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ShareToken is a digital utility token that is used to make payments for sharing services across industries and geographies on the ShareRing platform — which includes the ShareRing application, ShareRing shop and each user’s ShareRing ID. ShareRing is an open-source blockchain-based platform that makes use of distributed ledger technology and a dual token mechanism. According to the developers and founders of the ShareRing platform, the current service sharing economy is incredibly fragmented and multi-faceted, which can be overwhelming for consumers. The use of ShareToken on the ShareRing platform overcomes this issue by offering a single decentralized marketplace and digital currency that lets you securely access services around the world and pay for them. In 2019, the creators of the platform and its corresponding digital currency turned their focus to the travel industry and created TravelRing — the first B2B consumer-first example of what is possible using the ShareRing platform. Besides being used to pay for transaction fees on the ShareRing network, SHR tokens can also be staked to earn rewards, known as flowbacks.

ShareRing (and by extension the ShareToken) was co-founded by six individuals: Tim Bos, Rohan Le Page, Peter David, Neville Christie, Jane Sadler-Kidd and Barry Brewster. Bos, David, Christie, Sadler-Kid and Brewster were already working on developing a car-sharing and rental technology provision solution long before ShareToken and ShareRing came into existence. They were already experimenting with making shared services more accessible. The creation of this white-label car-sharing solution called Keaz meant that the founders had familiarized themselves with what was needed to help consumers take advantage of specialist software for car-pooling, ride-hailing, and vehicle rentals. Rohan Le Page, on the other hand, has an extensive history in the automotive industry, and served as ShareRing's chief operating officer until June 2020. The rest of the ShareRing team hails from a wide range of disciplines and includes a mix of developers, engineers, designers, marketing experts and more.

ShareRing was one of the first platforms to implement an innovative dual token mechanism—these tokens are ShareToken (SHR) and SharePay (SHRP). ShareToken is the utility currency that is used in the ShareRing ecosystem. Meanwhile, SharePay is a stablecoin that is used to make payments for sharing services through the ShareRing platform. SHRP is used as payment for goods and services between the user and the service provider. The use of SharePay effectively minimizes the cryptocurrency-related complexity on the platform, reducing the number of friction points for inexperienced cryptocurrency users. Meanwhile, ShareToken is used to power the ShareRing ecosystem and decentralized ledger, since service providers need to use SHP tokens to pay their transaction fees. Both digital currencies work in concert to allow consumers to make the most of the ShareRing platform. The founders of the platform want ShareRing to be the “amazon of the service industry,” that is, a one-stop solution for accommodation, transport and miscellaneous activity services where there is no middleman and therefore no additional costs.

As of January 2021, there are 2.12 billion ShareTokens in circulation. This is out of a maximum possible supply of 4.4 billion SHR. When the ShareToken first launched in late 2019, it had an initial circulating supply of 1.97 billion tokens. According to the ShareRing website, the initial supply of SHR was segmented as follows: * Cornerstone investors - 31% * Private Equity Investors/Institutional Investors - 1% * ICO - 11% * Core team - 11% * Airdrop - 1% * Operations (frozen tokens) - 45% All team members have agreed to lock up their tokens, and now require approval from the ShareRing board if they wish to sell more than 10% of their SHR.

The ShareToken was initially launched as an ERC-20 token on the Ethereum blockchain, but migrated to the BEP2 standard in July 2019, with the launch of ShareToken on Binance Chain. As a BEP2 token, ShareToken is secured by the underlying Binance Chain, which uses a Tendermint BFT and delegated proof-of-stake (dPOS) consensus mechanisms to protect it against a range of attacks.

ShareToken is a moderately liquid token that is available to trade on almost a dozen exchange platforms. Centralized exchange options include Bilaxy, KuCoin, Bithumb Global, whereas decentralized exchange (DEX) options include Uniswap (ERC-20 SHR only) and the Binance DEX. As of January 2021, ProBit Exchange is the only platform with an SHR to fiat trading pair (SHR/KRW). Read more about buying cryptocurrencies with your credit or debit card here.