Asset basics

This lesson covers the core ideas behind FT4 assets and how they work on Chromia.

What are FT4 assets?

An FT4 asset is a digital token that stands for anything of value on the Chromia blockchain. You create these tokens with the FT4 library, which gives you a standard way to define and manage them.

Key components of FT4 assets

Account management

• Pool accounts that manage assets
• User accounts that hold assets
• Multiple account types, each with its own permissions

Asset registration

• You must register each asset on the blockchain
• Each asset gets a unique identifier
• Properties such as name, symbol, and number of decimal places describe an asset

Asset operations

• Minting: creates new units of an asset
• Burning: destroys existing units
• Transferring: moves units from one account to another
• Locking: blocks an asset from moving for a period of time

Account types of the dapp

The project relies on two main kinds of account:

Pool account

• Handles the initial distribution of the asset
• Controlled by the dapp

User accounts

• Users create these themselves
• Hold assets and send them to other accounts

Permissions on an FT4 account depend on what the account is for. To keep things simple, this project uses only two roles: user and admin.

Asset registration

Next, you set up a basic asset configuration and register the asset.

Put the following code in src/main/module.rell:

import lib.ft4.assets.{ asset, Unsafe };import lib.ft4.core.accounts.strategies.open;// Asset propertiesval account_type = "PoolAccount";val asset_name = "TestAsset";val asset_symbol = "TAT";val asset_decimals = 6;val asset_icon_url = "https://url-to-asset-icon";val asset_amount_to_mint = 1000000000L;val asset_amount_to_faucet = 100000L;val asset_amount_to_burn = 100L;object dapp_meta {    asset = Unsafe.register_asset(        asset_name,        asset_symbol,        asset_decimals,        chain_context.blockchain_rid,        asset_icon_url    );}

This code sets the asset's configuration and registers the asset when the blockchain initializes.

The next lesson adds operations for minting, burning, and transferring the asset.