The price of Dogecoin fell 13% over the past week and 6% to just under $0.07 in the last 24 hours alone, according to CoinGecko data.
The famously volatile coin fell this week amid speculation about potential changes in the energy-intensive sector. proof of work data mining model which currently powers the cryptocurrency.
Rumors that Dogecoin will undergo a transition to a more energy efficient system proof of participation template-similar to The long-awaited Ethereum merger in September – are circulating again on social media, leading one of Dogecoin's main developers to deny that a major decision is imminent.
Michi Lumin, Senior Engineer at the Dogecoin Foundation, tweeted Wednesday that social media influencers who tweeted about the coin and potential upcoming changes “don't actually have information on what's going on with #dogecoin.”
However, Lumin said that there are plans to provide a proposal to the community regarding a possible proof-of-stake transition, although the developer suggested that the suggested approach would “differ from traditional proof-of-stake in many ways” .
Lumin also stated that it would be impossible to implement this type of change without first having the approval of the majority of Dogecoin's node validators, and that the Dogecoin Foundation could not unilaterally impose such a decision.
Ethereum is the highest-profile example of a cryptocurrency that has moved to a proof-of-stake consensus mechanism, as noted, thus completing its highly anticipated merger event in September this year.
Although proof-of-stake is a more energy-efficient way to power a decentralized blockchain platform, some believe it is less secure than a proof-of-work model. Despite the hype around the Ethereum merger and energy savings, the price of ETH dropped suddenly once the transition is complete.
Dogecoin remains the second-largest proof-of-work cryptocurrency, with a market cap of nearly $9.3 billion, but is far behind the $316 billion market cap touted by Bitcoin.
DOGE is down 61% over the past 12 months, but the coin has performed better than some other notable cryptocurrencies throughout 2022. Solanafor example, has lost about 95% of its value since the start of the year, partly due to to FTX contagion. He briefly fell out of the top 20 cryptocurrencies by market capitalization on Thursday.
Dogecoin has even outperformed Bitcoin this year in terms of value retention, with the leading overall cryptocurrency falling around 65% since the start of 2022.