In December, a mysterious Reddit user, known only by his username, u/dogefreedom, announced the start of a massive video contest. The goal? Create a fun video that reflects the positive culture of the dogecoin community. He has personally guaranteed a prize pool of almost $100,000 (18 million Doge) worth of the meme inspired crypto. Community members have put out a stunning collection of different entries in a variety of styles, ranging from heartfelt like this powerful animated short about the everlasting commitment that Doge has to its members, to prototypical internet memes, like this hilariously clever parody of Steven Spielberg’s Jurassic Park.
Created in 2013 as a satirical responses to Bitcoin, Dogecoin is based off of a popular meme featuring a shiba inu. The Dogecoin subreddit is known as one of the few cryptocurrency spaces that is extremely supportive and friendly to its members, as well as new members. Famous for raising funds to help send the Jamaican Bobsled team to the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics, giveaways and charities are the norm, with community members excited to spread their coin to new users. Other fundraising efforts include the Doge4Water campaign, which helped create wells in African villages, as well as the the full sponsorship of a NASCAR racecar.
User u/dogefreedom appeared in the Dogecoin subreddit at the start of 2014, pledging 20 million Dogecoin to the Jamaican bobsled team as his very first comment. Since then, u/dogefreedom donated tens of thousands of dollars to various other charitable causes, seemingly determined to help support what he believed to be one of the best cryptocurrencies. Quoted from his first post on the subreddit:
“Dogecoin is fun. But it’s not a joke.”
The enigmatic power user has gone to great lengths to maintain his anonymity, admitting to posting behind several proxies and giving no personal details. His history shows records of several Dogecoin wallets, one of which had at least 100 million Doge at the time of posting. It’s likely he has more than that. Far more.
His return comes in a big way, coinciding with the start of the Chinese New Year. This year is, not by coincidence, the year of the dog. Members of the Dogecoin community speculate that their coin may become the next hot commodity at the start of this Chinese New Year, which may be part of the reason for u/dogefreedom’s contest. At the time of writing, the current market trends agree with that analysis, with Dogecoin nearly doubling in market cap in the last week. Although its too early to tell if the “year of the dog” will lead to the next big crypto bubble, the contest has many Dogecoin users feeling like their coin is already headed “to the moon.”
