Shiba Inu’s Metaverse, DeFi-Focused Shibarium Blockchain, Goes Live, Sees Issues: Everything You Should Know
Shiba Inu developers launched Shibarium, a Layer 2 blockchain, this week, sending the SHIB community into an uproar. With this new blockchain, the Shiba Inu team wants to separate cryptocurrency from its “meme coin” image. Their goal is to integrate promising Web3 projects into its ecosystem, which would bring more SHIB tokens into circulation. SHIB developers have been working on developing the Shibarium blockchain since earlier this year.
Layer 2 blockchain networks like Shibarium act as secondary platforms that can increase the scalability of the main blockchain by supporting a wide range of customized dApps and protocols while maintaining the same security standards of the parent chain.
The Shibarium blockchain went live on mainnet on August 16. The Shibarium ecosystem is based on the Ethereum blockchain and accepts the SHIB token as a service fee. Its governance token will be the BONE cryptocurrency.
The new Shibarium blockchain was reportedly launched to attract players from the Metaverse sector and the Decentralized Finance (DeFi) sector to the Shiba Inu ecosystem.
Why DeFi?
DeFi is among the most used elements in the crypto and Web3 sector. DeFi apps eliminate the need for a third party, bank or other intermediary in traditional asset borrowing and lending. Instead of these intermediaries, smart contracts with pre-agreed terms are used to facilitate the lending and borrowing of crypto assets.
According to market research firm Zion, DeFi market share is expected to reach around US$232.2 billion (approximately Rs.19,30,499 crore) by 2030.
Meanwhile, the growth rate for DeFi over the next seven years is estimated at around 42.6 percent.
Why Metaverse?
The Metaverse is being touted as the next big destination for the global gaming community. In 2022, the valuation of the Metaverse market reached US$61.8 billion (approx. Rs.5,13,805 crore) and is projected to grow to US$426.9 billion (approx. Rs.35,49,248 crore) by 2027.
It is therefore not entirely surprising that the Shiba Inu developers have opted to attract players working in the Metaverse sector to run on the Shibarium blockchain.
To establish Shiba Inu as a strong name in the Metaverse community, its developers launched their own Metaverse ecosystem last year.
Frenzy in the SHIB community
According to CoinTelegraph, there were a total of 21 million wallets on the L2 blockchain when Shibarium was in beta.
With the launch of Shibarium, the Shiba Inu team expects to increase transaction speeds, allow for the unification of games and NFTs with its ecosystem, while supporting emerging blockchain projects.
Members of the SHIB community, popularly calling themselves #ShibArmy, have bombarded X (formerly Twitter) with reactions to the Shibarium launch.
Hangs with Shibarium
Despite all the community cheering for the launch of Shibarium, the blockchain has encountered problems following its mainnet launch. A total of 956 ETH worth around $1.7 million (roughly 14 crore rupees) is stuck on the Shibarium bridge, PeckShield on X has confirmed.
This has caused Shiba Inu-related cryptocurrencies like SHIB and BONE to see price declines.
The Shiba Inu team has not yet resolved this issue.
