Shiba Inu (SHIB): The Memecoin to Conquer Dogecoin

Shiba Inu (SHIB): The Memecoin to Conquer Dogecoin

Shiba Inu (SHIB) was one of the sensations of the year 2021. As a memecoin bearing the effigy, this cryptocurrency is described by many: some see it as just another token without interest at all, while others see it as a decentralised community project with potential. What are the real ambitions of this crypto-asset which has managed to find a place among the largest capitalisations?

What is the Shiba Inu (SHIB)?

The Shiba Inu (SHIB) is a cryptocurrency created in August 2020 by Ryoshi, an anonymous person. This project is known as a meme coin, a particular cryptocurrency initially associated with jokes coming from the internet like memes. Therefore, it is difficult to take memecoins as serious projects.

Yet the past few years have proven that some meme coins aren’t just jokes. Dogecoin (DOGE), for example, has proven this by entering the top 10 most valuable cryptocurrencies on the market in 2021 and even enjoying the support of personalities like the richest man in the world, Elon Musk. The same year, the new meme coin Shiba Inu also proved it when it saw its price explode to reach a valuation of several billion dollars.

Like its rival Dogecoin, the Shiba Inu was created after the internet’s most popular canine breed, the Shiba Inu. Memecoins have gained a lot of popularity in recent years thanks to the success of Dogecoin, Shiba Inu, and many other meme coins that have since been created in hopes of replicating their successes.

The Shiba Inu differs from the Dogecoin mainly from a technical point of view. Indeed, the SHIB operates as an ERC-20 token on the Ethereum blockchain, which means that Shiba Inu allows the use of smart contracts.

DOGE, on the other hand, operates on consensus Proof of Work (PoW) and runs on its own blockchain.

The Shiba Inu (SHIB) describes itself as a project totally governed by its community, and it particularly insists on this aspect thanks to a decentralised autonomous organisation (DAO). In this regard, its founder Ryoshi, says:

“We believe that through the power of collective decentralisation, we can build something more powerful than a centralised team could ever create. A community-managed token is nothing without the individuals who give it meaning.”

The Shiba Inu community is called the ShibArmy, and it rests on three foundations:

  • It’s a project that started from nothing, with nothing,
  • It is a project not founded by an already existing community or a previously formed team. Individuals from diverse backgrounds have come together to become part of the ShibArmy and work on the project,
  • The community loves Shiba Inu.

The ShibArmy notably supports the Shiba Inu Rescue Association, an organisation that rescues and cares for dogs of the Shiba Inus breed. To support this initiative, the community calls on its members to use Amazon Smile every time they make a purchase on Amazon, which allows them to donate 0.5% of the amount of their basket to the association.

The Shiba Inu (SHIB) Ecosystem

The very ambitious goal of the Shiba Inu project is to develop the best-decentralized ecosystem in the cryptocurrency industry. For this, the Doggy DAO and ShibaSwap were created, as well as two other tokens: the Bone ShibaSwap (BONE) and the Doge Killer (LEASH).

The three cryptocurrencies of the Shiba Inu ecosystem

Figure 1: The three cryptocurrencies of the Shiba Inu ecosystem

Doggy DAO

The Doggy DAO is a decentralised autonomous organisation governed by the ShibArmy. At the centre is the BONE token, which functions particularly as a means of governance in the DAO; it thus offers the community the means to guide the Shiba Inu ecosystem in agreement with the majority.

To vote and therefore participate in the governance of the Doggy DAO, you must own BONE tokens and then stake them on ShibaSwap. In return, you will receive tBONE tokens which can be used to vote on proposals submitted by the DAO.

The Bone ShibaSwap (BONE)

In addition to its involvement in the Doggy Dao, the BONE token also serves as a reward for most features on the decentralised exchange ShibaSwap (staking, liquidity pools).

There are 250 million BONE tokens in total, and this token splits the ShibArmy a bit since some feel that instead of the BONE token, the SHIB token should have been used for all of these roles.

The founder of the project, Ryoshi, as well as Shytoshi Kusama, the project manager of Shiba Inu, both defended the use of the BONE token by explaining that it prevents large exchanges or whales from holding a lot of SHIB tokens from having too much influence in the decisions of the Doggy DAO.

Doge Killer (LEASH)

When it was created, it was an algorithmic token that replicated the price of Dogecoin at a rate of x1000 (so 1000 times the price of a DOGE token). However, the role of this token has changed as it has become a simple ERC-20 token functioning as a store of value with only 107,647 LEASH tokens in circulation.

Thus, the unit price of LEASH is relatively high due to its low supply in circulation, which contrasts with the unit price of SHIB, which is very low due to its huge supply in circulation.

