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LibraryMarkets2015Design paperCorpus record

Token Standard

ERC-20. Fabian Vogelsteller and Vitalik Buterin.

A token contract exposes total supply, balance, transfer, and allowances. Wallets and exchanges can integrate one interface.

A reading of the public document. Not a copy of it, and not a claim about a later network that reused the name.

A integration that treats every ERC-20 as redeemable for a reserve has invented a promise the standard does not contain.
Evidence
Primary paper
Re-measured
No
Assumptions
3
Records linked
2

Code

Source, repository, and what is actually hosted

  • EIP-20https://eips.ethereum.org/EIPS/eip-20
  • The source URL is not a GitHub repository. No code remote is invented.
  • Full text is not mirrored. Public availability is not a licence to copy the file onto this site.
  • Add to a reading list

01 Claim ledger

What the paper is allowed to say

Each row is a sentence already in the study. The status is the same on every row: a model claim, not a live measurement.

  1. Claim 01 · Paper model

    The defect

    Every early token invented its own transfer function. A wallet could not list a balance it did not have custom code for.

  2. Claim 02 · Paper model

    The rule

    A token contract exposes total supply, balance, transfer, and allowances. Wallets and exchanges can integrate one interface.

  3. Claim 03 · Paper model

    How it is put together

    The contract is the ledger of balances. An allowance lets a spender move tokens. The standard does not say the token is a claim on anything.

  4. Claim 04 · Paper model

    Where the claim stops

    ERC-20 does not make a token a security, a deposit, or a share.

02 Three cuts

Observation, model, falsifier

A desk does not stop at the summary. Each claim is cut three ways, using only this study's own assumptions and checks. Nothing here is a new figure.

  1. 01 The defect

    Observation

    What the study says

    Every early token invented its own transfer function. A wallet could not list a balance it did not have custom code for.

    Model

    What has to hold

    ERC-20 does not make a token a security, a deposit, or a share.

    Falsifier

    What would retire it

    What does a balance represent outside the contract?

  2. 02 The rule

    Observation

    What the study says

    A token contract exposes total supply, balance, transfer, and allowances. Wallets and exchanges can integrate one interface.

    Model

    What has to hold

    A transfer is not a notification to the recipient contract.

    Falsifier

    What would retire it

    What does a balance represent outside the contract?

  3. 03 How it is put together

    Observation

    What the study says

    The contract is the ledger of balances. An allowance lets a spender move tokens. The standard does not say the token is a claim on anything.

    Model

    What has to hold

    ERC-20 does not make a token a security, a deposit, or a share.

    Falsifier

    What would retire it

    What does a balance represent outside the contract?

  4. 04 Where the claim stops

    Observation

    What the study says

    ERC-20 does not make a token a security, a deposit, or a share.

    Model

    What has to hold

    ERC-20 does not make a token a security, a deposit, or a share.

    Falsifier

    What would retire it

    What does a balance represent outside the contract?

03 Sequence

One action, as an operating tape

  1. 01Read balanceOf.
  2. 02Call transfer, or approve and transferFrom.
  3. 03Assume nothing about decimals unless you read them. Decimals were a later convention.
  4. 04What does a balance represent outside the contract?

04 Load-bearing

The argument, and where a pitch drops it

  1. Why it is still on the desk

    The cut

    A integration that treats every ERC-20 as redeemable for a reserve has invented a promise the standard does not contain.

    Why it carries weight

    If this cut is skipped, the paper's name is being used without the mechanism that makes the name mean anything.

    Where it is dropped

    A later client, parameter or reward formula is a different object from this paragraph.

  2. After the text

    The cut

    Almost every fungible token on Ethereum is this interface, plus extra functions the standard does not police.

    Why it carries weight

    If this cut is skipped, the paper's name is being used without the mechanism that makes the name mean anything.

    Where it is dropped

    ERC-20 does not make a token a security, a deposit, or a share.

05 Register

What has to be true

  • Model · Not re-measured

    ERC-20 does not make a token a security, a deposit, or a share.

  • Model · Not re-measured

    Missing return values in early tokens broke composability. That history matters.

  • Model · Not re-measured

    A transfer is not a notification to the recipient contract.

06 Divergence

What happened after the paper

Almost every fungible token on Ethereum is this interface, plus extra functions the standard does not police.

A later client, parameter set, or reward formula is a different object. Cite this paper for the mechanism. Cite a primary release for the network. This desk has not re-run the proof.

07 Pre-mortem

What to check before you use the idea

  4. 0 of 3 marked on this browser. A mark is a reading note, not a pass, a rating, or a recommendation.

08 Anatomy

The paper, in the order a builder needs

The problem it names

Every early token invented its own transfer function. A wallet could not list a balance it did not have custom code for.

What the design proposes

  • The contract is the ledger of balances.
  • An allowance lets a spender move tokens.
  • The standard does not say the token is a claim on anything.

How the mechanism is specified

  • Read balanceOf.
  • Call transfer, or approve and transferFrom.
  • Assume nothing about decimals unless you read them. Decimals were a later convention.

What this page does not treat as proven

  • ERC-20 does not make a token a security, a deposit, or a share.
  • Missing return values in early tokens broke composability. That history matters.
  • A transfer is not a notification to the recipient contract.

Why the desk still reads it

A integration that treats every ERC-20 as redeemable for a reserve has invented a promise the standard does not contain.

09 Lexicon

Terms, opened into the record

Allowance
A permission for another address to move tokens.
Balance
A number in this contract. Not, by itself, a claim on a bank.

10 Repository

Every linked record on this page

Underlined words open a page that already exists: a concept, a protocol profile, a failure record, or another paper. If a word is not underlined, this desk does not have a record for it.

Concepts

Protocols

This is Blockchain Lab's reading of a public design paper. It is not the paper, not a copy of it, and not an offer of tokens, equity, custody or a partnership. Later network behaviour can diverge from the text. Nothing here is investment, legal or technical advice.

Research status: Design paper. Last reviewed: 1 October 2026. This is a reading of a public paper, not investment, legal or security advice.