Coins / Tokens / NFT's

On this page...
• Overview
• Coins
• Tokens
• NFT's
• Wrapped Tokens
• Liquidity Pairs
• ERC

•  Explorers
• Networks 

This is just a quick rundown on some of the different terminologies and some possible types of assets you may come across. All of them have their own contract address as with anything on the blockchain.

This can be confusing but it doesnt need to be. In the crypto/Web3 world a coin is the native token to their blockchain. That it. ETH on Ethereum. FTM on Fantom. MATIC on Polygon.

Tokens are none native 'coins' on a blockchain. They are like a currency. They have a supply. Anyone can make a token on any network.

An NFT is still a token. But a token of 1 supply. They are unique.

It stands for none fungible token. Fungible means "replaceable by another identical item". So a £1 coin can be replaced by another and no one would care. Therefore none fungible means it can not me.

NFT's store other data, called meta data (data about data). It is possible to have a completely on-chain NFT, however, most projects use the data within the NFT to reference off-chain data such as pictures. These images are still decentralised as they are distributed over the internet (IPFS) so no single entity can close them down.

This utility means images can be 'stored' in an NFT, or co-ordinates in a metaverse, or music, or mp4's, etc, etc.

A wrapped token is a token that is pegged to the value of another token. They will usually named as the name of the original token with a "W" in front. e.g. ETH > WETH, FTM > WFTM.

It usually represent an asset that doesnt natively live on the blockchain its issued on. So if you sent ETH from the Ethereum network to the Fantom network You would receive WETH on the Fantom network.

Liquidity pairs are 2 tokens combined together. Meaning you trade 2 tokens (or more, in varying proportions) and receive a new liquidity pair token (which will have a different contract address). By doing this you have 'sacrificed' the other 2 tokens and added liquidity to that pair. You can go the other way and get your original tokens back. Liquidity is good as it means people can trade one coin for another. That why most liquidity pairs are staked and you receive a return on the liquidity pair.

ERC is a standard which outlines the rules of of a certain feature within the blockchain. So for programmers to be compliant they will need to follow the rules outlined in these documents. For the most part as an end user you dont need to know anything about these but there are 3 that you are likely to come across and so they are worth mentioning.

ERC-20 - These are basic tokens/coins that act like currencies. They are fungible.

ERC-721 - These are NFT's i.e. Non-Fungible tokens.

ERC-1155 - The newest standard and allows Fungible, Non-Fungible, and Semi-Fungible in one single token standard. They also allow things such as royalties.

•  Explorers
• Networks