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The Protocol

ABX is a protocol for storing general data on EVM chains as digital assets. A token is the anchor for a set of named, typed pieces of data. Each piece is stored on-chain or off-chain.

The protocol is two things: an event spine and a set of read interfaces. Concrete contracts implement them, and services such as indexers and resolvers read them to track and serve a project. The protocol defines the events and interfaces, not the services or any single implementation. The canonical factory for each chain is the trust anchor: a contract is a canonical ABX contract when that factory deployed it.

The extensions

The event spine and interfaces drive the rest of the protocol:

  • Metadata: a field-and-representation model. Each field is stored on-chain, points off-chain, or is committed on-chain by hash. tokenURI resolves from a stored pointer or an on-chain renderer.

  • Code projects: a program stored on-chain as content, with declared dependencies and mint-time seeds.

  • Parameters: named values at token or contract scope, optionally governed by an on-chain schema and hooks that fold in live chain state.

  • Data plane: the full set of named, typed data a token anchors. The ERC-721 metadata JSON is but a projection of this broader spec.

  • Effects: off-chain processes that read the spine and produce derived output at a deterministic address.

  • Minting: the events a minter emits during a sale.

Core and extensions

The required core is an ERC-165-discoverable ERC-721 contract that emits one event, AbxDeployed, used for identity and discovery. Everything else is an opt-in extension: royalties, a primary payee, an external minter, a supply cap, a pause gate, on-chain script, dependencies, and params. A contract enables the extensions its project uses.

Standard events

ABX emits the standard ERC events with their canonical signatures: ERC-721 ownership, ERC-4906 metadata updates, ERC-7572 contract metadata, and ERC-2981 royalties. Existing indexers and marketplaces read ABX contracts through these events without modification. The native ABX events are emitted alongside them, and are described in the event spine.