If you’ve been navigating the world of crypto, you’ve probably heard about ShibaSwap at some point. It’s the native decentralized exchange (DEX) platform of Shiba Inu, a crypto project and leading competitor of the pioneering meme token Dogecoin.
Decentralized exchanges like ShibaSwap differ significantly from centralized ones like Kraken or Binance. For one thing, DEXs allow users to swap tokens even without a counterparty or an intermediary. ShibaSwap launched in July 2021, and many users love it because it offers similar features and functions as Uniswap, another popular DEX platform. ShibaSwap offers liquidity pools, token swapping, and other extra features like governance, staking, and even an NFT marketplace known as Shiboshis.
ShibaSwap’s main priority right now is to draw in more people towards the project’s native coin Shiba Inu (SHIB). However, the project also has other tokens on offer, namely Bone ShibaSwap (BONE) and Doge Killer (LEASH).
What Are BONE and LEASH?
Bone ShibaSwap (BONE) functions as Shiba Inu’s governance token. It has an overall supply of about 250 million coins, and anyone who holds this token can propose and vote on any potential changes to the DEX’s protocol through its “Doggy DAO.” You’ll also receive BONE tokens if you choose to provide liquidity on the platform.
On the other hand, Doge Killer (LEASH) initially launched as a rebase or elastic token. A rebase token is similar to an algorithmic stablecoin, which is when a token’s supply automatically increases or decreases through a computer algorithm to ensure that its price is interlinked to another asset.
Here’s an example to make things easier to grasp: if Dogecoin’s price were $0.05, the overall supply of Doge Killer would also change either by burning coins in circulation or minting new tokens. Why? Because doing so can allow LEASH’s price to adjust to $50.
However, LEASH is no longer pegged to DOGE’s price. It only has a scarce supply of 107,647, so now LEASH tokens are the main store of value for project investors.
How Does ShibaSwap Work?
If you go to the ShibaSwap official website, you’ll see six functions available on the homepage that incorporate the project’s three native coins: SHIB, LEASH, and BONE. These functions include Dig, Woof, Bury, Swap, Bonefolio, and NFTs. We’ll explain each one below:
- Dig: Digging is what you call ShibaSwap’s liquidity pool function. Interested users can deposit their crypto in pairs to already-existing liquidity pools on ShibaSwap, but they also have the option to make their own. Liquidity providers then receive SSLP or ShibaSwap Liquidity Pool Tokens as a reward. These SSLP tokens indicate that they share liquidity, giving holders the privilege of receiving bone tokens for free upon redemption.
- Woof: When you “woof” on the platform, you essentially redeem your BONE rewards by cashing out the SSLP tokens you’ve received.
- Bury: To “bury” means you’ll stake your SHIB, LEASH, or BONE tokens to generate high-interest yields, which will be paid to you in BONE. Once you stake your coins, you’ll receive another token that represents how much you’ve staked in xSHIB, xLEASH, or xBONE.
About 30% of BONE rewards will be immediately available when you stake your coins. On the other hand, 66% of those rewards won’t be available until six months.
- Swap: As its name implies, this is ShibaSwap’s exchange feature where you can swap between various crypto assets.
- Bonefolio: Bonefolio is ShibaSwap’s analytics dashboard, and users can head over here to check current interest rates or track their yield returns.
- NFTs: On the NFT function, users can trade 10,000 unique non-fungible tokens (NFTs) that are known as “Shiboshis.” Shiboshis are essentially pixelated cartoons or art of the Shiba Inu dog. It’s pretty similar to what CryptoPunks offers in that the various dogs have different traits, while some are rarer than others.
Getting Started
To start using ShibaSwap and its cool features, you must first set up a compatible crypto wallet service. At this time, ShibaSwap only supports three: Metamask, WalletConnect, and Coinbase Wallet.
To begin your ShibaSwap journey, go to the platform’s official landing page and tap on “Get Started” or “Download.” Follow the instructions you see on-screen until you finish creating your wallet. There are two primary things you need to do when you’ve finished setting up your wallet.
First and foremost, you must create a copy of your seed/recovery phrase. When doing this step, you shouldn’t keep a digital copy of this phrase like writing it on your phone’s notepad, sending it to yourself as an email, or even taking a screenshot of it. If you do this, you make yourself vulnerable to hackers if your device becomes compromised somehow. As such, the best way to keep a copy of your secret phrase is by writing it down on paper and keeping it with you physically.
For optimal security, we recommend you write down the phrase on different pieces of paper, and you should store them in different safe locations. So, in case you lose one for any reason, you still have other copies safely stored away.
The next thing you need to do is to fund your new wallet with a certain amount of ether so you can pay the transaction fees. Of course, you’ll be using that ether to convert into SHIB, BONE, or LEASH tokens, so make sure you have enough to cover everything you need to pay.
Once your wallet has funds available, tap on the “Connect” icon on the ShibaSwap website to link your wallet. Doing so will allow you to interact and use all of ShibaSwap’s services and functions.
Is It Safe to Use ShibaSwap?
According to CertiK, a blockchain security ranking service, ShibaSwap has a safety score of 93/100. Also, the platform was able to resolve 97% of the 34 issues mentioned during its extensive audit. ShibaSwap ranks higher than other renowned decentralized finance (DeFi) platforms like Polygon and Aave, both of which only scored 92/100.
Not only that, 96% of CertiK users voted that they felt ShibaSwap’s service was secure. Of course, this shouldn’t be the only metric you consider when assessing a platform’s reliability and safety.
As always, we recommend that you do your own extensive research regarding the platforms you access or the assets you invest in. The crypto market will always have its risks, even when you’re investing in DeFi platforms.
