Dogecoin (DOGE) is a cryptocurrency that was created in 2013 inspired by the Shiba Inu dog meme. It uses underlying technology from Litecoin and has a large circulating supply of 132 billion DOGE. It was initially created as a joke but has gained value due to supply and demand, and has been accepted by large retailers such as Tesla as a payment method. It was created by Jackson Palmer and Billy Markus and uses Litecoin's Scrypt mining algorithm and is a Proof-of-Work cryptocurrency that can be merged mined with Litecoin. The value of DOGE has increased due to speculation about its potential adoption by products and services from companies owned by Elon Musk, such as Tesla and Twitter.