A history of Dogecoin

This chapter examines the stark contrast between Dogecoin (a decentralized, meme-based cryptocurrency) and DOGE (Department of Government Efficiency), a centralized governmental reform program and agency appropriating Dogecoin’s imagery. Framed within the broader themes of Public Governance on the Blockchain , the analysis explores how blockchain-derived symbols migrate between grassroots digital communities and state institutions, often with radically different mindsets and effects. Dogecoin’s origins in humor, accessibility, and community participation illustrate the bottom-up potential of blockchain culture to generate social and symbolic value. DOGE’s top-down implementation, by contrast, prioritized cost-cutting, AI oversight, and bureaucratic restructuring, producing tangible but contested impacts on institutional capacity and legitimacy. The chapter draws lessons on symbolic appropriation, public value, and the interplay between narrative and operational outcomes to argue that sustainable public governance in the blockchain era must preserve trust, legitimacy, and the capacity to deliver enduring public value.