Shiba Inu’s Ecosystem Is Expanding. Can It Shed Its Meme Coin Status?

Crypto Briefing goes down the meme coin rabbit gap to see if Shiba Inu has what it takes to develop right into a extra critical crypto mission worthy of its $6.4 billion market cap. 

The State of Shiba Inu 

Shiba Inu needs to change into greater than only a meme, however that could possibly be a problem. 

After experiencing a parabolic run that catapulted SHIB up over 1,000% within the fall of 2021, the Ethereum-based meme coin has continued to shock market contributors with its stubbornness within the face of what often is the most extreme crypto bear market in historical past. 

Whereas SHIB gained its footing as a retail investor-backed meme coin, it’s maintained its place as a high 20 cryptocurrency, outperforming many different extra established initiatives through the market downturn. Shiba Inu’s relative power is partly due to its devoted holder base and on-line neighborhood. The token’s devoted adherents proceed to carry SHIB regardless of brutal market circumstances whereas bringing its neighborhood to life throughout Twitter, Reddit, and different social media platforms. 

Moreover, not like Bitcoin and Ethereum, which bore the brunt of the current spate of crypto agency liquidations, SHIB has suffered comparatively little contagion as few—if any—firms had leveraged publicity to the token.

It’s change into clear that regardless of setbacks, akin to Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin promoting and burning trillions of SHIB tokens despatched to his pockets by the mission’s pseudonymous creator Ryoshi, Shiba Inu is right here to remain. Over the previous yr, the mission’s developer group has shaped a plan to assist Shiba Inu transcend its repute as a moonshot token and develop right into a fully-fledged crypto ecosystem.

Shiba Ecosystem Growth

After rising to public consideration through the 2021 bull market, Shiba Inu’s builders have crafted a number of initiatives to assist what began as a easy meme token achieve traction as a extra reliable mission. 

To date, Shiba Inu’s pseudonymous builders have executed plans to create an Ethereum-compatible Layer 2 chain known as Shibarium, a group of cute NFT avatars often known as “THE SHIBOSHIS,” a Metaverse, a cell play-to-earn recreation, and a Shiba Inu-themed stablecoin. 

Whereas sluggish, progress is being made. In November 2021, Shiba Inu’s first NFT assortment, THE SHIBOSHIS, launched in a whirlwind of hype, spiking Ethereum fuel charges as followers rushed to mint one of many 10,000 pixel artwork avatars. Extra just lately, in April, the Shiba Inu group carried out a sale of 100,000 digital land plots for an upcoming Shiba Inu Metaverse mission. 

Though particulars concerning the Metaverse are sparse, that hasn’t stopped the Shiba Inu devoted from loading up on digital land. Within the few transient updates on the mission from pseudonymous Shiba Inu developer Shytoshi Kusama, “SHIB: The Metaverse,” because it’s at the moment known as, can be developed in partnership with a number one AAA recreation studio. Nevertheless, in accordance with Kusama, several non-disclosure agreements have prevented builders from revealing additional particulars. 

Different plans, akin to creating the Layer 2 Shibarium community, additionally look like advancing. Blockchain growth firm Unification has been tasked with creating the brand new community, which is able to kind the bottom layer for the Shiba Inu ecosystem. Blog posts from Kusama say the community can be “optimized for gaming” and provide decrease charges and better throughput than Ethereum. 

In line with a current blog post from Unification Product Lead Maziar Sadri, Shibarium will launch its public beta later this yr, permitting unbiased builders and customers to totally work together with the community and take part in its validation course of. As soon as absolutely launched, the SHIB token and all Shiba Inu-related NFTs can be migrated to Shibarium, and future ecosystem developments will launch instantly on the brand new Layer 2 community. 

Nevertheless, it is likely to be the deliberate cell play-to-earn recreation that has Shiba Inu followers essentially the most excited. Introduced on the peak of Shiba Inu mania in November 2021, growth for the yet-to-be-named recreation is led by William Volk, a gaming business veteran with greater than 25 years of expertise at top-tier firms akin to Activision and ROKiT Video games. 

Like SHIB: The Metaverse, little is understood concerning the Shiba Inu recreation past Volk’s involvement. The most recent replace from Volk came visiting three months in the past when he posted an invitation to an in-person meetup on Twitter, together with a teaser screenshot of artwork from the upcoming recreation. 

Elsewhere, a number of tweets and weblog posts from Kusama have dropped a number of extra breadcrumbs of knowledge. The sport will take the type of a collectible card recreation much like Pokémon and Magic: The Gathering. More moderen updates point out that the Volk-led Shiba Inu Video games and Australian studio PlaySide are each concerned within the recreation’s growth. 

