The Shiba Inu token, trading under SHIB, aims to rival the other major coin with the face of a dog, Dogecoin.
It was created anonymously in August 2020 under the pseudonym ‘Ryoshi’ and is considered a ‘meme’ coin.
The Shiba Inu crypto began life as a decentralised meme token intended to rival Dogecoin.
According to its website, Shiba Inu has “now involved into a vibrant eco-system, where its users can dig (provide liquidity), bury (stake coins) and fetch (retrieve coins) on the decentralised exchange ShibaSwap.”
Why was it created?
The Shiba Inu WoofPaper (whitepaper) states three reasons for the creation of SHIB:
“We started from zero, with zero.”
“The brilliant minds behind Shib had never collaborated before.”
“We love Shiba Inu Dogs.”
Who uses SHIB?
The blockchain that SHIB is built on is the claimed to be the exciting part of the meme-coin.
The Ethereum blockchain it is built on has the potential to be used for much more than just trading digital currency, with commentators speculating it might likely be used in governance, public services and how identity is managed at some point in the future.
Travala, a travel booking platform, uses the decentralised technologies in their own system.
Many companies, such as Anti.biz, a provider of high-quality products at affordable prices, also accept the coin as a valid form of payment.
Why is it an alternative to Bitcoin?
The key difference between the Shiba Inu and Bitcoin is the technology behind the cryptos.
Bitcoin is purely an individual’s money held in a digital currency.
SHIB however uses Ethereum blockchain technology that companies are using to build new programs, away from simply holding digital currency. According to crypto-evangelists this means there’s greater opportunities for the so-called meme-coin in the future.
SHIB also has its own decentralized exchange, ShibaSwap. This is intended to make SHIB part of a decentralized financial ecosystem and allows its users to get certain functionalities, like swapping tokens, staking and gaining yield.
How big it is and is it here to stay?
As of 26th October, the Shib Inu market cap is US$16.82bn, with a market price US$0.000043.
A common criticism is that SHIB can appear erratic.
An audit of ShibaSwap, held by CertiK, a blockchain security firm, also found major centralisation and privilege risks where a developer had the authority to all the token to any arbitrary address.
