Shiba Inu developers on Wednesday were set to launch the much-anticipated Shibarium blockchain, an Ethereum layer-2 network that uses SHIB tokens as fees, a representative told journalists. The network is designed to provide faster and cheaper transactions for users, and is part of a broader plan to position Shiba Inu as a serious blockchain project.
Many in the tech world, inside and outside the blockchain ecosystem, are promising ‘everything apps’ and full user interactivity in the world of ideas, goods, services and other opportunities, said Shiba Inu lead developer Shytoshi Kusama (a pseudonym), in a message to journalists. However, any such promise absolutely must start at a place of both community and decentralization. As part of one of the most popular cryptocurrencies on the planet, Shibarium lives at the intersection of those two principles in a way that eludes most other technologies, even many other blockchains.
Shibarium is a proof-of-stake blockchain, relying on validators and delegators. Validators run nodes, process transactions and create new blocks, ensuring the operation and overall security of the ecosystem. Delegators, meanwhile, support validators by staking ecosystem tokens. Both validators and delegators are rewarded for their participation in this ecosystem with a governance token called BONE, which has a total supply of 250 million.
The network will utilize BONE, TREAT, SHIB and LEASH tokens for applications built on the blockchain, which could lift the prices of these tokens as demand increases. Shibarium is said to have a focus on metaverse and gaming applications especially as the NFT sector is expected to heat up in the coming years, apart from the network’s use as a cheap settlement for DeFi applications built atop it. A DoggyDAO, a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) run and governed by token holders, will also be introduced at the time.