ERC-3643: Token Standard for Real World Assets (RWA)

BeginnerJan 16, 2024
This article introduces the working principles, key features, and application examples of ERC-3643.
ERC-3643: Token Standard for Real World Assets (RWA)

The concept of ERC-3643

ERC-3643 is one of the new token standards in the Ethereum blockchain, involving the tokenization of real-world assets (RWA). As a standard for digitizing assets based on the Ethereum blockchain, ERC-3643 ensures compliance, security, and transparency in the peer-to-peer world while enhancing the efficiency of asset tokenization. ERC-3643 transforms how people perceive tangible assets, trade real estate tokens, or transfer value, aiming to eliminate or break down existing traditional barriers, particularly those between the real world and blockchain platforms.

Although ERC-3643 is more complex than general token standards, it facilitates the representation of physical products, including property and artwork. The significance of this process lies in promoting tokenization that is easy to execute while meeting regulatory requirements for different systems and maintaining transparency in these decentralized ecosystems. Therefore, the innovation of ERC-3643 is that its model allows for the representation of ownership on the public chain while handling the legal complexities associated with property ownership appropriately.

How ERC-3643 works

ERC-3643 is a comprehensive token standard that integrates Real-World Assets (RWA) into the Ethereum blockchain. Essentially, ERC-3643 encompasses the regulations and procedures governing the minting, management, and trading of associated types of tokens. The tokenization process of various assets, such as real estate and rare art, facilitates the key features of ERC-3643.

Utilizing ERC-20 tokens as a programmable protocol, ERC-3643 leverages the smart contract capabilities of Ethereum to manage assets, particularly real estate and other fixed assets. These smart contracts contain crucial information related to owner details, legal conditions, and compliance guidelines associated with the underlying assets.

Moreover, ERC-3643 is designed to facilitate compatibility with existing DeFi platforms, allowing seamless interaction within the broader blockchain environment. Liquidity can be expanded on the token platform by leveraging its assets and subsequent trading capabilities, lending, and serving as collateral in decentralized financing solutions.

ERC-3643 ensures regulatory compliance by incorporating legal mechanisms governing the tokenization of managed assets. The tokenization of assets can be tailored to meet local requirements. Additionally, the system must include mechanisms that allow for security and visibility to obtain widespread acceptance.

Primary Features of ERC-3643 token

The key features of ERC-3643 tokens, designed for real-world assets on the Ethereum blockchain, are as follows:

Asset Representation: ERC-3643 tokens serve as representations of assets such as real estate, art, and commodities. They include crucial data like detailed asset ownership information, legal conditions, and compliance.

Interoperability: A significant characteristic of ERC-3643 tokens is their ability to integrate with various popular DeFi protocols. This interoperability ensures that these tokens effectively become part of multiple DeFi applications, thereby increasing the value offered by the broader blockchain environment.

Programmable Protocols: ERC-3643 tokens utilize Ethereum’s smart contracts through programmable protocols. This enables self-executing and configurable protocols related to the transfer, distribution, and governance of tokenized assets.

Legal Compliance: Regulatory compliance is incorporated into ERC-3643, addressing fundamental issues arising from the tokenization of real-world assets. The standard establishes channels that allow compliance with jurisdictional rules. Additionally, it provides explicit guidelines regarding asset tokenization to avoid legal violations.

Fractional Ownership: ERC-3643 contracts support fractional ownership, enabling the division of physical assets into tradable fractions. This feature allows more investors to trade in expensive commodities, thereby enhancing the liquidity of high-value assets.

Immutable Ownership Records: Ownership of ERC-3643 tokens is stored on the blockchain, providing immutable and highly transparent characteristics. This immutable ledger showcases a verifiable and reliable trustless blockchain, making tokenized assets more secure.

Upgradability: ERC-3643 is designed to be upgradeable, eliminating the need to migrate to another smart contract. This design ensures the system is flexible enough to adapt to changes in the dynamic environment of technology and policies.

Use Cases of ERC-3643:

Tokenization of Real Estate: ERC-3643 enables the fractional tokenization of real estate. This allows property owners to tokenize their assets, providing an opportunity for more investors to purchase a fraction of high-value properties without requiring substantial capital.

Art and Collectibles: ERC-3643 facilitates the tokenization of art and collectibles, enabling fractional ownership. This use case improves liquidity in the art market, allowing individuals to invest in partial ownership of unique artworks.

