It's Time to Duel!
GM #Shib fam,
The first week of January is behind us and it's already a rollercoaster – from the crypto market quick crash to the release of the infamous "Epstein's list". The year is promising if you also have a Bingo list for 2024.
What do you think could be next? Let us know on Twitter using #Shiba and other relevant hashtags.
Here at The Shib, we are going to go with BTC at $100,000, ETH at $10,000 and Shib at $0.0001. The holy trinity as we like to call it.
This week, we have some tasty bites for you:
A quick tutorial on how to play Shiba Eternity, a Road to Grandmaster guide from a top player of Shiba Eternity on how to create basic decks, and part 2 of the state of crypto 2023 where a Shib analyst sums up the narratives and events that happened in crypto last year. Finally, Doggie Treats will give you all the latest information on Shibarium projects.
Don't forget that you can mint the cover of the magazine for free.
In regard to the earthquake in Japan and its victims, the #Shibarmy must come together and lend a helping hand. That's why we would like to invite the community known for its compassion and willingness to make a positive impact to join forces in assisting those in need. One of the most effective ways to contribute is by donating through the Japanese Red Cross Society (JRCS), an organization dedicated to providing emergency relief and support during times of disaster.
To learn more about the situation, you can check out the JRCS 2024 Noto Peninsula Earthquake Report. Let us show the world the strength and unity that define us as the Shib Army.
As we unite our efforts under the banner of #SHIBARMYSTRONG, let it serve as a reminder that our compassion and generosity know no bounds.
The Shib Team
1) Shiba Eternity 101
When Hearthstone meets NFTs: a quick introduction to the wonderful kingdom of fighting. Read more.
2) A Grandmaster’s Guide to Shiba Eternity
A community contribution offering a tutorial on how to comprehend Shiba Eternity from @watchcloselyOLO aka Jabberwockee, a top player of this challenging card game. Read more.
3) The State of Crypto (Pt. 2)
A community contribution from @Risjo_xyz on a recap of what happened in the blockchain industry in 2023. Read more.
Shiba Eternity 101
When Hearthstone meets NFTs: a quick introduction to the wonderful kingdom of fighting
Shiba Eternity is a competitive card game launched in late 2022 for Android and iOS devices. The game features our beloved Shiboshis and is deeply rooted in a 1000-page lore written by Shytoshi Kusama. The lore isn’t just for show; it plays a key role in the game and even hints at future games. Since its launch, the game has been a hit, attracting thousands of new users every month.
Each Shiboshi comes pre-equipped with unique traits that grant access to 10,000 diverse combinations, forming an array of formidable cards and abilities.
You may already be familiar with Shiboshis, having seen them in our Shiboshi NFT collection. We’ve also shared updates before about these charming NFTs being showcased on the glitzy billboards at Times Square quite a few times.
If you’re wondering if these majestic NFTs’ funky threads and hidden expressions hint at secret powers, guess what? In Shiba Eternity, those traits are your ticket to battlefield domination.
Think of your Shiboshi as your ultimate deck-building partner. Each trait unlocks a unique Shiboshi Power and that specific trait type’s card pool, a game-changing ability that shapes your entire strategy.
Let's break it down for the battle-hungry Shiboshis.
For the Aggressors:
- Rocker Vest: This bad boy lets you summon fighters onto the battlefield like a rockstar summoning roadies. Pair it with cards that buff their attack power, and watch your opponent tremble in the face of your relentless onslaught!
- 3D Glasses: Don't let the name fool you; these glasses see right through your opponent's strategies. Use them to manipulate fighter stats and weapon damage, creating unpredictable bursts of pain for your enemies.
- Flamethrower: Feeling spicy? This fiery trait lets you scorch the battlefield with AoE (Area of Effect) attacks, leaving your opponent's team singed and struggling. Combine it with cards that boost burn damage for a truly incendiary strategy.
For the Strategists:
- Leash: This trait turns your Shiboshi into a master puppeteer, controlling the battlefield by manipulating weapon card effects. Want to double the attack power of your sword? The leash has your back. Need to heal your troops in a pinch? The leash can do that too.
