Metallicus CEO Marshall Hayner announced the deployment of an alpha version of the DogecoinVM payment layer on the Metal Blockchain mainnet, which reportedly makes Dogecoin transactions 300 times faster. This development aims to address Elon Musk's 2021 challenge for Dogecoin to increase its throughput to become a global payment method. The solution operates as an independent parallel layer, preserving the original Dogecoin Core protocol and UTXO model, and is compatible with existing Dogecoin wallets. The speed increase, reducing transaction finalization time to 0.15–0.25 seconds, is attributed to a shift from Proof-of-Work to the Snowman consensus protocol (Proof-of-Stake). Currently in alpha testing, the system's source code is open on GitHub but has not yet undergone an independent security audit, with individual deposits limited to 100 DOGE for safety. Hayner highlighted the long-term goal of integrating fast cryptocurrency settlements into fintech, banks, and platforms, including social network X.