DEV Community

Raka Widhi Antoro
Raka Widhi Antoro

Posted on

Why ERC-721A is More Cost-Efficient Than ERC-721 for Batch Minting

🔍 Understanding ERC-721A vs ERC-721 for Batch Minting

In the world of NFTs, gas fees can significantly impact user experience and adoption. ERC-721A, introduced by Chiru Labs, is designed to address the inefficiencies of ERC-721 when minting multiple tokens in a single transaction. Let’s explore why ERC-721A stands out as a more gas-efficient standard for batch minting.


⚡ Key Difference: Gas Efficiency

Unlike ERC-721, which requires individual transfers and ownership updates for each token minted, ERC-721A optimizes the process by leveraging a sequential storage mechanism. This reduces the amount of gas consumed, especially for batch minting.

Here is a comparison based on the gas usage between ERC-721 (Enumerable) and ERC-721A for batch minting:

Number Minted Gas Used (Enumerable) Gas Used (ERC-721A) Gas Saved
Mint 1 154,814 76,690 78,124
Mint 2 270,339 78,819 191,520
Mint 3 384,864 80,948 303,916
Mint 4 501,389 83,077 418,312
Mint 5 616,914 85,206 531,708

Source: Chiru Labs


🛠️ How ERC-721A Achieves Efficiency

1. Sequential Ownership Tracking

  • ERC-721A uses a single storage slot to record the owner of consecutive tokens in a batch.
  • For example, minting 5 tokens in ERC-721A only updates ownership once, instead of 5 separate updates in ERC-721.

2. Reduced Gas Overhead

  • Fewer storage writes mean lower gas fees for batch operations.
  • This makes ERC-721A highly suitable for projects that anticipate minting NFTs in bulk.

📈 Benefits of ERC-721A

🌍 Lower Gas Costs

  • Gas savings grow significantly as the number of tokens minted in a single transaction increases.

🚀 Improved Scalability

  • Projects can mint large batches of NFTs without overburdening users with high transaction costs.

💡 User-Friendly Experience

  • Lower gas fees create a more accessible entry point for NFT creators and buyers.

💡 When Should You Use ERC-721A?

Use ERC-721A if:

  • You are minting multiple NFTs in a single transaction.
  • Gas efficiency is a priority for your project.
  • You want to enhance user experience by reducing minting costs.

🔮 The Future of NFT Standards

ERC-721A represents a significant step forward in optimizing NFT minting processes. By making batch minting more cost-effective, it paves the way for broader adoption of NFTs across diverse industries.

What do you think about ERC-721A? Share your thoughts in the comments! 👇


Comparison data provided by Chiru Labs.

Billboard image

The Next Generation Developer Platform

Coherence is the first Platform-as-a-Service you can control. Unlike "black-box" platforms that are opinionated about the infra you can deploy, Coherence is powered by CNC, the open-source IaC framework, which offers limitless customization.

Learn more

Top comments (0)

A Workflow Copilot. Tailored to You.

Pieces.app image

Our desktop app, with its intelligent copilot, streamlines coding by generating snippets, extracting code from screenshots, and accelerating problem-solving.

Read the docs

AWS Security LIVE!

Hosted by security experts, AWS Security LIVE! showcases AWS Partners tackling real-world security challenges. Join live and get your security questions answered.

Tune in to the full event

DEV is partnering to bring live events to the community. Join us or dismiss this billboard if you're not interested. ❤️