What Ravencoin assets actually are.
Four kinds of asset, each with a job. Once you can name them, the protocol stops feeling abstract.
The four kinds of Ravencoin asset, explained.
Ravencoin's asset layer is small by design. There are four kinds of asset — named, sub, unique, and restricted/qualifier — and a handful of rules each one obeys. The whole thing fits in one page; the rest is just naming conventions and good taste about when to use which.
The standard case. You reserve a globally unique name, set a supply, and decide whether it is reissuable. Holders can transfer the asset like a coin.
A named asset has a fixed maximum supply (or an unlimited reissuable one), a divisibility level (0–8 decimals), and an optional IPFS metadata hash. Once issued, it behaves at the protocol level like RVN itself — UTXOs hold balances, transfers move them, the wallet shows them in a separate balance column. Names are global and permanent; "MYPROJECT" cannot be issued twice.
Sub-assets
Scoped tokens nested under a parent you own. Useful for series, departments, or product lines where the parent name is the brand and the sub-asset is the variant. Issuance of a sub-asset is cheaper than a new top-level name and reserves the namespace under your control — only the holder of the parent asset can mint sub-assets under it.
- Format: PARENT/CHILD (e.g. MYBRAND/SHIRT-2024).
- Only the parent-asset holder can issue children.
- Cheaper to issue than a fresh top-level asset.
- Useful for collections, series, batches, and product variants.
One-of-one tokens issued under a parent. The protocol guarantees uniqueness within the parent's namespace, which makes them suitable for proofs of ownership, serialised items, tickets to a specific event, or the Ravencoin equivalent of an NFT — without a smart contract layer. Format is PARENT#UNIQUE, with the hash separator marking the uniqueness constraint.
A two-asset pattern where a qualifier tag controls who is allowed to hold a restricted asset. The restricted asset's name is prefixed with $; the qualifier's name is prefixed with #. The protocol enforces the rule: addresses without the qualifier tag cannot receive the restricted asset. Common in regulated-asset use cases — accredited-investor lists, jurisdiction gating, KYC'd holder sets, and similar policy work.
- $ASSET — restricted asset, transfer is policy-gated.
- #TAG — qualifier asset, marks addresses as allowed.
- Enforcement is at the consensus layer, not in a contract.
- Useful for regulated-securities tokenisation and access-controlled tokens.
Where the rules live
The rules are enforced by the chain itself, not by a smart contract you wrote. That is a simpler trust surface — no contract author to audit, no upgradeable proxy to compromise, no governance token to capture — but also a tighter constraint. You get exactly the behaviours the protocol exposes. For most tokenisation use cases that is plenty; for a chain whose entire value proposition is "tokens without smart-contract risk", it is the point.
From a desktop wallet, asset issuance is a single signed transaction. Open the Assets tab in Electrum RVN, pick a name, choose supply and divisibility, optionally attach an IPFS hash for metadata, and broadcast. The issuance fee (a fixed RVN amount burned to the network) is shown before you sign. Once it confirms, the asset appears in your balance list and can be transferred to any Ravencoin address that supports assets.
Three properties decided at issuance shape how the asset behaves for the rest of its life. Divisibility (0–8 decimals) sets the smallest possible unit and cannot be changed later — pick zero for one-of-one collectibles or tickets, eight for fungible currency-like tokens, and something in the middle for inventory-style assets. Reissuance is a boolean: a reissuable asset lets the owner mint more supply later, a non-reissuable one is locked at the original cap forever. Metadata is an optional IPFS hash pointing at off-chain JSON or media — the hash is permanent on-chain, the content it references is only as durable as the pinning service hosting it.
- Divisibility is set once at issuance and cannot be raised or lowered later.
- Reissuable assets let the owner expand supply; non-reissuable assets are capped forever.
- IPFS metadata is referenced by hash on-chain; pin it on a service you trust to keep it alive.
- Plan these properties before broadcasting — the issuance transaction is one-way.
What Ravencoin assets are not
Ravencoin assets are not smart contracts. There is no programmable transfer hook, no on-chain royalty enforcement, no upgradeable logic, and no governance module bundled with the asset. They are also not ERC-20 or ERC-721 tokens — address formats, transaction structure, and tooling differ entirely. If your use case needs arbitrary on-chain logic (a DEX, a lending market, a complex DAO), Ravencoin is the wrong tool. If your use case is "issue a named token with a fixed or capped supply, transferable like a coin, optionally policy-gated", Ravencoin's protocol-native approach is simpler, cheaper, and meaningfully harder to compromise.
Three patterns show up most often. First, brand or community tokens — a named asset standing in for membership, rewards, or a community currency, frequently paired with sub-assets for tiers or events. Second, collectibles and proofs — unique assets under a parent namespace, with IPFS metadata pointing at artwork or documentation. Third, regulated or access-controlled assets — restricted + qualifier pairs that limit holders to addresses that have been tagged off-chain via a KYC or accreditation process. None of these require custom smart-contract code; all of them work on a wallet you can run on a laptop.
Asset balances live at the same Ravencoin addresses your RVN does and are restored from the same 12 or 24-word seed phrase. That means the security model for assets is the security model for RVN: protect the seed, use a hardware signer for non-trivial balances, and treat the wallet file as a convenience layer that can always be regenerated. If you issue an asset with a meaningful supply, treat the issuance address with the same care you'd give a treasury wallet — a seed leak does not only expose the RVN balance, it exposes every asset that ever touched that address.
Frequently asked
Continue with Electrum RVN
- RVN asset wallet — issue and move assets in the wallet
- Electrum multisig — shared control for asset issuers
- Electrum RVN download — install the wallet to try it
Run your own Ravencoin wallet.
Open-source, lightweight, and built for the desktop user who wants real control over keys and assets. Download the wallet directly from our download page — signed installers for every operating system.