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CIP-0056 — token standard

CIP-0056 is how Canton tokens look the same to every wallet. It is a set of Daml interfaces plus optional registry HTTP APIs. It is not the API a website uses to connect. That is CIP-0103. Specification: CIP-0056.
Wallet-oriented walkthrough: Canton token standard.

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The six APIs

A registry says which of these it supports. Ekiden treats Canton Coin (kind: "amulet") and utility-registry instruments (kind: "cip56") as the two kinds it knows how to display and send.

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How the wallet uses the standard

The five patterns in the Canton wallet guide, and where they live:
  1. Read contracts that implement a token interface. Holdings and incoming transfer instructions are read from active contracts (gateway and, for Canton Coin, the wallet backend ACS).
  2. Read transaction history. The wallet UI is balance-and-offer oriented. It does not yet render a full CIP-0056 transaction history for every registry.
  3. Execute a factory choice. Canton Coin sends fetch the transfer factory, then submit a signed batch.
  4. Execute a choice on an existing contract. Accept, reject, or withdraw on a transfer instruction the user already holds.
  5. Custom Daml for bulk workflows. Out of scope for the extension. Sends are one approval at a time.
Private keys never go to the registry. The extension signs the prepared transaction hash. The participant co-signs where the workflow requires an operator (for example some preapproval accepts).

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What a dApp should not reimplement

If a site only needs “user pays this party N of an instrument”, it should submit that as prepareExecute commands, or use the product’s own API, and let the wallet render the approval. Parsing holding interfaces in the page duplicates the wallet and breaks when a registry adds a package version.

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Gaps to keep visible in the public docs

  • No generic Allocation / Allocation Request UI.
  • No claim that every CIP-0056 registry on the network is listed. The wallet shows instruments it has a catalog entry for, plus holdings it can parse.
  • History is not the full token-standard transaction log.
Attach token flow when this page is published.