ERC 998 Composable Token

ERC-998 is a smart contract standard that was proposed by Ethereum developer Phillip Nguyen in 2018. It is a multi-token standard that allows for the creation and issuance of multiple tokens within a single smart contract. It is similar to the ERC-1155 standard, which also allows for the creation of multiple tokens within a single contract.

The non-fungible composable token, ERC-998, can represent more than one digital collectible/asset, be it a group of ERC-20 tokens, a collection of unique ERC-721 tokens, a mix of both, or another ERC-998 token. This allows for greater flexibility in the types of assets that can be represented on the Ethereum blockchain.

Another benefit of the ERC-998 standard is that it allows for the creation of “hybrid” tokens, which can represent both a physical asset and a digital asset. For example, a token could represent a physical gold coin, as well as a digital in-game item.

One of the main use cases for the ERC-998 standard is in the realm of gaming. The ability to create “composable” tokens that represent a combination of in-game items could greatly streamline the process of buying and selling items within a game. It could also make it easier to manage in-game economies, as the smart contract could enforce rules such as supply and demand.

Minimum required functions of ERC 998

According to the ERC-998 specification, the minimum required functions for an ERC-998 smart contract are:

1. balanceOf(address): Returns the balance of ERC-998 hybrid contracts that are owned by the specified address.
2. ownerOf(uint256): Returns the owner of the ERC-998 hybrid contract with the specified ID.
3. safeTransferFrom(address, address, uint256): Transfers ownership of an ERC-998 hybrid contract from one address to another, without performing any additional checks or validations.
4. safeBatchTransferFrom(address[], address[], uint256[]): Transfers ownership of multiple ERC-998 hybrid contracts from one set of addresses to another, without performing any additional checks or validations.
5. transferFrom(address, address, uint256): Transfers ownership of an ERC-998 hybrid contract from one address to another, performing any additional checks or validations that are defined in the contract.
6. batchTransferFrom(address[], address[], uint256[]): Transfers ownership of multiple ERC-998 hybrid contracts from one set of addresses to another, performing any additional checks or validations that are defined in the contract.
7. getHybridContract(uint256): Returns the address of the non-fungible token associated with the specified ERC-998 hybrid contract.
8. isHybridContract(address): Returns true if the specified address is an ERC-998 hybrid contract, and false otherwise.
9. supportsInterface(bytes4): Returns true if the contract implements the specified interface, and false otherwise. This function is used to determine whether a contract supports a particular interface, such as the ERC-721 interface for non-fungible tokens.

Overall, the ERC-998 standard is an innovative smart contract standard that offers a number of benefits over the more commonly used ERC-20 standard. It allows for the creation of “composable” and “hybrid” tokens, which adds flexibility and versatility to the types of assets that can be represented on the blockchain. While it is not as widely used as the ERC-20 or ERC-1155 standards, it has gained traction within the Ethereum community and is likely to see continued development and adoption in the future.