The LEASH token can be used in the decentralised exchange ShibaSwap for staking or liquidity pools.

ShibaSwap

Launched in July 2021, ShibaSwap is the native decentralised exchange (DEX) of the Shiba Inu project. It was developed without a budget, only by developers from the ShibArmy community. This DEX logically runs on the Ethereum blockchain and focuses on ERC-20 tokens.

Figure 2: Overview of ShibaSwap

Here’s an overview of ShibaSwap’s features:

  • Swap: Allows the exchange of ERC-20 tokens like ETH, wETH, DAI, USDT, AXS, MATIC, USDC, SHIB, BAT and many other tokens;
  • Bury: Offers the possibility of staking SHIB, BONE or LEASH at different interest rates. By doing so, you will receive xSHIB, tBONE or xLEASH, depending on the staked token that represents your share of the relevant pool. Rewards are received in the form of BONE tokens;
  • Dig: Provides liquidity to ShibaSwap. Here you can deposit cryptocurrencies in already existing liquidity pools or create your own. In return, you will receive SSLP tokens until you wish to recover your tokens thus provided;
  • Woof: This is the place dedicated to collecting BONE token rewards by cashing in its SSLP tokens from the liquidity pools;
  • Doggy DAO: This feature allows voting for governance decisions of the Shiba Inu ecosystem;
  • NFTs: This is a marketplace for trading Shiboshis; these are a collection of 10,000 non-fungible tokens (NFTs) representing Shiba Inus in different traits and costumes.

Be careful, though, because the BONE token rewards are not all recoverable simultaneously. Indeed, only 33% of the BONE tokens thus won can be recovered directly; it will be necessary to wait 6 months to recover the remaining 67%.

There will also be a SHIB token burn system when ShibaSwap version 2.0 is launched. This will be adjusted based on DEX usage and slowly reduce the circulating supply.

Shiba Inu development and marketing funds

The developers of the Shiba Inu ecosystem gave their time and energy to this project without being paid at first since they were just members of the ShibArmy. However, with the introduction of new funds, this has changed a bit.

The development team will be able to work full time and be paid because a portion of the BONE mint tokens through the Dig and Bury functions of ShibaSwap will be allocated to two funds:

  • Core Developers & OG Admins Fund: each developer can be paid for their work on ShibaSwap; salaries are also offered to developers to work exclusively on the Shiba Inu ecosystem. OG Admins are members of the ShibArmy who have a long history of supporting the project by contributing in a variety of ways, including fighting FUD and Shiba Inu impersonation scams.
  • Shiba Inu Ecosystem Development & Marketing Fund: This fund finances the growth of the Shiba Inu ecosystem. It will be used to maintain the roadmap and finance the projects decided by the votes of the governance.

Shibarium, the Shiba Inu Layer 2 solution

Shibarium is the Layer 2 solution to the Shiba Inu ecosystem. Indeed, since SHIB is an ERC-20 token of the Ethereum blockchain, it often faces issues of high gas fees or congestion, at least until Ethereum 2.0 arrives.

The Shiba Inu team decided not to rely on the constantly delayed release of ETH 2.0 and instead developed their own Layer 2 solution to deal with these issues. At the time of writing these lines, this project is not yet operational, and the developers are actively working on it. However, we already know that the BONE token will be used on Shibarium and not the SHIB.

Shib: The Metaverse

At the beginning of 2022, the metaverse of the Shiba Inu ecosystem entitled Shib: The Metaverse was unveiled. Still in development at the time of writing (June 2022), it will consist of  100,595  virtual land plots that the community will be able to purchase. The purchase of plots will be made with the cryptocurrency ETH.

ETH was chosen over an ecosystem token like SHIB or BONE because it is considered neutral by the Shiba Inu team. Indeed, the funds collected in Ethers will finance the development of the metaverse by paying the developers in particular so that these tokens will be sold on the market.

Landowners will be able to generate passive income, collect in-game resources and earn rewards. We don’t have any further details on this at this time.

What are the roles of the SHIB token?

The SHIB token has relatively limited roles. Above all, it allows you to make transactions and payments. Still, it also offers the possibility of interacting with the ShibaSwap DEX and benefiting from 5.77% interest rates with staking in particular.

A surprising utility of the SHIB token is in connection with AMC Cinemas, one of the largest movie theatre chains in the United States. Indeed, since March 2022, it has been possible to pay for your cinema ticket in SHIB tokens on the AMC Entertainment website.

Finally, Shib: The Metaverse, the future Shiba Inu metaverse, and the Play-2-Earns in development around the Shiba Inu project could potentially add many uses to the SHIB token.

