Dogecoin introduces DRC-20 standard, transactions skyrocket

For the first time ever, Dogecoin edged out Bitcoin and Litecoin in daily transactions this week. The peak was reached after DOGE introduced a mechanism that allows tokens to be issued on the Dogecoin blockchain.

On May 13, Dogecoin recorded more than 628,000 daily transactions, compared to 575,000 on Bitcoin and 341,000 on Litecoin, according to BitInfoCharts. The Doge record was repeated this week, on May 16 to be exact, with 719,000 daily transactions, surpassing both Bitcoin and Litecoin again.

Historical data on the number of transactions on blockchain per day shows an average of 20,000. The recent introduction of the DRC-20 token standard has led to a huge increase in network activity. The community referred to DRC-20 as an offshoot of the Ordinals BRC-20, which previously also led to an increase in transactions but for Bitcoin.

Related: BRC-20 meme coins surge overwhelms Bitcoin network

Despite the increase in transactions, not everyone is happy with the introduction of the DRC-20 token standard. They argue that DRC-20 could potentially cause network congestion and that it deviates from the original purpose of dogecoin, which was to be a mainstream currency for everyday transactions.

One Twitter user wrote:

Dogecoin just needs to be the people’s currency to complete Satoru Nakamoto’s vision. The DRC20 Dogecoin community should stop this shameless hype.

Another user said:

Everyone should probably focus on the transactional currency use case. At least it’s a good test of the network’s ability to scale.

High fees and network congestion are legitimate concerns for all blockchain members. This may lead to the network becoming expensive and slow, which doesn’t lead to mass adoption.

Despite the increased network activity and hype surrounding Doge, the token’s price hasn’t changed significantly. At the time of writing, Doge is trading at $0.072 according to CoinMarketCap, up 0.45% in the last 24 hours.