Pay with Dogecoin: A beginner's guide on how to use DOGE as a payment method

Dogecoin (DOGE) is a meme token that many see as a viable crypto investment despite having originated as a satire of the cryptocurrency ecosystem. Coupled with a growing market price and thriving community support, Dogecoin has become a widely-accepted asset tradable for an increasing range of products and services. Users can now send or receive Dogecoins like other cryptocurrencies.

Dogecoin is represented by a picture of a Japanese hunting dog breed Shiba Inu and was launched with an initial circulating supply of 100 billion coins that can be scaled to infinity. The initial use cases of Dogecoin can be traced back to successful community-led fundraisings related to sports and public service. 

Support from established entrepreneurs, such as Elon Musk, and social media influencers further advanced Dogecoin’s position as a mainstream tradable asset in open markets.

 Are you wondering how to pay using Dogecoin? Can you buy things with Dogecoin? How can you spend Dogecoin? Where can you spend Dogecoin? Let’s check out some of the ways to spend your Doge holdings.

Learn about Dogecoin here- What is Dogecoin?, Is Dogecoin a good investment? How to Buy Dogecoin?

Dogecoin as a viable mode of payment

Dogecoin’s popularity as a lucrative investment is one of the reasons for its growing user base. As a result, nearly all mainstream crypto avenues, including exchanges, wallets and businesses in the free market, support Dogecoin trades. 

Given the evidence of a growing market, a healthy return on short-term investment and mainstream relevance, Dogecoin’s journey as a tradable asset has already taken off on the right foot. Today, a myriad of platforms accept the meme token as a mode of payment for their products and services. 

While the value of an asset is tied to its rarity, Dogecoin has proved its position as an inflationary investment despite sporting a limitless supply of Doge tokens. Moreover, this has resulted in a growing miner community that is incentivized to confirm and process the Dogecoin transactions on the blockchain. On the other hand, the Bitcoin (BTC) ecosystem is limited to 21 million and will require newer reforms to support the miners in the long run. 

While the new tokens increase Dogecoin's liquidity, the ecosystem is designed to release a lesser number of tokens every year. This means that the number of new tokens created each year will be a lesser percentage of the coins already on the market. When these two factors are together, Dogecoin becomes a viable payment alternative.

Dogecoin accepted here: Where can I pay with DOGE?

When Bitcoin was in its early stages, the thought of making any kind of purchase with cryptocurrency was as real as a dream. But as Bitcoin rewrote history by turning this dream into reality, a decade’s worth of domino effect—a series of pro-crypto events— allows the global community to trust other popular tokens like DOGE for buying and selling services.

While the Dogecoin ecosystem is yet to gain full-fledged recognition by mainstream finance, innovations within the crypto space allow early investors to explore DOGE as a viable payments use case. 

Below we discuss four main avenues that make paying with Dogecoin possible.

Peer-to-peer 

Peer-to-peer (P2P) is the most direct and private method to send or receive Dogecoin or any other cryptocurrency. A typical P2P transaction involves transferring funds from one blockchain address to another with no involvement of a third party. 

P2P trades are widely enabled by online platforms and forums that connect local users willing to trade dogecoins in exchange for products and services. Using such platforms, DOGE holders can socialize and plan face-to-face meetings with potential participants for a predetermined trade. 

Sending DOGE in a P2P trade can be as easy as scanning the QR code of the recipient’s Dogecoin wallet and authenticating the transaction on their own Dogecoin-supported wallet service. One can also choose to type down the recipient wallet address and risk sending Dogecoins to the wrong address. 

As an investor, one can use P2P platforms to find people to directly purchase or sell Dogecoins in exchange for fiat currencies like the U.S. dollar. This process helps users to bypass the fees incurred on cryptocurrency exchanges or any other third-party platforms. 

Numerous brick and mortar stores have also started accepting crypto as payment and stand as the fastest growing mode of P2P trade. Stores usually display the QR code of their Dogecoin wallet address, which a customer can scan for making a payment.

E-commerce/online stores

The partnership of cryptocurrencies with e-commerce establishments can be traced back to Bitcoin's first use case as an asset. Years later, numerous e-commerce fronts no longer shy away from accepting cryptocurrencies for payment. The number of venues that readily accept Dogecoin as payment is also increasing. 

Given the extensive reach of e-commerce businesses, Dogecoin can be used to make purchases from any corner of the world via services that offer international shipping. It is important to research the credibility of unknown platforms and sellers before committing to do business. 

In such cases, discussions on live forums can provide a fair indication of the entity’s intent based on past behavior. Numerous platforms allow users to post peer reviews to help others make safer decisions.

Mainstream adoption

While Dogecoin has successfully led several fundraisers related to sporting events, the cryptocurrency’s adoption gained further momentum after Elon Musk opined that Dogecoin is money and showed support for the ecosystem’s development. 

Following suit, many mainstream businesses have now started accepting payments in Dogecoin for products, services and subscriptions. However, the legality behind paying for such mainstream services through cryptocurrencies heavily depends on the customer’s local crypto laws. 

Trading platforms

Talking about third-party platforms, cryptocurrency exchanges allow Dogecoin to be bought, sold or exchanged for other crypto or fiat currencies. Crypto users typically use such exchanges for converting local currencies, like the United States dollar, into crypto holdings. 

Depending on the local jurisdiction and popularity of tokens, crypto exchanges list cryptocurrencies paired with fiat or prominent cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Tether (USDT). This allows users to purchase Dogecoins at spot (or the current market) price by selling an equivalent amount of dollars or Bitcoin.

In addition to the above use case, built-in wallets on crypto exchanges are also used for accepting and sending Dogecoin, i.e., paying with DOGE.

Look out for DOGEy signs

When exploring the investment options in an emerging marketplace like Dogecoin, one must be wary about the bad actors and scammers that prey on unsuspecting victims. 

Taking inspiration from traditional banking frauds, crypto scammers use a myriad of methods that include creating fake copies of popular platforms, impersonating influencers and misleading investors into bad trades. 

Mainstream mobile application platforms such as Google Play and Apple App Store are proactively identifying and delisting fake apps that try to impersonate crypto exchanges and wallets. The scammers use such apps to get access to the user’s private keys and eventually drain the assets available on the user’s wallets.

Do your own research (DYOR) still stands as one of the best pieces of advice for investors and is highly recommended before diving into the crypto ecosystem. One must also take proactive measures to identify a possible fraud before it happens, including confirming the legitimacy of platforms and individuals, staying updated with authentic news and steering away from uncertain trades and offers. 

Like traditional banks, crypto businesses, such as exchanges and wallet providers, will never directly contact customers asking for their private information including keys, passphrases or one-time passwords (OTP).