u/John_Inubook

In September 2011, an anonymous developer known as "Lolcust" (with mining code contributions from "ArtForz") launched Tenebrix (TBX), which holds the historical distinction of being the very first cryptocurrency to use the Scrypt Proof-of-Work (PoW) algorithm.

On this day, 12 years ago, on block 371337, Dogecoin implemented Auxiliary Proof of Work to merge mine with Litecoin.

For those interested in Dogecoin's history I have prepared a selection of links that takes you through a bit of a walk through the story, from Charlie Lee's first challenge to our community to the countdown to AuxPoW going live! This is not going to be exhaustive by any means, but there's still quite a bit here.

I hope you enjoy, for some of us, this trip down memory lane!

Charlie Lee's first challenge to our community:

http://www.reddit.com/r/dogecoin/comments/2b11po/what_is_dev_team_going_do_about_dogecoins/

His AMA that he ran for the community:

http://www.reddit.com/r/dogecoin/comments/22niq9/merged_mining_amafaq/

There was a TON of discussion surrounding it - both pro and con (at the time I didn't understand the concept and was against it, thinking it would make us subordinate to Litecoin 😂).

Thankfully, shibes much smarter than me were here to help explain things and help me come around:

https://www.reddit.com/r/dogecoin/comments/2clr9k/auxpow_in_plain_english/

https://www.reddit.com/r/dogecoin/comments/2bjdb0/auxpow_and_the_future_of_dogecoin/

But some remained unconvinced:

https://www.reddit.com/r/dogecoin/comments/2bjx2i/auxpow_is_a_trap/

And Charlie shared his final thoughts on it.

https://www.reddit.com/r/dogecoin/comments/2b7eti/charlie_lees_aka_coblee_final_thoughts_on_merged/

After much, much, much discussion, the Dogecoin devs at the time decided to move forward with AuxPoW:

https://www.reddit.com/r/dogecoin/comments/2ci90m/dogecoin_to_enable_auxpow_soon_all_infos_inside/

And even set a target block:

https://www.reddit.com/r/dogecoin/comments/2dwugc/auxpow_update_target_block_inside/

And, together, we counted down the final blocks until AuxPoW kicked in:

https://www.reddit.com/r/dogecoin/comments/2g4sbp/4321_happy_auxpow/

Were you here back then? What are your memories from that time?

Hope you enjoyed this bit of a look back with me!

Much love,

GS

Gm

TL;DR

We love miners 🐸

The answer:

Litecoin and Dogecoin miners can also secure $PEP, using the same hashrate.

Merge mining sounds complicated, but the idea is pretty simple once you break it down.

Normally, mining two different coins means running two separate setups — your hashing power on one chain doesn't help the other. Merge mining changes that: a miner can secure more than one blockchain at the same time with the same computational work, as long as the chains use compatible algorithms and support the mechanism.

The technical name is AuxPow (Auxiliary Proof-of-Work) — pioneered by Bitcoin and Namecoin back in 2011, and used by Dogecoin together with Litecoin since 2014. So this isn't new or experimental — it's a well-established, battle-tested setup.

For Pepecoin specifically: mining pools that already support Litecoin and Dogecoin can add Pepecoin as an additional chain to secure, without extra hardware or splitting hashrate three ways. As more pools enable Pepecoin alongside Litecoin and Dogecoin, the hashrate securing the Pepecoin network grows right along with two of the most established Proof-of-Work chains around.

Why it matters for a smaller chain like Pepecoin?

A brand-new blockchain starting from zero hashrate is vulnerable — it just doesn't have enough miners yet. By merge mining with Litecoin and Dogecoin, Pepecoin borrows security from two much bigger, established networks from day one, instead of trying to bootstrap that security alone.

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