Understanding ERC standards is essential for a blockchain developer for several reasons:
- Interoperability: ERC standards ensure that tokens and smart contracts can interact seamlessly with other applications, wallets, and exchanges, fostering a cohesive ecosystem.
- Security: Standards incorporate best practices for security, reducing the risk of vulnerabilities and making it easier to audit and verify code.
- Efficiency: Standards provide a common blueprint for token functionality, allowing developers to use and build upon existing implementations, saving time and effort.
- Regulatory Compliance: Standards like ERC-1400 help ensure that tokens meet legal and regulatory requirements, particularly for security tokens and transfer restrictions.
- Innovation: Different standards cater to various types of tokens and use cases, from fungible (ERC-20) to non-fungible (ERC-721) to multi-token (ERC-1155), enabling developers to create versatile and innovative applications.
Top 20 ERC Standards
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ERC-20:
- Purpose: Standardizes the way fungible tokens are created and managed on the Ethereum blockchain.
- Benefits: Interoperability between tokens, easier integration with wallets and exchanges.
- Key Functions: totalSupply, balanceOf, transfer, transferFrom, approve, allowance.
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ERC-721:
- Purpose: Standardizes the way non-fungible tokens (NFTs) are created and managed on the Ethereum blockchain.
- Benefits: Unique ownership representation for digital or physical assets.
- Key Functions: balanceOf, ownerOf, approve, getApproved, setApprovalForAll, isApprovedForAll, transferFrom, safeTransferFrom.
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ERC-1155:
- Purpose: Introduces a standard for managing both fungible and non-fungible tokens efficiently.
- Benefits: Reduced gas costs, more flexible token management.
- Key Functions: balanceOf, balanceOfBatch, setApprovalForAll, isApprovedForAll, safeTransferFrom, safeBatchTransferFrom.
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ERC-777:
- Purpose: Enhances ERC-20 functionality with features like sending tokens to contracts and improved security.
- Benefits: More flexible token functionality, reduced user errors.
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ERC-165:
- Purpose: Allows contracts to query whether another contract implements a specific interface.
- Benefits: Improved contract compatibility and interaction.
- Key Functions: supportsInterface.
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ERC-621:
- Purpose: Provides a mechanism to increase or decrease the supply of tokens.
- Benefits: Greater flexibility for token issuers.
- Key Functions: increaseSupply, decreaseSupply.
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ERC-827:
- Purpose: Extends ERC-20 to allow tokens to be approved for transfer by a third party.
- Benefits: Enables more complex transactions involving tokens.
- Key Functions: approveAndCall, transferFromAndCall.
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ERC-884:
- Purpose: Standardizes the issuance of tokens that represent ownership of real-world assets.
- Benefits: Facilitates tokenization of real-world assets like property or commodities.
- Key Functions: mint, burn.
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ERC-902:
- Purpose: Defines a standard interface for subscription-based services using tokens.
- Benefits: Enables the creation of tokens representing access to services.
- Key Functions: subscribe, unsubscribe, isSubscribed.
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ERC-998:
- Purpose: Introduces the concept of composable tokens, which can own and be owned by other tokens.
- Benefits: Enables more complex and flexible token structures.
- Key Functions: transferToParent, transferFromParent.
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ERC-1153:
- Purpose: Enables gasless transactions, where transaction fees are paid by a third party.
- Benefits: Allows users to interact with contracts without holding ETH for gas.
- Key Functions: transferRelay.
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ERC-1154:
- Purpose: Standardizes batch transfers of tokens, enabling multiple transfers in a single transaction.
- Benefits: Reduces gas costs and improves efficiency for bulk token transfers.
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ERC-1190:
- Purpose: Defines a standard for tokenized voting, where tokens are used as votes in governance systems.
- Benefits: Enables decentralized governance using tokens as voting power.
- Key Functions: vote, delegate, undelegate.
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ERC-1202:
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Purpose: Standardizes token-weighted polling, where votes are weighted based on the number of tokens held.
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Benefits: Provides a fair and transparent way to conduct polls using token voting.
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ERC-1261:
- Purpose: Defines a standard for decentralized identity using tokens.
- Benefits: Enables the use of tokens as a form of decentralized identification.
- Key Functions: registerIdentity, revokeIdentity, getIdentity.
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ERC-1400:
- Purpose: Provides a standard for security tokens that comply with regulatory requirements.
- Benefits: Facilitates the issuance and management of compliant security tokens.
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ERC-1404:
- Purpose: Standardizes restrictions on token transfers, such as whitelisting or blacklisting addresses.
- Benefits: Enhances security and compliance by controlling token transfers.
- Key Functions: detectTransferRestriction, messageForTransferRestriction.
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ERC-1643:
- Purpose: Defines a standard for documenting metadata about tokens, such as name, symbol, and decimals.
- Benefits: Provides a standardized way to access token metadata.
- Key Functions: name, symbol, decimals.
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ERC-1736:
- Purpose: Standardizes the tokenization of debt, enabling the creation of tokens representing debt obligations.
- Benefits: Facilitates the management and transfer of tokenized debt.
- Key Functions: issueDebtToken, redeemDebtToken, transferDebtToken.
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ERC-1948:
- Purpose: Defines a standard for tokenizing licenses, enabling the creation of tokens representing licenses for digital assets.
- Benefits: Enables the management and transfer of digital asset licenses using tokens.
- Key Functions: issueLicenseToken, revokeLicenseToken, transferLicenseToken.
Understanding these standards will allows you to build versatile and future-proof blockchain applications.