Paul Fulbrook
UPDATE: CIP-0035 was formerly known as CIP-0031 (the name was changed on December 16th 2021)
Introduction
Anyone who has been following Cardano for a while will know that we are charting new waters constantly and with the advent of smart contracts on the blockchain, new dApps, DEXs and platforms are popping up almost daily.
This is fantastic for all involved, but, in the words of Spiderman; “with great power, comes great responsibility”. Cardano is a third-generation proof of stake blockchain and the team at IOG have, since its inception, taken the “research first” route of development.
We all want smooth sailing, not uncharted, stormy waters. We want to know in advance what we will find when our ship gets to the areas labelled on the map “Here be dragons”!!
Enter, Cardano Improvement Proposals (CIP)
In this brief article, we will be explaining what CIPs are, how CIP-0035 affects our CDX token and summarise what we have planned to do to address the fact that we did not follow any standards when CDX was minted.
What are Cardano Improvement Proposals (CIPs)
The Cardano foundation intends Cardano Improvement Proposals to be the primary method of proposing new features, gathering feedback from the Cardano community and cataloguing design conversations and decisions.
Each CIP is a formalised design document and can be added to by community members but historical entries cannot be altered so they are an accurate history of feature progress.
Collaborative improvement.
CIPs are not a new thing, they are an industry standard across many blockchains, they exist to allow formal collaboration and communication between all interested parties (e.g. developers and stakeholders).
What is CIP-0035: On-chain Metadata Standards
CIP-0035 is focused on developing the standard schema for all fungible tokens on the Cardano network. The collaborative discussion that is taking place on CIP-0035 aims to decide what metadata should be recorded when a new token is minted.
CIP-0035 aims to solve the following:
- Provide a standardised way to associate an icon and a ticker with a token
- Provide a mechanism that allows the viewer to evaluate the trustworthiness and/or authenticity of a token
It is important to note that, at the time of writing, CIP-0035 has not been finalised.
What are fungible tokens?
Like regular currency (USD or GBP), a fungible token (like ADA) is interchangeable with another token of the same kind, for example, 1 ADA will always be equal to 1 ADA (in the same way that, regardless of value, 1 USD will always be equal to another 1 USD).
What is metadata?
Metadata is often described as data that describes other data. However, this description is ambiguous and not very helpful.
Put simply, Metadata is structured reference data that is used to identify and sort other data, for example; people have a kind of metadata: the fields would be things like, name, age, date of birth, employment status etc. It describes which attributes should be assigned to each person.
Token Metadata
Attributes that could be added to the metadata recorded for all newly minted tokens could include; policy-ID, ticker, icon, asset name or description. At present, there is not a standard set of attributes for tokens on the Cardano blockchain.
Having a set schema for tokens will improve trust in tokens and prevent fake tokens that are intended purely to defraud people from gaining any traction.
What does CIP-0035 mean for Cardax/CDX?
Why is CDX not following the standard?
When we minted our native token (CDX) on April 20th 2021, there was no standard format as the ability to mint tokens on Cardano had just been launched. It was an exciting time and many tokens were created with different sets of metadata.
CIP-0031 was first proposed in October 2021, so we were ahead of the curve, this allowed us to really get started with our own development. However, with the benefit of hindsight, we see that we will need to address this issue.
Luckily, this is NOT going to be a big problem.
When will Cardax/CDX follow the standard?
We will be fixing this issue as a matter of great importance but we will only make these changes after CIP-0035 has been finalised, otherwise, we would probably have to do it again (which would just be a waste of time!)
How will Cardax make it possible to convert/exchange CDX tokens?
Once CIP-0035 is finalised we mint our new version of our native token, we will be giving it a new name to avoid any confusion. At this point, we will allow users to easily convert their CDX to our new tokens at a 1:1 conversion rate.
Converting your CDX tokens the new token.
Converting your CDX to the new token will be done using a convertor that we will provide. We will communicate with all holders of CDX via our usual social media channels (Twitter, Discord, YouTube etc).
We truly appreciate the early support that you have given us and we remain determined to bring you a solid, reliable product. Please keep an eye on our social media and blog for future updates.
Thanks for your support,
