Shytoshi Kusama, the anonymous lead developer of Shiba Inu, has highlighted the project’s commitment to safeguarding its users. Kusama’s remarks followed a controversial interview that shed light on the alarming prevalence of “rug pulls” within the crypto community.
Earlier this week, Kusama took to X, stating, “Don’t ask me why we are building tools like Self-Sovereign Identity and Karma & Reputation into the Shib tech stack. Just watch this instead…” His comment was in reference to an interview conducted by NFT Nate, in which a self-proclaimed scammer, Phantom, revealed the inner workings of his illicit rug pull activities.
The term “rug pull” refers to a type of scam in which developers of a cryptocurrency project, typically those involving DeFi or meme coins, abandon the project and run off with investors’ funds. These scams often involve creating a token, promoting it heavily, and then suddenly selling off or “dumping” the token once its value has been artificially inflated, leaving investors with worthless assets.
In the interview, Phantom described how he and others use sophisticated tools like “DogWifTools” to execute these scams, revealing that he has occasionally netted as much as $200,000 per week from his activities. According to Phantom, the process involves creating fake tokens, manipulating the market to make it appear like these tokens are gaining legitimate traction, and then dumping the tokens en masse once enough investors have bought in. This manipulation is often conducted using automated bots, making it difficult for regular investors to detect the scam until it’s too late.
Notably, according to a report by Coinpaper, between 2021 and July 2024, the crypto industry suffered losses exceeding $2 billion due to hacks and rug pulls. In 2024 alone, over $473 million was lost in 108 separate incidents, underscoring the persistent risks in the space.
In response to these growing concerns, Shiba Inu’s development team has been working on integrating advanced security measures into its ecosystem. Earlier last year, the team announced that all Shiba Inu projects would incorporate a blockchain-based identity system known as Self-Sovereign Identity (SSI), which is still under development.
SSI is a digital identity framework that allows users to own and control their data. Unlike traditional identity systems, where centralized institutions store user data, SSI enables users to decide what information is shared and with whom. This decentralized approach to identity management could significantly reduce the anonymity that scammers like Phantom rely on to carry out rug pulls.
The team has also been working on the Shiba Inu Name Service (SNS), an invention designed to introduce digital identity verification across all products within the Shiba Inu blockchain. The aim is to create a safer environment for users and mitigate the risks posed by malicious actors.