- Blue Armor: Picture yourself as an impenetrable fortress, weathering attacks with icy calmness. Blue Armor grants stuns and defensive buffs, turning you into a juggernaut who can outlast any opponent.
- Crown: This regal trait marks you as a leader, granting bonus resources and card draws. Use it to fuel your strategic combos and overwhelm your opponent with sheer card advantage.
For the Devious Disruptors:
- Clown Hair: Honk honk! Don't underestimate the power of silliness. Clown Hair lets you trigger crazy effects on spell casts, confusing your opponent and creating hilarious, game-winning chaos.
- Glowing Eyes: See into the future, my friend! Glowing Eyes reveals your opponent's next move, allowing you to counter with pinpoint precision and turn their plans into confetti.
- Ghost: Boo! This spooky trait lets you vanish and reappear at will, making you a master of surprise attacks and hit-and-run tactics. Leave your opponent guessing and giggling nervously as you haunt the battlefield.
The Shiboshi Synergy
Remember, these are just a taste of the Shiboshi power buffet! Each trait unlocks unique possibilities, and with the vast array of cards available, the combinations are endless. You can experiment, create, and discover your signature deck – one that perfectly suits your playstyle and unleashes the full fury of your Shiboshi.
On top of that, you can look forward to exciting developments in the upcoming on-chain version (we are porting the game to Shibarium!), such as the utility of Shiboshi NFTs, asset ownership, and play-to-earn mechanics.
So, what are you waiting for? Head over to Shiba Eternity, adopt your own Shiboshi, and unleash the beast within!
A Grandmaster’s Guide to Shiba Eternity
A community contribution offering a tutorial on how to comprehend Shiba Eternity from @watchcloselyOLO aka Jabberwockee, a top player of this challenging card game
Welcome to the Dogjo!
This Shiba Eternity guide is for people of all skill levels, whether you’re a battle-tested veteran or a total beginner. Together, we’ll go beyond the basics and learn what it takes to be a Shiba Eternity grandmaster.
But why should you listen to me? I’m just another nerd on the internet.
Well, that is totally true, but I’m also one of the top Shiba Eternity players in the world.
I go by Sandwichgang (or Jabberwockee on ladder) and I’ve been playing since SE came out one year ago. Since then, I’ve climbed my way up to grandmaster, won a bunch of tournaments, and turned the game inside and out looking for new competitive strategies.
Through my time playing SE, I’ve strived to help build a community around the game by raising awareness on social media, hosting spaces on X, and posting my championship-winning decklists on Discord. Now I want to share what I’ve learned with you.
There’s a lot to learn about this unique, exciting card game. I hope this guide will encourage you to check it out, take your skills to the next level, and, of course, have some fun!
But what’s so important about a game anyway?
Web3 gaming is the future — that’s why.
Not only do Web3 games give players ownership over their digital assets, but they also give many players the opportunity to do something that, even a few years ago, was a dream: earning digital assets with real-world value. Games are how millions of people from around the world will begin their Web3 journey and help introduce them to crypto, NFTs, and beyond.
I want you to be ready when the blockchain version of Shiba Eternity goes live and changes the Web3 gaming landscape forever.
I always tell people this: there’s no better time to play Shiba Eternity than right now.
So start training!
The Basics
If you are totally new to the game or haven’t checked out the Official Shiba Eternity Player’s Guide, definitely go give that a read to get a grasp of all the basic mechanics.
Shiba Eternity is based on The Shiboshis NFT collection. But don’t worry, for right now there’s no Web3 integration, so you can play the game simply by downloading it in the app store of your choice.
Once you’re in the game, you’ll use a Shiboshi with five randomly determined traits that give you access to different card pools, all with unique themes and powers.
Next you’ll select a “discipline” — think of these as the archetypes or style of character you want to play: would you rather be a sneaky ninja or a brutal warrior? The disciplines will reflect these themes and offer you play styles and tactics suited to how you like to play.
