EXCLUSIVE: Dogecoin Creator Talks Foundation Revival, 'Trademark Trolling,' Value Added By Vitalik Buterin And Elon Musk Aide

The Dogecoin Foundation has taken center stage as it strives to provide support for Dogecoin DOGE/USD through development and advocacy work. Billy Markus, the co-creator of the Shiba Inu-themed coin, is one of the board advisors of the foundation. Benzinga discussed the revival of the organization among other matters with Markus.

The Road Ahead: The Foundation, launched on August 16, said in a statement that it is “looking to the future of the broader Dogecoin ecosystem” and is all set to announce new projects in the coming weeks.

See Also: How To Buy Dogecoin (DOGE)

The organization aims to put in place a structure so as to hire full-time staff who will work towards faster integration and easier APIs for financial, social, and charitable projects that want to use DOGE.

“I think pretty much every mature open source project - Linux, Bitcoin, Ethereum, etc. has some kind of Foundation to protect and support development. I was very glad to hear that there was renewed interest in reviving the foundation,” Markus said on the reinvigorated organization.

The Dogecoin Foundation has yet to officially release a roadmap though, and Markus told Benzinga that he is unsure when that could happen. 

See Also: Dogecoin Core Developers Release Update In Preparation For Transaction-Fee Reduction

Feeling The Pulse: On his own role as an advisor, Markus said he wants to act as a bridge between the organization and the community.

“For me, I've more or less been keeping a pulse on the general Dogecoin community and have many conversations with community members, so I can bring that knowledge to the Foundation.” He said he wants to ensure that “community voices are heard.”

The Gallery Of Advisors: The Dogecoin Foundation’s board has four advisors in total including Markus.

The advisors include Jared Birchall, who represents Tesla Inc TSLA CEO Elon Musk in legal and financial matters and Vitalik Buterin — the co-founder of Ethereum ETH/USD.

Markus said he was excited when he found out that Birchall and Buterin would be on board. “Vitalik is of course a crypto genius and Elon (represented by Jared) is a visionary, so their input is of high value!”

Max Keller, a core DOGE developer, is also an advisor to the board of the foundation.

Board members include Decentralized Dance Party co-founder Gary Lachance and Dogecoin Core Blockchain developer Ross Nicoll.

See Also: There's Growing Buzz Around Dogecoin-Ethereum Collaboration: Here's What The Progress Looks Like

Protecting The Good Boi: A number of Dogecoin lookalikes have popped up in recent times spurred by the success of the Shiba Inu-themed coin. Near press time Dogecoin 2.0 DOGE/USD was seen trending on Twitter.

But there is no lack of cryptocurrencies with Dogecoin in their names. These include Baby Doge Coin BABYDOGE/USD, Small Dogecoin SDOG/USD Nano Dogecoin NDC/USD, and a whole lot of others.

Benzinga asked Markus if the Foundation would tackle this trend and how they envision protecting the Dogecoin trademark in general.

“I think the Foundation is most concerned with trademark trolling,” said Markus. Trademark trolling refers to the practice of registering a trademark without the intent of actually using it.

“Dogecoin has been established since 2013, has had millions of transactions on its network and is worth billions - anything new trying to claim the trademark of Dogecoin is doing so in bad faith,” explained Markus.

At press time, DOGE enjoyed a market capitalization of $38.6 billion and traded 6.56% lower over 24 hours at $0.29.

Read Next: Dogecoin Can Now Help Rescue All The Good Bois As PAWS Chicago Begins Accepting Crypto Donations

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