Dogecoin’s merged mining with Litecoin is not a new trend. It has been operating since August 2014, and today, it accounts for more than 70% of Dogecoin’s hashpower according to OKX. This setup lets miners work on both blockchains simultaneously using the same proof-of-work calculation, earning rewards in both $DOGE and $LTC without extra electricity or hardware costs.
Why the two coins work together
The core reason is simple: both Dogecoin and Litecoin use the Scrypt hashing algorithm. Dogecoin was forked directly from Litecoin’s code in December 2013, so their mining communities always overlapped. When a miner generates a hash to solve a Litecoin block, that same hash can also satisfy Dogecoin’s proof-of-work requirements if it meets the difficulty target. It is like submitting one exam paper to two professors who accept the same format. The work happens once, but the credit flows both ways.
The mechanism enabling this is Auxiliary Proof-of-Work (AuxPoW). Litecoin acts as the parent chain, and Dogecoin is the auxiliary chain. The Litecoin network does not need to know about AuxPoW logic. All coordination happens at the mining pool or software layer, meaning most miners using supported pools never need to configure anything manually.
Why Dogecoin switched in 2014
Before August 2014, Dogecoin and Litecoin competed for the same Scrypt miners. Miners hopped between networks based on short-term profitability, causing Dogecoin’s hashrate to fluctuate wildly. A low hashrate made the network vulnerable to a 51% attack. Dogecoin’s developers recognized this risk. The block reward structure was not compelling enough to hold miners long-term. So, the team implemented AuxPoW and enabled merged mining with Litecoin.
The results were immediate. Within one month, Dogecoin’s hashrate and mining difficulty increased by more than 1,500% as large Litecoin mining pools added Dogecoin to their operations. Since then, Dogecoin’s hashrate has tracked Litecoin’s with a correlation of roughly 0.95.
What miners earn from both coins
Each Dogecoin block currently carries a fixed reward of 10,000 $DOGE. Dogecoin produces a block roughly every minute. With $DOGE trading between $0.084 and $0.09 as of early June 2026, block rewards add steady income on top of Litecoin earnings. Litecoin block rewards follow a halving schedule and decrease over time. Miners running Scrypt ASICs are directly motivated to activate merged mining because it adds Dogecoin income at zero marginal cost.
Analysis from MEXC suggests that mining pools supporting both coins typically add roughly 20 to 30% in additional daily revenue with no extra power draw. Popular hardware like the Bitmain Antminer L9 is designed with this dual-reward setup in mind. Pools including ViaBTC, F2Pool, and Prohashing have supported merged mining for years.
Security and centralization concerns
For both networks, merged mining offers clear security benefits. More miners participating means a higher combined hashrate, which raises the cost of mounting a 51% attack. As of mid-2026, Dogecoin’s hashrate runs between about 2.7 and 3.4 PH/s. Litecoin’s hashrate sits around 2.7 PH/s. Both networks saw significant expansion driven by newer Scrypt ASICs.
However, there is a tradeoff. Merged mining concentrates hashpower in large pools, introducing some degree of mining centralization. Historical data shows F2Pool alone was responsible for generating more than 33% of Dogecoin blocks for significant periods, and even exceeded 50% around late 2016. This level of pool dominance is a known concern worth monitoring.
How to start merged mining
Getting started does not require special hardware beyond a Scrypt-compatible ASIC. Miners need to join a mining pool that supports merged mining, configure their software to point at the pool’s Litecoin stratum address while enabling auxiliary chain coordinates for Dogecoin, and set a Dogecoin payout address in the pool settings. Mining software such as CGMiner or EasyMiner supports Scrypt merged mining for those running their own nodes.