Once you have your Shiboshi and your discipline, you’ll build a deck and enter the Dogjo to do battle!
But, before you do that, here’s how to approach Shiba Eternity’s six disciplines. For each one, I’ll give a brief overview, list some of my favorite cards, and rank its overall strength on the standard tier-list scale from S-F.
Shiboshi Disciplines
Chewjitsu (S) - This all-rounded discipline is great for beginners and experts alike. But don’t let its beginner-friendly nature fool you: this is probably the best discipline in the game. Chewjitsu is all about using an armory of powerful weapon cards to beat down your opponent. Its weapons and utility, which include purify and draw, more than make up for its weaker than average fighters.
Put these in your deck:
Cutterbutter - Arguably the best one-cost fighter in the game! Great stats, no frills.
Toothy Kama - Unlock crazy damage combos with this Speedy weapon.
Relentless Naginata - The ultimate control weapon. Pick off your opponent’s fighters with ease.
Ryo Chi (B) - If you’re a more reactive player who likes giant fighters that can keep your Shiboshi safe from harm while you build up your army, this is the discipline for you. Ryo Chi is a slower playstyle that requires you to successfully defend yourself in the early game before bringing out the big guns.
Put these in your deck:
Ancestral Blessing - This cheap buff spell gives your early fighters some much needed power.
Voodoo Runner - I like turtles and you should too. My favorite card in the Ryo Chi arsenal.
Unwavering Protection - Annoy your opponent by summoning three defenders at once!
Bite Thai (B) - Warriors, take heed: this is the discipline for you. With a combination of aggressive early fighters, strong removal spells, and heavy late-game threats, Bite Thai gives you the tools to beat down your opponent ferociously. Stacked with a fair amount of utility, you can use weapon removal to help take on Chewjitsu decks and purify to push through annoying defenders.
Put these in your deck:
Ramming Strike - Face damage or board clear? This flexible, cheap 3-damage spell is terrific!
Arcane Hellion - Aggressive and fast AF. Play along with a 0-cost spell for an easy combo.
Crimson Champion - Good stats plus speedy: ‘nuff said. Give it a stat buff and win the game.
Shyjitsu (A) - Dangers lurk in the shadows. This stealthy class has some of the highest burst damage in the game, thanks to minions with speedy like “Double Claw” and “Clover & Carver”. With higher rewards comes higher risk, so playing Shyjitsu can often feel like feast or famine. This discipline is incredibly rewarding, but be warned: it requires a higher skill level than the others!
Put these in your deck:
Sharpened Kunai - Don’t overlook this 0-cost weapon, it’s the key to unlocking Shyjitsu’s power.
Double Claw - 20 damage, 30 damage, or more. Dream big with this crazy bird.
Armed Pacifier - Use for cheap weapon removal or use it to combo other cards.
Taekwondoje (C) - Combining utility and tactics, this fighter-focused discipline is for crafty players who like to strategize. I’m not going to lie: this is a tough discipline to play. Although it has lots of great fighters, it lacks any come-back mechanics. So, if you lose your board presence, the game is over. I only recommend this discipline to players who are looking for a real challenge!
Put these in your deck:
Two-Toed Valiant - Combo with cheap spells and steamroll the early game.
Jealous Gull - Feed on the power of your other fighters and create an unkillable monster.
Fleetfoot Charger - Cheap and efficient removal that you can also buff up if you need to.
Woof Chun (A+) - Zerg rush your opponent with a discipline that loves to play swarms of fighters on board. Carefully manage your buff cards like “Shell Bard” to pump up your fighters and then finish them off with a giant burst of damage. This aggressive discipline is second only to Chewjitsu in power level!
Put these in your deck:
Shell bard - Keep this little turtle alive at all costs to keep your board strong.
Tall grass terrors - Summon three fluffy bunnies at once and go wide.
Copper Bane-Blade - The ultimate synergy card that buffs your board and deals damage for summoning fighters. This legendary card is a backbreaker in the late game.
What next?
