Shiba Inu (SHIB) was one of the sensations of 2021. As a meme coin with the effigy of the Shiba Inu, this cryptocurrency divides many: some see it as yet another token without interest in the effigy of a dog, while others see it as a decentralized community project with potential. What are the real ambitions of this crypto-asset that has been able to make a place among the largest capitalizations?

What is Shiba Inu (SHIB)?

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 from the Internet, such as memes. At first, glance, taking meme coins as serious projects is challenging.

However, recent years have proven that some of the same corners are not just jokes. Dogecoin (DOGE), for example, proved it by entering the top 10 most valuable cryptocurrencies on the market in 2021 and even enjoying the support of personalities like the wealthiest man in the world, Elon Musk. The new Shiba Inu coin also proved it in the same year by seeing its price explode to a multi-billion dollar valuation.

Like its rival Dogecoin, the Shiba Inu was created in the image of the most popular dog breed on the Internet, the Shiba Inu. Memecoins have gained a lot of popularity in recent years thanks to the success of Dogecoin and Shiba Inu, and many other meme coins have been created since in hopes of replicating their successes.

Shiba Inu differs from 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 a Proof of Work (PoW) consensus and operates on its blockchain.

The Shiba Inu (SHIB) describes itself as a project governed by its community; it particularly emphasizes this aspect thanks to a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO).

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

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

The ShibArmy supports the Shiba Inu Rescue Association, an organization that rescues and cares for dogs of the Shiba Inu breed. To support this initiative, the community calls on its members to use Amazon Smile every time it purchases on Amazon, allowing them to donate 0.5% of their cart to the association.

READ MORE: Do you own Dogecoin or Shiba Inu? The community expects a bull run in 2023

The Shiba Inu Ecosystem (SHIB)

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 have created two other tokens: the Bone ShibaSwap (BONE) and the Doge Killer (LEASH).

Doggy DAO

The Doggy DAO is a decentralized autonomous organization governed by the ShibArmy. At the centre is the BONE token, which works in particular 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 be able to vote and therefore participate in the governance of the Doggy DAO, you must have BONE tokens and then take them on ShibaSwap. In return, you will receive tBONE tokens that 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 ShibaSwap decentralized exchange (staking, liquidity pools).

There are 250 million BONE tokens in total, and this token divides the ShibArmy a bit since some believe that instead of the BONE token, the SHIB token should have been used for all 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 holding a lot of SHIB tokens from weighing too much in the decisions of the Doggy DAO.

READ MORE: Unleashing the Power of Mining Shiba Inu Cloud: How to Mine Crypto Effectively

Doge Killer (LEASH)

At its creation, 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 circulating supply, which contrasts with the unit price of SHIB, which is very low due to its vast circulating supply.

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

ShibaSwap

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

Here is an overview of ShibaSwap 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 sake token that represents your share of the relevant pool. Rewards are received in the form of BONE tokens;
• Dig: Provides liquidity to ShibaSwap. You can deposit cryptocurrencies in 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 the recovery of BONE token rewards by cashing out its SSLP tokens from liquidity pools;
• Doggy DAO: This feature allows you to vote for governance decisions of the Shiba Inu ecosystem;
• NFTs: This is a marketplace for trading Shiboshis, a collection of 10,000 non-fungible tokens (NFTs) representing Shiba Inus in different traits and costumes.

Be careful because not all BONE token rewards are recoverable simultaneously. Indeed, only 33% of the BONE tokens thus earned 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 released. It will be adjusted based on the use of DEX and will allow for a slow reduction in the supply in circulation.

Shibarium, Shiba Inu’s Layer 2 solution

Shibarium is the Layer 2 solution of 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 until Ethereum 2.0 arrives.

Shiba Inu’s team decided to rely on something other than the constantly delayed release of ETH 2.0 and to develop its own Layer 2 solution to deal with these problems. At the time of writing, this project still needs to be operational, and developers are actively working on it. However, we know that the BONE token will be used on Shibarium, not SHIB.

Shib: The Metaverse

In early 2022 the metaverse of the Shiba Inu ecosystem entitled Shib: The Metaverse will be unveiled. Still in development at the time of writing (April 2022), it will consist of 100,595 parcels of virtual land that the community can purchase. The purchase of plots will be made with the ETH cryptocurrency.

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

How to buy SHIB tokens?

SHIB is available on most exchanges such as Binance, Coinbase, KuCoin, Kraken, Huobi or Gate.io.