Signum Fungible Tokens

Fungible Tokens

Apart from Signa, the native coin of the Signum blockchain, users can create additional tokens series for various purposes on the Signum blockchain.  These tokens (sometimes referred to as assets depending on the implementation) have the same security and features as Signa.  Signum has a built-in token generator to make this process easy and straightforward.  It is necessary only to set the economics for a new token and execute the token creation command as follows:

  • Ticker symbol
  • Total supply
  • Maximum number of digits.

The functionality to create tokens is available in the following official Signum wallets:

  • BTDEX
  • Signum Node

After completing the steps, the new tokens are available immediately to transfer, sell, trade, or interact with in other ways using BTDEX, Signum’s decentralized exchange, or the built-in asset exchange (also decentralized).  This provides an initial market and sphere of operation that encompasses the worldwide Signum community.

The cost to issue a token series is 1,000 Signa. There are no additional costs after creation.

Conceptual Basis

Signum’s fungible tokens are based on the concept of colored coins.  In an abstract sense, coloring is a simple tagging technique used to allow distinction, thus coexistence, of various class instances in a common data context.  Coloring is a process that attaches metadata to transactions, thereby leveraging infrastructure to issue and trade immutable digital assets that represent real-world assets.

Relating to Signum’s implementation, the concept of colored coins refers to a method for tracking the origin of coins so that certain coins can be set aside and conserved, allowing a party to acknowledge them in various ways.  Signum tokens can represent arbitrary digital tokens, such as stocks, bonds, or property. They can even represent real-world objects.

They can be used to invest, store value, make purchases, represent affiliate program points or company shares, and can implement governance mechanisms. When created through an initial coin offering, tokens are often used to raise funds through crowd sales.

This concept of colored coins forms the basis for the Signum Asset Exchange, an exchange protocol built into Signum’s codebase.

For an excellent white paper on the concept of colored coins, as written for the Signum project, see https://bitcoil.co.il/BitcoinX.pdf.

ERC20 Protocol

ERC20 is a popular Ethereum standard for token management, explained here https://github.com/ethereum/EIPs/issues/20.

Technical Information for developers:  This document explains how to implement the ERC20 APIs using the equivalent Signum APIs.

Issuing Tokens

  • Each ERC20 token is represented as a Signum asset.
  • Issue the asset using the issueAsset API.
  • Each asset is identified by a unique asset id set to the transaction id of the issueAsset transaction.

For more details, see The Signum API.

Implementing the ERC20 APIs

Total Supply

Invoke the getAssetAPI and supply the asset id.  Total supply is provided by the initialQuantityQNT attribute.  The existing supply, after possible share deletes, is specified by the quantityQNT attribute.  Quantity values are always provided as integer values.  The number of decimal positions to apply to these quantities is specified by the “decimals” attribute.

Balance

Invoke the getAssetAccounts API and provide the Signum address as the account parameter and the asset id as the asset parameter.

The unconfirmedQuantityQNT attribute in the response represents the current account balance. The quantityQNTattribute represents the quantity available for use when considering the balance locked by open asset orders.

Transfer

Use the transferAsset API, specify the recipient address, the asset id, the quantity to transfer, account passphrase, transaction fee, and transaction deadline.  The transferAsset transaction is recorded on the Signum blockchain. To track token transfers, use the getAssetTransfers API.

For examples, see the Signum API.

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