A Massive Network Upgrade Could Transform Dogecoin and Remove Its Meme Status. Does That Make the DOGE Crypto a Buy Here?

Dogecoin and other crypto by Dennis Diatel Photography via iStock Dogecoin (DOGEUSD) has long been carried on the back of the broader crypto market given its meme coin status. It has no use cases besides transactions. On top of that, Dogecoin is quite inflationary. Every year, approximately 5 billion more DOGE are added to the circulating supply. The current circulating supply is 150.28 billion, so it’s already a notable number.

This means DOGE’s supply is infinite, unlike Bitcoin (BTCUSD), which has a finite supply.

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Although Dogecoin continues to have a strong meme coin following, many investors still largely avoid it given its lack of crypto use cases and its inflationary design.

A massive network upgrade could change all of that.

www.barchart.com ## Dogecoin’s Proposed Network Upgrade

The team behind the popular MyDoge wallet published a draft proposal nicknamed OP_CHECKZKP. The change would add a single new instruction to the Dogecoin script system.

That instruction lets the chain verify zero-knowledge proofs, tiny cryptographic receipts that verify an off-chain computation is correct without revealing the data behind it. Once it is active, rollups, a type of Layer-2 scaling solution, can post batches of hundreds or thousands of transactions to Dogecoin. As a result, transaction throughput could be in the thousands as fees remain low.

DogeOS, the startup pushing the change, is simultaneously building an Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM)-compatible “app layer” on top of Dogecoin. If miners adopt OP_CHECKZKP, that layer could host Ethereum (ETHUSDT)-style smart contracts, games, and decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols while still settling every batch back to the original DOGE chain.

What the Upgrade Would Change

For everyday holders, the most visible difference would be lower fees and faster confirmation when using any app built on Dogecoin’s new layer-2. Privacy would also improve, because zero-knowledge proofs reveal only that a transaction is valid, not who sent what to whom.

Developers stand to gain the most. Today, if you want to launch a DOGE-themed NFT game or a decentralized exchange, you must either leave Dogecoin entirely or rely on separate side-chains such as Dogechain, which already exists but uses its own token for gas, a type of fee that serves as an operating cost of sorts.

With OP_CHECKZKP, those projects could live inside a unified Dogecoin ecosystem, settle in DOGE, and inherit the brand’s viral marketing power. DogeOS claims “hundreds of teams” are already interested.

Story Continues## Does the Upgrade Make DOGE a Buy?

DOGE rose slightly after the news broke out, but its performance since hasn’t been too bullish. DOGE is actually down 11.6% over the past five days at $0.215.

www.barchart.com The market likely believes the upgrade will make DOGE a DeFi chain among dozens of others that are fiercely competing for developer attention.

Regardless, if the upgrade goes through, DOGE could gain significantly in the long run. The crypto still has name recognition, and fees are very cheap. Even without the upgrade, DOGE could rise if altseason kicks in.

ETH has started to outperform BTC and is up 47% in the past month, compared to just 7.8% for Bitcoin. Money could soon flow into other altcoins like DOGE if this trend continues. DOGE can hit $0.40 or more this year if you extrapolate current market trends.

On the date of publication, Omor Ibne Ehsan did not have (either directly or indirectly) positions in any of the securities mentioned in this article. All information and data in this article is solely for informational purposes. This article was originally published on Barchart.com

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