The developers of the dog-themed token Shiba Inu posted an update to inform the community about the upcoming beta release of Shibarium, a Layer 2 network that will run on top of the Ethereum mainnet. The network will help speed up transactions, lower fees and empower the ecosystem.
The Shiba Inu project was launched in the Ethereum environment two and a half years ago. Its creators wanted to exceed the capitalization of Elon Musk’s favorite token Dogecoin, setting themselves a target token value of USD 0.01. So far, the goal has not been achieved, but the one-time ‘memecoin’ now ranks 13th in the world in terms of capitalization (USD 6.3 billion), while Dogecoin is in 9th place (USD 10.9 billion). The developers made assurances that the decision to launch their own blockchain was not taken in order to increase the token’s value, but to reduce the load on the main network and increase convenience for metaverse users and gamers.
The second-level Shibarium blockchain will interact with the SHIB, LEASH and BONE tokens, with the latter used to cover transactions and pay rewards to validators. For these purposes, 20 million BONE coins worth USD 27 million have been reserved. The developers have suggested that the proprietary network will help reduce fees, which will be lower than on the main Ethereum network. It will only be possible to confirm this after the results of testing the new blockchain are known. Testing will start soon, although the exact date has not yet been announced.