Introduced in the Mary hard fork. Because native tokens are part of the ledger itself, transfers cost the same as ada transfers and don't depend on a separate smart contract being deployed and audited.
Once minted, an ordinary native token follows whoever controls the address it sits at, and its issuer cannot enforce rules on later transfers. A programmable token adds such rules: it is still a native token, but a shared smart contract holds it, transfers have to pass rules set by its issuer, and running those rules adds script fees.
Explore next
- MaryThe hard fork on March 1, 2021 that introduced native tokens, allowing users to create and transact with custom tokens directly on Cardano.View term
- NFTA token that represents ownership of a specific unique item, recorded on-chain; anyone can copy the picture, but only one wallet holds the original record.View term
- eUTXOCardano's extension of the UTXO accounting model; each output can carry datum and script logic, so smart contracts express rules without the shared mutable state used by account-based chains.View term
- Policy IDThe unique on-chain identifier of a native token's minting policy.View term
- Programmable TokenA native token that can only change owner when a script approves the transfer, so the issuer can enforce rules like allowlists, transfer limits, or freezes on the token's transfers. CIP-113 is the proposed standard for them on Cardano.View term