The two main people behind the Dogecoin project are Jackson Palmer and Billy Markus. However, Palmer left the project in 2015 due to what he called a “toxic community” and is now one of the most outspoken critics of the cryptocurrency industry as a whole. He is still involved in cryptocurrencies, but does not partake in anything related to Dogecoin. Markus, on the other hand, is still part of the project, but claims only to own the DOGE that other people have given him.
The force behind many of the project’s charitable contributions, both within its own ecosystem and outside of it, was the Dogecoin Foundation. It was formed in 2014 and touts the motto “Do Only Good Everyday,” which is a backronym of DOGE. The foundation’s board is made up of three Dogecoin developers, a community advocate, and a legal counsel. There are also four Board Advisors: Jared Birchall, who represents Elon Musk; Max Keller, Dogecoin Core developer and technical advisor; Billy Markus (known as Shibetoshi Nakamoto in a nod to the pseudonymous Bitcoin creator); and Vitalik Buterin, Ethereum founder who acts as a blockchain and crypto advisor.
The team states in their Dogecoin Manifesto that, as they’re creating a currency for the people, they value the following things:
- “Being useful, we value utility over technical brilliance.
- Being personable, we value individuals and interactions over profit-driven economics.
- Being welcoming, we value collaboration and trust over competition and exclusivity.
- Being reliable, we value working solutions over speed of delivery.”
The Board Advisors are heavily involved in various projects in the cryptocurrency space aside from Dogecoin itself.