Shiba Inu is a meme token that has been gaining popularity since early 2021. The token was created as a meme and an experiment. But it has seen a massive rise in popularity in the past year. And now has a huge community that invested in it. So, we will explore and explain the origin of Shiba Inu, how did it get so popular, and comparison with Dogecoin.
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Explaining Shiba Inu
Shiba Inu is an Ethereum-based Token. It is not a coin but a token on the Ethereum blockchain. It is named after a Japanese dog breed called Shiba Inu. It was created in August 2020 by an anonymous person named Ryoshi who was of Indian origin. Another anonymous investor donated 10 Ethereum to jumpstart the project. It is created as an Ethereum-based alternative to Dogecoin, which is already an alternate to Bitcoin.
It has steadily seen a rise in its value. Many popular crypto exchanges like Coinbase, Binance, and Coin DCX have also started listing it due to high community demand. It currently has a market capitalization of over 16 Billion dollars and a supply of 1 quadrillion tokens.
Shiba Inu uses Ethereum’s smart contracts to create its ecosystem. They have launched their crypto exchange called ShibaSwap. And there are other growing projects like more tokens along with Leash and Bone and NFT projects based on Shiba Inu.
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How did it gain popularity?
In March of 2021, Tesla and Space X founder Elon Musk tweeted that he wanted to adopt a Shiba Inu dog. This was taken as a hint that he might be interested in Shiba Inu. That tweet led to a 300% rise in the token’s value. This created headlines all over the world.
The founders of Shiba Inu also transferred half of all the tokens into the crypto wallet of Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin. This might have been done to show that he is also invested in the token. Vitalik donated 50 trillion Shiba tokens to the India Covid Crypto relief fund. This helped gain a lot of attention towards Shiba Inu. Vitalik later burned the rest of his tokens in a wallet no one could access.
Will Shiba Inu reach a Dollar?
As discussed earlier, Shiba has a massive supply of 1 quadrillion tokens. This makes it hard for Shiba Inu ever to reach a Dollar. Currently, the cost of one token is less than a fraction of 1 rupee or a Penny.
It is difficult for the price to reach 1 rupee. Because if the price reaches 1 rupee, the total market cap of Shiba Inu will be more than all the money in every cryptocurrency. If it reaches a Dollar, the market cap would be 400 Trillion dollars. This is why it is very unlikely for it to reach a Dollar.
What is Digging and Burying?
Digging is the reward you earn when you provide different tokens to the ShibaSwap exchange platform. This is done so there is always liquidity, or people can swap and exchange their coins in ShibaSwap. As proof and reward that you provided your tokens in the liquidity pool, you are rewarded with ShibaSwap Liquidity Protocol (SSLP) tokens.
Burying is the reward you earn for staking the SSLP tokens that were rewarded to you. Staking or locking your tokens for a while rewards you with the Bone token. Bone is a token of the Shiba ecosystem that allows you to vote on the next features that should be added to Shiba Inu.
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Dogecoin vs. Shiba Inu
Shiba Inu is often expressed as the Dogecoin alternative and Dogecoin killer by the Shiba Inu community. although both Doge and Shiba have a cute dog as their symbol, they are very different from one another. Let’s take a look at what the difference is.
Coin vs Token
Dogecoin was created to mock Bitcoin, and anyone can create a coin by making changes in the code. It was a Bitcoin alternative. That is why Doge is a coin. Doge has a blockchain network like Bitcoin, and it is the currency of its blockchain.
On the other hand, Shiba Inu is a token. It is built on top of the Ethereum blockchain. So it is not a coin but a token in the Ethereum network. It cannot be used as a currency in Ethereum. This is the main difference between a coin and a token.
Smart Contracts
Shiba Inu can use some of Ethereum’s features, like smart contracts. They can be used to create DeFi exchanges, it can be swapped, lent to a liquidity pool, or be used for staking. Dogecoin misses out on smart contracts. This is why it has created its exchange called ShibaSwap and multiple tokens like Leash and Bone, with more coming.
Real-world Value
Shiba Inu is still trying to grow and create its ecosystem. It is in its early days, and there is currently no adoption. Its value is less than a fraction of a Rupee, and it will take time before it reaches anywhere near the fame and value of Dogecoin.
Dogecoin is now accepted as a real-world payment method in certain places. On 15th December 2021, Elon Musk announced that Dogecoin will be accepted as a payment method in the Tesla merchandise shop. It is also easier to mine dogecoin and process its transaction, so we will likely see more outlets starting to accept Dogecoin.
Wrapping Up
Shiba Inu has come quite far from its inception. In a very little amount of time, it has made a name for itself, and the community behind it is growing. It might seem unlikely that it will ever reach a Dollar, but it still has a lot of potential and might grow up to something bigger. We hope we were able to help you explain all about Shiba Inu and answer some of its important questions.
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