. The good side of the currency is that it can be efficiently mined using consumer grade hardware. The coins also offer faster transaction confirmations (typically of around 2.5 minutes).
The Dogecoin network uses a memory card that serves as proof that the currency can be mined using regular CPUs and computers used by many people.
How it can be used
In order to use Dogecoins, you need a digital wallet. This is an address you will use to receive the coins. When you have a new wallet, the sell dogecoin in nigeria Dogecoin network generates a private key that is given to you.
The network also generates a public key that you use when exchanging the coins with other users.
The private key is kept as a big secret and the owner is the only person who knows it. The reason why it is kept secret is that anyone who knows about it can claim complete ownership of the funds associated with it.
Because of the importance of the key, it is important that you protect it as much as possible. This is because sharing it with other people can easily result in the loss of your money.
Blockchain
This is a place where all the transactions you participate in are managed. Many experts equate the blockchain with a logbook. Because the blockchain records every transaction you participate in, it is updated every time you complete a transaction.
To rule out errors in the records, all transactions are first verified before they are written permanently. For example, when you send money to a friend, the transaction is first added to the most recent “block”, after which it is checked for authenticity.
Once the verification is complete, it will be written permanently. The verification process is carried out by “miners”.
How to acquire Dogecoins
There are a number of ways you can acquire the coins. Some of the possibilities include: mining, faucets, tipping, and converting other forms of currency into Dogecoins. The most common method of acquiring the coins is mining. Here you only need a computer and software with which you can mine the coins.
Virtual Currency Games
Every little boy’s (and many grown man’s) dream of playing video games for a living is fast becoming a reality. The recent release of HunterCoin and the VoidSpace in development, games that reward players with digital currency rather than virtual princesses or gold stars, point to a future where placement on a scoreboard will be denominated in dollars, pounds sterling, euros and yen could be rewarded.
The story of the multi-million dollar (virtual) real estate agent…
Digital currencies have slowly matured both in terms of their functionality and the financial infrastructure that allows them to be used as a credible alternative to non-virtual fiat currencies. Although Bitcoin, the first and most famous of the cryptocurrencies, was created in 2009, forms of virtual currency used in video games have existed for more than 15 years. 1997’s Ultima Online was the first notable attempt to incorporate a large-scale virtual economy into a game. Players could collect gold coins by completing quests, fighting monsters, and finding treasure, and spend them on armor, weapons, or real estate. This was an early incarnation of a virtual currency as it only existed within the game, although it mirrored the real world economy in that the Ultima currency was inflated due to game mechanics that ensured there was a never-ending supply Kill experienced monsters and collect gold coins.
Released in 1999, EverQuest took virtual currency gaming a step further by allowing players to trade virtual goods with each other in-game, although it was forbidden by the game’s designer to sell virtual items to each other on eBay as well. In a real-life phenomenon, entertainingly explored in Neal Stephenson’s 2011 novel Reamde, Chinese gamers, or “gold farmers,” were hired to play EverQuest and other similar games full-time with the goal of earning experience points to improve their fortunes Improving characters, making them more powerful and desirable. These characters were then sold on eBay to western players who were unwilling or unable to put in the hours to upgrade their own characters. Based on the calculated exchange rate of the EverQuest currency as a result of the real trading that took place, Edward Castronova, a professor of telecommunications at Indiana University and an expert on virtual currencies, estimated that in 2002 EverQuest was the 77th richest country in the world somewhere between Russia and Bulgaria, and its GDP per capita was greater than that of the People’s Republic of China and India.
Launched in 2003, Second Life reached 1 million regular users by 2014. Second Life is perhaps the most complete example of a virtual economy yet, whereby its virtual currency, the Linden Dollar, can be used to buy or sell in-game goods and services, exchanged for real-world currencies through market-based exchanges. In the 10 years between 2002 and 2013, $3.2 billion worth of in-game virtual goods transactions were recorded , with Second Life becoming a marketplace where gamers and businesses alike design content they create, advertise and sell. Real estate was a particularly lucrative commodity to trade. In 2006, Ailin Graef became the first Second Life millionaire when she turned an initial investment of $9.95 into over $1 million over 2.5 years by buying, selling, and trading virtual properties with other players. Examples like Ailin are the exception to the rule, but only 233 registered users who made more than $5000 from Second Life activities in 2009.
