Dogecoin’s incredible start to the year has attracted record numbers of miners to its network. But how easy is it to mine dogecoin (DOGE, -2.37%) and what do you need to get involved?

Dogecoin has come a long way since its modest beginnings as a joke cryptocurrency centered around a viral internet meme of a Shiba Inu “doge.” What was once a parody project purposefully created by software engineers Jackson Palmer and Billy Markus to be “as ridiculous as possible,” is now a top ten crypto asset boasting a $32 billion market capitalization and a global fanbase.

Dogecoin’s spectacular rise over the first half of 2021, driven largely by internet pop culture and relentless promotion from Tesla CEO Elon Musk, has unsurprisingly reignited significant interest in dogecoin mining as mining profitability spikes to a new six-year high.

Even with its recent success, mining dogecoin is still significantly less competitive than mining bitcoin (BTC, -2.76%) (but still difficult). New blocks are also discovered much faster and coin rewards are substantially higher – 10,000 DOGE per block reward vs 6.25 BTC.