Referring to Satoshi’s Bitcoin white paper, Dogecoin co-founder Billy Markus, who goes by “Shibetoshi Nakamoto” on X, pushes back on recent arguments about Dogecoin’s security with respect to its merge mining with Litecoin.
The discussion was sparked by Dogecoin Foundation developer Paulo Vidal, who outlined several questions he believes deserve attention: first, is Dogecoin currently dependent on Litecoin for its security? Second, if Litecoin stopped operating tomorrow, what would happen to Dogecoin’s security? Third, are miners securing Litecoin alone, or are the additional rewards from Dogecoin and other AuxPoW networks a significant part of the incentive?
Vidal pointed out that while AuxPoW has historically benefited Dogecoin, the question now is whether it remains the right long-term solution.
“for example, if Litecoin disappeared tomorrow, why do you believe Dogecoin’s security would be unaffected?”
bro read satoshi’s white paper
miners mine for reward
you’ve argued long enough that i don’t think you’re interested in how things work
— Shibetoshi Nakamoto (@BillyM2k) July 19, 2026
The second question, “If Litecoin stopped operating tomorrow, what would happen to Dogecoin’s security?” did not sit well with the Dogecoin co-founder, who addressed it outright, pointing back to pseudonymous Bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto’s white paper.
According to Markus, miners mine for reward, highlighting the characteristic of merge mining, which Dogecoin utilizes. Rejecting the concerns outright, the Dogecoin co-founder replied that none of the arguments made by Vidal were valid.
Dogecoin merge mining attracts debate
Merge mining, or Auxiliary Proof of Work (AuxPoW), allows users to mine two or more coins with the same hash power and proof of work with no splitting required.
The recent conversation around merge mining has exposed differing opinions within the Dogecoin and broader crypto community.
David Schwartz (Dasch), director of projects and strategic partnerships at the Litecoin Foundation, believes that merge mining is still the best option for Dogecoin: “Honestly, even if Dogecoin did not have these benefits to Litecoin, I would still advocate that it stay merge mined to Litecoin because it was the right thing to do back then and it’s the right thing to do now.”
DOGE co-founder Billy Markus believes Dogecoin should stay merge mined: “I think it should stay merge mined and moving it off would be dumb and pointless.”
