A Practical Comparison Between ERC-1155 and ERC-721 (2024)

FAQs

A Practical Comparison Between ERC-1155 and ERC-721? ›

This means that ERC-1155 tokens can be used for fractional ownership or as a form of currency, while ERC-721 tokens are typically used for digital collectibles and other unique digital assets. Another difference is that ERC-721 tokens can only be traded one at a time, while ERC-1155 tokens can be traded in bulk.

ERC-721 focuses on making each token unique and represents the claim of something special you can't copy. It's great for things like one-of-a-kind digital art or rare collectibles. ERC-1155 is more flexible. It lets you build NFTs that can be either exclusive or interchangeable.

ERC1155 was created in 2018 to allow for both fungible and non-fungible tokens to exist on a single contract. ERC20 tokens are fungible, which means each token is identical and interchangeable. Examples include cryptocurrencies like DAI and USDC. ERC721 tokens are non-fungible, meaning each token is unique.

While ERC-721 is an effective token standard that has served a significant purpose, ERC-1155 brings greater efficiency, flexibility, and security, allowing savings in both time and cost.

ERC-721 tokens can only be transferred individually, requiring separate transactions for each token. In contrast, ERC-1155 tokens support batch transfers, allowing multiple tokens to be sent in a single transaction. This enhances scalability, reduces gas fees, and simplifies bulk transfers.

One of its key features, 'indivisibility,' has a downside. The incapacity to divide into smaller units becomes impractical in scenarios where fractional or partial ownership of certain projects is desired. Minting and transfer of each ERC-721 token needs a separate transaction, which leads to higher transaction fees.

Gas efficiency is a key advantage of ERC-1155. By enabling the transfer of multiple tokens in a single transaction, it minimizes the associated gas costs. This makes it particularly suitable for applications where frequent transactions or bulk transfers are common, such as gaming platforms or tokenized asset markets.

By definition, an ERC721 cannot be replicated as each token is completely unique. In order to fractionalize an NFT, a smart contract can be designed to generate a series of ERC20 tokens which are then linked to the specific ERC721 token.

ERC-1155 is an Ethereum token standard introduced in 2019. It's designed to be a versatile way of creating both fungible (interchangeable) and non-fungible tokens. With this multi-token standard, a single smart contract can handle multiple token types.

Why use ERC-721? ›

The Importance of ERC-721

ERC-721 is a non-fungible token standard on the Ethereum blockchain. It provides a set of guidelines for creating unique tokens that represent digital assets. These tokens are non-fungible, meaning that they cannot be exchanged on a one-to-one basis due to their unique properties.

Erc-20 is the most widely-used token standard, and it defines a set of rules for creating fungible tokens (tokens that are interchangeable with each other) on the ethereum network. Erc-721, on the other hand, defines a standard for creating non-fungible tokens (nfts) that are unique and not interchangeable.

ERC20 is the The Most Popular Token Standard, utilized for developing tokens on Ethereum. The ERC20 tokens have specific characteristics and are fungible which is the best ERC standards token in the crypto market. Hence, these tokens are interchangeable and can be exchangeable with tokens of the same value.

The distinctive feature of ERC1155 is that it uses a single smart contract to represent multiple tokens at once. This is why its balanceOf function differs from ERC20's and ERC777's: it has an additional id argument for the identifier of the token that you want to query the balance of.

Estimated gas costs for airdropping tokens:

Cost of airdropping 1 ERC1155 token: ~ 51,571 gas. Cost of airdropping each additional ERC1155 token: ~ 42,672 gas.

ERC721 is a standard for representing ownership of non-fungible tokens, that is, where each token is unique. ERC721 is a more complex standard than ERC20, with multiple optional extensions, and is split across a number of contracts.

The ERC-721A is a more flexible and robust standard for creating and managing NFTs on the Ethereum blockchain, with additional features that can help to address some of the limitations and challenges of the original ERC-721 standard. The biggest gain is the gas-saving aspect when minting multiple NFTs.

What is ERC1155? ​ ERC1155 is a multi-token standard that allows the creation of fungible, non-fungible, and semi-fungible tokens all in one contract. Before ERC1155, if a use case needed both ERC20 (fungible) and ERC721 (non-fungible) tokens, then separate contracts were required to achieve this.

ERC1155 is a novel token standard that aims to take the best from previous standards to create a fungibility-agnostic and gas-efficient token contract. ERC1155 draws ideas from all of ERC20, ERC721, and ERC777. If you're unfamiliar with those standards, head to their guides before moving on.

The ERC-721 smart contract standard provides a template for creating unique tokens on the Ethereum blockchain. These tokens, known as NFTs, are used to represent unique digital or physical assets and have opened up new opportunities in the world of digital ownership and content creation.