While many coins within the crypto world are created in a serious light, some have a more jovial background. These are known as meme coins, and two of the most well-known examples are Dogecoin and Shiba Inu. You may have heard of Dogecoin, as it’s incredibly popular. But what exactly is Shiba Inu, and is it similar to Dogecoin in any way?
What Is Shiba Inu (SHIB)?
Shiba Inu was created on the Ethereum blockchain in August 2020. Unlike Dogecoin, Shiba Inu’s creator is entirely anonymous and goes by the name “Ryoshi.” It is not even known whether the token was created by an individual or a group. Shiba Inu’s initial purpose was to become the “Dogecoin killer,” though it is also thought that this was meant as a joke, and Shiba Inu stood to mock Dogecoin rather than seriously compete with it.
The Shiba Inu ecosystem consists of three separate tokens: SHIB, LEASH, and BONE. While LEASH is fairly limited in supply, with only 107,000 tokens in circulation, BONE, the ecosystem’s governance token, is much more widely available, with around 250,000,000 tokens in circulation at the moment.
On the other hand, there are currently trillions of Shiba Inu tokens in circulation, and it is this crypto that remains to be the project’s “foundational currency.” However, in May 2021, the token’s creator (or creators) sent half of the tokens to Ethereum’s founder, Vitalik Buterin, and Buterin decided to burn (and therefore destroy) 90% of his tokens and donate the rest.
In July 2021, Shiba Inu’s developers also launched a crypto exchange, ShibaSwap, which offers liquidity pools, token swapping, governance, and staking options. There is even a Shiba Inu-backed NFT marketplace, named Shiboshis, which features a collection of 10,000 Shiba Inu avatars.
When Shiba Inu was initially created and began to gain more backing, exchanges had to decide whether it was a good idea to list it as a tradeable token. As the token’s market cap grew, it became a no-brainer. Today, Shiba Inu is available on a wide range of popular decentralized exchanges, including Kraken, Coinbase, and Binance.
So, now that we’ve broken down what Shiba Inu is and what it offers, let’s get into how it is different, or similar, to Dogecoin.
Shiba Inu (SHIB) vs. Dogecoin (DOGE): What’s The Difference?
There is one key fundamental difference between Shiba Inu and Dogecoin. While Dogecoin is a coin, Shiba Inu is a token. This is because Dogecoin has its own blockchain, while Shiba Inu was developed on the Ethereum blockchain, so it is known as a token, not a coin.
Because Shiba Inu exists on the Ethereum blockchain, it supports smart contracts, making Shiba Inu transactions even more secure and unchangeable. Dogecoin, however, does not support smart contracts, but there has been some talk about the possibility of smart contract adaption over the past year.
Additionally, the two consensus mechanisms used by Dogecoin and Shiba Inu are different. Like Bitcoin, Dogecoin uses the Proof of Work (or PoW) mechanism, which involves the expenditure of computing power to prevent the network from being compromised.
Shiba Inu, on the other hand, uses the Proof of Stake (or PoS) mechanism. This involves validators, who lock away a certain amount of crypto while they validate blocks to make the network secure and transparent. Because of this Shiba Inu can be staked by users, either individually or in pools, while Dogecoin cannot.
The final key difference between Dogecoin and Shiba Inu is their value, which differs drastically. While both Dogecoin and Shiba Inu are worth below 1 USD, Dogecoin is still many times more valuable than Shiba Inu, by around five thousand times, in fact. Shiba Inu is still very, very far away from reaching the dollar mark in value, while one Dogecoin is currently worth eleven US cents, or $0.11. But these prices are constantly changing, and there’s no knowing when either crypto will see a hike or crash.
Dogecoin and Shiba Inu Are Both Solid Cryptos
Though Dogecoin and Shiba Inu differ in many ways, they both have some great features and seem to hold a promising future within the cryptocurrency industry. So, check them out if you’re interested in learning about, or even investing in one of these meme coins. They’re certainly more than a joke at this point!
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