Dogecoin mania reaches Indian crypto exchanges
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Me to @WazirXIndia right now #dogecoin #Crypto #WazirXScam https://t.co/S1nI3smAbb — Aashvi vijay (@AashviVijay) 1620192914000
The Dogefather🐶May 8th — SNL https://t.co/3bQkZXo32s — The Chairman (@WSBChairman) 1620250548000
May the 4th be with you and also May the 8th be with you! 😆🚀 #dogecoin #SNLDoge #SNLmay8 https://t.co/jRhjIV80nc — Hodle₹ ₿hatt (@hodlerme) 1620128317000
The Dogecoin mania has reached Indian cryptocurrency exchanges Named after a meme of the Japanese dog breed Shiba Inu and with supporters including Tesla’s Elon Musk , the cryptocurrency has risen over 10X in the last three months, with its market cap standing at almost $80 billion on Thursday.Indian cryptocurrency exchanges are now witnessing record-breaking trading volumes of Dogecoin, causing massive surge in traffic on these platforms.On Wednesday, Binance-owned WazirX ’s Doge/INR trading slowed its system as the platform saw record traffic that it did not have the capacity to support.Soon, #WazirXScam trended on microblogging Twitter, as users complained of unexecuted Doge trades.CoinSwitch Kuber, backed by Sequoia Capital and Tiger Global, registered 200% growth in Dogecoin volumes month on month, with a jump of 1300% for Dogecoin in the last two weeks alone.Dogecoin’s volumes and prices are also peaking across the world on the much-anticipated appearance of Musk on an American TV show on May 8.Musk has hinted at discussing Dogecoin during his appearance on Saturday Night Live, driving retail investors to invest in the crypto asset.Active traders on WazirX jumped by 123% in April and have been consistently growing on other platforms like CoinDCX.Nischal Shetty, founder of WazirX, said the platform is being re-architected to deal with the expected surge on May 8 that could double or triple from Wednesday’s peak.Shetty estimates that Dogecoins worth Rs 600 crore have been traded on the platform in the last 24 hours. On Coinswitch Kuber average daily volumes have been around Rs 100 crore in the last two weeks.Most Indian crypto exchanges have listed the token, although some like ZebPay have steered away despite investor interest.“We may list it, but first I’d like to be sure it isn’t just the Tulip Mania of the 21st century,” said Vikram Rangala, COO of ZebPay, referring to one of the most infamous market bubbles and crashes of all time in the 1600s.Unlike other cryptocurrencies that are either in limited circulation – making them a storehouse of value - or have use cases like smart contracts, Doge’s use cases have been limited to tipping on Twitter and Reddit for quality content.Its official website describes the currency as “an open-source peer-to-peer digital currency, favoured by Shiba Inus worldwide.”There are over 129 billion Doge tokens in circulation, according to Coinmarketcap.com, and more can be mined.Nithin Kamath, chief executive of online brokerage firm Zerodha, said a lack of regulations in crypto leaves the industry susceptible to manipulation, unlike strict regulations on capital markets that make it easier to track trading activities which artificially inflate the price of a stock.“I can’t really make any sense of what is happening with Dogecoin,” Kamath said. “With no checks in place, the risks of some of the currencies like Dogecoin being a pump and dump scheme is quite high. I think the best way to play it is by not allocating more than 1%-5% of your liquid net worth to assets where the speculative activity is quite high,” Kamath said.The best way to protect investors from a risky asset class like Doge is to restrict trading of the asset to high net-worth individuals and blockchain experts, said Mathew Chacko, partner at Spice Route Legal.The majority of crypto traders in India are under 25.Users say that if enough people ascribe value to the cryptocurrency, then the token ends up becoming valuable for that community, and use cases eventually arise.“I don’t want to sell my Dogecoins, whatever happens,” said Siddharam Ishwarkatti, a 42-year-old engineer working for a multinational firm who started investing in cryptocurrency this year. “Even if it goes to 100, I will not sell it. These currencies might have a future. Bitcoin had zero value when it started.”Dogecoin is an initiation token into the crypto universe for several new users like Ishwarkatti and 19-year-old Mrityunjaya Lala, who want to invest limited resources.The fear of missing out and the thrill of owning a meme stock as well as the heavy influence of Tesla’s Musk is driving many new traders to Dogecoin, even though they may not fully understand blockchain technology.Priyanshu Singh, a 19-year-old B Tech. student from Kanpur, is also hoping to use his profits from the Dogecoin rally to invest in more stable coins like Ethereum and Bitcoin eventually.Long-term believers in crypto’s future and blockchain technology say that Dogecoin distracts people from the true value of crypto because it makes the industry about quick returns.Dogecoin has peaked and slumped in its almost 8 years of existence, depending on external influences such as a community of Dogecoin Redditors supporting Sochi Olympics players in 2014 who lacked funds, to influential people adopting and promoting the token.The most recent peak was on January 28 when Musk tweeted a faux “Dogue" magazine cover. Discussion on the cryptocurrency surged on WallStreetBets, the Reddit forum responsible for GameStop’s stock price hike.Several industry experts have drawn parallels between the current surge in Doge’s prices and the GameStop short squeeze earlier this year.“I think Dogecoin, like GameStop, is one of those markers of social movements that are breaking age-old concepts of what defines money,” said Tanvi Ratna, chief executive of think tank Policy 4.0. “What appears like frivolous games are drawing serious amounts of real money and challenging ideas around the legitimacy of money always coming from the state. This dynamic worries most governments.”The now-famous GameStop short squeeze has propelled the stock of the video game retailer to nearly $160 as of Wednesday, rising by more than 30x year-to-date.Rating agency S&P Global Ratings on Wednesday also raised the stock’s credit rating from B- to B.“While the risks associated with investing in Dogecoin are many, the framework does not provide legally viable recourse,” said Anu Monga, Partner, AnantLaw, and an expert in technology regulations. “Owing to the volatility of Dogecoin, the financial regulator of the UK has clearly warned people investing in crypto assets such as Dogecoin to do so at their own risk.”Currently, in India, there is no legal framework to address private cryptocurrencies.The Cryptocurrency and Regulation of Official Digital Currency Bill, 2021, which provides for an official digital currency to be floated by the RBI, is under consideration by the government.
