Dogecoin is not run by any individual company or person. Technically speaking, it operates according to rules agreed by consensus, rather than decided upon by some founding or owning entity.

A cryptocurrency is a digital currency that is secured by cryptography, in contrast to conventional (fiat) currencies where they are secured by a government or governments.

It means you don't have to trust any central organisation or person the way you would a bank, but also that you have to be your own bank. The developers can't seize your funds, but they also can't return them if you send them to the wrong address.

No-one, or everyone does equally, depending how you look at it. The developers can release new software, but the community have to choose to use that software. That community includes not just the end-users, but miners, exchanges, payment processors, etc. Typically the community does adopt new software we release because we have an established track record, but there's no special access we have.

In many cases we discover people have backups they've forgotten about, checking old systems or thumb drives for copies is a good idea. If the keys are entirely lost, however, there is no way to recover them. Please back up your keys regularly.

We do not have the resources to verify service providers, so avoid making recommendations ourselves, but there is a list of both shops and payment processors at https://spendyourdogecoins.cf/.

We are an open source project, not a business - so no, thank you.