QED Protocol and Nexus Team Up On Dogecoin zkVM

Efforts to bring smart contract functionality to Dogecoin are gaining momentum.

On Sept. 26, QED Protocol and Nexus, development teams working on blockchain execution layers and modular virtual machines (VMs), announced they are working together to build a zero-knowledge VM for the Dogecoin network.

The teams plan to modify the Nexus zkVM to improve Dogecoin scalability and enable the creation of decentralized applications on the network.

The partnership will also expand OP_CHECKGROTH16VERIFY — an opcode enabling DeFi and NFT applications on Dogecoin proposed by QED Protocol in July alongside a Layer 2 rollup leveraging the opcode. The proposals garnered support from major mining pools securing Dogecoin, including AntPool, ViaBTC, and F2Pool.

“It’s exciting for us to team up with them to mutually work toward the community-shared goal of making Dogecoin greater,” said Carter Feldman, founder of QED Protocol.

The teams said the technology they are developing for Dogecoin could be replicated on other networks as well.

Bringing smart contracts to Dogecoin

Dogecoin began life as a light-hearted fork of Litecoin, meaning the Proof of Work network does not support smart contract functionality.

QED and Nexus’s partnership is the latest example of developers seeking competition to introduce smart contract capabilities to Dogecoin. DOGE is the ninth-largest cryptocurrency with a $16.6 billion market cap, offering a vast trove of liquidity that could underpin a vibrant DeFi ecosystem.

In August 2022, Dogechain, a Dogecoin sidechain, introduced smart contract functionality to Dogecoin with its mainnet launch. The project offers compatibility with Ethereum Virtual Machine smart contracts through a modified version of the Polygon Edge tech stack. However, Dogechain hosts a total value locked (TVL) of just $2.6 million, according to DeFi Llama.

On July 28, Laika claimed to launch the first Dogecoin Layer 2 network on mainnet. Although TVL data for the network is not readily available, the project is currently readying to distribute an airdrop to early adopters.