This crypto claims to solve bitcoin’s biggest problem
New York (CNN Business) Bitcoin may be the king of cryptocurrencies, but it’s facing an environmental backlash over the energy-intensive technology underpinning it.
A new crypto called chia says it’s the eco-friendly alternative.
Like most digital currencies, chia runs on a decentralized ledger system known as blockchain. But unlike bitcoin, chia, which was founded by the inventor of BitTorrent, claims it has a much smaller carbon footprint with its mining process of verifying and recording transactions.
Chia logged its first trades this week, joining a crowded crypto scene at a time of frenzied investor interest in alternative digital assets.
What is chia?
The Chia Network created the coin in 2017 with a focus on the environmental implications of digital currency “mining” — the highly specialized, energy-intensive computing process that creates new coins by solving complex equations.
The key difference between chia and other cryptos, according to its founders, is its “proofs of space and time” method of verifying transactions that utilizes unused disk space on users' hard drives and is more energy-efficient than bitcoin’s “proof of work” model.
The Chia Network was founded by Bram Cohen, who also invented the peer-to-peer file-sharing system BitTorrent, and has already won backing from prominent investors such as Andreessen Horowitz and Naval Ravikant.
How does the process work?
Every cryptocurrency has its own method for verifying transactions, typically by using the collective computer power of miners, who are paid for their help in cryptocurrency. The chia mining process, which the Chia Network calls “farming,” relies on using empty computer storage space instead.
Chia’s “proof of space and time” process allows network participants to show that they have been physically storing data over a certain period of time, according to Coin Market Cap
This doesn’t resemble the mining process of cryptocurrencies like ethereum , for example. In its current iteration, ethereum uses proof-of-work, which requires a massive amount of computer power to harvest and mine the decentralized coin. The proposed ethereum 2.0, however, would use a proof-of-stake model, which is allegedly more energy-efficient.
Part of the appeal of cryptocurrencies is that people can send or receive money without the involvement of traditional banks or government bodies, unlike a fiat currency controlled by a central bank. All transactions are verified and recorded by huge networks of computers, using a database called blockchain. Typically that process requires a huge amount of electricity to power those computers — some estimates put bitcoin mining’s carbon dioxide output as equivalent to New Zealand’s.
Cohen told CNN Business he hopes to have chia listed on crypto exchanges soon, including Coinbase, the digital currency exchange that went public in April
Ready to ‘farm’?
Chia is meant to be accessible.
“We’ve designed our software with the intention of it being usable by anyone who can use the internet,” Cohen told CNN Business. Since “farming” doesn’t require massive amounts of power, Cohen said “it can be done in a normal apartment.”
The Chia Network has a blockchain transaction platform called Mainnet, which can be downloaded on the network’s website, chia.net . To start farming, you have to download the program to your computer and allocate a certain amount of space to the network through the user interface.
“It involves completely normal hardware rather than super custom and expensive stuff,” Cohen said. “Most people have some amount of unused storage space they can do it with already.”
And since “farming” doesn’t use a ton of energy, you can fire up your laptop and get to work. Some other cryptocurrency mining processes, however, require complex machinery and will send your electricity bill through the roof.
Bitcoin miners typically have to have their machines running 24/7 “to have the best odds of getting a return on the investment and maximize profitability,” digital currency economist Alex de Vries told CNN Business.
Will it save energy?
The chia “farming” process is a greener mining alternative, but it does still require electricity.
When it comes to cryptos, “environmentally friendly” is a “relative term,” said Nick Spanos, CEO of Blockchain Technologies Corp, a software company. Computers need power to run, and natural resources are used to build hard drives, “much in the same way that electric vehicles and windmills still require too much resources to truly be environmentally friendly.”
“Plotting,” the process of creating files that are later harvested as part of the farming process, still uses computer hard drive space and CPU power, but it requires significantly less energy than what is required for the mining process for other proof-of-work cryptocurrencies.
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