What would happen if the majority of the newly issued ERC-20 tokens were used for good, instead of the misfortune of ICO? A startup supported by Y Combinator who thinks he has an answer to this question.
Discover Hexel, a startup that wants to facilitate the use of Ethereum-based tokens to engage their hyperlocal community. For example, a restaurant could use Hexel's free tool to create and distribute a token as part of a reward program, or a university could use its own token as part of an economy. on the campus.
John Palmer, founder of Hexel, explains that he sees a whole series of use cases of tokens that have not yet been explored – such as these hyperlocal community tokens. "Tokens can bring a unique and entertaining element into transactions that would otherwise be too formal if money was used," said Palmer
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To interact with Hexel, you must have a MetaMask portfolio connected to the Ethereum network, since these newly issued tokens literally reside on the Ethereum block chain.
After signing an initial transaction and creating the ERC-20 token, you can "mint" them by dropping, that is, by choosing the number of chips you want to distribute and stick to. Ethereum address of your friend. The Hexel dashboard shows you the addresses of everyone who holds your token and their balance, so you can follow your new mini-economy in real time. The platform also has a page where you can see all the existing chips created on Hexel.
Of course, being run on the Ethereum blockchain also has some disadvantages – mainly that users must pay transaction fees whenever they interact with the network, which means that create tokens and distribute them to friends really cost the ether.
In a perfect world, it would cost just pennies of ETH for every transaction, but network congestion usually means that you will end up paying more. For example, I have not been able to distribute super rare FitzCoin tokens to friends without manually increasing the gas limit on Meta Mask to a dollar or more.
Not everything is the most intuitive, especially for someone who has never interacted with Ethereum and just wants to create a loyalty token for his local store. Palmer admitted that Hexel would be much easier to use for people who had previously had contact with the Ethereum network before, but noted that they were trying to find alternatives, such as potentially creating a new portfolio for the users who would live on the Hexel. site.