With the growth of crypto assets like Bitcoin (BTC) and Litecoin (LTC), there has been a parallel development of meme coins. Dogecoin is among the most popular meme coins in the world. The Shiba Inu Coin (SHIB Coin) is another fast-emerging meme digital token.
There’s usually a strong community backing a meme coin. In fact, despite not having much utility in the real world, this support from a dedicated community is one of the main reasons for the success of meme coins like Dogecoin. Now, the SHIB coin is following a similar blueprint to carve out a place for itself in the market.
This piece will discuss the beginning and evolution of Shiba Inu in detail. So, let’s get right to it…
Shiba Inu Coin: How It All Started?
The name “Shiba Inu” comes from the Japanese language. It’s used to refer to the native dog breed which Dogecoin uses as its symbol. Back in 2020, an anonymous entity called “Ryoshi” (it isn’t clear whether the name belongs to an individual or group of people) created a digital token named after the Shiba Inu dog breed. The idea was to carry on with the series of popular dog meme crypto coins.
Following significant appreciation in value in 2021, the SHIB Coin became a direct rival of Dogecoin, surpassing the likes of Akita Inu, Floki Inu, and Dogelon Mars. The ecosystem of the Shiba Inu Coin gets its guiding principles from the “woof paper.” This is a canine form of an actual white paper, which talks about crypto project roadmaps and strategic plans.
In essence, SHIB is an ERC-20 token dependent on the Ethereum blockchain system. The folks behind Shiba Inu wanted a secure, efficient, and robust network that religiously stuck to its decentralization rule. Ethereum ticked all these boxes and resultantly got the nod over other options.
The Shiba Inu Coin’s value increased by a whopping 150 million percent from August 2020, when it was developed, until October 2021. During this period of just over a year, the SHIB Coin’s worth skyrocketed from $0.000000000056 to $0.00008616.
Working Mechanism of the Shiba Inu Coin
The success and popularity of the SHIB Coin have been down to the huge crypto community. These dedicated Shiba Inu supporters call themselves the “ShibArmy.” Moreover, social media influencers play a considerable part in pumping up the price.
For instance, the official Twitter handle of the SHIB Coin has over 2 million followers. That’s more than the likes of Cardano (1.1 million), Ethereum (1.9 million), and Solana (1 million). Between January 2021 and October 2021, the price of the Shiba Inu Coin increased by 27 million percent!
Since inception, many have regarded Shiba Inu as a “pump and dump crypto asset.” That’s primarily because the currency doesn’t have much real world utility. Nevertheless, the SHIB Coin website describes it as “a decentralized meme coin that has evolved into a vibrant and efficient ecosystem.” Furthermore, it tugs at the heartstrings of people because of the popular dog breed that it has been named after.
In addition, a pivotal moment in the history of the coin came when Vitalik Buterin, Etheruem co-founder and lead engineer, donated $1 billion in SHIB tokens to fight COVID-19 in India. To date, it remains the largest charitable contribution of its kind.
The Purpose of the SHIB Coin
The value of all meme coins is typically propped up by support from their community. There’s often a dearth of real-world utility with such tokens. However, the dedicated community members believe that this is how decentralization is supposed to work. They also feel that this concept would facilitate the development of the entire cryptocurrency sector. In essence, it’s a case of “real value” vs. “perceived value.”
The more important aspect is that no central regulatory entity controls the fate of the Shiba Inu Coin. Rather, its dedicated community of supporters ensure sustainable success for the long haul. For many, this notion is hugely empowering. On the official website, the SHIB token project is also mentioned as “an experiment in spontaneous and decentralized community development with the aim of giving back to the average individual.”
This certainly rings a bell, given the exponential increase in the popularity of meme assets since the start of 2021. At the time, GME (GameStop Corp) proved to the world just how valuable true decentralization can be.
The Supply of Shiba Inu Tokens
Total supply is one of the standout components of the Shiba Inu ecosystem. When the currency was launched in August 2020, about 1 quadrillion (1,000,000,000,000,000) tokens were minted. This remains the highest number of crypto coins ever generated by a particular currency.
After the launch, about half of the SHIB’s supply was invested into Uniswap, a reputable decentralized crypto exchange. It facilitates automated cryptocurrency transactions through smart contracts. Uniswap is also an automated market maker protocol (AMM). It aims to incentivize and encourage the exchange members to become liquidity providers in return for a chunk of the free tokens and transaction fees.
Buterin took the other half of the Shiba Inu token supply. Later on, he donated about 50% of it to COVID relief efforts in India, bringing his holdings down to 45% of the total SHIB Coin supply. However, Buterin’s personal stake in the currency raised questions about its apparent commitment to complete decentralization and possible volatility in the future.
As a result, the Ethereum co-founder ended up burning 410.24 trillion SHIB tokens. That’s around 40% of the entire supply having an approximate value of $6.6 billion at the time of writing this piece. In total, about 41% of the Shiba Inu Coin’s supply has been taken out of circulation.
Final Words
So far, the people behind the Shiba Inu Coin have been keeping their cards close to their chest when it comes to the currency’s future direction. As a result, it’s challenging to predict what’s next for the SHIB token. For all we know, more token burns could follow in the coming years. Some news reports have even suggested Shiba Inu’s plans to enter the Metaverse. Whatever the case, it’s sure to be an eventful journey for this relatively nascent meme coin.
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