Following the Ethereum Merge, Dogecoin now only trails Bitcoin as the largest proof-of-work cryptocurrency.
Meme-inspired cryptocurrency Dogecoin (DOGE) is now officially the second largest proof-of-work crypto in terms of market cap, following the Ethereum network’s proof-of-stake (PoS) upgrade on Thursday.
Bitcoin (BTC), after all, remains miles ahead of Dogecoin’s market cap of $7.83 billion, although the well-followed memecoin is still comfortably forward of the third place PoW cryptocurrency Ethereum Classic (ETC) with a market cap of $4.69 billion, Litecoin (LTC) at $4.01 billion and Monero (XMR) at $2.65 billion.
One Dogecoin fan appeared to be in disbelief of Dogecoin’s rise to become the second largest PoW cryptocurrency, stating, “who would have thought that this would occur. Congrats #Dogefam.”
However, it wasn’t taken well by everyone. One Twitter person responding to a tweet in regards to the news asked how people may take the crypto industry seriously with a memecoin so near the highest spot, emphasizing the necessity to take away “useless coins” from public view.
Dogecoin may quickly discover itself competing against ETHPoW (ETHW) — the Ethereum PoW hard fork chain that may proceed with mining, according to the official Twitter account of the ETHW, which is presently priced at $13.64, according to CoinMarketCap.
Ethereum’s transition to PoS could have added pressure on PoW-powered cryptocurrency networks to transition to a more sustainable consensus mechanism.
In a statement to Cointelegraph, Lachlan Feeney, the founder and CEO of Australian-based blockchain growth company Labrys, stated “the strain is on” Bitcoin now to justify the PoW system over the long term.
He added that “reluctance to carry out its personal transition to PoS will be huge.”
In the meantime, the Dogecoin Basis has been considering a transition of Dogecoin to a proof-of-stake after first hinting at the shift in September 2021, which was put ahead by Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin, who can also be an adviser for the Dogecoin Foundation.
In December 2021, the Dogecoin Foundation launched its Dogecoin Trailmap, which proposed to build a Dogecoin “community staking” version that resembled PoS.
“Such a version would allow all Dogecoin users to stake their DOGE and get further tokens for supporting the community,” the Dogecoin Foundation stated.
However, little progress has been made since then, because it nonetheless appears to be in “proposal” standing in keeping with the Dogecoin website.
DOGE is currently priced at $0.06 at the time of writing.
