It's a weird Multibit/Multidoge special. The code to read it's in https://github.com/langerhans/dogecoinj-new/blob/master/tools/src/main/java/com/dogecoin/dogecoinj/tools/BuildCheckpoints.java#L100

Suspect given the hash digesting going on, you'd more or less have to write a tool to update the file rather than it being possible by hand

Not right now... basically a few launched and then their respective devs got bored and wandered off, it's been a mess. At the moment a new reference client and Multidoge HD are the main priorities, but if anyone wants to take on updating one of the Electrum Doge clients, I'd be happy to provide guidance.

I'm not the main developer for Multidoge, but my understanding is that it contains block headers only (80 bytes per block), and only for blocks since the last hard-coded checkpoint, so it's a lot smaller than the full block chain. It's a similar size on my PC, anyway!

Had forgotten how long it's been since an update with new checkpoints went out, that is a long sync for an SPV client. A replacement is on its way, but I'll see if we can get an interim update out for now.

Try %AppData%\MultiDoge\multidoge.spvchain for the blockchain file - don't have time right now to double check with the code, but that should be it.

1.8.3 is release-ready, but we've been holding off on actually formally releasing it until we have confirmation of the security changes in Bitcoin Core, to avoid a risk of getting everyone to upgrade to 1.8.3 and then having a 1.8.4 upgrade cycle. So, it's out there in a holding pattern, and as soon as we know, we'll hit the button or change it as needed.

1.10 is making good progress, it's a total rebuild from Bitcoin Core 0.11, so have had to re-introduce all the Dogecoin parameters again. It now synchronizes fully, and release will primarily depend on when we're confident enough that it's stable.

There's architectural work going on to bitcoinj, in order to replace the dogecoinj library with a lightweight wrapper. This should enable Multibit HD to be readily adapted to Dogecoin, and that will fit into future strategy as the SPV client of choice.

Meant to come back to this earlier - right hand side of the page, under "Other Dogecoin Pages"

There was an Electrum client, however its developers abandoned it and for now Multidoge is the recommended light client.

Sorry, I meant we'll update the code to match features introduced by the latest version of Bitcoin Core. Clearer?

On BitcoinTalk not being listed on /r/dogecoin - not sure, the mods are independent from the developers, but I'll ask. Certainly I'd presumed it would be listed, so this is a surprise to me too!

Dogecoin Core 1.8.3 is out now as source code, with binaries to follow ASAP. This is a security update, please update as soon as possible. Full details at https://np.reddit.com/r/dogecoin/comments/3bwr1z/dogecoin_core_183_source_release_binary_downloads/

Dogecoin Core 1.10 is being worked on, and will bring Dogecoin in sync with Bitcoin Core 0.11. More details as we have them.

My understanding (which is to say, I've only read the documentation, I haven't run a full simulation of this) is that the code doesn't hang, it simply rejects non-strict DER signatures. What you'd see is some nodes accepting transactions which others reject, so the result is actually a hard fork.

We applied a patch to our source back on the 9th Jan (https://github.com/dogecoin/dogecoin/commit/6fa9a5e31a46120ffc772d7e8ca748b851c78f7f), and new binaries have been released compiled against OpenSSL 1.0.1l. I've also worked on a couple of open source libraries to ensure they're compatible as well.

I believe Darkcoin patched very early on too.

So; I would imagine a large number of alts haven't applied these patches, but it's almost certainly not "no altcoins".

Really appreciate the altcoin patches being indicated, just reviewing and testing those now.

Note this has no relationship to the original Dogecoin except for borrowing the name and some of the marketing theme. Entirely separate team, and the Dogecoin developers cannot help you with anything involving DogecoinDark.

This is hopefully obvious, but for the record as far as I am aware this does not involve anyone involved with Dogecoin Core development, marketing, support or other core activities.

Yes, people do sometimes presume we're attached to anything with similar names.

Today marks an important day in the history of Dogecoin. We are here to announce that we will enable the Dogecoin blockchain to accept auxiliary proof of work from other Scrypt chains.  
As you all know, we've been looking into a lot of options. AuxPoW has been on the table for quite some time now and has been recently again discussed at length.  

We have also discussed many other options, some of them which are still highly theoretical, or just deemed to be in Alpha state. We didn't see them as viable for that exact reason. AuxPoW has been around in the crypto space for quite a while now. Our topmost priority has always been to provide a stable platform for the currency and its services and of course its users. We hope that with AuxPoW we can achieve that in a better way than what it currently is like. Our hashrate has been on a decline and we hope that we can gain more of it with the acceptance of proof of work from other chains.  

Yes, this does mean that we are going to fork. The exact switchover is yet to be determined but will happen sooner than later. This post is here to announce it early enough for everyone to prepare for the update. The code is currently in the late testing stage and we are working on ironing out the last small issues.  

We will also push a new branch to the [Github repo](https://github.com/dogecoin/dogecoin) called `1.8-dev` which has the AuxPoW switch on the testnet set for block 158,100 (Tomorrow 6:30 GMT). The updated branch will be available later today, so keep an eye on the repo if you're interested. This will be done to help pool operators test the mining on the AuxPoW enabled chain in preperation of the switch on the main chain. If you know how to compile the client, then you can certainly help us by trying it out and even mine a bit with a few KH on the testnet. What you need to know, if you already have the testnet chain synced, is to start the client with `-reindex` the first time you run 1.8. This should be automated for the final so the transition will be as smooth as possible.

What this does not mean is that we're tying us to Litecoin. What we do is accepting Proof of Work from their miners if they happen to hit our difficulty target. But that is technical background stuff, which was explained several times before here. On that note, and I'm no economist, I also don't see that have any negative effect on the price, considering the amount of "dumped" coins would probably not change. Also, you as miners are not forced to mine Litecoin to get Dogecoin now. You can still mine at your current pools directly to the Dogecoin network.  

The Android wallet and Multidoge will receive an update if needed. I'll have to dig into this now

Please stay tuned for any updates. We'll be pushing them through all the channels. Thanks everyone for their continued support!  

-langer_hans

More on reddit here: http://www.reddit.com/r/dogecoin/comments/2ci90m/dogecoin_to_enable_auxpow_soon_all_infos_inside/

Mandatory 1.6 update added to OP.

added

Pool list updated, but still might be out of date. Please also contact the maintainer of the dogecoin directory (http://doktorrf.com/dogecoin/pools.html) when adding a pool.

Dogecoin v1.4.1 released for windows. This fixes the crash bug when encrypting a wallet or doing 'getmininginfo' on certain windows platforms.

https://github.com/dogecoin/dogecoin/releases/tag/v1.4.1