author: Witek Radomski <witek@enjin.com>, Andrew Cooke <ac0dem0nk3y@gmail.com>, Philippe Castonguay <pc@horizongames.net>, James Therien <james@enjin.com>, Eric Binet <eric@enjin.com>
A standard interface for contracts that manage multiple token types. A single deployed contract may include any combination of fungible tokens, non-fungible tokens, or other configurations (for example, semi-fungible tokens).
This standard outlines a smart contract interface that can represent any number of Fungible and Non-Fungible token types. Existing standards such as ERC-20 require deployment of separate contracts per token type. The ERC-721 standard's Token ID is a single non-fungible index and the group of these non-fungibles is deployed as a single contract with settings for the entire collection. In contrast, the ERC-1155 Multi Token Standard allows for each Token ID to represent a new configurable token type, which may have its own metadata, supply and other attributes.
Tokens standards like ERC-20 and ERC-721 require a separate contract to be deployed for each token type or collection. This places a lot of redundant bytecode on the Ethereum blockchain and limits certain functionality by the nature of separating each token contract into its own permissioned address. With the rise of blockchain games and platforms like Enjin Coin, game developers may be creating thousands of token types, and a new type of token standard is needed to support them. However, ERC-1155 is not specific to games, and many other applications can benefit from this flexibility.
New functionality is possible with this design, such as transferring multiple token types at once, saving on transaction costs. Trading (escrow / atomic swaps) of multiple tokens can be built on top of this standard and it removes the need to "approve" individual token contracts separately. It is also easy to describe and mix multiple fungible or non-fungible token types in a single contract.
The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT", "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this document are to be interpreted as described in RFC 2119.
@dev Either TransferSingle or TransferBatch MUST emit when tokens are transferred, including zero value transfers as well as minting or burning (see "TransferSingle and TransferBatch event rules" section of the standard).
`_operator` MUST be msg.sender.
When minting/creating tokens, the `_from` argument MUST be set to `0x0` (i.e. zero address)
When burning/destroying tokens, the `_to` argument MUST be set to `0x0` (i.e. zero address)
The total value transferred from address 0x0 minus the total value transferred to 0x0 MAY be used by clients and exchanges to be added to the "circulating supply" for a given token ID.
To broadcast the existence of a token ID with no initial balance, the contract SHOULD emit the TransferSingle event from `0x0` to `0x0`, with the token creator as `_operator`, and a `_value` of 0.
@dev Either TransferSingle or TransferBatch MUST emit when tokens are transferred, including zero value transfers as well as minting or burning (see "TransferSingle and TransferBatch event rules" section of the standard).
`_operator` MUST be msg.sender.
When minting/creating tokens, the `_from` argument MUST be set to `0x0` (i.e. zero address)
When burning/destroying tokens, the `_to` argument MUST be set to `0x0` (i.e. zero address)
The total value transferred from address 0x0 minus the total value transferred to 0x0 MAY be used by clients and exchanges to be added to the "circulating supply" for a given token ID.
To broadcast the existence of multiple token IDs with no initial balance, this SHOULD emit the TransferBatch event from `0x0` to `0x0`, with the token creator as `_operator`, and a `_value` of 0.
@dev MUST emit when approval for a second party/operator address to manage all tokens for an owner address is enabled or disabled (absense of an event assumes disabled).
Caller must be approved to manage the _from account's tokens (see "Approval" section of the standard).
MUST revert if `_to` is the zero address.
MUST revert if balance of sender for token `_id` is lower than the `_value` sent.
MUST revert on any other error.
After the transfer succeeds, this function MUST check if `_to` is a smart contract (eg. code size > 0). If so, it MUST call `onERC1155Received` on `_to` and act appropriately (see "Safe Transfer Rules" section of the standard).
After all the transfer(s) in the batch succeed, this function MUST check if `_to` is a smart contract (eg. code size > 0). If so, it MUST call `onERC1155BatchReceived` on `_to` and act appropriately (see "Safe Transfer Rules" section of the standard).
