Native assets
Each asset has its own identity, precision, balances, and history. ROOT is the network’s native asset.
Identify the asset
Section titled “Identify the asset”Use the Asset ID when selecting, searching, or integrating an asset. Names and tickers are useful labels, but two different assets can share them.
Before sending an unfamiliar asset, compare its Asset ID with the one you intend to use. A familiar name or logo is not proof of identity.
Read an asset page
Section titled “Read an asset page”The explorer brings together:
- The asset’s name, symbol, and identity.
- Its recorded supply and holders.
- Transfers and other related activity.
- Available metadata and migration records.
An amount always belongs to a particular asset. Applications must apply that asset’s precision and avoid combining unlike balances into one raw total.
Proposed native asset rules
Section titled “Proposed native asset rules”The draft protocol gives every native asset a fixed supply. Creation credits the whole supply to the creator, and ordinary transfers distribute it. No operation creates further units: there is no minting, no supply cap to raise, and no mint authority. A project that needs more units creates a new asset, or keeps a reserve at creation and releases it publicly with time-locked transfers. ROOT’s block-reward issuance is specified separately.
The draft assigns two roles:
- Asset authority: update the metadata URI and hash.
- Migration authority: manage migration permissions and destinations.
Neither role can seize, freeze, or redirect balances, or create units.
Names, symbols, and decimals remain fixed. Logos, websites, and descriptions live in a document whose content hash is recorded on chain. They are issuer-supplied metadata, separate from ledger facts.
Supply accounting keeps issuance, incoming migration, burns, and outgoing migration distinct. Read migrations and continuity for the proposed movement between networks.
Proposed swaps and time locks
Section titled “Proposed swaps and time locks”The draft adds three kinds of fixed operation that move existing units. None of them creates units or changes a supply counter.
| Operation | What it does |
|---|---|
| Atomic swap | Exchanges two assets in one transaction. The maker signs an offer off-chain, and the taker submits it and pays the fee. The offer fills whole or not at all, and any other transaction by the maker cancels it. |
| Hash time-locked transfer | Locks units for a recipient under a SHA-256 hash lock, for swaps with other chains. Anyone can claim for the recipient with the secret until the expiry height is final; after that, the sender can refund. A lock must expire at least 900 blocks, about 2 hours, after its block. |
| Time-locked transfer | Places units in entries that each unlock at a set time, one per tranche, for vesting or reserve releases. After an entry’s unlock time, anyone can claim it for its recipient. No one, the sender included, can revoke an entry. |
Order books and matching run off-chain. Locked ROOT carries no vote weight, and every node’s supply check counts locked units until they are claimed or refunded.
In a wallet
Section titled “In a wallet”Open Assets or select a wallet to inspect its holdings. When sending, select the asset first, then review the recipient, amount, and network fee.