ERC-20

ERC-20 ERC-20 is the technical standard upon which the issuance of smart contracts on the Ethereum blockchain is based. "ERC-20" refers to Ethereum Request for Comment #20, which was a format for standards development used earlier by the Ethereum Foundation. Standards Tokens are digital assets which represent contracts that can have value. All tokens on the Ethereum blockchain use ERC-20, which allows for tokens to be traded against each other. All transactions in tokens, such as for transfers or changes to a tokens database, take place on the Ethereum blockchain and are paid for in ether. ERC-20 specifies the following six mandatory standards for use in smart contracts: totalSupply balanceOf transfer transferFrom approve allowance And there are three optional, albeit useful, standards: token name symbol places to the right of the decimal As of July 12, 2018 there had been 99,228 ERC-20 tokens issued. The number of tokens exploded over the next two-and-a-half years, tripling to more than 337,073 on November 23, 2020. References