One of the maybe most exciting coins on the market is Shiba Inu (SHIB), but not because it has brought technical novelties or introduced a brand new blockchain product. Instead, Shiba has put up something completely different on the table: the power of memeing.

Meme coins aren’t new. Most of them try to convince a large community through fun memes and build a sense in each individual investor of being part of something bigger by holding those coins. The most iconic and oldest meme coin is of course Dogecoin. Doge saw a large success earlier this year and despite the fact that its code wasn’t even actively developed, but only maintained occasionally it was able to storm the top 10 according to its market cap.

It is safe to say that Dogecoin paved the way for Shiba Inu and that SHIB only became so successful recently because investors were already familiar with the idea that a meme could go viral and create massive wealth for early adopters.

But what is Shiba Inu really and what does it do besides being a meme? In this article, we are going to dive deeper into the first Dogecoin killer available on the market.

Shiba Inu is not a coin

Unlike Bitcoin or Dogecoin, Shiba Inu has no blockchain. That being said, the term coin isn’t quite fitting. In fact, Shiba Inu is a regular ERC-20 token on the Ethereum blockchain that is based on a smart contract. One important part of the project and maybe of all meme coins is its community and the idea that each individual can contribute to it, helping SHIB to become a success story.

Since Shiba is not making things too complex the second element is the Shiba Inu itself. This particular race stems from Japan and is also the logo of Dogecoin. According to the project's “Woof paper” the love for these dogs is one of the three most important aspects of SHIB. The three aspects are:

1. The project started from zero, with zero. It is driven by the spirit to create something out of nothing.
2. It was founded without an existing community or a preassembled team.
3. The love of Shiba Inu dogs.

Shiba Inu was created in August 2020 by an anonymous group that called themselves Ryoshi, which is clearly some sort of reference to Satoshi Nakamoto, the anonymous inventor of Bitcoin. According to the whitepaper, the collective called Ryoshi chose Ethereum because it was already well established and secure instead of developing Shiba's own blockchain.

Shiba Inus ecosystem – There is more than just SHIB

With SHIB “just” being a token without a particular use case, the team involved with Shiba Inu thought about an ecosystem that gives value to SHIB. The options are very similar to many other DeFi products that are already available on the market, but in this case, they have fancy names that are appropriate to the dog theme. Shiba Swap is a protocol that allows to swap and stake tokens as well as providing liquidity. In return, users will receive rewards in form of tokens that incentivize the use of Shiba swap. There are three tokens involved:

1. Shiba Inu (SHIB): This is the projects base currency and has a supply of 1 quadrillion (that equals to 1000 trillion SHIB). The collective called Ryoshi locked up 50 % of the suppl in Uniswap and sent the other 50 % to Vitalik Buterin, one of the founders of Ethereum. In May 2021 Buterin donated more than 50 trillion SHIB to the COVID-19 relief fund. Later he burned a large amount of SHIB by sending it to a burner wallet. This effectively reduced the supply of Shiba Inu by 40 %.
2. Leash (LEASH): This is the second token in Shibas ecosystem. It was meant as a rebase token, but later the rebase was removed. There is a supply of 107,646 LEASH and the token is used to reward holders who provide liquidity.
3. Bone (BONE): Bone has a supply of 250.000.000 tokens and is used for governance. Holders of BONE will have the option to vote in the upcoming “Doggy DAO” and get actively involved shaping the future of Shiba Inu and its ecosystem.

With Shiba Swap being a more traditional DeFi platform there are also two other projects. The Shiba Inu Incubator aims to promote all kinds of different art forms that are less popular. It rewards creativity and ingenuity.

The third part is the NFT collection Shiboshis. There are only 10.000 Shiboshis, each with different traits making them unique and collectable.

Is Vitalik Buterin Ryoshi?

Since the anonymous collective chose Buterin to safeguard a substantial amount of SHIB, many people have wondered if the Canadian “Wunderkind” is indeed the mastermind behind Shiba Inu. There is no evidence that Buterin got involved other than being gifted by Shiba Inu's developers.

Is Shiba Inu a risky investment?

Yes, while offering tremendous returns for early investors, Shiba Inu is part of a very volatile market. It is safe to say that eventually, SHIB will have to face a severe correction after such a long bullish phase. However, it remains completely open how long people will flock to the meme and drive the price up.

Why is Shiba Inu the Dogecoin killer?

It was Ryoshi who gave this nickname to the project by setting the goal to overtake Dogecoin in value. Even though the anonymous founder (or collective) never set a price target, he pointed out that SHIB will have a stronger community and more cases than Doge.

Where can I buy Shiba Inu (SHIB)?

LiteBit recently listed Shiba Inu giving its customers the opportunity to get exposure to the token. By opening up an account with LiteBit you can easily buy SHIB by paying with your credit card or bank account, making the token accessible in a fast, secure and convenient manner.