How to get paid in dollars for mining asteroids…
Until now, the ability to generate non-virtual money in video games was secondary, as the player had to use unauthorized channels to exchange their virtual loot, or they had to have some level of creative ability or business acumen in the real world in exchange for cash could be exchanged. This could change with the advent of video games, built from the ground up around the “installation” of recognized digital currency platforms. HunterCoin’s approach is to “gamify” the more technical and automated process of creating digital currencies. Unlike real currencies, which are created when a central bank prints them, digital currencies are created by being “mined” by users. The underlying source code of any given digital currency that enables it to function is called a blockchain, a decentralized online public ledger that records all transactions and currency exchanges between individuals. Because digital currency is nothing more than intangible data, it is more susceptible to fraud than physical currency, as it is possible to duplicate a unit of currency, causing inflation or altering the value of a transaction after it has been made for personal gain. To ensure this doesn’t happen, the blockchain is “monitored” by volunteers, or “miners,” who test the validity of each transaction performed, using special hardware and software to ensure the data has not been tampered with. This is an automatic process for the miner software, albeit an extremely time-consuming process that requires a lot of processing power from your computer. To reward a miner for verifying a transaction, the blockchain releases a new unit of digital currency, rewarding them as an incentive to continue maintaining the network, creating a digital currency. Since it can take anywhere from days to years for an individual to successfully mine a coin, user groups pool their resources into a mining ‘pool’ and use the combined processing power of their computers to mine coins faster.
HunterCoin, the game, resides on one such blockchain for a digital currency also called HunterCoin. Playing the game replaces the automated process of mining digital currencies, making it manual for the first time and without the need for expensive hardware. Using strategy, time, and teamwork, players venture into a map in search of coins, and when they find some and return safely to their base (other teams try to stop them and steal their coins), they can cash out their coins by depositing let them into their own digital wallet, typically an app designed to make and receive digital payments. 10% of the value of all coins deposited by players goes to the miners who maintain HunterCoin’s blockchain, plus a small percentage of any coins lost when a player is killed and their coins are dropped. While the game graphics are simple and it takes time to accumulate significant rewards, HunterCoin is an experiment that could be considered the first video game with built-in monetary rewards as its main feature.
Although still in development, VoidSpace is a more polished approach to playing in a working economy. VoidSpace, a Massively Multiplayer Online Roleplaying Game (MMORPG), is set in outer space where players explore an ever-expanding universe, mine natural resources such as asteroids and trade them for goods with other players with the aim of building their own galactic empire. Players are rewarded for mining in DogeCoin, a more established form of digital currency that is currently widely used for micropayments on various social media sites. DogeCoin will also be the currency of in-game trade between players and the means to make in-game purchases. Like HunterCoin, DogeCoin is a legitimate and fully-functional digital currency and, like HunterCoin, can be traded on exchanges such as Poloniex for both digital and real fiat currencies.
The future of video games?
While it’s still early days in terms of quality, the release of HunterCoin and VoidSpace is an interesting hint as to what the next development for games could be. MMORPGs are currently viewed as ways to model epidemic outbreaks, as player responses to an unintended plague reflect recorded, difficult-to-model aspects of human behavior during real-world outbreaks. It could be surmised that in-game virtual economies could eventually be used as models to test economic theories and develop answers to massive errors based on observations of how players use digital currencies with real value. It is also a good test of the functionality and possible uses of digital currencies, which promise to go beyond mere means of exchange and into exciting areas of personal digital ownership, for example. Meanwhile, players now have the ability to convert hours in front of a screen into digital currencies and then into dollars, pounds sterling, euros or yen.
But before you quit your job…
… The current exchange rates are worth mentioning. It is estimated that a player could easily recoup their initial 1,005 HunterCoin (HUC) registration fee for participating in the HunterCoin game in one game day. Currently, HUC cannot be directly exchanged for USD, one has to convert it into a more established digital currency like Bitcoin. At the time of writing, the HUC to Bitcoin (BC) exchange rate is 0.00001900, while the BC to USD exchange rate is $384.24. 1 HUC trading at BC and then USD would equal…$0.01 before accounting for transaction fees. sell dogecoin in nigeria This is not to say that as a player becomes more skilled, they could not increase their team of virtual CoinHunters and perhaps employ a few “bot” programs that would automatically play the game under the guise of another player and also earn coins for them but I think it’s safe to say that even efforts like this could realistically only result in enough change for a daily McDonald’s at the moment. Unless players are willing to submit to intrusive in-game advertisements, share personal information, or join a game like CoinHunter powered by the Bitcoin blockchain, the rewards are unlikely to ever be more than micropayments for the casual gamer will. And maybe that’s a good thing, because when you get paid for something, doesn’t it stop being a game?
