6 Options for Dogecoin's future, Which EDU should also consider:From Coindesk:
http://www.coindesk.com/what-dogecoin-must-do-survive/While the development team could theoretically switch its proof of work algorithm (to X11 as used in Darkcoin), the doge community is really faced with six options:
1. Merge mine. Namecoin was (and is) an independent block chain, but since block 19,200 about 80-85% of its network hashrate (and block rewards) are tied to bitcoin mining pools through a process called “merged mining.” The new sidechains project from Blockstream is attempting the same process. Charlie Lee, creator of litecoin explained how dogecoin could be “merged mined” with litecoin in a series of posts last month.
2. Transaction fees. Both the development team and mining community could agree to float or raise transaction fees on the doge network, similar to what Mike Hearn has been discussing for bitcoin. In practice however, even if approved, very little actual commerce, and therefore transactions, is conducted on the dogecoin network. Thus it is unlikely that this will compensate the large drop in mining income. Similarly, as Gavin Andresen pointed out in Amsterdam this past Friday, increased transaction fees reduces the participation rate. It is important to note the actual transaction costs are much higher than stated – block rewards (token dilution) are usually not factored in.
3. Proof of stake. There are several variations of proof of stake. Whereas bitcoin, litecoin, dogecoin and most other cryptocurrency experiments use a “proof of work” mechanism to protect the network from malicious entities, a proof of stake system, such as that used in NXT, will randomly assign a “mining node” called a “forger” – a poor marketing term for sure – to process all the blocks for the next minute. Because all of the other nodes in the network know which miner to trust, this lowers the amount of infrastructure needed to protect the network. In theory this sounds amazing. In practice however, most proof of stake systems end up almost immediately centralized in one manner or the other. Andrew Miller, Andrew Poelstra and Nicolas Houy call it “proof of nothing”. Perhaps Stephen Reed’s version can work in the future.
4. Increase in market price. This would incentivize the labor force to continue providing security of the network with the expectation that the tokens they are given in return for their labor will continually appreciate in value. This is betting on hope. Charlie Lee pointed out the uphill task this would require beginning next year when rewards fall to less than one tenth what they are today, stating last month, “At dogecoin block 600,000, only 10,000 coins will be created per block. So in order for dogecoin to keep the same amount of security as today, dogecoin price would need to go up by 25 times. And dogecoin price would need to gain on litecoin by 50 times in order to catch up on litecoin’s security. And assuming everything stays the same, the market cap of dogecoin needs to reach $1.5 billion by January of next year.” For comparison, the ‘market cap’ of dogecoin today is roughly $35 million (note: it is probably not accurate to call it a ‘market cap,’ see Jonathan Levin’s explanation).
5. Migration. Dogecoin could also migrate to a platform like Counterparty and become a fully secured altcoin with a dash of proof of transaction thrown in to inflate the coin with ongoing usage that this particular community likes to embrace. It could be fully protected by the bitcoin hashrate with no further need to try to acquire miners to protect it.
6. Further experimentation. While it is unlikely the dogecoin has the resources to create secure production code in the shortened time frame, Robert Sams “growthcoin” and Ferdinando Ametrano’s “stablecoin” could provide a mechanism that enables the network to live on in a different manner.