Cryptocurrency Shiba Inu (SHIB) that started off as a ‘meme’ is not a joke anymore. Inspired by a dog meme and posed as ‘Dogecoin killer’, SHIB’s value skyrocketed in 2021 but it seems SHIB developers want to drop the ‘memecoin’ tag with the launch of its own Blockchain called Shibarium.
Shibarium is expected to provide SHIB users with new functionalities such as reduced gas fees. Gas fee is paid to process and validate transactions in a crypto ecosystem— and have become a huge problem for the blockchain.
Creators of Shiba Inu want to launch their own stable coin on the blockchain called SHI that run its gas fees on the site. This could actually improve the network’s performance as well as establish SHIB as an important digital coin. There is no exact date for the launch of the new development.
Shiba Inu’s founder Ryoshi on Medium wrote, “I have already spoken to a very competent blockchain team who has volunteered to build and fully decentralize this for the Shiba ecosystem.”
It should be noted that currently Shiba Inu functions on Ethereum blockchain and with the growing demand of Shiba Inu, its developers fear that people would stop trading in the coin. Right now every transaction on Ethereum costs over $9.1— and Shibarium aims to bring this down to as low as possible.
Meanwhile, SHIB was the most viewed crypto in 2021, beating the likes of Bitcoin and even Ethereum, announced cryptocurrency price-tracking website CoinMarketCap.
According to CoinMarketCap, the Dogecoin spinoff recorded more than 188 million views during the last 12 months, while apex cryptocurrency Bitcoin came in second with 145 million views in 2021. It should be noted that SHIB is currently the 13th largest cryptocurrency in the world, with a market cap of over $20 billion.