Token Standards & Technical Foundations | NFTs & Digital Ownership

ERC-721 is the original NFT standard, one token, one ID, one owner. Ideal for unique artwork, domain names, and collectibles. Most PFP collections use ERC-721. ERC-1155 is more versatile, a single contract manages both unique and identical tokens, making it gas-efficient for gaming with thousands of different items.

Newer standards push boundaries. ERC-4907 introduces 'rentable' NFTs with expiration. ERC-6551 (Token Bound Accounts) allows NFTs to own other assets, a game character that holds its own inventory. Soulbound Tokens (SBTs) are non-transferable, perfect for credentials, reputation, and on-chain identity.

On non-Ethereum chains: Solana uses the Metaplex standard. Bitcoin has Ordinals, data inscribed directly into Bitcoin's blockchain. Each has trade-offs in cost, speed, and ecosystem support.

The standard a project chooses reflects its use case. ERC-721 for unique collectibles, ERC-1155 for gaming, SBTs for credentials, ERC-6551 for composable assets. Understanding these helps you evaluate whether a project's technical foundation matches its ambitions.