metaplex-token-metadata

title: Token Metadata Program

Background

Solana's programming model and the definitions of the Solana terms used in this document are available at:

• https://docs.solana.com/apps
• https://docs.solana.com/terminology

Source

The Token Metadata Program's source is available on github

There is also an example Rust client located at github that can be perused for learning and run if desired with cargo run --bin metaplex-token-metadata-test-client. It allows testing out a variety of scenarios.

Interface

The on-chain Token Metadata program is written in Rust and available on crates.io as metaplex-token-metadata and docs.rs.

The crate provides four instructions, create_metadata_accounts(), update_metadata_account(), create_master_edition(), mint_new_edition_from_master_edition_via_token(), to easily create instructions for the program.

Operational overview

This is a very simple program designed to allow metadata tagging to a given mint, with an update authority that can change that metadata going forward. Optionally, owners of the metadata can choose to tag this metadata as a master edition and then use this master edition to label child mints as "limited editions" of this master edition going forward. The owners of the metadata do not need to be involved in every step of the process, as any holder of a master edition mint token can have their mint labeled as a limited edition without the involvement or signature of the owner, this allows for the sale and distribution of master edition prints.

Operational flow for Master Editions

It would be useful before a dive into architecture to illustrate the flow for a master edition as a story because it makes it easier to understand.

1. User creates a new Metadata for their mint with create_metadata_accounts() which makes new Metadata
2. User wishes their mint to be a master edition and ensures that there is only required supply of one in the mint.
3. User requests the program to designate create_master_edition() on their metadata, which creates new MasterEdition which for this example we will say has an unlimited supply. As part of the arguments to the function the user is required to make a new mint called the Printing mint over which they have minting authority that they tell the contract about and that the contract stores on the MasterEdition.
4. User mints a token from the Printing mint and gives it to their friend.
5. Their friend creates a new mint with supply 1 and calls mint_new_edition_from_master_edition_via_token(), which creates for them new Metadata and Edition records signifying this mint as an Edition child of the master edition original.

There is a slight variation on this theme if create_master_edition() is given a max_supply: minting authority is locked within the program for the Printing mint and all minting takes place immediately in create_master_edition() to a designated account the user provides and owns - the user then uses this fixed pool as the source of their authorization tokens going forward to prevent new supply from being generated in an unauthorized manner.

Permissioning and Architecture

There are three different major structs in the app: Metadata, MasterEditions, and Editions. A Metadata can have zero or one MasterEdition, OR can have zero or one Edition, but CANNOT have both a MasterEdition AND an Edition associated with it. This is to say a Metadata is EITHER a master edition or a edition(child record) of another master edition.

Only the minting authority on a mint can create metadata accounts. A Metadata account holds the name, symbol, and uri of the mint, as well as the mint id. To ensure the uniqueness of a mint's metadata, the address of a Metadata account is a program derived address composed of seeds:

["metadata".as_bytes(), program_id.as_ref(), mint_key.as_ref()]

A master edition is an extension account of this PDA, being simply:

["metadata".as_bytes(), program_id.as_ref(), mint_key.as_ref(), "edition".as_bytes()]

Any limited edition minted from this has the same address, but is of a different struct type. The reason these two different structs(Edition and MasterEdition) share the same address is to ensure that there can be no Metadata that has both, which would make no sense in the current architecture.

create_metadata_account

(Mint authority must be signer)

This action creates the Metadata account.

update_metadata_account

(Update authority must be signer)

This call can be called at any time by the update authority to update the URI on any metadata or update authority on metadata, and later other fields.

create_master_edition

(Update authority must be signer)

This can only be called once, and only if the supply on the mint is one. It will create a MasterEdition record. Now other Mints can become Editions of this Metadata if they have the proper authorization token.

mint_new_edition_from_master_edition_via_token

(Mint authority of new mint must be signer)

If one possesses a token from the Printing mint of the master edition and a brand new mint with no Metadata, and that mint has only a supply of one, this mint can be turned into an Edition of this parent Master Edition by calling this endpoint. This endpoint both creates the Edition and Metadata records and burns the token.

Further extensions

This program is designed to be extended with further account buckets.

If say, we wanted to add metadata for youtube metadata, we could create a new struct called Youtube and seed it with the seed

["metadata".as_bytes(), program_id.as_ref(), mint_key.as_ref(), "youtube".as_bytes()]

And then only those interested in that metadata need search for it, and its uniqueness is ensured. It can also have it's own update action that follows a similar pattern to the original update action.