@dev An ERC1155-compliant smart contract MUST call this function on the token recipient contract, at the end of a `safeTransferFrom` after the balance has been updated.
This function MUST return whether it accepts or rejects the transfer via the prescribed keccak256 generated values.
@dev An ERC1155-compliant smart contract MUST call this function on the token recipient contract, at the end of a `safeBatchTransferFrom` after the balances have been updated.
This function MUST return whether it accepts or rejects the transfer via the prescribed keccak256 generated values.
To be more explicit about how safeTransferFrom and safeBatchTransferFrom MUST operate with respect to the ERC1155TokenReceiver, a list of scenarios and rules follows.
* The transfer MUST be reverted with the one caveat below.
- If the tokens being sent are part of a hybrid implementation of another standard, that particular standard's rules on sending to a contract MAY now be followed instead. See "Compatibility with other standards" section.
**_Scenario#6 :_** The receiver implements the ERC1155TokenReceiver interface and is the recipient of one and only one balance change (eg. safeTransferFrom called).
* All the balances in the transfer MUST have been updated to match the senders intent before any hook is called on a recipient.
* One of onERC1155Received or onERC1155BatchReceived MUST be called on the recipient.
- See "onERC1155Received rules" for further rules that MUST be followed.
* The onERC1155BatchReceived hook MAY be called on the recipient contract and its rules followed.
- See "onERC1155BatchReceived rules" for further rules that MUST be followed.
**_Scenario#7 :_** The receiver implements the ERC1155TokenReceiver interface and is the recipient of more than one balance change (eg. safeBatchTransferFrom called).
* All the balances in the transfer MUST have been updated to match the senders intent before any hook is called on a recipient.
* onERC1155Received or onERC1155BatchReceived MUST be called on the recipient as many times as necessary such that every balance change for the recipient in the scenario is accounted for.
- The return magic value for every hook call MUST be checked and acted upon as per "onERC1155Received rules" and "onERC1155BatchReceived rules".
* The onERC1155BatchReceived hook SHOULD be called on the recipient contract and its rules followed.
- See "onERC1155BatchReceived rules" for further rules that MUST be followed.
* The onERC1155Received hook MAY be called on the recipient contract and its rules followed.
- See "onERC1155Received rules" for further rules that MUST be followed.
**_TransferSingle and TransferBatch event rules:_**
* TransferSingle SHOULD be used to indicate a single balance transfer has occurred between a `_from` and `_to` pair.
- It MAY be emitted multiple times to indicate multiple balance changes in the transaction, but note that TransferBatch is designed for this to reduce gas consumption.
- The `_operator` argument MUST be msg.sender.
- The `_from` argument MUST be the address of the holder whose balance is decreased.
- The `_to` argument MUST be the address of the recipient whose balance is increased.
- The `_id` argument MUST be the token type being transferred.
- The `_value` argument MUST be the number of tokens the holder balance is decreased by and match what the recipient balance is increased by.
- When minting/creating tokens, the `_from` argument MUST be set to `0x0` (i.e. zero address).
- When burning/destroying tokens, the `_to` argument MUST be set to `0x0` (i.e. zero address).
* TransferBatch SHOULD be used to indicate multiple balance transfers have occurred between a `_from` and `_to` pair.
- It MAY be emitted with a single element in the list to indicate a singular balance change in the transaction, but note that TransferSingle is designed for this to reduce gas consumption.
- The `_operator` argument MUST be msg.sender.
- The `_from` argument MUST be the address of the holder whose balance is decreased.
- The `_to` argument MUST be the address of the recipient whose balance is increased.
- The `_ids` argument MUST be the list of tokens being transferred.
- The `_values` argument MUST be the list of number of tokens (matching the list and order of tokens specified in _ids) the holder balance is decreased by and match what the recipient balance is increased by.
- When minting/creating tokens, the `_from` argument MUST be set to `0x0` (i.e. zero address).
- When burning/destroying tokens, the `_to` argument MUST be set to `0x0` (i.e. zero address).
