Shiba Inu may be a meme coin but it’s not just relying on the meme to do the work. While not taking itself too seriously, Shiba is continuously shipping products. It has rolled out a dex: Shibaswap. Soon, a Layer 2 of its own making will be released: Shibarium. And there’s much more, including a game.
It’s been only a year since the launch of its decentralized exchange Shibaswap, but Shiba Inu is making it clear that it wants to leverage its meme and community in many ways by actually giving them tools.
For example, Shiba has its collection of NFTs, and a Hollywood design studio is set to work to build its metaverse. There are plans for a stablecoin (SHI), and the Shiba Inu game is in the pilot phase.
What is Shibarium?
Shibarium will tie many of the above products together. The testnet of this Layer 2 is expected to launch in the coming months, and a public beta soon thereafter. Shiba Inu will then have its own blockchain. Not quite though, as Shibarium will be a Layer 2 and SHIB (an ERC20-token) will remain connected to Ethereum. As with other Layer 2’s, Shibarium is a solution to route transaction volume from expensive Ethereum to an additional layer. It will enable rapid, low-cost transactions optimized for gaming.
According to the foundation and development team, hard work is being done in the background. Devs are in the process of deploying the second private Shibarium Alpha TestNet. Also, tools for end-user interaction such as wallets, block explorers, and token transfer bridges are developed. Trusted testers will then get private invitations. The team will use all the feedback to improve the network and tools, before finally releasing a public Beta TestNet.
Rumors about a September release
Rumors about a September 2022 Shibarium release started circulating after Unification xFund, the firm behind Shibarium, revealed in a blog post that Shibarium public beta testnet will be released in Q3 of 2022. One moderator tweeted the date of September 30 but later deleted the tweet. The Shiba Inu team came up with a declaration that the release of Shibarium won’t take place in September.
Impression of the to-be-released Shibarium bridge. Source
Shiba Inu wants to build a whole ecosystem of applications using Shibarium. The following are the most prominent ones.
ShibaSwap
Shibaswap is a decentralized exchange (dex) on which SHIB can be exchanged for other coins. The value locked of Shibaswap is around 50 million. That’s of course not much compared to dexes like Uniswap, where the value is in the billions.
To get a feeling for the playful way in which the Shiba Inu team communicates, we quote them explaining ShibaSwap:
“SHIB, LEASH, and BONE, come together to create ShibaSwap, the next evolution in DeFi platforms. ShibaSwap gives users the ability to DIG (provide liquidity), BURY (stake), and SWAP tokens to gain WOOF Returns through our sophisticated and innovative passive income reward system.”
The role of BONE in Shibarium
BONE is the governance token of the ShibaSwap ecosystem. It allows holders to vote on proposals. Also, after the so-called Bone proposal got accepted by a large majority, BONE is destined to become the ‘gas’ of the Shibarium Protocol. In other words, BONE will enable executing smart contracts and transactions.
Also, in Shibarium,…
Erik started as a freelance writer around the time Satoshi was brewing on the whitepaper.
As a crypto investor, he is class of 2020. More of a holder than a trader, but never shy to experiment with new protocols.
