Analysis — what is ERC-20

 ERC-20 is an Ethereum token standard, which was approved by the EIP-20 proposal after continuous discussion and verification by the Ethereum community. It was proposed by Vitalik Buterin in 2015 and is the 20th token standard of Ethereum. .

As of the time of writing, there are 440,698 erc20 token generator contracts on Ethereum, which means that so many erc20 tokens have been issued.

As of the time of writing, there are 14,071 erc721 token contracts on Ethereum, which means that so many erc721 tokens have been issued.
It can be seen from the above two pictures that a total of 440,698 erc20tokens+14071erc721tokens have been issued on Ethereum so far, and the sum of the two is 454,769. These two token standard tokens account for more than 99% of the total token types on Ethereum. Based on Less than 1% of the tokens issued by the other lesser token standards are erc20 tokens, of which 96.9% are exclusively of the erc20 token type, which is enough to see the dominance of erc20 tokens on Ethereum. Tokens such as usdt (erc20), usdc, dai, unsiwap, chainlink, wbtc, sushi, etc. are mostly erc20 tokens, including most of the famous public chain coins matic, theta, icp, trx, bnb, ht and kcs were all erc20 tokens at first. It can be said that the erc20 token standard caused the ico boom for 17 years, and ico also brought fire to erc20.

But what exactly is ERC-20? Compared with other ERC standards, the interpretation of erc-20 is more troublesome, because it is the basis of many standards, such as erc-223, erc621, erc777, etc. are supplements or upgrades to some deficiencies of erc-20, so when explaining them It only needs to explain that it is to improve a certain function of ERC-20. The main criterion for interpreting erc20 is different. It needs an explanation that is more capable of explaining the underlying application.

ERC-20 token is a token standard, which was proposed by Buterin in June 2015, and EIP-20 was submitted by Fabian Vogelsteller (author of erc20 and erc725, also the founder of LUKSO Token) in November 2015. This standard allows developers to develop their own tokens on the Ethereum blockchain network. The standard defines that developers can use some simple functions such as:

set token name

Set the total amount of tokens

Specify the number of decimal places

Regulates how token transactions are approved

How to access data

Allows viewing the number of erc20 tokens and the total amount of tokens in each address

Under certain conditions, third-party accounts are allowed to use token assets in an account

Allows tokens to be compatible with third-party entities such as ETH-compatible smart contracts and wallet services And some simple functions and so on.

Tokens can only be developed according to this standard to be compatible with various Ethereum wallets, addresses, and smart contracts. Suppose the developer wants to create a certain token, erc20 token development company but the initial number of tokens wants to be set to infinity, or because they have not thought of a suitable token for the time being. Name, just thinking that it is temporarily empty, then this token will not be successfully created on the ERC20 standard.

Suppose you want to create an erc20 token, you must give it a name, a fixed total amount, simple settings such as decimal point limit, and some basic code writing, but nowadays there are many websites with one-click publishing, creating erc20 generation Some of the codes used in the tokenization process have already been written for you. The only thing you need is to fill in the name, total amount, and decimal places, and then pay a certain gas fee. After the erc20 token is created, all the codes Coins are automatically generated to the creator’s address.

The tokens issued based on the erc20 token standard are all homogeneous tokens (Fungible Token), which correspond to the now popular NFT (Non-Fungible Token non-fungible token), and the homogeneous token is the same token. All tokens of the coin have exactly the same value and attributes, and they can be exchanged completely equivalently. The non-homogenized token NFT is different. Non-homogenization means that the tokens are not exactly the same attributes, that is, there are differences, which correspond to the objects in our real life, such as art, music, real estate, etc. Etc., these are considered non-homogenized, with differences in attributes, that is, such items do not have exactly the same attributes, even if the real estate developed by the same real estate company has some qualitative differences, such as floors, transparent Lightness, permeability, internal layout after the owner moves in, etc.

The proposal of the ERC20 standard greatly simplifies the process of issuing personal tokens and reduces the cost of issuing tokens. This token standard can be well used in many fields, and it also promotes the outbreak of new startups based on Ethereum. Because these functions have largely solved the problem of financing difficulties for startups, and provided many companies with good financing channels, especially now many leading products in the Defi field, such as Compund, Aave, Chainlink and other high-quality projects were originally The development and operation funds are obtained by issuing erc20-based tokens. It can be said that the proposal of the ERC20 token creator standard is the technical basis of the ICO boom in 2017. At the same time, the ICO boom has also been fed back to the ERC20 standard, bringing it to the ether. The square network standard is completely dominant. Of course, the technology is always double-sided. The ICO boom is endless, and many people have been deceived. But which technology has just been released without the dark side of lack of supervision.