While the virtual currency Dogecoin may be named after a humorous meme, it has been considered the potential successor to Bitcoin. However, today for the first time Dogecoin was successfully hacked with Dogewallet users losing an estimated 21 million Dogecoins. While 21 million Dogecoins only equals about $12,000, this is still a loss for users who spent a lot of time accumulating the virtual currency and draws concerns to the potentially security risks of virtual currencies. Since the hacking, Dogewallet has promised to fully refund all lost coins and has temporarily shut down its site.
Dogecoin users are in minor panic after a popular coin storage service, Dogewallet, was apparently hacked. So far about 30 million coins seem to have been lost, together worth between $10,000 and $20,000. Dogecoin, a new cryptocurrency based on Bitcoin and the popular “doge” meme, was initially created as a joke, according to its creators, “without much real thought.” But it is functional, and thousands of people have invested small amounts of money in it. And while the minuscule value of each coin has fluctuated wildly in recent weeks, the 14 billion coins that have already been mined are, on paper, worth millions of dollars.
