What is Shiba Inu?
Shiba Inu (SHIB) is an experiment in decentralized, spontaneous community building that is the native token of the Shiba Inu ecosystem. Unlike Bitcoin, which is designed to be scarce, SHIB was created to be abundant, with a total supply of one quadrillion tokens, allowing users to hold billions or even trillions of them.
A brief history of Shiba Inu
What began as a meme currency has transformed into a decentralized ecosystem. Upon its initial launch, 50% of the SHIB supply was sent to Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin's wallet. The price of SHIB then skyrocketed, increasing by over 150,000 times from its all-time low. Buterin later donated 10% of his SHIB holdings to a COVID-19 relief fund in India (a donation worth about $1 billion at the time) and burned the remaining 40%, which removed them permanently from circulation.
How does Shiba Inu work?
The Shiba Inu ecosystem has expanded beyond just the SHIB token. The team launched a decentralized exchange (DEX) called ShibaSwap, which introduced two additional tokens: LEASH and BONE.
- LEASH is a scarce-supply token used to offer incentives on ShibaSwap, providing exclusive benefits and rewards to its holders.
- BONE is the governance token that allows holders to vote on proposals through the Doggy DAO, giving the community a voice in the ecosystem's development.
SHIB is an Ethereum-based alternative to Dogecoin, which means it is compatible with the vast Ethereum ecosystem, including Ethereum wallets and decentralized exchanges. Its compatibility allows it to be used in various Ethereum-based decentralized finance (DeFi) applications, such as lending, savings products, and NFT marketplaces. In 2023, the team also launched Shibarium, a layer-2 blockchain built on Ethereum, to improve scalability and reduce transaction costs within the ecosystem.
What is Shiba Inu used for?
The Shiba Inu ecosystem supports several key use cases:
- DeFi: The ecosystem's decentralized exchange, ShibaSwap, allows users to trade, stake, and provide liquidity to earn rewards.
- Governance: The Doggy DAO allows BONE holders to vote on key decisions for the project.
- NFTs and Gaming: The ecosystem includes an NFT art incubator and has plans for a decentralized gaming project.
- Payments: SHIB is used as the primary currency for payments within the ecosystem and is increasingly accepted by a number of online platforms and merchants.
- Transactions: The SHIB token serves as the main medium of exchange and can be used for various transactions within the ecosystem.