Lexitoken and Token.Gallery Announcement
A one page summary of the Lexitoken project
Everyone’s hopping onto the blockchain train, and I guess we’re no different. However, in a world full of ICOs, there’s an extreme lack of standards and protocols. How often are you left buying into a token sale, with no idea how to use that token? We get it.
There’s been an exciting, growing trend of collectible tokens (or cards) on the Ethereum network. Basically, these are digital trading cards which are attached to your wallet address. It’s a pretty neat concept but currently there are a lot of issues with it. Those issues include visibility, trading, and use-case scenarios. Combine this with the quickly growing blockchain gaming scene. Tons of digital assets will and are being built, but currently there’s no standard and no way to easily view these assets. With Lexitoken, we’re trying to bridge that gap with a standards protocol for digital collectibles and add value to these existing assets.
What is Lexitoken
Lexitoken is a protocol for token standardization. When developing a token smart contract, there are many additional variables you can add to these tokens. Most are created to serve a specific purpose, and that’s cool. But what if I want to use my 1000 BasicAttentionTokens for purposes they weren’t meant for? That’s where Lexitoken comes in. By assigning additional stores of value to preexisting (and future) tokens — we can add value to these tokens and have them utilized across the network. Our main goal is cross dApp gamification, examples including: keys to rooms, weapon power-ups, hidden items, and access to private chats — but we’re sure you’ll be more creative.
One of the benefits of our protocol is that it will require absolutely 0 special tokens to incorporate into your tokens or dApp development. With our standards, you can use preexisting attributes on tokens in your application, or build your own on top of them. Our standard consists of two basic archetypes: cards and ‘coins’.
Cards
Trading cards have been popular forever, and it only makes sense that they’d be adapted to a blockchain network. In Lexitoken terminology, the card is the ERC20 token or digital asset. With collectible-based projects, many are already utilizing the card idea with a visual representation. For our protocol to work, cards must contain a few different things.
- A visual representation of the asset
- The full name of the card / symbol
- The token symbol
- The token Contract Address
- Card description
- Token attributes (Stats)
- Quantity held by wallet address
- Artist (if applicable & known)
- Sets (Collections of cards created by an entity or developer)
- Expansion slots (For cross-platform support)
We will be creating a card representation for each asset on the blockchain (a lofty goal!) so that users can easily identify the tokens in our gallery.
“Coins”
Lexitoken will also support token expansion with a slotting protocol. While developers will be able to build attributes directly into a card, we want to allow for creative thinkers to choose which attributes are most applicable to their applications. Attribute slotting will allow card use to be expanded through “coin slots” built into each token created with our protocol. ‘Coins’ will allow for custom faces and single attribute expansion to cards / tokens. Slotting is to release shortly after the standards release.
Token Gallery
As Ethereum becomes more popular and developers continue pushing interesting projects out, digital collectibles on the platform WILL become a staple of the blockchain. A few examples can already be seen through Cryptopunks, Pepe Cards, and MyCurioCards. Each ERC20 token can have a visual representation. Currently, there is no good way to display a wallet’s token collection. For example, MyEtherWallet allows manual input of tokens, but tokens that involve artwork or stats, show no representation. Card based collectibles won’t be the final stage.
Gaming will become a large part of the Ethereum network. We foresee tokens / cards / assets being created as playing cards, in-game weapons, keys, chat room functions, stat based armor, and more. Our protocol will help allow these assets to work across dApps.
Ex: Developer A creates a trading card game (TCG) utilizing ERC20 tokens. Any token can be used for the game, by pulling a set of characteristics embedded into the token. A player owns 40 BasicAttentionToken. Developer A allows BAT to be used a powerful card within their TCG.
Collectors and players will need a public facing gallery, that they can import tokens and digital assets into for trading, selling, and playing. A digital asset album.
Without the ability to search, create, and view assets, mass buy-in can never happen. Our gallery will display all known tokens, allow for submission, allow for social features such as collection following and commenting, and potentially the ability to house the tokens within the gallery itself*. As gaming grows on blockchain, our gallery aims to be the go-to database for visual asset representation. Already, there are multiple game items and collectibles being created and we hope to aid in their discovery.
“Trustless Trading” Smart Contract Escrow Trades
Part of the appeal of trading cards is the ability to trade! While there are many projects currently attempting to set up a “trustless” exchange process, Lexitoken’s trading contract is built specifically with cards in mind. Token.Gallery will feature a “trustless” escrow trade smart contract. This contract will allow two parties to select the cards they want and trade them, without the need for an exchange. We have no plans on incorporating our own token to allow these transactions to pass. The trading smart contract will simply require the cards, the Ether/Ubiq to fuel to the transaction, and the party consent.
Opening up the ability to freely trade without a third-party will greatly impact the digital collectible market.
Gamifying Tokens for Cross dApp Integration
With an easy-to-use gallery, a simple standards protocol, free trading, and the ability to expand cards — tailoring them for applications will be easy. We’ll be supplying a dummy project that will outline all the steps to get tokens integrated in your dApp with the Lexitoken protocol.
That’s about it!
This is just the beginning. Our hope is that Lexitoken becomes an easy, fun way to kick-start the collector scene on Blockchain by working with the community, collectors, and developers. This is just the early phase. Our project will evolve with the needs. We invite you to learn more on our website: lexitoken.io or join our slack channel.
