Create a Counterparty Token (NFTs and FTs)
Freewallet makes it possible for anyone to create tokens (also known as assets, coins, derivatives, etc) that are then owned by the address they were issued from. Ownership enables you to issue more units of your token, lock the supply, change the description, and customize other settings.
Once the issuance is confirmed by the Bitcoin network, your tokens can be freely traded on the Counterparty decentralized exchange against XCP and other tokens and centralized exchanges as well (if you can convince them).
Tokens can be divisible or indivisible. While Counterparty has had this process active and usable since 2013, in recent years the term “NFT” has been used to describe Assets and Tokens.
To learn more about the difference between NFT, FT and what the token types Counterparty supports mentioned below, please review this informational video by RobotLoveCoffee, which gives a good overview of this topic.
There are three types of tokens at the moment when using Counterparty and all indiviudal types can be theoretically considered NFT’s, FT’s and Divisible FT’s depending on the choices you make when minting.
Alphabetical Named
Alphabetical tokens (for example BACON) are considered to be "named" or alphabetical
They must be between 1 and 12 uppercase letters and cannot start with A.
To create an alphabetical token, you will need enough BTC for a transaction fee and 0.5 XCP on the address you are using.
This is an anti-spam fee, which aims to reduce the amount of names a single individual can register without significant costs. The anti-spam fee is burned (destroyed).
Alphabetical Subasset
Alphabetical Subasset tokens (for example BACON.CRISPY) are also considered to be named or alphabetical, but must be between 1 and 250 upper or lower case letters and will always start with the main named asset then have a "." between the next name.
These can start with the letter "A".
To create an Alphabetical Subasset of an already created and confirmed Alphabetical Named Asset you will need enough BTC for a transaction fee and 0.25 XCP on the address you are using.
This is an anti-spam fee, which aims to reduce the amount of names a single individual can register without significant costs. The anti-spam fee is burned (destroyed).
Numeric
Numeric (or more precisely alphanumeric) tokens (for example A12149713090358620000) are free to register and only require a Bitcoin transaction fee (like all other Freewallet actions) on the issuing address.
If you only want to create and trade numeric tokens, you will not require any XCP. Numeric tokens must start with an "A".
You cannot choose the specific number the Numeric asset will be, and in the early days of Counterparty this feature was used to test the network and process for creating tokens
This is the type of token that STAMPS are (though those require a specific description prefix when minting)
For a deeper understanding and explanation of Subasset tokens, check out this informational video by RobotLoveCoffee.
In this process below you learn how to create Alphabetical, Alphabetical Subasset and Numeric tokens that can be:
Non-Fungible Tokens (assets with only 1 whole numbered token)
Fungible Tokens (assets with more than 1 whole numbered tokens)
Divisible Fungible Tokens (assets that can be divisible to be less than 1 whole numbered token)
Creating a token is fairly simple: Navigate to the top right corner and click the “Actions” icon. From here select the “Create a Token” action
The Source input line which should be an address that has enough BTC to cover the transaction fee’s as well as enough XCP to cover the anti-spam fee (for Alphabetical assets). You can change the address by clicking the note with a pencil icon to the right of the source input address.
Next step is to pick the Type of asset you would like to create with the drop-down menu next to the “Type” input
Within the Token Name input, here is where you can name your token. The token must be between 4 and 12 upper letters and cannot start with the letter “A”. If you choose to create a Numeric asset, this asset name will be automatically picked for you (these types of Numeric Tokens automatically start with the letter “A”)
The next input is the Quantity input. Since locking the asset issuance and supplying more Token issuance to a token is a separate function and BTC transaction, picking the Supply here is up to you as the issuer and can be changed later.
Divisible assets are divisible to 8 decimal places - The limit of maximum issuance of any type of token is 92,233,000,000 - The minimum issuance is 0 It is also possible to register a token with an issuance of 0 units, as a placeholder, though at the moment these tokens with 0 supply will not appear in the Freewallet left panel. If you are looking to issue more token units but cannot see your token because it has a supply of 0 units, please reference the Why can't I see my assets I own or created with 0 Issuance? on how to do so.
Next to this icon is the Divisible option. The default setting of Divisibility is set to No, though are able to change this to Yes by using the drop-down menu.
A divisible asset is considered Fungible (as it can be broken into decimal places and split up). Minting a true "NFT" would be creating a quantity of 1, setting Divisible as "No" in this section and then locking this token later so no more tokens can be issued.
It is very common to create a Description for your token at this time but it can be changed later with the Change Token Description feature. To learn more about the possibilities of what a Description can include, reference Exploring Token Information and Enhanced Asset Information.
If including a longform description, such as an arweave link from easyasset.art or a custom IPFS link, please reference this ongoing issue which is detailed in Issue#190 and Issue#197 regarding Effective Fee Rate when minting with a description. The fix for this is simply using three times the recommended High fee. A recent fix has been added in the settings for "UTXO Usage" and all fixes for this issue is explained in detail in the Troubleshooting section titled My transaction is too low of an "Effective Fee Rate"
Last is the Fee you would like to use on this Bitcoin Transaction. If you have questions about what BTC fee to use please reference What BTC fee should I use?
To see a deeper, in-depth video explanation of the full process of minting a Counterparty token, check out this informative video by RobotLoveCoffee that will take you through the whole process.
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