There are plenty of new projects and updates coming to the Shiba Inu ecosystem soon, but without a roadmap to follow, this can be difficult to track.
Since 2021, Shiba Inu Coin (SHIB) has found itself going through an unprecedented period of interest. It briefly overtook Dogecoin (DOGE), and burned over 2 billion SHIB in November through community burns, for example.
Much of this interest in SHIB comes from three things: memes, adoption, and new projects. The likes of NOWPayments, BitPay, and Newegg all now accept SHIB, with AMC coming in the future. Here, we’ll take a look at all the upcoming expansions to the Shiba ecosystem.
Shiba Inu Coin Roadmap
There is no official Shiba Inu Coin roadmap or development timeline, given the decentralised nature of SHIB. However, we’ve created a somewhat accurate expectation of what’s to come for SHIB below.
Shibarium
The Shibarium L2 is perhaps the most-requested SHIB upgrade. This will be SHIB's layer-2, allowing its users to avoid the expensive transaction fees they currently face when using the base Ethereum blockchain for transactions.
Much like most projects in the SHIB roadmap, there's no official release date just yet. The Shibarium public beta is expected to launch in Q3 2022, although comments from the SHIB team may have dismissed this.
During the SHIB AMA, Shiba Discord mod Queenie said she expected a Shibarium launch within the first half of 2022, although delays could still push this back. However, it remains on track to launch before the end of the year.
We’d expect updates on this in the coming weeks as the end of Q3 approaches.
Doggy DAO
The Doggy DAO is now an active part of the Shiba Inu ecosystem, with several votes already taking place.
As the Shiba ecosystem's form of community governance, holders of the BONE token will play an instrumental role in future Shiba Inu developments as part of the Decentralised Autonomous Organisation (DAO).
In June, the Shiba DAO voted to halt BONE minting for ShibaSwap rewards, opting to reserve it for Shibarium validators. Earlier in September, BONE minting halted as a result of this vote.
- Read More: Who Owns the Most Shiba Inu?
Shiba Inu Game
One of the SHIB projects we know the most about is the upcoming Shiba Inu games. First teased by Shytoshi, Australian developer PlaySide Studios will create the Shiba games alongside former Activision developer William Volk.
Officially known as Shiba Eternity, this multiplayer collectable card game launched as a test in Vietnam last month. Inspired by the Shiboshi NFTs, it will include 1000 SHIB-inspired cards, including one featuring the Shiba creator Ryoshi. Other cards include the Late-April Card, and the BONK card.
After Planet Crypto caught up with William Volk at Gamescom, he confirmed the game should launch in September, and had around 1000 players participating in the Vietnam test so far.
Alongside this mobile game, a blockchain version is planned for the future, too.
ShibaSwap 2.0
Following the launch of ShibaSwap in 2021, ShibaSwap 2.0 will bring with it a host of features such as a UI overhaul as it transitions into a crypto portal.
This crypto portal should display news, trends, and further information about the Shiba ecosystem.
There's no release date on v2 yet, however, but we'll bring any updates to you as soon as we get them.
Shiba Inu Metaverse
We've now received a huge amount of information about the Shiba metaverse, officially called SHIB: The Metaverse.
The Shiba Inu metaverse will include virtual real estate available to users in the form of Lands. LEASH holders will be given priority access to buy land in the Shiba metaverse. This will sit on the metaverse map, split into various districts based on the breeds in the SHIB team.
LEASH and Shiboshi NFT holders can now lock their holdings on the new SHIB.io website in preparation for the sale.
According to Shiba developer Eric M, the cost of the Shiba metaverse could range from $15-30m.
However, we don't know how the metaverse will actually look when it launches. Developers such as The Third Floor and others have joined the metaverse team to contribute to its design. It has since released concepts for two areas of the metaverse, the WAGMI Temple and the Rocket Pond.
Shiba Inu Burns
A favourite among the commmunity, the once-reluctant developers are now embracing burns in the ecosystem in response to the demand.
The Shiba burn portal is one of the ways this demand will be met. Having destroyed over 60 billion SHIB, this has helped boost the SHIB burn rate.
Aside from this, every single future Shiba project - aside from the games - will include some burning mechanic. The Shiba metaverse, for example, will let land owners rename their plots, in exchange for burning SHIB.
More SHIB Projects and Updates
Looking further into the future, and after the release of Shibarium, we should expect to see the release of ShibaNet. ShibaNet will act as Shiba Inu’s dedicated marketplace, allowing users to trade goods and services with the SHI stablecoin.
There's also an NFT fashion collaboration with designer John Richmond in the works, after some Shiba sleuths discovered several clues linking the designer to SHIB.
ShibaNet - much like the ShibaCon idea - is just a concept proposed by SHIB creator Ryoshi in their final Medium post. However, according to Shytoshi, the technology for ShibaNet already works, too.
Aside from that, we can also expect future Welly franchises - the SHIB-based fast food restaurant - to open.
Of course, for some SHIB holders, all that matters here is how this utility affects the price of SHIB.
While it would be easy to suggest this is all incredibly bullish, and will lead to SHIB losing several zeros, there is never any guarantee of that happening in cryptocurrency. Instead, by adding utility, SHIB may safeguard itself from stagnation and a sharp decline by giving ShibArmy an actual reason to spend and use its tokens.