The Special Tokenomics of the Shiba Inu (SHIB)

The Shiba Inu has some rather unique Tokenomics in the cryptocurrency market. Indeed, when creating the token, Ryoshi set the total supply at 1 quadrillion SHIB. It is difficult to imagine such an amount; it is 1,000,000,000,000,000 SHIB.

Then, Ryoshi sent 50% of the supply, or 500 trillion SHIB tokens, directly to the wallet of Vitalik Buterin, the co-creator of Ethereum.

“We sent 50% of [SHIB’s] total supply to Vitalik. There is no merit without vulnerability, and as long as Vitalik Buterin does not give us a low blow, then Shiba Inu will grow and survive.“

In May 2021, Vitalik Buterin donated $1 billion in SHIB tokens (5% of total supply) to the India Covid Relief Fund during the humanitarian crisis unfolding there. This donation caused a 50% fall in the price of SHIB.

A week later, Vitalik Buterin ended up burning 410.24 trillion SHIB tokens by sending them to a dead wallet. Thus, 41% of the total SHIB supply, worth $6.6 billion at the time of the burn, was taken out of circulation in a single transaction.

Ryoshi sent the remaining 50% to the SHIB/ETH liquidity pool on the decentralised exchange Uniswap. He then got rid of the keys, relinquishing all control over those tokens.

Figure 3: Vitalik Buterin transaction burning 41% of total SHIB token supply

The Shiba Inu team and partners

The team behind the Shiba Inu project is completely anonymous and it is complicated to acquire information about these people. The Shiba Inu wants to be as decentralised and mysterious as a certain Bitcoin. So we only have pseudonyms:

  • Ryoshi: founder of the Shiba Inu project. Here is what he says on his personal blog:

“I’ve always said, I’m nobody, I’m not important. Efforts to reveal my identity, even if successful, would be disappointing. I’m just some unimportant guy typing on his 0board, and I’m replaceable. I am Ryoshi.“

  • Shytoshi Kusama: Shiba Inu project manager.

Partners

The Shiba Inu, by its very decentralised nature, does not have a large number of partnerships, but here are some interesting ones:

  • John Richmond, a well-known English fashion designer, is working with Shiba Inu to offer no less than 10,000 Shiba Inu non-fungible tokens (NFTs) of his creation. Some will be visible in physics at Milan Fashion Week in September 2022;
  • SHIB tokens are available at Bitcoin of America-operated cryptocurrency distributors in the United States;
  • AMC cinemas, as mentioned previously, offer the possibility of paying for cinema tickets in SHIB tokens on their website.
  • Chipotle, an American fast-casual restaurant chain, can now accept Shiba Inu as payment via Flexa

How to buy SHIB tokens?

The SHIB is available on the vast majority of exchanges such as Binance, Coinbase, KuCoin, Kraken, Huobi or Gate.io.

Explanations for buying SHIB on Binance

  1. Register on Binance;
  2. You will receive an email and need to click on a link to verify your account;
  3. Deposit funds on the platform;
  4. Click on the Market menu and look for the  SHIB/USDT pair ;
  5. All you have to do is buy SHIB for the amount of your choice;
  6. Congratulations, you are now in possession of SHIB tokens!

Our opinion on the Shiba Inu (SHIB)

The Shiba Inu Meme Coin (SHIB) has been phenomenally successful in 2022 with impressive numbers. It managed to snag the top 11 most valuable cryptocurrencies in the world for a while in 2021, although it has slipped down the rankings a bit since then.

SHIB is hot on the heels of its biggest rival, DOGE, and only time will tell if the so-called “Dogecoin Killer”  will be able to dethrone Dogecoin to become the premier memecoin.

For this, the Shiba Inu has certain advantages. The  Shiba Inu is a very decentralised project, and this is certainly its main strength. From the Doggy DAO through Shib: The Metaverse and its Layer 2 solution Shibarium, Play-2-Earn games, to the development of an algorithmic stablecoin called SHI following the price of a hundredth of a dollar (i.e. 0.01 dollar): what is produced today around the SHIB is much more substantial than with the DOGE.

All this demonstrates that the Shiba Inu is much more than a single coin and that it has the ambition to develop a totally decentralised ecosystem around its token.

Patience will, however, be required to witness the flowering of this one. One thing is certain, Shiba Inu intends to capitalise on its popularity and seems to hold its community and decentralisation values ​​to heart.

Be careful, however, if you want to buy SHIB. Its tumultuous history and its status as the same coin make it a fairly risky cryptocurrency for a long-term investment.

Disclaimer: The information in this article should not be considered financial advice, and FXCryptoNews articles are intended only to provide educational and general information. Please consult with a financial advisor before making any investment decisions.

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