Is there a similar process for making bitcoin tokens
- Colored Coins: Most of the tokens use OP_RETURN but it’s not required
Example: BSQ used in Bisq DAO and DEX
- Omni layer: This project used fake bitcoin addresses, multisig and OP_RETURN to solve the problem. It was used by USDT token for long time until fees on Bitcoin became an issue.
https://github.com/OmniLayer/spec/blob/master/OmniSpecification-v0.6.adoc#smart-property
- Counterparty: This project also used OP_RETURN and issuing assets was possible with it.
https://counterparty.io/docs/create_token/
There might be few other projects that allowed tokens to be created in which on-chain Bitcoin transactions were required. This does not scale and there was never a standard like ERC20 on Bitcoin. Users and developers realized it’s better if we do this stuff using layer 2 or off-chain.
There are 3 projects that are mostly used for layer 2 in Bitcoin: Lightning Network, Liquid Sidechain and Rootstock sidechain.
There are no standards or BOLT to create tokens on LN right now. I had discussed this on LN dev mailing list few days back: https://lists.linuxfoundation.org/pipermail/lightning-dev/2021-October/003305.html
However, multiple projects are working to make this possible including Omni BOLT, RGB and Synonym. Submarine swaps are already possible so issuing assets would make things better.
Issuing assets on Liquid is possible using issueasset RPC. It’s very easy and everything works similar to Bitcoin Core in Elements Core. You can read more about it here: https://help.blockstream.com/hc/en-us/articles/900005127583-How-do-I-issue-an-asset-on-Liquid-
Creating tokens on Rootstock sidechain is similar to Ethereum. You can even port ERC20 to Rootstock:
Running ERC20 contract on RSK
and moving those around with a wallet like metamask?
Metamask is mainly used because it has a browser extension/add-on. There are different open source wallets for Bitcoin, LN and Bitcoin sidechains. I don’t consider browser extensions to be secure way of doing transactions however you can use the below wallets in browser:
