Exploration of Dogecoin Casinos – How to Buy, Sell and Bet with DOGE
Crypto currencies are a wonderous thing. With a little tech-savvy know-how, developers were able to take nothing, and make something. Almost every digital token in existence has a purpose. Bitcoin was made to eliminate cost and expedite the transfer of money; particularly large sums of money traveling over long distances. Ethereum was built to facilitate state-of-the-art smart contracts. But then there’s Dogecoin…
Dogecoin [DOGE] was developed for no other reason than to prove that literally anyone, with just a smidge of programming knowledge, could create a crypto currency. It needed no rhyme or reason. It was, in fact, a joke.
To punctuate the farce that was Dogecoin, its developers chose a humorous meme as its mascot – the now famous, wide-eyed Shiba Inu. Have a look at the Official Dogecoin Website, and the scrolling slide of memes clearly suggest it’s operation is more on a comedic level than a serious business model. Then again, maybe that’s why so many people like it; everyone from casual investors, to the world’s richest man, Elon Musk.
Despite the virtual circus that consistently surrounds Dogecoin, it is a real crypto. It has real value. You can buy it, sell it, purchase goods and services with it. You can even gamble with it at DOGE casinos, where Canadian players are welcome to deposit in a wide range of crypto currencies. In the following text, we’ll teach you how to accomplish each of these goals. But first, let’s have a brief look at the history of this uniquely farcical token.
History of Dogecoin – If a dog can be Mayor in California…
In 1981, the people of Sunol, California elected Bosco Ramos, a black Labrador-Rottweiler, as mayor of their great city. They were so pleased with his honorary performance, they continued re-electing Bosco right up until death in 1994. While many scoffed at the idea of a canine politician, the people of Sunul adored and respected him. That’s kind of how people see Dogecoin. You can laugh at it, or you can love and respect it – or maybe even both. But the fact remains, both Bosco and Dogecoin proved efficient in their respective positions.
Dogecoin was co-founded by a pair of expert software engineers, Billy Markus of IBM and Jackson Palmer of Adobe. While their creation was meant to be a joke more than anything else, they actually had another purpose in mind. They wanted to create a digital token for mainstream society, not just tech-heads. They wanted their token to exist separate from all the controversy that was surrounding the crypto currency community.
On December 6, 2013, their vision became reality. The token, designed to mimic the existing scrypt-based proof-of-work algorithms of Litecoin and Luckycoin, drew a massive audience. It wasn’t worth much to start, opening at just US$0.0002. But it wasn’t meant to be. It was a coin for the masses, not the massively wealthy.
On December 19, just two weeks after launch, its value begin to rise, climbing 300% to $0.0095 in just 72 hours. At that price, billions of DOGE were trading daily. Three days later, the pendulum swung in the other direction, crashing 80%; partly because of China’s outright ban on crypto, and partly because it was so easy to mine.
Exploiting the Unexploitable – Another Dogecoin “Joke”?
Dogecoin’s creators made sure that Bitcoin miners with their elaborate SHA-256 mining setups couldn’t exploit DOGE. They designed it to require dedicated FPGA and ASIC devices for mining. With Doge experiencing such quick growth, miners were quick to comply, and exploitation began anyway. And if that weren’t enough to send tremors through the Dogecoin community, on December 25 of 2013, the first major DOGE theft took place when a hacker infiltrated the Dogewallet platform and amended the software to redirect all Dogecoin transfers to a static wallet.
Despite that hiccup, by January of 2014, DOGE was the most heavily-traded crypto in existence, briefly surpassing Bitcoin in volume, if not capitalization. It was also the most talked about token on social media. Even though most of the press was negative, Dogecoin was reaping the rewards ten-fold. That was not sitting well with co-founder Palmer.
In 2015, Palmer left Dogecoin, and the entire crypto community, for good. He was dissatisfied with what crypto had become. Instead of a liberating alternative to fiat money, crypto was a profitable exploitation of technology; another way for the rich to get richer. And as the years went by, that’s exactly what happened, albeit slowly.
In 2017-18, while other cryptos were jumping, DOGE experienced a spike that reached as high as $0.017. Then in 2020, a social media group decided to buy up so much DOGE it had no choice but to spike. And it worked. It also grew due to Dogecoin catching the attention of Tesla CEO, Elon Musk, who became a strong proponent of digital currency; especially this one.
Dogecoin “To The Moon” with Elon Musk
Every time Elon posted about DOGE on Twitter, its value jumped. Fans of the crypto tagged him The Dogeking, and it was his involvement that led to the highest spike of $0.711 on May 8, 2021. That was the night Musk appeared on Saturday Night Live. Everyone expected him to hype it up, sending DOGE ‘To the Moon‘.
Viewers were so expectant, they collectively bought billions upon billions of Dogecoin. Some invested their life savings in hopes of becoming instant millionaires. Soon after the show’s start, it became evident that was not going to happen. Within 45 minutes, DOGE had fallen back to ~$0.4. The crypto community that had once praised their Dogeking, feeling the pangs of monetary devastation, now blamed him for its failure to launch. Go figure…
The very next day, May 9, 2021, Elon Musk confirmed that SpaceX would host DOGE-1, a rideshare mission funded entirely by the digital token, in Q1 2022.
