Devs Drop Shibarium Update, Reveal Public Testnets Release Window

The Shiba Inu development team has not yet offered any update on the highly anticipated layer-2 solution anticipated to launch sometime this year, however, Unification FUND, the team providing "advisory work" on Shibarium, mentioned that the public testnets are up for launch by Q3 or "shortly thereafter."

In a new blog published Thursday, Unification said, "Unification's advisory work with Shibarium continues toward the fourth successful alpha and public testnets." It added that the launch is "still in plans for the end of the quarter release or sometime shortly thereafter." The team also discussed the public beta testnet, including what it will be about and who can participate.

"The initial public beta testnet will focus on the developer/delegator sector in order to enable a robust and ready network to serve the Shib Army once ready," the blog stated. "The public beta will also allow a much wider opportunity for open testing and bug fixing, ensuring a secure and streamlined mainnet launch," it explained.

"The testnet will be open to any validator wishing to join — indeed, it is encouraged, especially for operators intending to join the mainnet upon launch," Unification noted. Based on the team's timeline, it looks like the public testnet will be out sometime this month or next month.

In July, Shiba Inu pseudonymous lead developer Shytoshi Kusama mentioned that "as of now, everything is still on track, and we are moving as fast as we can to complete this core component to our ecosystem." They also mentioned at the time that "xFUND (Unification) and SHIB Developers have yet to determine a date for the Public Beta."

In May, Kusama described Shibarium as the "L2 Blockchain for Ethereum (utilizing $BONE )." They said it "is the back...bone of all the Shib projects that are in development and will offer a scaling and low-cost solution for a myriad of projects ."

The lead developer also mentioned that the team was planning to launch a "Shibarium Hackathon" to educate the community on the layer-2 blockchain. It is also believed that the team will roll out the documentation or the white paper of Shibarium prior to its release.

So far, the only update about Shibarium is its public testnets' release window. When the Shiba Inu team finally announces the rollout of the documentation, it would mean that Shibarium's official launch is imminent.

Shibarium is just one of the many upcoming initiatives the Shiba Inu team is working on to provide more use cases to the SHIB.