🐕 Such Technology — Issue No. 15
/🗞 News
A team of developers has successfully launched and demonstrated a decentralized bridge between the Ethereum and Dogecoin blockchains, dubbed "Dogethereum." Mainnet Dogecoins can be locked in exchange for DogeTokens, an ERC20 Token, currently only on the Rinkeby Ethereum Testnet. The DogeTokens can be burned to unlock real Dogecoins. Link.While the software is still early, it works. You can play with it right now yourself-- if you care to run a Dogecoin and Rinkeby node! You can also review all the code involved on their GitHub and read more about their architecture, which is fascinating. On the Dogecoin side, it involves operator software anyone can run to serve as a custodian of locked Doge. On the Ethereum side, it involves a series of smart contracts to collateralize the locked Doge, and to verify merkel transaction proofs sent from the Dogecoin blockchain. Link.
This isn't the first time Dogecoin, the world's first and most infamous memecoin, has been at the forefront of bleeding edge cross-chain technology. Many don't realize that Dogecoin is merge-mined with Litecoin. It was one of the first coins to implement mege-mining, and is the most successful and valuable project to do so to date. Link.
I know what you're thinking: seriously, Dogecoin!? I thought this was a serious technology newsletter? I hear you, but listen, Dogecoin is actually a more interesting project from technology standpoint that most give it credit for. Perhaps because of its memecoin status, it often serves as a testbed for ambitious ideas more serious chains would never go for. Dogethereum is a perfect example: the community embraces these kind of shenanigans, and will happily fire their Dogecoin across an untested bridge to an Ethereum testnet! The Dogethereum project also has implications beyond just Doge. Because Dogecoin is based on the Bitcoin Core source, the architecture used here-- if it works-- could eventually be used for similar coins, like LTC, BCH, and BTC.