How to develop a (basic) token on Ethereum – 7 easy steps and one great blog!

We have done it! Created our first Ethereum token on the test network with a couple of hours.

PETTOKEN 

For me the best way to learn is a combination of building, learning, and sharing. Best gateway into the blockchain/crypto world is via the creation of your own token. By creating your own token you will be forced to deep dive, understand the principles, explore supporting tools, and get in contact with great people within the communities. 

Below are the seven important steps for creating your own token. We have reviewed multiple "how to's and instructions" and by far the most comprehensible and easy to use was written by  Chidume Nnamdi, just follow his great blog: https://blog.logrocket.com/create-deploy-erc-20-token-ethereum-blockchain/

Step 1: Determine the Token Standard

There are different token standards on the Ethereum network, such as ERC-20, ERC-721, ERC-1155, etc. You need to determine which token standard you want to use for your token and understand its requirements. But as you likely don't know what is out there, it would be good to get familiar with the "basic" standard, the ERC-20. 

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Step 2: Set up a development environment

You need to set up a development environment for Ethereum, such as Remix or Truffle, to write and test your smart contract. You can always change your stack at later stage and likely you will do as your requirements will change, but let’s start simple with Remix. For the PETTOKEN we selected Remix, main motivation is that it is pretty easy to do your first development; it’s online and supports development, loading and compiling, deployment, and interacting. 

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Step 3 - 7: Write-Compile-Deploy-Interact-Verify your Contract 

As mentioned for the technical steps we would recommend to follow the article written by Chidume Nnamdi. https://blog.logrocket.com/create-deploy-erc-20-token-ethereum-blockchain/

Step 3: Write the smart contract 

You need to write the smart contract that will define the properties and functionality of your token. This involves defining variables such as the name, symbol, and total supply of the token, as well as functions to transfer and manage the token. There are mulitple libraries and solutions that can support us, but this also makes it a bit more complex. For now let’s use some standard functionalities, at a later stage we will deep dive into potential solutions. 

Step 4: Compile the smart contract

Once you have written your smart contract, you need to compile it to ensure it is free of syntax errors and other issues. The contract will create some warnings, but can be ignored for now. 

Step 5: Deploy the smart contract

You need to deploy the smart contract to the Ethereum network using a tool such as Ganache or a testnet.

Step 6: Interact with the token

After deploying the smart contract, you can interact with the token using a wallet or a DApp to transfer, receive, and manage your tokens 

Step 7: Verify the contract on Etherscan

You can verify your smart contract code and make it publicly accessible by uploading it to Etherscan.

Step 8: party :)

Hope this will help your journey. any questions, feel free to reach out