ERC1155 (Ethereum)

Features of the ERC1155 token standard

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Looking back, it seems that the devs at Ethereum knew years before anyone else that they would one day be obliged to produce a protocol which could exceed the scope of strictly fungible and non-fungible assets, and the applications inspired by them. The ERC1155 multi-token standard has been shrewdly constructed to address the needs (and whims) of our civilization for at least a decade. There’s a lot to talk about with this newer spec.

Let’s tackle the technical matters first. There are several crucial distinctions between the way ERC1155 tokens are handled compared to the ERC20/ERC777 and ERC721 variants. These improvements were motivated by several concerns; multi-token contracts, code regularity, high gas fees and complex event analysis.

If you haven't already, you can read more on ERC20 and ERC721 token variants below:

ERC20 (Ethereum)ERC721 NFT (Ethereum)

The ERC721 standard was fundamentally different from its forebears because it was designed to handle a token type that was unique in each instance of its minting. This raised major concerns about scalability, which were carefully addressed. However, that standard is limited by the fact that all NFTs in the scope of a single contract are subject to the same settings, which act uniformly on the whole group. This is not ideal. The ERC1155 spec is instead built around functions that handle multiple token species in the same contract, and each token ID represents a configurable token type with its own metadata, supply and other attributes.

The ability to execute transactions on multiple token types from the same contract significantly reduces the amount of redundant bytecode on the chain, which in turn lowers gas fees. Further, ERC1155 eliminates the need for each token contract to have its own permissioned address, which placed some functional limitations on the reach of applications adhering to older standards. Batch operations are a fundamental feature of this new spec as well. In prior times, batch processing of transactions required a wrapper contract to administrate between multiple token types… which cost more gas.

There are two additional topics of interest in the technical analysis of this standard. First, if you peruse the formal documentation on the Ethereum site, you will notice a consistent change taking place along the progression from ERC20 to ERC1155; the protocols are much more specific now as to how code must be designed. Where in early days the specs were expressed almost like a guide, now the list of “MUST” and “MUST NOT” provisions are very comprehensive and stringently enforced. The Ethereum devs have clearly learned a great deal about the real-world implementation of their technology, and clamped down this time on the programming practices that pertain. This suits the more mature developer community that deploys this standard, and guarantees a smoother experience for everyone else.

The second trend is the heavier reliance on off-chain log analysis. This was inevitable, when you think about it. The Ethereum blockchain (including archives) is pushing four terabytes in size, and only the development of a “node-lite” protocol saved the system from becoming so cumbersome for miners that anyone lacking a very fast fiber connection and a lot of local storage would be forced to join a mining pool (with its fees) or excluded from the process altogether. The new beacon chain scheme in Ethereum 2 will directly address this problem with its “sharding” protocol, but it’s not here yet.

This is quite pertinent to the ERC1155 standard. Ethereum has quietly acknowledged that it isn’t feasible to store the secondary data that will result from its widespread use on the chain, and this time their rules are built to emphasize external analysis of logs to construct the full picture of events emitted by contracts. This will become normal practice for larger organizations, and it makes a lot of sense; immutability is preserved for the transaction records and the chain still captures everything crucial, but the write-heavy operations required for complex manipulation of mixed-token application data can now be offloaded to software regimes that don’t incur gas fees.

Additional Notes

The ERC1155 Multi-Token standard is going to dissolve the walls that have long insulated the gaming brands and franchises--to everyone’s benefit. And not far in their wake, industries like healthcare, consumer shopping and real estate will go virtual too, as the heavy lifting for realistic visualization has already been done by companies like Epic that develop AAA game engines.

The basic concept of a virtual asset will solidify into something as psychologically tangible--and practically valuable--as its real-world counterpart, and Ethereum will have proven once again that it knew the future long before it arrived.

Tip: Not sure where to start? In the near future, you will be able to use FlexSmart's platform to generate your own ERC1155 token. Until then, click here to talk with a Smart Contract Creation Expert who can assist you with ERC1155 token creation and implementation.