Intro to Peerplays Tokens
A brief guide to the various tokens of Peerplays.
Cryptocurrency (crypto) tokens represent tradable assets or utilities that reside on a blockchain. There are many uses for these tokens and their usefulness is growing in scope and scale at a remarkable pace. For example, just some of the things tokens are used for today:
- a store of value, like fiat currency
- fundraising via crowd sales
- decentralized financial instruments (called DeFi)
- digital intellectual property
- digital objects (in-game items, etc.)
- digital records (certifications, college degrees, etc.)
- supply chain management
The Peerplays blockchain has its own set of tokens which enable the various features of the network. Each type of token brings more versatility to benefit everyone who enjoys Peerplays.
Many different types of tokens exist in the world of crypto. Peerplays uses the following types to facilitate the transactions on the network.
Tokens are sometimes called "assets". The terms are pretty much interchangeable, at least for the purposes of this document.
The native assets within Peerplays are the coins which provide voting power when staked. The native asset of the Peerplays network itself is PPY. Communities within the Peerplays network may also have their own native asset. In this case, when the community native asset is staked, you would gain voting power for the governance of that community.
NFTs, or Non-Fungible Tokens, are tokens that typically represent virtual objects. Such objects are indivisible by nature. A visual example of an NFT would be art prints. Many prints of a single piece of art can exist, but each print itself can't be divided. NFTs are often used for artwork because of this quality.
Another defining feature of NFTs is their ability to be verified thanks to blockchain technology. All NFTs are unique. Going back to the art prints example, it's possible to know exactly which print you own from a given set. You might have print number 6 out of 200 and this can be verified on the blockchain. Additionally, you can find all the transactions related to that NFT since its creation.
The Peerplays network allows you to create, exchange, and buy/sell NFTs. They're also used in Peerplays for token staking, governance, rewards, and countless uses within dApps.
Community tokens (also called Fan tokens) are tokens which have been created to serve a particular community within the Peerplays network. Communities can have their own core token to provide voting power for the governance of that community. Other community tokens can exist to serve specific purposes within that community as well. The uses of community tokens are only limited by the imagination.
Sidechain tokens are assets which have originated off-chain that have been transferred onto the Peerplays chain through the services of Peerplays SONs. These sidechain assets include Peerplays versions of BTC, HIVE, or ETH and even Peerplays versions of NFTs living on the Ethereum chain. The external assets are backed by their counterparts, locked in a Peerplays controlled account on their native chains.
The sidechain tokens are prefixed with a "p" to denote that it is a Peerplays version of the token. For example, pBTC is Peerplays-Bitcoin and having a balance of 1 pBTC would mean having it backed by 1 BTC in a Peerplays controlled wallet. In this way, BTC can be deposited, withdrawn, and used across Peerplays as easily as any native token.
This means that tokens like BTC can be exchanged using the Peerplays Dex, staked to Peerplays liquidity pools, used in Peerplays based dApps, and to purchase NFTs.
PPY (Peerplays coin) is the native asset of the Peerplays network. Staking this asset provides voting power for voting on witnesses, SONs, advisors, and more. In addition, all exchanges that take place in the Peerplays Dex are based on exchanging assets with PPY. Currently a portion of all transaction fees within Peerplays is redistributed back to PPY holders as rewards, based on their amount of staked PPY.
PPY is the main store of value in Peerplays and is used to pay for transaction fees on the network.
BTFUN (BitFun) is the token created for BookiePro. BTFUN is used to place bets with a valueless token. It's used just for fun!
NFTs can be created on the Peerplays network for a wide variety of uses. DApp developers can issue NFTs to represent digital items, certificates, shares of ownership, and much more.