Commodity Tokenization: Using the ERC-3643 standard, physical commodities such as gold, agricultural products, and luxury items can be tokenized. People can generate digital representations of these assets, facilitating their trade on blockchain platforms and enhancing the liquidity of these commodities.

Private Equity and Venture Capital: As an open platform, ERC-3643 can be utilized for the tokenization of equity in private or venture-backed startups. This helps ordinary investors access more investment opportunities and makes the trading of equity in these companies more easily accessible.

Intellectual Property Tokenization: ERC-3643 can also represent digital ownership of patents, copyrights, and trademarks. This enables owners of intellectual property to tokenize their works and conduct transactions on blockchain networks.

Tokenization of Real Assets in Games: The ERC-3643 standard is applicable to representing assets in gaming projects, ensuring transparency and security in the trading environment of virtual goods within gaming systems.

Supply Chain Financing: Tokenizing real items in the supply chain can enhance transparency and efficiency in supply chain financing. Physical goods or assets at any point in the supply chain can be tokenized.

The difference between ERC-3643 and ERC-20

ERC-3643 and ERC-20 are applicable to different scenarios and objects. ERC-3643 is primarily aimed at real-world assets, while ERC-20 is primarily used for tokenization of projects in the crypto space.

The key difference between the two is their application: ERC-20 tokens are fungible and used in utility tokens or digital currencies, which makes communication between transaction participants easier and incentivizes smart contracts to work efficiently. However, the ERC-3643 standard focuses on using the same standardized framework for the representation of physical assets such as real estate and art on the blockchain. Besies, it has special features to solve legal compliance issues and can be used as a legal representation of the owner’s tokenized shares.

Fundamentally, ERC-20 forms the basis of fungible tokens, while ERC-3643 becomes the unique type of standard that connects conventional assets to the decentralized world.

Advantages of ERC-3643

Asset Tokenization: Digital tokens are created based on physical assets that can be easily cut and distributed among various owners, thereby increasing their liquidity. Moreover, all transactions are transparent and secure.

Interoperability: Although ERC-3643 was developed based on the DeFi model, the standard is a more advanced version with features compatible with other DeFi financial protocols to increase liquidity and expand use cases for asset-backed tokens.

Legal Compliance: ERC-3643 includes tokens with functions designed to address regulatory issues related to token assets and establish compliance standards in different jurisdictions.

Enhanced accessibility: ERC 3643 can improve open investment options for people by enabling more people to become shareholders of high-value properties.

Transparency and Immutability: By using the Ethereum blockchain, ERC-3643 preserves transparent and immutable evidence related to property ownership, increasing security and credibility of property transactions.

Upgradability: ERC-3643 tokens are designed to be upgraded through a process that does not involve migrating to a new smart contract, making changes to the token standard possible.

Disadvantages of ERC-3643

Complexity: Implementing ERC-3643 tokens can be more challenging than other simple tokens and may even require some expertise and operations.

Security Risks: Like other systems using smart contracts, ERC-3643 has security risks associated with it. These risks need to be minimized through thorough review and testing.

Regulatory Uncertainty: Since ERC-3643 must be modified to remain consistent with existing laws, the uncertainty of blockchain regulations may bring frequent changes to on-chain rules.

Limited fungibility: Unlike ERC-20 tokens, ERC-3643, asset-backed tokens, have low fungibility because each asset has unique characteristics and may be subject to certain regulations. .

Market Adoption: The success of ERC-3643 depends on market acceptance of tokenized real-world assets, and its adoption faces many obstacles involving various regulatory issues.

Conclusion

In the evolution of asset tokenization, ERC-3643 has the capability to bring real-world entities onto the Ethereum platform. It offers various benefits to both investors and issuers, such as enhancing liquidity, improving transparency, and increasing accessibility. Additionally, it facilitates interoperability and compatibility with other Ethereum protocols and applications.

Despite facing challenges and limitations in the complex and diverse regulatory environments, as well as scalability and security concerns in the network, ERC-3643 provides an effective way to measure legal compliance to promote fractional ownership and redefine the way traditional assets are perceived.

Disclaimer:

  1. This article is reprinted from [EbunkerChinese]. All copyrights belong to the original author [Ebunker]. If there are objections to this reprint, please contact the Gate Learn team, and they will handle it promptly.
  2. Liability Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not constitute any investment advice.
  3. Translations of the article into other languages are done by the Gate Learn team. Unless mentioned, copying, distributing, or plagiarizing the translated articles is prohibited.
Start Now
Sign up and get a
$100
Voucher!
Create Account