Once you’ve got your discipline picked out, there’s only one thing to do: start playing! Get on ladder and learn how your discipline plays against the others. You will have matchups that feel easy and others that feel hard. For example, Ryo Chi tends to be a difficult matchup for Shyjitsu because Shyjitsu has a hard time dealing with defenders and doesn’t have any purify spells.
Next time, we’ll take a deep dive into traits and think about which traits perform best with certain disciplines.
Until then, I’ll see you in the dogjo!
Sandwichgang is a long-time member of the Shib community, a writer, and a card game fanatic. You can find him on Shiba Eternity playing under the name Jabberwockee and on X as @watchcloselyOLO.
The State of Crypto (Pt. 2)
A look back on some of the most remarkable insights that 2023 brought onto crypto
First things first.
The merge finally happened.
One of the most-anticipated events in the history of open-source development took place last fall. Ethereum underwent its biggest upgrade when the network transitioned from POW to POS. “The merge” marked an architectural shift that massively reduced Ethereum’s energy footprint.
New technologies, once almost unthinkable, are maturing and set to explode.
Blockchain scaling brought about more users, more transactions, and more complex dApps in 2023. There are many promising new paths. For example, Web3 is a dynamic industry for developers trying to solve foundational challenges, such as the interoperability trilemma.
Let’s begin with the L2 blockchains – the technology designed to scale underlying Layer 1 blockchains like Ethereum by offering more blockspace, scaling transaction potential, and lower fees. In 2023, L2s counted for 1.5% of the fees paid on Ethereum. That share has more than quadrupled to 7% of the total fees paid on Ethereum, which means more dApps are choosing to build on L2s. This trend should continue as it will be beneficial to end users.
A lot of technical advancements kept “the devs” busy this year amidst the battle of zero-knowledge versus optimistic rollups, the rise of application-specific blockchains such as Cosmos, and the recent migration of dYdX. Technologies like IBC (Inter-Blockchain Communication Protocol) and the Cosmos SDK allow any dApp to build a custom layer designed to meet their needs while maintaining native interoperability with other assets sharing these standards.
Throughout 2023, there has been rapid progress in the “zero knowledge” industry – the powerful and foundational technology that unlocks blockchain scalability. It came with the massive rise of new use cases, including privacy-focused and verifiable computing applications that could enable decentralized machine learning (the holy grail of decentralized networks). These systems, including zero-knowledge proofs, involve cryptographic methods for verifying that a set of data is true without revealing any information about those.
This work has moved from theory to practice in the last few years (could have taken much longer without the explosion of all blockchain innovations). It seems that this tech is following Moore’s Law.
The acceleration of progress from software, such as smart contracts, to hardware (and decentralized computing power like Akash) and more, is incredibly promising for the future of technology, giving several tracks for blockchain projects to explore, which will champion innovative breakthroughs.
The U.S. Is Losing Its Lead in Web3
As a crucial part of emerging technologies, crypto needs an established policy and regulatory framework to grow institutional interest and reach its economic potential for the U.S. economy.
There has been a lot of heated debate on this.
Happy New Year, Senators Warren and Lummis.
But there has been insufficient clarity on regulation, which has negatively impacted the growth of the Web3 ecosystem in the U.S. As a result, America’s edge in this industry may be slipping.
Between 2018 and 2022, the proportion of crypto developers based in the U.S. compared to the rest of the world dropped to 26%. There is some hope, however, including a growing bipartisan push for legislation that could provide much-needed clarity.
Is Crypto Still in Its Early Phase?
We’re still early in Web3, but we’re no longer at the beginning. Stepping away from short-term volatility reveals a more predictable pattern.
This leads to a steady product cycle that is distinctly different from the financial cycles that saturated media attention in the earlier bull markets.
There was the “price-innovation cycle” (the observation that prices and development activity are intertwined in a positive feedback loop), which had an undervalued significance but is actually a useful mental model for navigating market cycles and understanding the indicators driving them.