Though the play-to-earn side of the Shiba Inu recreation has not but been revealed, there are a number of clues alluding to the way it may work. In Kusama’s Jul. 6 blog post, they revealed that gamers would have the ability to earn a brand new token known as TREAT by means of the sport upon launch. Kusama additionally hinted that a number of token sinks for TREAT can be woven into the Shiba Inu ecosystem. TREAT will “derive rewards for the Metaverse” and “assist to supply stability to Shi,” the deliberate Shiba Inu stablecoin, they wrote. Nevertheless, like most of Kusama’s posts, they gave no agency particulars on the token ecosystem apart from stating that TREAT would “profit present SHIB ecosystem holders vastly” and that the tokenomics would “not disappoint.”

Can Shiba Inu Turn into Extra Than a Meme?

Though Shiba Inu’s builders are devoted to rising the token right into a fully-fledged crypto ecosystem, a number of elements may cease them from reaching their imaginative and prescient. 

Whereas Shibarium and the collectible card recreation have spurred pleasure inside the Shiba Inu neighborhood, concrete particulars on what’s being constructed and the way it will work stay patchy at finest. Data is usually unfold throughout a number of sources with no centralized hub preserving monitor of all the newest bulletins. 

Many of the info that may be discovered comes from Kusama after Ryoshi bowed out from the mission earlier this yr. Kusama’s posts are sometimes informal, lack construction, and make daring assertions concerning the Shiba Inu ecosystem and its upcoming plans with out providing particular particulars. In consequence, Shiba Inu followers are left speculating concerning the particulars of highly-anticipated updates, creating confusion and fueling concern, uncertainty, and doubt from the mission’s detractors. 

For instance, Kusama has mentioned the Shibarium Layer 2 won’t require ETH for its transaction charges and can as an alternative use the Shiba Inu ecosystem governance token BONE to course of transactions. Nevertheless, in accordance with the Shiba Inu whitepaper, BONE has a restricted provide of 250 million tokens. It’s at the moment solely distributed to these collaborating in numerous staking and liquidity-providing actions on ShibaSwap, the official Shiba Inu decentralized change. Kusama’s posts have but to disclose additional particulars about how BONE will operate as each a fuel and governance token, leaving holders hoping for one of the best as an alternative of with the ability to conduct correct due diligence into how the token system will operate after the launch of Shibarium. 

Doubtful tokenomics apart, one other fear is that lots of the Shiba Inu ecosystem initiatives are copies of concepts beforehand pioneered by different crypto initiatives. Shiba Inu’s Metaverse providing can be in direct competitors with these developed by well-funded firms akin to Bored Ape Yacht Membership creator Yuga Labs and Fb proprietor Meta. An extra of smaller NFT initiatives have additionally tried copying the Metaverse playbook of their roadmaps, making the idea drained earlier than even a single Web3-native Metaverse recreation has efficiently launched. 

Crypto gaming can be experiencing a downturn accelerated by titles like Axie Infinity and STEPN, two well-liked video games that skilled a dramatic rise however plummeted as they did not create self-sustaining token ecosystems. The present play-to-earn mannequin, which Shiba Inu’s play-to-earn recreation is but to distinguish itself from, requires a relentless inflow of latest gamers to maintain present gamers involved in enjoying and is due to this fact unsustainable. It’s unclear whether or not the Shiba Inu collectible card recreation will have the ability to overcome this difficulty when it launches. Nonetheless, with so little info to work from, it’s proving troublesome for crypto lovers to get behind a mission with so many unknown elements.

Lastly, the thought of a local stablecoin will possible be essentially the most off-putting to the broader crypto neighborhood in mild of the collapse of the Terra ecosystem and its algorithmic UST stablecoin. No info has been launched explaining how the stablecoin will work or whether or not it is going to be overcollateralized. Nevertheless, the little info obtainable that alludes to the TREAT reward token enjoying a job within the stablecoin’s peg mechanism just isn’t encouraging. 

The larger query is whether or not the Shiba Inu neighborhood is involved in stablecoins, advanced token methods, and yield-generating alternatives. Shiba Inu’s early success relied on its memetic energy and passionate neighborhood. From an outsider’s perspective, a recreation that prioritizes participant engagement, neighborhood, and enjoyable over the flexibility to make a revenue could possibly be extra on-brand for Shiba Inu, particularly whereas cryptocurrencies are caught in a bear market. 

Nevertheless, it’s arduous to disclaim that Shiba Inu is establishing itself as a critical crypto contender. Loads is going on behind the scenes, and it’s solely a matter of time earlier than a completed product hits the market. Nonetheless, if the mission’s builders don’t contemplate what the mission’s neighborhood actually needs, what was as soon as one of many greatest drivers of crypto adoption may find yourself as a forgotten meme of the previous.

Disclosure: On the time of scripting this characteristic, the writer owned ETH and several other different cryptocurrencies.