Shibarium 101: Understanding Shiba Inu’s Layer 2 Network

It was common for the cost of gas for adopting cryptocurrencies or NFTs in the ERC network to be extremely high in the summer of 2021. Transactions were often rendered impractical and unrealistic due to the added $50-$100 fee on top of a fractional $15 purchase.

In order to remove the barrier to entry for small transactions that occur in day-to-day living, L2 blockchains like Shibarium were adopted. Transactions in these blockchains occur “off-chain”, meaning they occur outside of the Layer 1 (Ethereum) blockchain and are communicated back. As a result, the majority of the processing work is alleviated, which results in lower costs (gas fees) and faster processing times for end users.

In addition to cost and speed benefits, the development framework for Shibarium provides robust functionality to allow the community to build their vision into the blockchain. Decentralized Applications (dApps) are a critical component to the expansion of Web 3 and can be used in various industries such as gaming, social media, education, and supply chains.

Furthermore, just like its layer 1 Ethereum, Shibarium also allows for the creation of chain-specific Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs). NFTs can be used for various purposes such as event tickets, items/assets used in games, art and music, and digital real estate. Developers can refer to the documentation for more information.

Understanding Shibarium’s Operability

Gas, a unit used in smart contract enabled blockchain networks, is paid in $BONE. It refers to the amount of computational effort required to execute a specific action or transaction on the blockchain network. Gas fees or transaction fees, measured in units, are paid in the cryptocurrency used by blockchain networks.

In Shibarium, $BONE is the token actively producing the operability of transactions. It measures the computational resources required to execute an action or set of actions. Every operation on the network has a cost in gas, with more complex operations requiring more units of this one.

Validators on the Shibarium network, who verify and process transactions, are rewarded with this fee in return for staking their $BONE and validating blocks. This provides an incentive for individuals to become validators, also known as the protocol’s ‘stakers’ in Shibarium. Without these fees, there would be little motivation for individuals to commit $BONE to validating for the network. Additionally, the network would be vulnerable without a sufficient number of validators to secure it. The transaction fees cover the costs associated with validating and processing transactions on the Shibarium network, allowing it to operate at optimal standards for performance and integrity within its operability.