Creator’s guide to NFT contracts on Ethereum

Choosing between an ERC721 and an ERC1155 contract

ERC721 and an ERC1155 are two types of contract standards on Ethereum relevant for NFTs. ERC721 is well known, but ERC1155. If you’re a creator, it’s important to make the right choice. Here’s a quick summary of the two standards and factors you should take into account before deciding which standard to go with:

ERC721

ERC721 is the token standard that is truly non-fungible tokens. This means that every token is really unique. When you issue a token on an ERC721 contract, you choose to issue more than 1 token. Tokens cannot be divided. Try this on either Opensea or the Polygon minter.

ERC1155

These tokens are considered “semi-fungible”. The contract type supports NFTs and fungible tokens. It was developed by Enjin. It helps creators save on gas by minting in bulk.

Comparison

Vector
ERC721
ERC1155
Cost
High Every mint is considered a transaction and costs gas fees. If you mint 100 NFTs as part of a collection, every single one is considered a separate mint.
Low Allows you to mint in a batch and reduce costs
Fungibility
Non-fungible You can only issue 1 token and therefore this standard is truly non-fungible.
Semi-fungible Allows minting of fungible and non-fungible tokens. There are also semi-fungible tokens where the token can be converted from fungible to non-fungible.
Compatibility
Widely compatible Users can expect these token standards to be widely supported.
Some compatibility issues For example, Metamask won’t automatically recognise ERC1155 tokens.

Verdict

ERC721 are popular by far. They are used for 1/1 NFTs and collections like BAYC. If the gas fees is acceptable, it’s safer to go with an ERC721 because its more widely used and compatible.

ERC1155 are useful if you want to save on gas fees and make use of their semi-fungible nature. For example, you want to issue tokens for concert tickets. The organiser issues 1,000 tokens. These tokens are fungible before the concert because any ticket guarantees entry. After the concert, they are converted into non-fungible tokens and serve as memorabilia. The token is also very popular in gaming.