Which is the current STO standard?

Question

I have been digging trying to find the current STO standard. There seems to be an organization: https://thesecuritytokenstandard.org/. I've been checking GitHub, and it seems to me, to be a little outdated. Is there any other standard?

Thanks

Answer 1

There are many different Security Token "standard"

• ERC3643 Also known as T-Rex (Token for Regulated EXchanges) by Tokeny
• CAT-20 & CAT-721 (Compliance Aware Token) by Securrency
• ERC1400 & ERC1404 by Polymath
• and many others

Different solutions for different regulations or purposes. Some of them are a bit overkill.

ERC-1404 is another standard for security tokens, supposed to be more 'user-friendly',

Know Your Token Holders: "Know who your token holders are at all times and maintain a whitelist of investor addresses. [...] the simple restricted token standard helps token issuers manage their compliance requirements."

The ERC-1400 is a standard for security tokens with thorough guidelines and functions which include:

• Incorporation of differentiated ownership model.

• Error signaling.

• Document references.

• Gatekeeper (operator) access control and issuance or Redemption semantics. (where you can validate the wallet)

T-REX includes the following three core pillars:

• Identity Management System

• Validation Certificates

• Transfer Manager

CAT-20 & CAT-721 are not open-sourced, and most of the other STs are not open-sourced.

They're all compatible with ERC-20 Standard, can be transferred or exchanged very easily, but security tokens are subject to typical securities laws, they can only be issued to eligible investors, which can be retail, accredited/qualified, or institutional.

I've been working for almost 4 years on STO with 4 different companies, I also co-authored ERC-3643, but today I can tell you that there is no real standard for Security Token Standard, there are none that stand out or are widely used. It is all about business over tech, these standards depend mostly on the companies that developed them.

Whoever dominates the market will be the "standard".