Whales hold the voting power as Shiba Inu considers election to shift to decentralized state

Shiba Inu is planning to hold elections and allow participants in the memecoin ecosystem to choose their next leaders. The project team lead, Shytoshi Kusama, disclosed this on X, noting that it is a step towards full decentralization.

According to a blog post by Kusama, the elections will mark a transition of power and the start of the Shib Network State. He noted that the structures are already in place, and the first step is finding new leaders for the ecosystem.

Kusama wrote:

“This will be an event like the transition of power in any state, our first and therefore delicate yet powerful in design. A new lead visionary and councils for each dao will need to be chosen.”

In order to achieve this, the Shib decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) will elect an interim president who will lead the ecosystem’s transition into a network state and shepherd its technological infrastructure and massive community.

Kusama explained how the election would go, noting that there would be three rounds of voting. After initial nomination, there will be a vote to select the top ten, followed by a debate among the top candidates. A second vote will pick the top three, and another debate will occur before the final vote.

However, he noted the Shiba Inu team will retain the right to veto any candidate, and the winning candidate must complete the Know Your Customer (KYC) process with the Shiba Inu Foundation and sign a strict Nondisclosure Agreement (NDA).

Shiba Inu whale is likely to become president

While Kusama noted that the election process will be transparent and fair, he added that such a person should be a SHIB whale, noting that this would mean they have more incentive to ensure that the ecosystem succeeds as they stand to lose the most if it fails.

He wrote:

“It is my belief that not only should the candidate be well versed in our actual inception, creation, and challenges, but should be a whale in the Shib community…they have the most skin in our success.”

The chances of a whale winning are further reinforced by the recommendation that it should be a 1 token = 1 vote multivote system, where all ecosystem tokens can be used. This effectively means those who have the most tokens supporting them will win.

However, the role of President for the Shib Network State comes with many responsibilities according to the post. These include coordinating the transition of power and execution of Shib Paper vision and guidelines while establishing DAO councils and the first Shiba Inu congress.

Beyond these administrative responsibilities, Kusama noted that the President’s most important role is managing the community and the project and ensuring that it achieves the vision behind its creation. He acknowledged that it is a herculean task for anyone.

With Kusama now disclosing the next phase for Shiba Inu, the post noted that the role of the Shiba Inu team will also change. It will still be responsible for handling the election, but the direction of the Shiba Inu project will now become the responsibility of the decentralized community.

Can a new governance direction change SHIB’s fortune?

Meanwhile, the latest announcement, a few days after Shiba Inu clocks five years of existence, highlights how far the project has come from being a memecoin.

Over the period, it has become a multi-token ecosystem with TREAT and BONE joining SHIB while also launching several products, including the Shibarium Layer-2 network and Shiboshi non-fungible tokens, among others.

However, not all these updates and releases have impacted the Shiba Inu token value much. Since reaching its peak in 2021, the token has been in decline. This year alone, it has already lost around 44% of its value and fallen out of the top 20 cryptocurrencies by market cap.

Given its current performance, investors in the token will be hoping that the recent decentralization efforts could lead to more impactful community-led decisions that will boost the token value. Nevertheless, any significant increase in SHIB value would first require a massive burn of SHIB tokens, given its current supply of over 589 trillion tokens.

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