There are thousands of cryptocurrencies in existence, and among those are hundreds of memecoins. Today, we’ll look at two memecoins- Dogecoin and Shiba Inu.

These two memecoins are often mistaken for each other, so today, we’ll be discussing the difference between them, and which of them is a better investment choice.

But first, what is a memecoin?

What Is a Memecoin?

A meme coin (also spelt memecoin) is a cryptocurrency that originated from an Internet meme or has some other humorous characteristic, according to Wikipedia.

Most times, these cryptocurrencies started out as a joke and were not created to be taken seriously, but some crypto investors seem to have taken an interest in them.

Memecoins have existed for a while now, but we can trace the origins of gained momentum back to the meme stock war that happened in late 2020. This is when WallStreetBets, the Reddit community greatly inflated the value of GameStop’s stock. After that, another group of Reddit users made jokes about pumping up the value of Dogecoin similarly, and the trend caught on.

The increase in popularity of certain memecoins can be attributed to some famous online personalities, for example, Elon Musk, who became the “Dogefather” because of his popular support of Dogecoin.

Dogecoin is one of the biggest and most popular memecoins, and it was created initially as a joke to mock Bitcoin and other popular cryptocurrencies. It was not made to have any genuine use at first.

Presently, Dogecoin and Shiba Inu are the leading meme coins, with $7.80 billion and $5.57 billion market caps, respectively.

What Is Dogecoin?

Created in December 2013 by Billy Markus, an IBM software engineer, and Jackson Palmer, an Adobe software engineer, Dogecoin is an open-sourced peer-to-peer cryptocurrency which got its underlying technology from Litecoin and uses the same proof-of-work technology.

Dogecoin started as a meme by Jackson palmer back in Australia to basically make fun of the existing cryptocurrencies at that time.

When Doge was created, the founders were quite surprised when people started using the memecoin, which gradually increased in value. Now, you can buy and sell Dogecoin just like any other cryptocurrency.

It recorded the first official price of Dogecoin, which opened at $0.0005588 and closed at $0.0002979 by Coinmarketcap on December 15.

Dogecoin hit an all-time high price of $0.731578 on May 08, 2021, and it is currently valued at $0.05873 (October 14 2022). The memcoin is presently the tenth largest cryptocurrency by market cap (7.79 Bn).

What is Shiba Inu?

Created in August 2020 by Ryoshi, an anonymous individual or group, Shiba Inu is a memecoin which, just like Dogecoin, was created initially as a joke with no genuine intentions of operating like a traditional cryptocurrency but specifically to mock Dogecoin.

According to Investopedia, Shiba Inu (SHIBUSD) is an Ethereum-based altcoin that features the Shiba Inu—a Japanese breed of hunting dog—as its mascot. Shiba Inu is widely considered an alternative to Dogecoin; proponents of Shiba Inu tout it as “the Dogecoin killer.”

Shiba Inu’s price reached an all-time high on October 29, 2021, with a market capitalization of $41 billion. Although it currently has a market cap of $5.56 billion, (as of October 14, 2022), Shiba Inu is currently the fifteenth largest crypto by market cap.

Differences Between Dogecoin and Shiba Inu

1. Market Capitalization:
According to Coinbase, the market cap is the total value of all the coins that have been mined. It’s calculated by multiplying the number of coins in circulation by the current market price of a single coin.
As of October 14, 2022, Dogecoin’s total market cap is $7.79 Billion, while Shiba Inu’s market cap is $5.56 billion.
As you can see, Dogecoin has a much larger market capitalization.

2. Transaction Speed:
All cryptocurrencies have different speeds by which transactions are conducted and confirmed. Some cryptos take long hours, while some barely take minutes.
Although Dogecoin uses Proof of Work (PoW), its transactions are pretty fast. This can be attributed to The Scrypt algorithm, which allows for a much quicker creation rate.

Dogecoin has an estimated block creation time of about one minute. While Shiba Inu has slower transactions than Dogecoin, as it is an ERC-20 token.

But with the Ethereum merge and its move to proof-of-stake (PoS), SHIB transactions could be faster.


3. Blockchains:
Dogecoin was built on its own blockchain, while Shiba Inu was built on the Ethereum blockchain as an ERC-20 token.


4. Total Supply Limit:
This refers to the total amount of crypto coins that can ever exist. Although Dogecoin has an unlimited supply limit, only 5 billion coins can be issued yearly.

Shiba Inu has a total supply limit of 1 quadrillion, but over 40 per cent has been eliminated, which cannot be reversed.

Dogecoin vs Shiba Inu: which should you invest in?

We have taken a look at an overview of Dogecoin and Shiba Inu, and we’ve also taken a look at some of their differences, which leaves us with the question of which memecoin is a better investment.

These two memecoins are not at the forefront of cryptocurrencies everyone’s rushing to invest in. If you wish to invest in any of them, you must understand that they are high risk, and just like every other crypto, they are just as volatile.

Unlike Shiba Inu, Dogecoin has been on the market for many years and has been endorsed by a famous personality, Elon Musk, but this does not make it the better choice. In terms of future growth opportunities, Shiba Inu seems to take that crown, but that also does not mean it is the preferable choice.

Both these memecoins could bring you profit and even loss. To choose which crypto you want to invest in, you should weigh your options in line with your investment and financial goals and decide which one best suits it.

Conclusion

Dogecoin and Shiba Inu are both memecoins with dogs as their mascots, and they were both created as a joke to make jest of existing cryptocurrencies.

While these memecoins have their similarities, they also have their differences, placing one above the other in different aspects. To pick one to invest in, make sure it aligns with your crypto investment goals in the short or long run.

Do not take anything written here as financial advice; always make sure you do your own further research before investing.

Non for now, the crypto market is presently down