General Bytes ATM Developers Add Two-Way Support for Bitcoin Cash-Based SLP Tokens

The Simple Ledger Protocol (SLP) has been extremely popular among Bitcoin Cash (BCH) advocates and the SLP token universe has grown quite large. SLP tokens have seen a myriad of applications built around them and a slew of unique tokens have gained real-world value after being listed on exchanges. Now the cryptocurrency automatic teller machine (ATM) manufacturer, General Bytes, announced the team has recently implemented two-way support for the SLP token standard on the Bitcoin Cash chain.

General Bytes Crypto ATMs Now Support SLP Token Functionality

Just recently, the crypto-ATM manufacturer General Bytes announced they have implemented two-way support into their ATM software for SLP tokens. The Simple Ledger Protocol (SLP) has become a prevalent application within the BCH ecosystem. So far there’s been thousands of SLP tokens created to-date. SLP tokens and their transactions have metadata attached to them, which is data that describes and gives information about the token’s properties. The SLP system simply ties the metadata to OP_Return transactions on issuance, and when tokens are sent and received. Every time someone uses an SLP token BCH transactions are used, and the movement is etched into the BCH chain. While speaking with General Bytes’ marketing manager, Martijn Wismeijer, he explained the SLP token concept is similar to the color coins idea bitcoiners experimented with years ago.

“[SLP] is a token standard very similar to the colored coin or Mastercoin mechanism that we saw back in 2014 on the BTC chain, but the SLP implementation is actually working,” Wismeijer told news.Bitcoin.com. “The Mastercoin or colored coin mechanisms failed because of ‘spam protection’ that was implemented at the time to block these types of transactions on the BTC chain. A bit disappointing because one man’s transaction apparently is another man’s spam but the larger block sizes in BCH make the Bitcoin Cash blockchain very suitable for these types of applications. It is great to see that six years later a similar mechanism is alive and kicking on the BCH blockchain,” Wismeijer added.

So the team of developers at General Bytes felt that the ATMs the company manufactures should have more functionality, by adding support for SLP-based tokens. General Bytes (GB) ATMs were one of the first crypto-ATM producers to include BCH into the GB software. “Making the SLP tokens work on the ATMs was on the top of our priority list,” Wismeijer stressed during our conversation.

“[When comparing the SLP framework] to the popular ERC20 token standard used on the Ethereum blockchain there are some real advantages in using SLP tokens instead of ERC20,” Wismeijer continued. “SLP tokens are very easy to implement whilst Ethereum is notoriously hard to get right from a developer viewpoint and even the best Ethereum developers make mistakes. Mistakes in smart contracts usually turn into multi-million dollar failures,” he added. At this point, the GB marketing manager explained that with SLP tokens, GB ATMs offer two-way support, but that’s not the case with GB ATMs that support ERC20 tokens.

“Because of the complexity and error-prone nature of Ethereum tokens compared to other cryptocurrencies, General Bytes currently only supports ‘buy’ (cash to crypto) for ERC20 tokens on the Bitcoin ATM platform and no ‘sell’ (crypto to cash) token support,” Wismeijer told news.Bitcoin.com. Wismeijer further stated:

General Bytes was the first ATM company to support ERC20 tokens on cryptocurrency ATMs but because of the wallet issues, we found only a very slow uptick in the number of supported tokens — SLP suffers from none of these problems so if clients want to create a token, we recommend using the Simple Ledger Protocol instead.

Martijn Wismeijer: ‘The Simple Ledger Protocol Really Shines’

Wismeijer said that because of the ERC20 complexity, SLP tokens are far easier to implement into the existing crypto ecosystem. “The wallet issue is solved because there are several good Bitcoin cash wallets with SLP token support readily available and see many use cases for this — For example, a company or organization that wants to issue their own coins (Disney Dollars anyone?) can now distribute these and accept them via mobile wallets for Point of Sale applications and at their ATMs,” the GB representative detailed.

“With ‘buy’ and ‘sell’ support on the ATMs, there is an easy on-ramp and off-ramp for these tokens. For these types of applications, SLP really shines and the best part is that it only takes a few hours to implement, with zero-risk that there is some obscure and hidden bug that a developer left in a smart contract — Basically, the [SLP framework] is simple to implement, due to fast deployment and a robust standard,” Wismeijer concluded.

The Bitcoin Cash community heard about the GB ATM implementation about a month ago, and many supporters were excited about the latest development. One Redditor noticed that the SPICE token was the first template added and wondered which SLP tokens would be added next. “Hopefully USDH soon, stablecoin via ATMs,” one person replied. While speaking with the GB marketing manager, Wismeijer said that was one crypto solution the GB team was looking forward to seeing grow.

“Another potential killer app we see for SLP tokens on ATMs are stablecoins,” Wismeijer remarked. “Currently, a large number of stablecoins run on the Ethereum platform, and many would be far easier (and faster) to implement on the BCH chain as SLP tokens.”

What do you think about General Bytes ATMs adding SLP token support? Let us know in the comments below.

Image Credits: Shutterstock, Pixabay, Wiki Commons, Martijn Wismeijer, General Bytes ATMs

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