ERC-7660: Redefining Meme Coins With a New Benchmark

Ever since the launch of Dogecoin (DOGE), Elon Musk's favorite digital asset, 11 years ago, meme coins have been a prominent and colorful part of the overall cryptocurrency ecosystem. Their popularity has surged in the last few years, first with the arrival of Dogecoin's archrival Shiba Inu (SHIB), and more recently with the growth of Solana-based meme coins like Dogwifhat (WIF), Catwifhat (CWIF) and Popcat (POPCAT).

While meme coins can be a lot of fun and, in some cases, profitable investment, they’re also often associated with scams, rug pulls and obscure token distribution schemes. The proposed ERC-7660 Ethereum (ETH) token standard and protocol is designed to support fair, equitable and transparent launches of meme coins. Introduced by the blockchain development outfit Benchmark Labs, ERC-7660 is probably the first structured attempt to bring standardization, better security and transparency to the world of meme coins.

Key Takeaways:

• ERC-7660 is a new token standard for Ethereum meme coins, currently at the stage of pre-examination approval.

• The standard extends Ethereum's main fungible token standard, ERC-20, and adds new features, such as timed linear release of funds, time-based lock-up functionality, a sorter algorithm for more efficient transactions and a low-cost swap mechanism.

• ERC-7660 fosters community building with a Fair Launch feature that permits the automatic launch of its tokens, and Benchmark Pass, which bestows upon holders a range of privileges, including airdrops and referral rewards.