Dogecoin Foundation Introduces a New Core Devlopment Fund

The Dogecoin Foundation – a nonprofit organization that supports the development of the first-ever memecoin – announced a new 5,000,000 DOGE development fund. The capital will be distributed to developers who contribute to the advancement of the token’s ecosystem.

The entity also revealed that Marshall Hayner (one of the fund’s custodians) joined the Dogecoin Foundation Board of Directors. 

Stimulus for Developers

The organization vowed to move five million DOGE (worth around $360,000 at the moment) to a “segregated multi-signature wallet” and use the sum to reward core developers for promoting and growing the Dogecoin ecosystem:

“The DOGE held in this wallet will disburse rewards to developers of Dogecoin Core for work on all contributions, no matter how big or small.”

Members of the Dogecoin Foundation will run the wallet, while the following five custodians will ensure its security: chromatic (Dogecoin Core developer), Marshall Hayner, Patrick Lodder, Michi Lumin, and Ross Nicoll. 

The fund will distribute 500,000 DOGE to developers after each minor or major advancement of Dogecoin Core, but the reward’s size will depend on each contributor’s actions. It will be entirely transparent, announcing every distribution across social media platforms. 

In addition to his role as a custodian, the Dogecoin Foundation added Marshal Hayner to its Board of Directors. 

“Marshall brings executive and technical leadership experience to the Dogecoin Foundation and has been instrumental in creating this Core development fund,” the entity added.

The Relaunch of the Dogecoin Foundation

The organization, established in 2014, stayed inactive for years before its rebirth in 2021 with a new Advisory Board. Prominent figures part of that unit include Ethereum’s Vitalik Buterin, Dogecoin’s Founder Billy Markus (Shibetoshi Nakamoto), and Jared Birchall (a key person in Elon Musk’s inner cycle).

The Dogecoin Foundation collaborated with Buterin at the end of 2021 to create a “community staking” system based on Proof-of-Stake (PoS), hinting that the memecoin might shift from the Proof-of-Work (PoW) consensus mechanism. 

“The Foundation is also working with Vitalik (Founder of the Ethereum blockchain) on crafting a uniquely DOGE proposal for a ‘Community Staking’ version of PoS that will allow everyone, not just the big players, to participate in a way that rewards them for their contribution to running the network, and at the same time gives back to the whole community through charitable causes,” the team announced at the time.

However, Michi Lumin recently denied those rumors, saying DOGE has no plans to imitate Ethereum’s move. Vitalik Buterin’s brainchild remains the only crypto protocol to switch from PoW to PoS. The upgrade, more popular as “The Merge,” was finally completed in September last year.