What Is a Token Contract Address?

As a newbie to crypto, you may confuse about: "What is a token contract address?", " What are the application of a token's contract address?", and "where can I find the token contract address?". In this article, we will try to explain these questions.

What Is a Token Contract?

As a matter of fact, a token contract is a smart contract mapping account addresses and balances. The balance value is defined by the contract creators. The balances of one token contract can be stood for physical objects, currency value, even the holder's reputation. In general, we called the unit of this balance a "token".

If tokens are transferred from one account to another, the balance of the two accounts will be updated. For example, a transfer of 10 tokens from 0x3597…96b7 to 0x1b89…3436, the balance will be updated as follow:

There are two ways to change the token total supply, one is to mint new tokens to increase the supply. For example, minting 100 tokens to 0x7695…93a6 will result in a balance increase. Another way is to burn existing tokens, for example, 0x6345…796d burning 10 tokens.

In addition, there is another way to burn the token, that is to send the token to the "black hold address", an address to which the private key is not known, commonly the 0 address. In this way, the total number of tokens will not be changed.

What Is a Token Contract Address?

Take Ethereum, for example, there are two types of accounts in the Ethereum blockchain:

• Individual account: Simply for personal use, generated by Ethereum wallet, consists of a public key and a private key.

• Contract account: Programmed by Solidity language, consists of a series of codes (contract function) and data (contract status). For example, to issue an ERC20 token on Ethereum means creating a contract account. This generated address is the contract address without a private key. The contract is stored at a special address on the Ethereum blockchain, which manages the logic for the tokens.

A token contract address can be used to check the information of balance and contract details.

How to Find a Token Contract Address?

When you are trying to add a new token to your wallet, the wallet may require you to input a Token Contract Address. (Notice: the address does not hold your personal tokens!)

There are 3 ways you can find a token contract:

• Visit https://www.coincarp.com/, the coin or token you want to add, take "shibainu" for example, input "SHIB" into the search bar on the right corner of the website, then enter the "shibainu" interface, you will find the shibainu contract address on the website: https://www.coincarp.com/currencies/shibainu/

• Looking at the token's official website.
• Go to the block explorer platform to search the name of your token. Since tokens may issue on different blockchains, you may check different block explorers. If a token issue on Ethereum, you can check on https://etherscan.io/tokens

How to Find NFT Contract Address？

A Non-Fungible Token (NFT) is perfect to be used on platforms that offer collectible items, access keys, lottery tickets, numbered seats for concerts and sports matches, etc. For Ethereum, it is a ERC-721 standard, also, there is a BEP-721 for Binance.

• If you want to find out the NFT Contract Address, you can check on relevant NFT marketplace. Take Opensea for example, you can find the NFT contract address on "Details"--"Contract Address"

• You can also fine the NFT Contract Address on your Wallet's Etherscan/BSCscan page under ERC-721/BEP-721 token

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