Crypto Academy Week 12: Homework Post for @pelon53 | TOKENS, PART 2

Think of ERC-1155, ERC-721 and ERC-20 as three brothers from a family called Ethereum. The eldest brother is ERC-20; however, ERC-20 had limited features. So ERC-721 was born to perform tasks that ERC-20 cannot do.

_{Created on PixelLab}

Later on, the parents (Ethereum programmers) noticed that ERC-721 has some weaknesses. Then, ERC-1155 was created to combine the benefits of ERC-20 and ERC-721 and correct their weaknesses.

Take note that there are other ERC standards, but this week’s task focuses on ERC-1155 and ERC-721. I will also talk about a distant cousin of the ERC-20 standard in this post. This cousin is TRC-20. I call TRC-20 its cousin because TRC-20 shares some characteristics with ERC-20. Keep on reading to find out!

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What is ERC-1155 standard?

_{Created on PixelLab}

ERC-1155 is a multipurpose standard that exist within the Ethereum platform. I used the word 'multipurpose' because it can serve the purpose or function of ERC-20 and ERC-721 standards. So, we can say it has improvements over existing types of standards in the Etheruem blockchain. That is why it is also called EIP-1155.

ERC stands for Ethereum Requests for Comments, while EIP represents Ethereum Improved Proposal.

Since ERC-20 is fungible and ERC-721 is non-fungible, a combination of both standards will give us a semi-fungible standard. Therefore, ERC-1155 standard is a semi-fungible standard.

What is ERC-1155 token?

When a developer creates a token using the ERC-1155 standard, that token is called an ERC-1155 token. Like ERC-1155 standards, ERC-1155 tokens also have multipurpose features because they have the functions of ERC-20 tokens and ERC-721 tokens.

On that note, ERC-1155 tokens are semi-fungible tokens (SFT).

Benefits of ERC-1155 tokens

Some of the useful features of ERC-1155 are;

1. It does not get lost easily

If you send ERC-1155 tokens to a wrong address you can cancel the transaction and get your tokens because ERC-1155 tokens use what developers call “react.” ERC-20 tokens do not use “react,” if you mistakenly send it to a wrong address it will be lost forever.

2. It has low transfer fee

The transaction fee for sending ERC-1155 tokens is relatively lower because you can send several ERC-1155 tokens at once. On the other hand, ERC-721 tokens have higher transfer fee because you cannot send more than one ERC-721 token at once. You have to send it one by one, and you will pay a commission fee for each transfer.

3. It is compactable with ERC-20 and ERC-1155

ERC-20 and ERC-721 are not compactable with each other and it is difficult to link the two of them together. Therefore, you cannot store ERC-721 tokens in an ERC-20 wallet. That is why ERC-1155 exists. ERC-1155 is compactable with both ERC-20 and ERC-721.

4. It is very secure

The developers of ERC-1155 wrote several rules in its code to prevent cyber criminals from using different traps to attack users, such as double spending.

Example of ERC-1155 token: Mocktail (MOK) token

_{Screenshot from bscscan.com}

MOK token is an ERC-1155 token. It was launched on Binance six days ago. The token transforms from a fungible state to a non-fungible state once it is redeemed.

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How to determine the number of existing ERC-721 tokens

_{Created on PixelLab}

• Open your brower and type https://etherscan.io/ in the URL bar

_{Screenshot from etherscan.io}

• Click on the [Tokens] menu

_{Screenshot from etherscan.io}

• Then select [ERC721 Top Tokens]

_{Screenshot from etherscan.io}

• At the left hand side of the page you will see the number of tokens. When I checked, there were 11,062 ERC-721 tokens. It can be more when you check.

_{Screenshot from etherscan.io}

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What is TRC-20 standard?

_{Created on PixelLab}

TRC-20 is a modified version of ERC-20 standard that exist within the Tron platform. TRC-20 is often called the ERC-20 killer because of its improvements over the ERC-20.

TRC-20 has other siblings, like the TRC-10 and TRC-721.

What is TRC-20 token?

When a developer creates a token using the TRC-20 standard, that token is called a TRC-20 token. For example, there are TRC-20 USDT on Tron Network.

Benefits of TRC-20 tokens

• The transfer fee is lower than ERC-20 because it uses only energy and bandwidth for transfer.
• It has a faster transfer speed than ERC-20.
• Developers can easily move projects built on ERC-20 standard to TRC-20 because they use similar code.
• TRC-20 supports up to 18 decimals, whereas ERC-20 supports up to 6 decimals.
• TRC-20 is compactable with ERC-20.

Difference between TRC-20 and ERC-20

Features	TRC-20	ERC-20
Transfer speed	Fast	Slow
Transfer fee	Low	High
Blockchain	Tron	Ethereum
Decimals	Up to 18	Up to 6

Example of TRC-20 token: USDT-TRON

_{I withdrew $100 USDTTRON from my Poloniex wallet without paying any transfer fee.}

USDT-TRON is an example of TRC-20 token. It was issued by Tether on Tron Blockchain. USDT-TRON is compactable with a majority of existing wallets.

Structure of a TRC-20 token

Below are the criteria needed to create a TRC-20. Some criteria are compulsory, while a few are optional.

Attribute	Description
Name of Token	Shows the name of the token. (Example: JUST)
Abbreviation	This is a set of characters that represent the token, usually within 3 to 5 characters. (Example: JST)
Token Decimals	This the number of times you can split the token. Up to 18 decimals for TRC-20 tokens.
Total Supply	The total number of token in supply.
Balance Of	Indicates the remaining token in an address.
Transfer	It is used to move tokens from one address to another one.
Approval	This gives third party applications permission.
Transfer From	It initiates the transfer process of a third party application from one user to another.
Allowance	It is utilised to check the remaining token in an address before a third party application completes moving the token from one user to another.

How to determine the number of existing TRC-20 tokens

• Open your brower and type https://tronscan.org/#/ in the address column

_{Screenshot from tronscan.org}

• Click on the [TOKENS] menu

_{Screenshot from tronscan.org}

• Then select [TOKENS TRACKER]

_{Screenshot from tronscan.org}

• Tap on [TRC20] on the right hand side of the page.

_{Screenshot from tronscan.org}

• From the figure below you can see that there were 15,859 TRC-20 tokens on Tron Network when I checked. It can be more when you check.

_{Screenshot from tronscan.org}

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Final Words

In conclusion, ERC-1155 wonderfully combines the strengths of ERC-20 and ERC-721 while correcting their weaknesses. We learnt that ERC-1155 standard is more secure, more versatile, and more difficult to be lost.

I also provided a guide on how to determine the number of ERC-721 tokens in existence. We saw that there were 11,062 ERC-721 tokens in existence when I checked.

In addition, we learnt that TRC-20 standard is similar to ERC-20 standard but superior in terms of transaction speed, fees and number of decimals. There were 15,859 TRC-20 tokens on Tron Blockchain when I checked.

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Notable mentions:
@pelon53
@imagen
_{NB: All images were created and edited by me.}