A recent episode of the Unchained podcast addressed how ERC 6551 could revolutionise the crypto market by providing NFTs with their own wallets. The planned ERC 6551 token standard for NFTs has piqued the curiosity of crypto fans since it would allow digital assets to hold other tokens, a development that has the potential to radically alter the NFT and metaverse scene.
Pritish Bagdi
What exactly is ERC 6551?
The token standard proposal, announced in February, aims to create a system that provides a smart contract account to every ERC-721 (non-fungible token). These tokens will be able to hold assets and interact with applications without requiring any changes to existing ERC-721 smart contracts or infrastructure.
The key components of this system are a permissionless registry for deploying token-bound accounts and a standard implementation interface.
Each ERC-721 coin will be assigned a unique smart contract account, allowing it to interact with the blockchain, record transaction history, and possess on-chain assets. The owner of the ERC-721 token has control over each token-bound account, allowing them to initiate on-chain operations on behalf of their token.
The proposal aims to be as backward compatible as possible with existing non-fungible token contracts. EIP-155 chain IDs are also used to uniquely identify ERC-721 tokens, allowing for the optional support of multi-chain token-bound accounts.
What are the benefits of ERC 6551?
The ERC 6551 standard was a potential solution to past attempts to standardise NFTs owning assets, such as the requirement for custom logic in their smart contract. The ERC 6551 standard eliminates these limitations by offering NFTs the same rights as Ethereum users, allowing them to hold assets and execute actions.
While ERC 721, ERC 1155, and soul-bound tokens exist as means to own objects on Ethereum, the podcast panelists emphasised that ERC 6551 is not a token standard in the traditional sense because it offers every current ERC 721 its own wallet, unlocking a new layer of compatibility for NFTs.