2023 is fast becoming an interesting year for meme coins. The crypto industry saw the rise of the newcomer PEPE, which reached a $1.5 billion market cap in May. This paved the way for a sudden resurgence in several meme tokens. However, Shiba Inu (SHIB) is set to retain its market dominance with the launch of Shibarium, a layer two scaling solution.
SHIB has just launched its much-awaited layer-2 scaling solution on August 16. Shibarium, which is built on top of the Ethereum (ETH) Network, is expected to bring more utility to the meme coin.
One of SHIB’s lead developer tweeted the launch.
What Exactly is Shibarium?
To understand what is Shibarium, we have to first define what is a layer-2 solution. A layer-2 solution is a protocol built on top of the original layer-1 solution like Ethereum. They are created to address scalability issues like network congestion and high transaction fees. Layer-2 protocols help by taking some load off the parent network and processing it in a separate system. The final step is to put the transaction back into the original network for settlement.
For simplicity, think of it as cooking a big batch of omelets. If you need to cook a dozen omelets, it will be faster if somebody else prepares all the ingredients, while you take care of the actual cooking.
Shibarium is expected to bring value to both the Shiba Inu and Ethereum Ecosystems by offering a new scalability solution that will make transactions faster and cheaper, while still leveraging ETH’s security. This translates to an enhanced user experience, which could attract more developers and consumers.
Effects on the Shiba Inu Ecosystem
Ecosystem Expansion: Meme coins are usually seen as tokens without utility. However, Shibarium will elevate SHIB’s status by expanding its ecosystem. Initiatives like the SHIB Metaverse, ShibaSwap DEX, and blockchain games will attract more users and provide more uses for SHIB tokens.
Liquidity Improvement: The ShibaSwap decentralized exchange (DEX) is part of the ecosystem. It aims to provide better liquidity for SHIB tokens, which enables users to trade and swap tokens more efficiently
Long-Term Growth Potential: Shibarium is a strategic move by the Shiba Inu development team to position the ecosystem for long-term growth. ETH layer 2 solutions, like Polygon and Arbitrum, have seen exponential growth due to the value they bring.
Shibarium Issues
At the time of writing, users have reported bridging issues for the Shibarium network. Blockchain data shows transactions being stalled for at least five hours. CoinDesk tried to verify and was unable to bridge tokens.
Bridging allows the transfer of tokens between different networks.
Can we still call Shiba Inu a Meme Coin after the Shibarium Upgrade?
Meme coins were made for satire and comedy. The developers did not intend them to have any utility. In fact, SHIB was just meant to be a continuation of the DOG-theme craze initiated by Dogecoin. Despite the lack of case use, meme coins have garnered dedicated communities and the SHIB army is one of those.
With the launch of Shibarium, Shiba Inu is poised to have real-world usage. Not only will it improve the ETH network, but it will also give an exciting ecosystem for its fans. However, it might be too early to celebrate, the bridging issue must be addressed first. It is also possible that bugs may arise in the future, but this is a chance for the developers to show their dedication to the project.
It is good to see that a meme coin, like Shiba Inu, can be upgraded to have utility. This shows the world that crypto is not just about rug pulls and scams. Shibarium shows that the crypto community can create a great project out of something that started as a joke.
