Items Learn
Last updated
Last updated
Items protocol is currently deployed on Ethereum mainnet and Optimistic L2.
Items are perfectly interoperable tokens on top of Ethereum. They can act as ERC20s, ERC1155s and as more advanced tokens with state of the art capabilities, while maintaining backward compatibility with all applications based on the ERC20 and ERC1155 standards.
There are three main types of Items:
Native Items
Wrapped Items (ERC20s, ERC721s, ERC1155s and ETH wrapped as Items)
Deck Items (ERC721 and ERC1155 collections)
The infographic below compares the Item standard with the ERC20 and ERC1155 standards.
| Features | ERC20 | ERC1155 | Items |
|---|---|---|---|
DApp Compatibility | DApps that support ERC20 standard | DApps that support the ERC1155 standard | DApps that support both the ERC20 and ERC1155 standards |
Name and Symbol | Saved on-chain | Off-chain | On-chain and upgradable |
Metadata | Unsupported | Off-chain | On-chain and off-chain |
Decimals | Up to 18 | 0 | 18 (fixed) |
Security | Smart contract for each token | Smart contract for each Collection | All cloned by the same secure Factory |
Approve | Approve transaction required for each token | Approve transaction required for each collection | Only one approve transaction required for all existing Items |
Permit Approval | Unsupported | Unsupported | Supported by all Items |
Batch Operability | Unsupported | From the same Collection | All existing Items |
Extensions | Unsupported | Unsupported | Supported |
The Item standard is a superstandard that enables developers and users to deal with every type of asset—from currencies, to gaming items, to governance tokens, and more—with dramatically more complexity, dynamism and security than any other standard that has existed before.
Factory Cores Following the EthereansOS Factory-based approach to coding, every Item is cloned from a model with an incorruptible core. This ensures maximum security for users, as developers can't modify an Item's token contract in any way that could produce risks, bugs or other vulnerabilities.
Extensions All Native Items can have extensions, which are smart contracts than can complexify and enhance their functionalities and ability to interact with Ethereum DApps, but without compromising the inherent security of their model contract cores. Developers can select from the boilerplate Extension models provided by Extension Factory. New models will be developed and made available in the future to ensure that the Item standard will always remain at the vanguard of token technology.
Discoverability Because all Items share the same Main Interface, Developers can easily retrieve all Items and Item Collections from the blockchain, including all on-chain data (e.g. total supply, address balance, name, symbol, uri, etc.). This facilitates interactions with Items at the smart contract level when creating both services and applications, and reconstructs information on the Frontend side, in a more effective and efficient way compared to other standards.
Decimals The ERC20 and ERC1155 standards do not share a standardized approach in their handling of decimals, creating a hazardous environment for developers and resulting in bugs in DApps. Items, on the other hand, always have 18 decimals for both their ERC20 and ERC1155 interfaces, making it simple and secure to integrate them with DApps and Frontends.
Advanced Batch Operations The ERC11155 standard introduced batch technology to Ethereum. However, with that standard, only tokens of the same Collection can be used in batch operations. The Item standard unleashes the full potential of batching by allowing all existing Items, both Native and Wrapped, even those of different Collections, to be used together in batch operations. This allows developers to design their DApps with more complex logic, and saves users gas when swapping or transferring several tokens at once. Given that all ERC20s, ERC721s, ERC1155s and ETH can be wrapped as Items, this means that theoretically all tokens on Ethereum (of those standards) could be batched together, all at once, in a single transaction.
Advanced Permission System The Item standard comes with a new advanced permission system. This allows for the defining of which wallet(s) and/or smart contract(s) can govern which permissions of an Item Collection (for example, the permission to mint more Items in the Collection, or the permission to modify the Collection's metadata). Given that these defined operators can be smart contracts, developers can built entire DApps on top of an Item Collection. The system's overall design also protects users from Collection hosts who would otherwise be able to abuse their power and conduct malicious operations.
Advanced Metadata Implementation Items take metadata implementation to a new level of dynamism and decentralization. Names, symbols and uris of both individual Items and Item Collections are not only always saved 100% on-chain, but can even be modified 100% on-chain at any time. The uri of an Item or an Item Collection that contains any kind of metadata—like descriptions, in-game properties, images and so on—can be traditional off-chain database references (i.e. "ipfs://" or "https://api."). However, it can also be a far more advanced codable smart contract address that functions as a 100% on-chain engine that allows for the saving and regeneration of all metadata dynamically and fully on-chain. This is just one further way in which EthOS makes it possible to create and manage genuinely decentralized and censorship-resistant applications.
Permit Approval All Items natively support the permit approval operation, which allows for making approvals by way of signed, off-chain, gasless messages (rather than direct transactions). Developers can use this to build applications that not only support permit approvals, but even ones that implement meta-transactions that use third parties to execute transactions and pay the gas fees.
All ERC20s, ERC721s, ERC1155s and ETH can be wrapped as Items, and thereby acquire all of the capabilities of the Item standard.
This means that the Item standard can not only be used to mint new native tokens that possess all of the qualities and interoperability explicated in these documents, but can also serve, for the more primitive tokens that presently dominate the Ethereum ecosystem, as a bridge to a more advanced future.
A Deck is a suite of tokens from a collection of ERC721s (like BAYC) or ERC1155s (like Adidas Originals) wrapped into a single 'fungible' supply of Items. Items can be used as if they were ERC20s, ERC1155s and as more advanced objects with state of the art capabilities.
Decks allow NFTs to interact with any application, and liberate NFT communities by granting them unfettered access to the Ethereum universe. Collections of ERC721s and ERC1155s can be used in governance and DeFi with even greater utility than the tokens that are native to those spaces, and all with a simple wrap.
Below you can find a basic example of how Decks work in practice.
Wrapping 1. Davey wraps #935 and #564 from the BAYC Collection as Deck Items.
While wrapped as Deck Items, the two BAYCs:
a) lose their uniqueness. They are simply two fungible tokens from the BAYC Deck supply. b) gain all capabilities of the Item standard.
Unwrapping
2. Later, Davey unwraps two BAYC Deck Items, retrieving two original BAYC. Reservations
When Davey wrapped BAYC #935 and #564, he had the choice of reserving them.
a) If he did, only he can retrieve them specifically when he unwraps the two Deck Items.
b) If he did not, he will retrieve two of the available BAYC that were wrapped as Deck Items.
Reservations expire after ~10 days (in blocks).
DeFi, Governance, and Collectible worlds are usually considered separate ecosystems, due to the different standards and protocols that distinguish them.
Items can act as both as ERC20s and ERC1155s, rendering them perfectly interoperable objects on Ethereum and allowing for the use of an asset on protocols based on both standards. Because they have this multidisciplinary nature, they merge the DeFi and NFT worlds into one. This makes it possible to create projects and applications that are not limited to any one realm of Ethereum, but which are universally portable across the entire universe.
Our mission with Items is to accelerate the adoption of and improve upon the ERC11155 standard, in both present and future applications in the Ethereum world, making the life of Ethereans more affordable, efficient, secure and fun.
