Token standards · ERC-20, TRC-20, BEP-20 — and PRC-20 on PRANA

1 · What a "-20" token actually is

The ERC-20 standard (EIP-20) is just a list of functions a contract promises to have. A wallet or exchange that knows these can handle any token, sight unseen — that's the whole point of a standard:

• totalSupply() · balanceOf(addr) — how many exist, who holds what.
• transfer(to, amt) — send your own tokens.
• approve(spender, amt) · allowance(owner, spender) · transferFrom(from, to, amt) — let a contract (a DEX, a bridge) move your tokens with your permission. This is how KulaSwap and the bridge work.
• Two events — Transfer and Approval — so explorers can follow the ledger.

That's it. The balances live in a mapping(address => uint256) inside the contract. A token is a ledger with those six functions bolted on.

2 · One standard, many chains

Because these chains all run the EVM (or an EVM-compatible VM), the same ERC-20 interface is simply re-branded per chain. Learn it once, deploy it anywhere:

Same interface ⇒ the same tools work everywhere: MetaMask to hold, Remix or Hardhat / Foundry to build, an Etherscan-style explorer (PRANA's is PRANAScan) to inspect. A dev who knows ERC-20 already knows PRC-20 — there is nothing new to learn to build on PRANA.

3 · PRC-20 — in one line

A PRC-20 is an ERC-20 deployed to PRANA. Same interface, same wallets, same tooling; chain id 712217. We give it its own name the way TRON has TRC-20 and BNB Chain has BEP-20 — not because it's a different technical standard, but because it's our chain's tokens, and a name people can hold onto. KULA (the DeFi collateral coin), the wrapped bridge tokens wMELEK / wVKBT / wCURE, and any token you deploy on PRANA are PRC-20s.

The chain is open — mint your own

We want other people making token mints here. A chain is only alive when people build on it, so issuance on MELEK and PRANA is permissionless — you don't need our permission, and there are two on-ramps depending on how much code you want to touch:

• No code — MELEK-Engine token. Burn a little APIS to mint a token, turn on SCOT so posts under your tag earn it, and list it on KulaSwap. Point-and-click via the Tokens portal · walkthrough on Make a token.
• Some code — your own PRC-20. Generate it in the OpenZeppelin Wizard, compile in Remix, deploy to PRANA (chain id 712217). Add features — mintable, burnable, capped, pausable — with a checkbox each.
• At scale — a factory. Want to let your users mint tokens? The EIP-1167 clone pattern (below) is how you offer cheap one-click mints on top of one implementation you deploy once.

Whatever you mint is a first-class citizen: tradeable on KulaSwap, usable as CDP collateral, bridgeable. The point of the Academy is to hand you the whole on-ramp.

4 · Make one (the modern stack)

Don't write the six functions yourself — inherit the audited OpenZeppelin ERC20 base and add a name, symbol, and supply. The whole token:

import "@openzeppelin/contracts/token/ERC20/ERC20.sol";

contract MyToken is ERC20 {
    constructor() ERC20("My Token", "MYT") {
        _mint(msg.sender, 1_000_000 * 10 ** decimals());
    }
}

1. Write & compile in Remix (in-browser, nothing to install) or Hardhat / Foundry locally.
2. Add PRANA to MetaMask — one tap from the Akasha wallet page (RPC + chain id 712217).
3. Deploy to PRANA and confirm it on PRANAScan. You now hold a PRC-20 you created.

The same steps deploy to Ethereum, TRON, or BNB Chain — only the network in MetaMask changes. That portability is the lesson.

5 · Clones & factories — cheap tokens at scale

Deploying a fresh contract per token costs gas. The EIP-1167 minimal proxy ("clone") deploys a tiny stub that delegates to one shared implementation — so a factory can mint hundreds of tokens cheaply. In 2026 you do this with OpenZeppelin's Clones library (Clones.clone() / cloneDeterministic()), not a hand-rolled factory. It's how token-launch platforms work, and how PRANA's own token factory keeps issuance affordable.

⚠ Don't follow 2018 tutorials into dead tools

Most "make an Ethereum token" guides online are from the 2017–2018 boom and point at tools that are now retired. The ideas still hold; the tools changed. If a tutorial says the left, use the right:

Beginner path: OpenZeppelin Wizard → Remix → MetaMask. Then graduate to Foundry. Read Solidity by Example (official) and the Foundry Book, not the Medium/Truffle-era walk-throughs.

6 · Where PRC-20s live in the ecosystem

• KULA — a PRC-20 that is DeFi collateral: lock it to borrow (the CDP), or burn other tokens into it (the MultiBurnMine: many PRC-20s in → KULA out).
• Wrapped bridge tokens — wMELEK / wVKBT / wCURE are PRC-20s that mirror value locked on MELEK / Hive-Engine, so those assets can trade on KulaSwap.
• KulaSwap pairs — any PRC-20 can be pooled and swapped (a Uniswap-V2 AMM on PRANA).

Beyond tokens — build apps, social, games

A token is the first thing you make on a chain, not the last. The same EVM skills — Solidity, Remix, MetaMask, a wallet connection — build everything else, and the same "learn-once, deploy-anywhere" rule holds. Where to go next:

• NFTs & items — ERC-721 (unique) and ERC-1155 (mixed) are the next standards after ERC-20, same OpenZeppelin base. Game items, memberships, tickets.
• Social media — MELEK itself is a social chain (posts, votes, curation earn a coin); the Engine/SCOT model lets a community mint its own social token. That's the decentralized-social idea the old dApp directories chased, actually running.
• dApps & games — a smart contract + a web front-end (ethers v6 / viem + a wallet connect) is the whole shape of a dApp. PRANA hosts the DeFi + arcade side; MELEK hosts the social side.

The 2018 thread below is a snapshot of people trying all of this at once — token mints, social apps, games, launch platforms. Most of those projects are gone; the idea — anyone can build on an open chain — is exactly what we're handing you the tools to actually do.

Credit & further reading

This lesson grows out of a long-running community resource — "Let's create some Ethereum clones" (Tokenista, Bitcointalk, 2018), a 6-page pile of token-creation, clone-factory and dApp resources. We've kept what still holds in 2026 (Remix, MetaMask, OpenZeppelin, EIP-1167, Solidity) and swapped the dated tools for their modern equivalents (Hardhat / Foundry for Truffle; ethers v6 / viem for old web3).

Library of Ashurbanipal: The ERC-20 standard · Smart contracts · The EVM · KulaSwap & PRANA DeFi. The other kind of token (MELEK-Engine / SCOT): Make a token →