* The total value transferred from address 0x0 minus the total value transferred to 0x0 MAY be used by clients and exchanges to be added to the "circulating supply" for a given token ID.
* To broadcast the existence of a token ID with no initial balance, the contract SHOULD emit the TransferSingle event from `0x0` to `0x0`, with the token creator as `_operator`, and a `_value` of 0.
**_onERC1155Received rules:_**
* The `_operator` argument MUST be the address of the account/contract that initiated the transfer (i.e. msg.sender).
* The `_from` argument MUST be the address of the holder whose balance is decreased.
-`_from` MUST be 0x0 for a mint.
* The `_id` argument MUST be the token type being transferred.
* The `_value` argument MUST be the number of tokens the holder balance is decreased by and match what the recipient balance is increased by.
* The `_data` argument MUST contain the extra information provided by the sender (if any) for a transfer.
* The recipient contract MAY accept an increase of its balance by returning the acceptance magic value `bytes4(keccak256("accept_erc1155_tokens()"))`
- If the return value is `bytes4(keccak256("reject_erc1155_tokens()"))` the transaction MUST be reverted.
* If the return value is anything other than `bytes4(keccak256("accept_erc1155_tokens()"))` or `bytes4(keccack256("reject_erc1155_tokens()"))` the transaction MUST be reverted.
* onERC1155Received MAY be called multiple times in a single transaction and the following requirements must be met:
- All callbacks represent mutually exclusive balance changes.
- The set of all callbacks describes all balance changes that occurred during the transaction.
**_onERC1155BatchReceived rules:_**
* The `_operator` argument MUST be the address of the account/contract that initiated the transfer (i.e. msg.sender).
* The `_from` argument MUST be the address of the holder whose balance is decreased.
-`_from` MUST be 0x0 for a mint.
* The `_ids` argument MUST be the list of tokens being transferred.
* The `_values` argument MUST be the list of number of tokens (matching the list and order of tokens specified in _ids) the holder balance is decreased by and match what the recipient balance is increased by.
* The `_data` argument MUST contain the extra information provided by the sender (if any) for a transfer.
* The recipient contract MAY accept an increase of its balance by returning the acceptance magic value `bytes4(keccak256("accept_batch_erc1155_tokens()"))`
- If the return value is `bytes4(keccak256("accept_batch_erc1155_tokens()"))` the transfer MUST be completed, unless other conditions necessitate a revert.
- If the return value is `bytes4(keccak256("reject_erc1155_tokens()"))` the transaction MUST be reverted.
* If the return value is anything other than `bytes4(keccak256("accept_batch_erc1155_tokens()"))` or `bytes4(keccack256("reject_erc1155_tokens()"))` the transaction MUST be reverted.
* If implementation specific api functions are used to transfer 1155 tokens to a contract the appropriate hook(s) MUST still be called with the same rules as if safeTransferFrom/safeBatchTransferFrom was used.
There have been requirements during the design discussions to have this standard be compatible with older standards when sending to contract addresses, specifically ERC-721 at time of writing.
To cater for this there is some leeway with the rejection logic should a contract not implement the ERC1155TokenReceiver as per "Safe Transfer Rules" section above, specifically "Scenario#3 : The receiver does not implement the necessary ERC1155TokenReceiver interface function(s)".
In that particular scenario if the 1155 implementation is also a hybrid implementation of another token standard, it MAY now follow the secondary standard's rules when transferring token(s) to a contract address.
*__Note that a pure implementation of a single standard is recommended__* rather than a hybrid solution, but an example of a hybrid 1155+721 contract is linked in the references section under implementations.
An important consideration is that even if the tokens are sent with another standard's rules the *__1155 transfer events MUST still be emitted.__* This is so the balances can still be determined via events alone as per 1155 standard rules.
The URI value allows for ID substitution by clients. If the string `{id}` exists in any URI, clients MUST replace this with the actual token ID in hexadecimal form. This allows for large number of tokens to use the same on-chain string by defining a URI once, for a large collection of tokens. Example of such a URI: `https://token-cdn-domain/{id}.json` would be replaced with `https://token-cdn-domain/000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000004cce0.json` if the client is referring to token ID 314592/0x4CCE0.
