The difference between ERC-721 & ERC-1155 token
When one discusses NFT, the assumption is that we’re talking about NFT deployed onto the Ethereum blockchain. NFT can and are deployed on a variety of blockchains, including Solana and Cardano, among others. Yet, when it comes to market dominance, Ethereum still dominates the market, with around 80% of all NFT being Ethereum-based NFT, down slightly from a whopping 95% in 2021.
To better understand NFT deployment on the Ethereum platform, let’s dissect the difference between the two standard tokens used, the ERC-721 and ERC-1155 tokens.
🤔 What are token standards?
Token standards help categorize different functionalities of tokens on Ethereum.
ERC = Ethereum Request for Comments
The ERC token standards offer explanations for different rules pertaining to ERC tokens. As of now, the three most popular ERC token standards include; ERC-20, ERC-721, and now, the ERC-1155.
📌 ERC-721
The ERC-721 token standard was the first widely accepted standard for creating and trading NFTs and is currently still the most widely used token for minting individual NFT. ERC-721 tokens require the deployment of single contracts for individual NFT, which provides better security, but the strict conditions creators need to adhere to for conducting a transaction also make it expensive and slow for large-batch NFT creation.
📌 ERC-1155
The ERC-1155 token standard is the future, allowing simultaneous transfer of multiple token types. This token standard allows for the deployment of smart contracts for both fungible and non-fungible tokens. This reduces cost and improves efficiency by removing the need for approving contracts for tokens separately.
Let’s take a look at some of the advantages of using the ERC-1155 token standard.
- Low Gas Fee: By allowing an individual contract for different tokens, the ERC-1155 token can cut gas fees by 90%
- Streamlined: The ERC-1155 token standard allows the maker to use fewer details. The need to fill in individual data for ERC-721 NFT token makes the process of minting new NFT time consuming.
- Secure Transactions: ERC-1155 can check for invalid transactions. If a transaction isn’t able to be processed, this feature allows the tokens to come back to the issuer. This feature also prevents sending to a wrong address, allowing for secure but less risky token transfer.
- Semi-Fungible tokens: Semi-fungible tokens can be a fungible token that is converted into an NFT or vice-versa. ERC-1155 enables the deployment of semi-fungible tokens which gives it increased utility over older token standards.
- Multiple token types in one smart contract: With the ERC-1155 token standard, you can deploy a myriad of token types (non-fungible, semi-fungible, and fungible) with one contract. This allows for batch transfers of very large amounts of tokens via a single smart contract, which reduces blockchain traffic and reduces transaction time.
🤔 ERC-721 vs ERC-1155
On paper it would seem the ERC-1155 token standard makes the ERC-721 token standard obsolete. This is not the case. Though the ERC-1155 token standard brings a great deal of ease and streamlining to NFT tech, these advantages are gained at the loss of detail and information. The ERC-721 standard still remains the industry standard and is excellent for deploying individual NFT. Yet, as NFT become more and more ubiquitous, the ERC-1155 will gain its place, creating a token standard that is economical, efficient and secure for large scale operations where individual NFT deployment isn’t feasible.
About Pikasso
Pikasso is a firebase infrastructure for NFT apps and games, creating an easier way for projects to create NFT, all on low-cost layer-2 ecosystems. Pikasso saves users the time needed by using a no-code platform to create NFT, with an improved UX/UI, and marketplace generator for each NFT project, all while bridging the gap between web2 and web3 content.
