Amid the continued merge mining debate within the Dogecoin group, co-founder Billy Markus presents a non-partisan tackle the topic. Merge mining, or Auxiliary Proof of Work (AuxPoW), permits customers to mine two or extra cash, together with Dogecoin, with the identical hashpower and proof-of-work with out splitting.
Markus, who goes by “Shibetoshi Nakamoto” on X, believes eradicating merge mining is pointless and shouldn’t be carried out.
as a non-dev who has no funding in any scrypt altcoins and simply thinks proposals ought to resolve precise obligatory issues and never random made up ones for self-serving causes, i discover this reply disingenuous
eradicating merge mining is pointless, so it should not be carried out
— Shibetoshi Nakamoto (@BillyM2k) July 20, 2026
Markus shares this viewpoint as a non-developer who has no funding in any scrypt altcoins. It must be famous that Markus has been out of growth work on Dogecoin since 2014.
Dogecoin was launched in late 2013 by Billy Markus and Jackson Palmer. Palmer created the Dogecoin.com web site whereas Markus labored as a solo developer on the primary 4 releases. In 2014, each Palmer and Markus left the event efforts, whereas a Dogecoin Core Improvement staff was shaped, which has been sustaining and growing Dogecoin since then.
Scrypt altcoins, within the context of what the Dogecoin developer wrote, consult with cash that help merge mining, together with Dogecoin, Litecoin, Namecoin, and several other others. Litecoin and Dogecoin stay the biggest and most worthwhile mixture.
Markus as soon as revealed promoting all of his crypto in “one clip”; this included 50 Bitcoin, 440 Litecoin, and 6 million Dogecoin, with nothing left. If this nonetheless stands, it leaves him with no investments in scrypt altcoins, together with Dogecoin and Litecoin.
‘Dumb and pointless’
The latest dialogue round merge mining within the Dogecoin group has attracted differing opinions, with most in help. Supporters of the present mannequin imagine that merge mining permits miners to maximise their mining rewards.
In an earlier response on X, Markus maintained that Dogecoin ought to keep merge mined and that transferring it off could be dumb and pointless.
Dogecoin and Litecoin applied merge mining in August 2014. Earlier than this time, Dogecoin confronted potential safety dangers as a result of its smaller hashrate, making it susceptible to 51% assaults as a result of fewer miners secured the community.
