According to Coinbase, all the assets considered for listing already met their legal, compliance, and technical security standards. However, the exchange reserves the right to delay or remove the asset from the listing roadmap “for any number of factors.” The information included in their blog post should not be interpreted as a promise or guarantee of listing.
Listing requirements for Student Coin (STC)
Currently, Coinbase supports three types of tokens for trading, which are ERC-20 tokens on the Ethereum blockchain, SPL tokens on Solana, and native assets on their own network. STC is an ERC-20 token that serves as a reference currency and utility token for the Student Coin ecosystem.
To get listed on Coinbase, all the ERC-20 tokens, including STC, have to comply with the following requirements:
Verified source code
To effectively verify the token’s code, the issuer has to upload the source code of smart contracts to the Etherscan, Ethereum’s block explorer that allows users to find all the details about the certain project and audit them independently. The next step is to add the code to a shareable repository like GitHub and regularly communicate each of the token upgrades if there will be any.
Industry-standard library use
The requirement to use industry-standard libraries means that developers should avoid writing smart contracts from scratch and should instead turn to popular and community-tested open-source frameworks. Even the most professional developers can miss a tiny detail and endanger the security of the token. In comparison, open-source standards are time-tested technology rigorously reviewed by thousands of contributors.
Limited scope for privileged roles
Some smart contracts allow developers to create tokens of different values. Tokens with privileged roles can have a number of functions unavailable to common tokens, such as pausing or changing transactions. Such privileges can completely change the token’s logic and, therefore, should be limited – no one should be allowed to freeze, burn, or modify other users’ funds without their permission. Any system upgrades initiated by superusers should be discussed and voted upon by other non-privileged users.
Simple, modular design
Keep it simple, stupid (KISS) principle works for tokens too. The token contract should be simple, consisting of a minimal number of components, and token-related functions should be separated from the rest of the protocol.
Experimental asset label
According to the Coinbase announcement, some of the tokens considered for listing may be traded under the Experimental asset label. The label will appear on the newly listed or low trading volume assets to warn investors about the risks associated with the particular token. It won’t impact the ability to trade, receive or hold identified assets, but users will have to confirm they have read the disclaimer. Chances are that the STC token will be marked as well. However, Coinbase constantly monitors the assets and will remove the label when the token no longer meets the criteria.