Changes to the URI MUST emit the `URI` event if the change can be expressed with an event (i.e. it isn't dynamic). If the optional ERC1155Metadata_URI extension is included, the 'uri' function SHOULD be used to retrieve values for which no event was emitted. The function MUST return the same value as the event if it was emitted.
This JSON schema is loosely based on the "ERC721 Metadata JSON Schema", but includes optional formatting to allow for ID substitution by clients. If the string `{id}` exists in any JSON value, it MUST be replaced with the actual token ID, by all client software that follows this standard.
"description": "The number of decimal places that the token amount should display - e.g. 18, means to divide the token amount by 1000000000000000000 to get its user representation.",
"description": "Describes the asset to which this token represents",
},
"image": {
"type": "string",
"description": "A URI pointing to a resource with mime type image/* representing the asset to which this token represents. Consider making any images at a width between 320 and 1080 pixels and aspect ratio between 1.91:1 and 4:5 inclusive.",
},
"properties": {
"type": "object",
"description": "Arbitrary properties. Values may be strings, numbers, object or arrays.",
},
}
}
```
An example of an ERC-1155 Metadata JSON file follows. The properties array proposes some SUGGESTED formatting for token-specific display properties and metadata.
Metadata localization should be standardized to increase presentation uniformity across all languages. As such, a simple overlay method is proposed to enable localization. If the metadata JSON file contains a `localization` attribute, its content MAY be used to provide localized values for fields that need it. The `localization` attribute should be a sub-object with three attributes: `uri`, `default` and `locales`. If the string `{locale}` exists in any URI, it MUST be replaced with the chosen locale by all client software.
"description": "Identifies the asset to which this token represents",
},
"decimals": {
"type": "integer",
"description": "The number of decimal places that the token amount should display - e.g. 18, means to divide the token amount by 1000000000000000000 to get its user representation.",
},
"description": {
"type": "string",
"description": "Describes the asset to which this token represents",
},
"image": {
"type": "string",
"description": "A URI pointing to a resource with mime type image/* representing the asset to which this token represents. Consider making any images at a width between 320 and 1080 pixels and aspect ratio between 1.91:1 and 4:5 inclusive.",
},
"properties": {
"type": "object",
"description": "Arbitrary properties. Values may be strings, numbers, object or arrays.",
},
"localization": {
"type": "object",
"required": ["uri", "default", "locales"],
"properties": {
"uri": {
"type": "string",
"description": "The URI pattern to fetch localized data from. This URI should contain the substring `{locale}` which will be replaced with the appropriate locale value before sending the request."
},
"default": {
"type": "string",
"description": "The locale of the default data within the base JSON"
},
"locales": {
"type": "array",
"description": "The list of locales for which data is available. These locales should conform to those defined in the Unicode Common Locale Data Repository (http://cldr.unicode.org/)."
The function `setApprovalForAll` allows an operator to manage one's entire set of tokens on behalf of the approver. To permit approval of a subset of token IDs, an interface such as [ERC-1761 Scoped Approval Interface](https://eips.ethereum.org/EIPS/eip-1761) is suggested.
The counterpart `isAprrovedForAll` provides introspection into status set by `setApprovalForAll`.
An owner SHOULD be assumed to always be able to operate on their own tokens regardless of approval status, so should SHOULD NOT have to call `setApprovalForAll` to approve themselves as an operator before they can operate on them.
The `symbol` function (found in the ERC-20 and ERC-721 standards) was not included as we do not believe this is a globally useful piece of data to identify a generic virtual item / asset and are also prone to collisions. Short-hand symbols are used in tickers and currency trading, but they aren't as useful outside of that space.
The `name` function (for human-readable asset names, on-chain) was removed from the standard to allow the Metadata JSON to be the definitive asset name and reduce duplication of data. This also allows localization for names, which would otherwise be prohibitively expensive if each language string was stored on-chain, not to mention bloating the standard interface. While this decision may add a small burden on implementers to host a JSON file containing metadata, we believe any serious implementation of ERC-1155 will already utilize JSON Metadata.
