Witek Radomski — co-founder and CTO of Enjin Coin — has developed ERC-1155[1], a new standard for defining video game tokens on the Ethereum blockchain.
Radomski’s journey to improve the gaming experience began 12 months ago in June 2017, when he created code for the first non-fungible token. It was released on GitHub two months later, and it led to the creation of the ERC-721 token, which is widely considered the standard for blockchain-based gaming and digital art. Several decentralized applications (DApps) have implemented the ERC-721 onto their platforms to create a wide array of gaming collectibles.
Unfortunately, ERC-721 was found to exhibit several limitations, and Radomski knew he had to take the standard to the next level.
“The non-fungible tokens being used today have defined a new class of user-owned virtual items,” he explained. “However, there are many problems with the existing token model. It is very expensive and inefficient to deploy large databases of items that mainstream game developers use.”
Radomski explains in a blog post[2] that the new ERC-1155 protocol allows for an infinite number of both fungible and non-fungible items to be deployed through a single contract. It is also lightweight and easy for most networks to handle.
“If this does take off, the gaming industry alone will require tens of millions of new items — but the application of this standard is by no means limited to the games market,” he commented. “ERC-1155 tokens could be used to certify all forms of ownership, tangible or digital.”
In the past, individual tokens were defined by single contracts. In addition, item swapping between game players would often require as many as four separate steps because Ethereum’s network approves and processes each traded item separately. ERC-1155 could alleviate
