6

What are all the ways to burn tokens, including ADA and other tokens? By burning, I mean to remove it from the sum balance of all addresses. E.g. one way is to mint a negative amount of a token. Are there other ways? (Sending tokens to an address that nobody controls doesn't count; I want the token to be completely gone.)

I'm also specifically looking for a way to burn a token after the 'before' slot of the minting policy has passed.

Improve this question
4
  • Under what circumstances and for what purpose do you wish to burn tokens?
    – gRebel
    May 5, 2021 at 8:15
  • @gRebel As mentioned in the last paragraph, the specific situation that motivated the question is that I'm trying to burn tokens after the 'before' slot of the minting policy has passed.
    – Joshua Chia
    May 5, 2021 at 8:16
  • That's what you want to do. I am interested in why.
    – gRebel
    May 5, 2021 at 8:20
  • As long as you do not burn a token, it is not clear that the token can still be owned by someone. Burning is final and undebatable. Burning also has the advantage of garbage collection for the information that nodes have to remember to process future transactions.
    – Joshua Chia
    May 5, 2021 at 8:33

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
8
  • There is no way to burn ADA.
  • You can burn the native tokens, if you have the singing keys for the tokens policy and the policy allows it.
  • If the policy doesn't allow it (locked by time slot), at the moment, there is no way to burn them, but IOG is going to introduce a way to do it in the near future, so keep them around.
Improve this answer
5
  • 3
    There is no such thing as a "private key for the tokens". The only thing that matters is the policy.
    – Lars Brünjes
    May 5, 2021 at 15:08
  • 2
    @LarsBrünjes I think he meant the private key for the verification key associated with keyHash used in the policy, so if you don't have that private key, you can neither mint nor burn tokens.
    – Joshua Chia
    May 5, 2021 at 18:05
  • 1
    That is correct Joshua, edited the answer for clarity.
    – Marek Mahut - StakeNuts ♦
    May 5, 2021 at 21:30
  • 2
    Yes, but the point is: The policy does not need to require a key. You can have a policy that only has a deadline, for example.
    – Lars Brünjes
    May 5, 2021 at 22:33
  • @LarsBrünjes, is it still not possible to destroy tokens locked by time slot ? Eager to know more, i want to 'unmint' a minted token for which the time slot has passed ...
    – MrRobot
    Jan 11, 2022 at 3:19

Your Answer

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service and acknowledge that you have read and understand our privacy policy and code of conduct.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.