DOGE for Philanthropy
If you’ve found no other reason to appreciate Dogecoin, maybe its contributions to philanthropy will do the trick. DOGE has been the crypto catalyst behind a number of major fundraising endeavors.
It all began in 2014 when the Dogecoin community started a charity to raise money for the Jamaican Bobsled Team to participate in the Winter Olympics. The team had already qualified, but could not afford to travel to Sochi, Japan. In just two days, the Dogecoin initiative was able to raise US$36,000 of the $50,000 required. This spurred another fundraiser to support Sochi Olympic athlete Shiva Keshavan, a luger from India.
The success of those fundraisers inspired the Dogecoin Foundation to launch Doge4Water, a charity drive geared towards helping Charity: Water build a well in Kenya’s Tana river basin. More than 4,000 Dogecoin donors contributed over 40 million tokens, worth about US$30,000 at that time.
The NASCAR community was also inspired by the success of these and smaller fundraising events. In March 2014, a group of Dogecoin fans on Reddit were able to raise 67.8 million DOGE (worth about $55k back then) to support Josh ‘Moonrocket‘ Wise’s career in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. His car, No. 98, featured the Dogecoin / Reddit logo. He competed in a number of races, but always finished near or at the back of the pack. Still, the amount of press and social media he received convinced creators of the NASCAR ’14 video game to feature Wise and his No. 98 Dogecoin car.
How and Where to Buy Dogecoin [DOGE]
Since becoming affiliated with multi-billionaire Elon Musk, Dogecoin has become one of the most readily available crypto currencies on the planet. Just about every crypto exchange offers it. P2P trades are easy enough to find. With the right equipment, you can mine your own Dogecoin. There are even some Bitcoin ATMs that sell it right here in Canada. Before you rush out to buy DOGE, make sure you have a way to hold it. Which brings us to…
Compatible Dogecoin Wallets
There are a number great wallets for storing DOGE tokens. Developers introduced a pair of native Dogecoin wallets – a “light” edition known as Multidoge, and a “full” wallet called Dogecoin Core. The light edition is able to run much faster by simply skimming the blockchain. The Core version downloads the full blockchain, making it noticeably slower. However, the Core also carries the advantage of being able to mine Dogecoin. One potential downside to both of these wallets is that they can only hold DOGE tokens.
If you’re looking for a more versatile wallet that can hold DOGE and other compatible crypto, some alternatives recommended by the developers of Dogecoin include TrustWallet, Exodus, and Ledger.
Dogecoin Crypto Exchanges
You can snag DOGE at any major crypto exchange service, including Decentralized Exchanges (DEX). Being so readily available, the real question should be what features do you want from your exchange service? Maybe you’re looking or the lowest commission rate, or the availability of a built-in wallet. Maybe you want to buy one crypto with another crypto, reducing your digital footprint, in which case you’d be better off with a DEX like Binance. The best advice I can give you is to consider what you want to gain from of the experience, and choose a service that best meets those needs.
Buy DOGE at a Bitcoin ATM
While there are more than 2,000 Bitcoin ATMs all over Canada, the ones that offer a wider selection of crypto currency – including DOGE – are more limited. You’ll find these mostly in bigger cities. It really depends on what company operates the Bitcoin ATM, as only about half of them deal in Dogecoin and other minor cryptos. This link will allow you to scan an interactive map for all Dogecoin ATMS in Canada, or use the links below to search by ATM operator.
At time of writing, we’ve confirmed DOGE is available to buy at the following Bitcoin ATM operators (i.e. look for these logos on the machine). Click any operator name to find the nearest location and learn more about their services, fees, and accepted payment methods.
- Bitcoin Well (190+ locations in Canada)
- BitNational (160+ locations in Canada)
- InstaCoin (140+ locations in Canada)
- Bitcoin Depot (110+ locations in Canada)
- FastBTCatm (60+ locations in Canada)
- Bitcoiniacs (50+ locations in Canada)
Is Dogecoin Crypto Really Anonymous?
Unfortunately, no. Like most (but not all) crypto currency, Dogecoin is not 100% anonymous. It exists on a public blockchain, with every transaction tied to a wallet ID. To the casual observer, the blockchain appears to be nothing more than an endless strain of alphanumeric content, but each and every letter and number means something. An individual with the right knowledge can trace that information, and if they’re dedicated enough, eventually link it to an IP address, if not an exact identity.
If you were hoping to use Dogecoin in a genuinely anonymous nature, such as bartering beneath the radar of the Canada Revenue Agency, you might want to look into truly private crypto tokens, like Monero (XMR) and Verge (XVG).
Availability and Use of Dogecoin Casinos in Canada
Dogecoin isn’t just for DeFi investors. Like so many of today’s popular crypto currencies, you can also use it to play online casino games. There was a time when DOGE was so volatile, it didn’t appeal to too many online gamblers. Now that its value has stabilized – as much as any non-stablecoin can stabilize – betting with Dogecoin is becoming more and more attractive.
There are several reputable crypto casinos accepting DOGE for CAD. In our considerable experience, we’ve found about 50% of Canada’s most reliable operators process deposits and withdrawal in Dogecoin.
