Thread by @pencilflip

The @metaplex team is working on a new metadata standard for both fungible and non-fungible tokens.

It's backwards compatible and has official support for on-chain collections. And it's currently being tested in devnet.

For more details, see below 👇

1/ First, and perhaps most importantly, this new standard is backwards compatible.

This means NFTs that use the old standard will still function properly (e.g. be displayed properly in Phantom) once the new standard rolls out.

2/ So, what changes does the new standard introduce?

First, let's look at the old on-chain metadata struct.

3/ Ok, now let's look at the new on-chain metadata struct.

Everything above the line-break is old, and everything below is new.

Let's go over each of the new fields and see what they're for.

4/ 🍄🍄🍄 COLLECTIONS 🍄🍄🍄

This is the change I'm most excited about.

Currently, there is no standardized way to define a collection of Solana NFTs.

Given how many collections there are, this is pretty wild.

https://twitter.com/pencilflip/status/1478787145821208583

5/ The new standard fixes this!

Now, the on-chain metadata contains an optional collection field.

This points to a struct which contains two fields:
- verified: has the collection's update authority verified the collection?
- key: the address of the collection account

6/ This means you can easily query for all NFTs in a collection by calling getProgramAccounts.

The code is basically the same as querying for the NFTs associated with a specific Candy Machine.

But instead of filtering by the first creator (the CM), you filter by the collection.

7/ One last thing to note about collections—they're actually NFTs.

That is, the "key" field we saw above is the mint address of the collection NFT.

Basically, it looks like this 👇

8/ 🍄🍄🍄 TOKEN STANDARDS 🍄🍄🍄

Alright, onto the next new field: token_standard.

Simply put, this field tells you what type of token the metadata is for.

E.g., is this metadata for an NFT? Or is it for a non-fungible token?

9/ It's important to know this information, because different types of tokens have different metadata.

One interesting thing is that Metaplex is standardizing the idea of a "fungible asset."

These are fungible tokens that have extensive metadata and supply >= 0.

10/ As a quick example, USDC is a regular fungible token.

A sword in a video game would be a fungible asset, because it has more extensive metadata (e.g. how many damage points the sword does).

11/ 🍄🍄🍄 TOKEN USES 🍄🍄🍄

Finally, let's look at the last new field: uses.

This points to a struct that contains three fields:
- use_method (one of Burn, Multiple, and Single)
- remaining—how many more times can this method be used
- total—how many uses are allowed in total

12/ This field is particularly relevant for games.

For example, maybe an in-game asset like a potion can only be used 3 times.

With this new field, games can track that information on-chain.

13/ This was just a short overview—if you want to learn more, head to the docs!

Lastly, if you have any questions, feel free to ping me 😛

docs.metaplex.com/token-metadata…