The requirement to emit `TransferSingle` or `TransferBatch` on balance change implies that a valid implementation of ERC-1155 redeploying to a new contract address MUST emit events from the new contract address to replicate the deprecated contract final state. It is valid to only emit a minimal number of events to reflect only the final balance and omit all the transactions that led to that state. The event emit requirement is to ensure that the current state of the contract can always be traced only through events. To alleviate the need to emit events when changing contract address, consider using the proxy pattern, such as described in ERC-1538. This will also have the added benefit of providing a stable contract address for users.
The standard supports `safeTransferFrom` and `onERC1155Received` functions because they are significantly cheaper for single token-type transfers, which is arguably a common use case.
The standard only supports safe-style transfers, making it possible for receiver contracts to depend on `onERC1155Received` or `onERC1155BatchReceived` function to be always called at the end of a transfer.
As the Ethereum ecosystem continues to grow, many dapps are relying on traditional databases and explorer API services to retrieve and categorize data. The ERC-1155 standard guarantees that event logs emitted by the smart contract will provide enough data to create an accurate record of all current token balances. A database or explorer may listen to events and be able to provide indexed and categorized searches of every ERC-1155 token in the contract.
The function `setApprovalForAll` allows an operator to manage one's entire set of tokens on behalf of the approver. It enables frictionless interaction with exchange and trade contracts.
Restricting approval to a certain set of Token IDs, quantities or other rules MAY be done with an additional interface or an external contract. The rationale is to keep the ERC-1155 standard as generic as possible for all use-cases without imposing a specific approval scheme on implementations that may not need it. Standard token approval interfaces can be used, such as the suggested [ERC-1761 Scoped Approval Interface](https://github.com/ethereum/EIPs/issues/1761) which is compatible with ERC-1155.
This standard can be used to represent multiple token types for an entire domain. Both Fungible and Non-Fungible tokens can be stored in the same smart-contract.
The `safeBatchTransferFrom` function allows for batch transfers of multiple token ids and values. The design of ERC-1155 makes batch transfers possible without the need for a wrapper contract, as with existing token standards. This reduces gas costs when more than one token type is included in a batch transfer, as compared to single transfers with multiple transactions.
Another advantage of standardized batch transfers is the ability for a smart contract to respond to the batch transfer in a single operation using `onERC1155BatchReceived`.
### Batch Balance
The `balanceOfBatch` function allows clients to retrieve balances of multiple owners and token ids with a single call.
In order to keep storage requirements light for contracts implementing ERC-1155, enumeration (discovering the IDs and values of tokens) must be done using event logs. It is RECOMMENDED that clients such as exchanges and blockchain explorers maintain a local database containing the Token ID, Supply, and URI at the minimum. This can be built from each TransferSingle, TransferBatch, and URI event, starting from the block the smart contract was deployed until the latest block.
ERC-1155 contracts must therefore carefully emit TransferSingle or TransferBatch events in any instance where tokens are created, minted, or destroyed.
### Non-Fungible Tokens
The following strategy is an example of how to mix fungible and non-fungible tokens together in the same contract. The top 128 bits of the uint256 `_id` parameter in any ERC-1155 function could represent the base token ID, while the bottom 128 bits might be used for any extra data passed to the contract.
Non-Fungible tokens can be interacted with using an index based accessor into the contract/token data set. Therefore to access a particular token set within a mixed data contract and particular NFT within that set, `_id` could be passed as `<uint128: base token id><uint128: index of NFT>`.
Inside the contract code the two pieces of data needed to access the individual NFT can be extracted with uint128(~0) and the same mask shifted by 128.
- [Here Be Dragons - Going Beyond ERC-20 and ERC-721 To Reduce Gas Cost by ~80%](https://medium.com/horizongames/going-beyond-erc20-and-erc721-9acebd4ff6ef)
