DigiByte (DGB) is a native Layer-1 UTXO blockchain, a Bitcoin-derived fork, launched via a genesis block on January 10, 2014. It operates as a public, permissionless proof-of-work network for recording transactions.
Since July 2026, the chain has hosted DigiDollar, a non-custodial, USD-pegged stablecoin minted by locking DGB as collateral, and an x402 feature letting AI agents autonomously pay for and notarize services on-chain.
DigiByte differentiates itself through security-focused protocol design rather than smart-contract functionality, pioneering SegWit activation and multi-algorithm mining meant to resist 51% attacks. It was the first major blockchain to activate SegWit and introduced the DigiShield/MultiShield difficulty-adjustment algorithms, both later referenced or adopted elsewhere.
DGB captures this utility directly as the network's mining-secured currency and, since DigiDollar's launch, its only collateral asset: as of August 6, 2026, over 50 million DGB was locked as collateral at a 365% network collateralization ratio.
DGB is a utility token, not a governance token, and carries no on-chain voting rights. Holders use it to pay network transaction fees and as the mining-secured native currency of the chain.
Since July 2026, holders can also lock DGB as collateral to mint DigiDollar, a native USD-pegged stablecoin secured by a 7-of-35 multi-oracle Schnorr threshold-signature system, and DGB settles payments made through the x402 feature, which lets AI agents autonomously pay for and notarize services on-chain.
DigiByte has a hard-capped maximum supply of 21,000,000,000 (21 billion) DGB, expected to be fully mined by approximately 2035. Circulating and total supply are equal, at approximately 18.45 billion DGB (18,454,125,225.72) as of 2026-09-02, around 87.9% of maximum supply.
DigiByte launched with no ICO, private sale, or venture-capital funding, via a genesis block mined January 10, 2014. The block hashed in a headline about the 2013 Target customer-data breach as a symbolic reference to digital security.
A small technical premine of 0.5% (105 million DGB) was created at launch, split roughly evenly between development funding and community giveaways, with no allocation retained personally by the founder.
DigiByte runs on its own native Layer-1 UTXO blockchain rather than being deployed on a host chain such as Ethereum or Solana. It uses proof-of-work consensus spread across five distinct mining algorithms, intended to prevent any single algorithm or mining pool from achieving a 51% attack.
Per-algorithm difficulty is managed using DigiByte's own DigiShield/MultiShield adjustment algorithms. Protocol upgrades, including Taproot/Schnorr signature support and the DigiDollar activation, were deployed via BIP9 miner-signaling soft forks.
DigiByte was founded by Jared Tate, known online as "DigiMan", who began modifying Bitcoin's protocol in late 2013 before DigiByte's 2014 launch. Tate, from Arco, Idaho, had been involved with Bitcoin since 2012.
Tate has at points publicly stepped back from day-to-day involvement but remains associated with the project's public messaging.
DigiByte is maintained today as an open-source community project with no corporate owner, developed through the DigiByte-Core GitHub organization. It was never issued by a company and had no corporate backer at launch.
The closest formal entity, the nonprofit DigiByte Foundation, was created to "protect and promote the true principles of decentralization" but stated it would not own or control the protocol; it was reportedly dissolved on November 21, 2023.
DigiByte has no formal on-chain voting mechanism or DAO structure; governance is informal and driven by open community development. No individual or body holds official authority over the protocol.
The now-dissolved DigiByte Foundation's officer titles existed only to satisfy nonprofit-registration requirements, not to grant decision-making power. Protocol changes, including the 2025 Taproot/Schnorr activation and the July 2026 DigiDollar launch, proceed through open GitHub development and are activated via BIP9 miner-signaling soft forks rather than token-based voting.
DigiByte's most significant recent milestone is the July 17, 2026 mainnet activation of DigiDollar, its native collateral-backed stablecoin. Earlier, DigiByte Core v8.22.0 (January 2025) added Taproot and Schnorr signature support plus the Dandelion++ privacy protocol, and a July 2025 pull request merged four years of upstream Bitcoin Core improvements.
DigiByte relies on an informal, community-run bug bounty that has addressed specific wallet-sync issues, rather than a formal third-party security-audit engagement from a firm such as CertiK or Immunefi. A 2020 speculation about a possible 51% attack was investigated and refuted by the founder and outside analysts as normal multi-algorithm mining dynamics.
On a public rich-list snapshot, the top 10 addresses, including known exchange wallets, held 31.68% of circulating supply, and the single largest address held 14.81%.