How to Create Your Own Cryptocurrency?

This article help you to understand what is coin and token, their differences and let you know how to create Binance based contract token.

What is Cryptocurrency

A cryptocurrency, also known as crypto, is a type of digital asset with multiple use cases. It's primarily a way to transfer value between people digitally, including monetary value, ownership rights, or even voting privileges. Crypto differs from other digital payment systems because of its roots in blockchain technology. This basis gives cryptocurrencies more freedom from central entities like governments or banks.

Bitcoin is the most famous example of a cryptocurrency. It has a simple use case of transferring monetary value to anyone across the globe without the need for intermediaries. Its blockchain records all transactions and ensures security and network stability. (Source)

Differences Between Token and Coin

The crypto industry has said that the key distinction between coins and tokens is that crypto coins are the native asset of a Blockchain like Bitcoin or Ethereum, whereas crypto tokens are created by platforms and applications that are built on top of an existing Blockchain.

Creating a token

Creating a token on an existing blockchain can leverage its reputation and security. While you won't have complete control over all aspects of your token, there is still a lot of customization available. There are a variety of websites and tools available to create your own token, especially on BSC and Ethereum.

Create your own cryptocurrency in 7 steps

If you're only creating a token, not every step in the tutorial below will apply. What's more important would be the three design steps above. Most of our instructions will cover the basics of creating a blockchain first before finally minting your coin.

1. Choose a suitable blockchain platform

For a token, you'll need to pick the blockchain to mint your crypto on. BSC and Etheruem are popular options, but sidechains can also be a good idea. To create your own coin, you'll need to think about designing or hiring someone to create a custom blockchain.

2. Pick a consensus mechanism

If you're creating your own blockchain or aren't sure which one to pick for your token, think about the consensus mechanism you want. These mechanisms determine how participants confirm and validate transactions on the network. Most blockchains use Proof of Stake as it has low hardware requirements and many different variations. Proof of Work, as used in Bitcoin, is considered by some as more secure but it’s often expensive to maintain and not as environmentally friendly.

3. Design your blockchain architecture

This step is only needed if you're creating a coin. Not every blockchain allows the public to validate transactions or run nodes. The decision between having a private, public, permissioned, or permissionless blockchain is important. Your blockchain architecture will depend on what your coin and project are attempting to do. For example, a company or country creating a coin might run a private blockchain for more control.

4. Begin blockchain development

Unless you have expert development knowledge, you'll need external help to build your ideas. Once the blockchain runs in a live environment, it's extremely difficult to change its core concepts and rules. Make use of a testnet to ensure that everything works as planned and ideally cooperate with a whole development team to build your blockchain.

5. Audit your crypto and its code

Auditing companies like Certik can check the code of your blockchain and its cryptocurrency to look for any vulnerabilities. You can then publish the audit publicly and also act on its findings. This process provides some safety assurance for you as the creator and for any potential users or investors.

6. Double-check legal aspects

Now that you have your blockchain running and are ready to mint your cryptocurrency, it's best to ask for expert legal advice to check whether you will need to apply for permission. Again, this step is difficult to achieve alone and requires outside help.

7. Mint your cryptocurrency

Whether you're creating a token or coin, you will need to mint the cryptocurrency at some point. The exact method will differ based on your tokenomics. For example, fixed supply tokens are usually minted all in one go via a smart contract. Coins like Bitcoin are minted gradually, as miners validate new blocks of transactions.

How to create a BEP-20 token

To create a simple BEP-20 token, you’ll need some basic coding skills to deploy a smart contract to BNB Smart Chain. You’ll also need to have MetaMask installed and some BNB in your wallet to pay gas fees.

1. Make sure you have the BSC mainnet added to MetaMask. You can find detailed instructions in our Connecting MetaMask to BNB Smart Chain guide.

2. Head to Remix, an online application for developing and deploying smart contracts on blockchains that are compatible with the Ethereum Virtual Machine. Right-click the [contracts] folder and click [New File].

3. Name the file “BEP20.sol”.

4. Make sure you have the programming language set as [Solidity], or your smart contract won’t function. You can do this by clicking the icon outlined below on the right.

5. Copy the BEP-20 smart contract code into your file. You can find out more information on the code’s parameters and functions on GitHub.

6. Modify the name, symbol, decimals, and totalSupply for your coin. Here we’ve chosen Binance Academy Coin (BAC) as an example, with 18 decimal places and a total supply of 100,000,000. Don’t forget to add enough 0s to cover the 18 decimal places.

7. Next, you’ll need to compile the smart contract. Click the icon shown below on the left side of the screen, check [Auto compile] and [Enable optimization], then click the [Compile] button.

8. Click the [ABI] button to copy the contract’s ABI.

9. Click the icon highlighted below on the left-hand side of the screen. Select [Injected Web3] as your environment and then allow MetaMask to connect to Remix. Finally, make sure you’ve selected your BEP20 contract before clicking [Deploy].

10. You’ll now need to pay a transaction fee via MetaMask to deploy the contract to the blockchain. Once the smart contract is live, you need to verify and publish your contract source code.

Copy in the contract’s address to BscScan, select [Solidity (Single)] as the compiler type, and match the compiler version used in step 7.

11. Next, right click BEP20.sol in Remix and press [Flatten]. You’ll then need to give Remix permission to flatten the code.

12. Copy the code from your BEP20_flat.sol into the field, and ensure [Optimization] is set to Yes. Now click [Verify and Publish] at the bottom of the page.

13. You’ll now see a successful splash screen. With the verified code, you can mint your token through BscScan by using the _mint call implemented in the contract. Go to the contract address on BscScan and click [Write Contract], then click [Connect to Web3] to connect your MetaMask account.

14. Head down the page to the Mint section, and input the number of tokens you want to mint. We’re going to mint 100,000,000 BAC. Don’t forget to add the decimals too, in this case 18. Click [Write] and pay the fee on MetaMask.

15. You should now see that the tokens have been minted and sent to the wallet that created the smart contract.

Cost of creating your own cryptocurrency

The costs involved are linked to the methods and setup you choose. If you're creating a coin and blockchain you'll likely have to pay a whole team over multiple months. A code audit from a reliable team can also cost around $15,000 (USD). At its cheapest, a simple token on BSC can be done for $50. When we average this out, to create a cryptocurrency with some chance of success, you'll likely need to spend thousands of dollars on its creation, marketing, and community building.