When crypto prices increase, more people join the fun and the bravest stay during the bear market. This attention also inspires (and funds) new ideas, startups, and projects, some of which lead to greater adoption in the long term (think Friend.tech explosion in 2023), which will result in the rise of SocialFi and GameFi and the downfall of traditional social media.
Over time, these cycles move the industry forward in technological waves. We may be in the middle of the fourth such cycle since Bitcoin’s inception in 2009. A closer look suggests many indicators appear to be trending steadily upward.
What Does the Job Market Look Like?
There has been a slump in tech jobs in 2023. In a notable shift within the cryptocurrency sector, there has been a substantial decline in jobs for crypto-related positions. The job postings related to crypto have declined by 64.20%, while searches for these job roles also decreased by 15.20% between August 2022 and 2023. Bengaluru takes the lead, comprising 36% of the crypto job market.
The wide distribution of crypto job opportunities across the world reflects a decentralized approach, offering employment options across countries.
The data further reveals the most in-demand positions in the cryptocurrency industry are application developers, accounting for 11% of the job listings, followed by enterprise architects at 6%, full stack developers and developers at 5%, and data engineers at 4%.
Transaction Fees Are Back
After a huge slump during the bear market, transactions fees on all blockchains and protocols made a comeback in late 2023.
The rise of ordinals and inscriptions (first on Bitcoin and later on other blockchains) played a big role in bringing back transaction fees. Don’t forget that those are the main drivers of resources that validators and developers rely on. They are also a good indicator of the healthiness of a network (even if, as with everything, numbers can be played with).
Some of the leading protocols in terms of fees were Ethereum, Bitcoin, Polygon, and Shibarium (which racked up more than $1 million in fees in December alone).
Author: @Risjo_xyz
Hey Shib Army,
Buckle up because Shibarium is buzzing with activity! Projects are thriving and we're excited to share the latest Shib scoop with you this week. Get ready for an exciting FFT contest and some NFT surprises. LFG! 🚀🚀
1. ShibaPunkz Releases Staking dApp Updates and Mint Madness
The ShibaPunkz staking dApp has leveled up, dishing out a tasty treat of both tokens for four months! 2 $LEASH & 85,000,000 $SHIB are raining in the next 4 months! Plus, get ready to flex your minting skills in the Shiba Saiyan FFT contest with Cryptiq on X. Woof your luck and win prizes – you can win 50, 30, or 20 $BONE! Remember, more mints, more tickets, more chances to be a crypto king (or queen – no discrimination here)!
2. Shiba Inu Holders Outnumber Cities: More Holders Than 105 U.S. Cities Combined
Shiba Inu holders now surpass the population of 105 U.S. cities, leaving places like Jacksonville, Nashville, and Salt Lake City in the dust. Etherscan spills the tea with 1,366,964 Shiba-packed addresses, proving that Shibamania is the new city that never sleeps.
3. Mantra Protocol Teases NFT Collection Drop on Shibarium
Forget just staring at cute dog pictures – Mantra's NFT collection on Shibarium is your ticket to yield generation, platform perks, hyper-financialization, and even governance! They're dropping this collection by the end of the month, so get your paws prepped for some NFT fun.
4. Shib Dream NFT Collection: Burning Bright with 50 Million SHIB Burns
Is the Shib Dream NFT collection making dreams come true? With a sizzling burn of 50 million $SHIB, the collection's total burn reaches a whopping 900 million. So, if you snagged one of those, hold on tight – they're getting hotter by the minute!
5. NestX Takes Flight on Shibarium: NFT Trading and Raffle Galore
Get ready to raffle like a boss! NestX, the new marketplace on Shibarium, has opened its doors to the Shib Army’s favorite NFT collections. And guess what? You can use them to create your raffles! It might take a bit to get everything purrfect, but NestX promises smooth sailing and crystal-clear NFT viewing. It seems the future of NFTs is looking awesome.
We are looking for Shib Superstars within the community.
So if you're a successful business owner, someone who is responsible for a community-oriented initiative, or an award-winning athlete, contact us here for a shout-out in a future edition.
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