Bitcoin Cash (BCH) advocates have unlocked new possibilities with the annual upgrade that took effect on May 15, 2023. With the new upgrade, they can now mint and engage in transactions involving tokens built on the BCH blockchain. This development, called Cashtokens, allows for token creation and transactions to be verified by the BCH network and run alongside traditional financial activities.
Several wallets that are compatible with BCH have already embraced the Cashtokens infrastructure, and enthusiasts can select a wallet that focuses on Cashtokens via the web portal, bestbchwallets.com. Nikita Zhavoronkov, the lead developer of Blockchair, recently shared his experience of jumping into the realm of Cashtokens. He expressed enthusiasm, stating that playing with Cashtokens for the past day has been nothing short of captivating.
Zhavoronkov highlighted the superior efficiency of BCH-native tokens compared to contracts that are built atop other blockchains, citing reduced fees as a significant advantage. However, the developer also highlighted a fundamental difference when working with Cashtokens, urging developers to discard their preconceived notions about Ethereum’s ERC20s.
According to Zhavoronkov, it is now possible to send both fungible tokens and some non-fungible tokens (NFTs) within a single output. He also added that there are no ‘contracts’ and token ids are now called ‘categories.’ The transfer structure follows the UTXO model. For token details, it’s proposed to have the Metadata Registry.
Zhavoronkov recommended that the BCH community embark on an exploration of Cashtokens with the 3xpl.com explorer. The developer stated that it is super fast, adless, private, open-source, and with lots of pro features for developers and analysts. Complementing the 3xpl.com explorer, users can also harness the salemkode.com explorer to delve into the realm of Cashtokens and explore associated transactions.
Since the upgrade took effect at block height 792,772, BCH users have been enthusiastically minting Cashtokens. According to statistics provided by the 3xpl.com explorer, 1,308 fungible tokens and 25,336 non-fungible tokens (NFTs) have sprung to life within the last 24 hours, marking a surge in token creation on the BCH blockchain.