It was pitched as a way of adding support for Ethereum-style smart contracts, which in turn could facilitate new DeFi protocols as well as NFTs; the original Dogecoin blockchain lacked smart-contract support, since it was a fork of Litecoin, which in turn was an early clone of Bitcoin, the original blockchain launched in 2009 – several years before Ethereum came along, ushering in the new era of smart contracts.
FinanceLane.com