Do ERC-20 ETH tokens gain value if minted tokens get more use?

Question

So I am trying to understand ethereum better. If someone could help me by correcting me where I am wrong here.

As I understand ERC-20 is the ETH token. When you buy ETH on Binance or Uphold or wherver, you are buying ERC-20. Correct?

So then other tokens are minted like BAT or Enjin. What is the relation of these minted tokens to ERC-20? Other than ERC-20 just being the protocol? More speicifcally, if BAT or Enjin tokens gain value and popularity, does this somehow increase the value of the original ERC-20 token?

Also I understand minted tokens all run on the same Ethereum Network as ERC-20. So this means the Ethereum Network "miners" are also validating the transactions for minted tokens. If this is the case, do miners get a small payout of whatever token transaction they helped to validate? Or do the miners get some payout converted back to ERC-20? What I am trying to understand is, what is the monetary incentive for miners to validate minted token transaction? Like if I mint a new token right now, and that token is literally worth $0, why would miners start validating the transactions?

Answer 1

ERC20 is simply a standard that defines how all tokens should behave on the Ethereum network. If a token does not conform to the ERC20 specification, it can't be used on many platforms, including exchanges. You should avoid centralized exchanges as much as possible and use only decentralized exchanges, such as uniswap or balancer. Attacks and exploits occur almost exclusively on centralized exchanges. Given that tokens adhere to the ERC20 standard, minting them provides no benefit to miners that any other contract transaction of the same size wouldn't yield. Ethereum miners get paid in Eth for running and validating the programs called smart contracts through mining transactions. Eth is not a ERC20 token, but the base currency. So if someone minted any given token, it would require miners to verify the contract executed correctly, and all miners check to see if they have the same answer. Transactions are added to blocks and verified blocks are added to the blockchain. Miners get a commission on transaction fees paid to execute and verify transactions per block. So even if a token is worth $0, the logical process of minting it costs money, and to mint it, you have to pay the fee that goes to the miners.