how to become a cryptocurrency creator

A cryptocurrency is basically a form of digital cash or a digital currency. A currency acts as a medium of exchange and a digital currency is a digital medium of exchange.

Cryptocurrencies are a digital medium of exchange. Bitcoin is the first-ever cryptocurrency created in 2009. Satoshi Nakamoto is the creator of Bitcoin.

Cryptocurrencies leverage blockchain technology. Blockchain is a decentralized network where no single authority controls the network. Blockchain is a kind of database that stores the data of the cryptocurrency. Computers participating in the network are called nodes of the network. These nodes are responsible for validating the data on the blockchain network.

Cryptocurrencies can have their own blockchain and they can also exist on other cryptocurrency's blockchain networks. For example, Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, Dogecoin, etc, have their own blockchain and the transaction data is stored on the respective blockchains. And cryptocurrencies like Basic Attention Token(BAT), LINK, UNI, SHIB are built on the Ethereum network, and cryptocurrencies like CAKE, BAKE are built on Binance Smart Chain.

Cryptocurrency Tokens

Cryptocurrencies that are built on top of other cryptocurrency blockchains are called Tokens/Cryptocurrency Tokens. All the data of a token whether it is transactional data or smart contract data exists on the blockchain on which they are built. All tokens are cryptocurrencies but all cryptocurrencies are not tokens.

We have discussed that we can create a cryptocurrency token on another cryptocurrency's blockchain network, but not all cryptocurrency networks support building tokens on them.

Ethereum is the first cryptocurrency network to support smart contracts which are helpful in creating cryptocurrency tokens. Ethereum based tokens are known as ERC-20 tokens. In this article, we are going to discuss how to create your own cryptocurrency on Ethereum (a simple ERC-20 token) using Solidity. Without any further ado, let's dive into the detailed contents.

  • Installing Remix IDE via Docker
  • Creating Metamask wallet
  • Solidity Smart Contract for your very own Cryptocurrency Token. 
  • Deploying the Smart Contract to Ropsten test network (Ethereum blockchain) with Metamask and Remix IDE.
  • Getting our Source Code Verified on Etherscan
  • Testing our Cryptocurrency by transferring it to Random Users.


Installing Remix IDE via Docker


Docker installation process is very simple. If you don't have docker installed, install it from here. Trust me docker will save a lot of valuable time which we are going to lose in the installation process and configuration. 

Once you have installed docker and running it, execute the below command. 

docker pull remixproject/remix-ide:latest
 This command will pull the latest version of IDE into your system. Now let's run it. Execute the below command to run it.

docker run -p 8080:80 remixproject/remix-ide:latest
Now your IDE is running. Go to http://localhost:8080 and you can use your Remix instance.  You should be able to see a screen like below.





Creating a Metamask Wallet


Metamask is a web-based Ethereum wallet. It is available as an extension. We can store all kinds of Ethereum-based tokens on Metamask. After creation, we will get our own private keys and an ERC-20 address. 

Add to chrome or brave from here.  You can follow this article on how to create an ethereum wallet using metamask.

Once you follow all the steps, you will have an ERC-20 Address like below. 




Solidity Smart Contract for your very own Cryptocurrency Token

Now, all we need is a solidity smart contract. A Smart contract is a piece of code uploaded to the blockchain. The code will contain public functions which can be called by anyone connected to the blockchain from their computer. 

Refer to this article on Solidity( a programming language to write smart contracts) and smart contracts to get a basic understanding.


Below is the code for your own cryptocurrency token. It is written to be compatible with the 0.8.4 version of solidity. 




A smart contract consists of both variables and functions. Variables hold the state of a smart contract and functions dictate the behavior of the contract. 

In the above contract, totalSupply is the total supply of your cryptocurrency, and balances mapping stores a map of address to token balance. 

When the contract is deployed, the constructor is called and the initial supply was set to 21 million. And all the tokens are by default provided to the creator of the smart contract.  

The name provided in the constructor will be the name of cryptocurrency and the same goes for the symbol as well.

The balance of function provides the balance of the PBT tokens at a particular address. The transfer function lets users transfer PBT tokens from one ERC-20 address to another.  Both of these functions are used by an injected web3 provider like Metamask. 

Below, we will see how can we transfer our tokens from one address to another. 



Compiling and Deploying the Smart Contract to Ropsten test network


Ropsten is Ethereum test network with the same protocols as Ethereum and is used for testing purposes before deploying on the main network (Mainnet). 

It sucks to deploy directly on the main network by paying in ether and watch it fail.  So, heed the warning, always test the code, first on the test network before deploying on main net.  

And also it doesn't cost us actual money to deploy and test on a test network such as ropsten test network.

So, now copy the code above to the clipboard. Go to the Remix IDE tab which we opened after installing Remix IDE on the local machine or just go to http://localhost:8080 

Right-click on contracts. You should see the below screen. Click on the new File and enter the name as Your token name. 

In my case, it is PranayBathiniToken.sol 

.sol is an extension for telling it is a smart contract written in solidity. 

You can change the variable name to your own token name,  the symbol, and total supply as well. 

Now after making the changes, go to the compiler tab, select the compiler as 0.8.4 and click on compile as below. You should see a green tick mark upon successful compilation like below.  It indicates we have the correct code in terms of syntax. 




 Now, let's go to Deploy and Run Transactions tab. By default, you should see the environment as Javascript VM. 

According to the docs, If you deploy on this environment, all the transactions will be executed in a sandbox blockchain in the browser. This means nothing will be persisted when you reload the page. The JsVM is its own blockchain and on each reload it will start a new blockchain, the old one will not be saved.

Instead, we will use Injected Web3 as an environment. The Remix IDE will connect to metamask. Click on Next and continue as below. 




Switch the Network from Ethereum Mainnet to Ropsten Testnet in metamask.

Before going to deploy, we need some test (fake) ether to deploy our smart contract. You can get the test ether from the below websites.

Now, we have some test ether.  Let's deploy to the test net. Click on Deploy button. Metamask will ask for confirmation like below.




Click on confirm and your contract will be deployed on Ropsten network.  Go to the Activity tab like below and click on contract deployment - the contract we deployed just now. 
You will see the below screen. Click on the arrow icon. It will redirect to Ropsten Etherscan. 



You will see the below image with the transaction details.  You can refer to this post on how to read a transaction on etherscan for further understanding.




You can also click on the question mark icon beside each row too. 

Now that the contract is deployed on the testnet. You can add the token to Metamask. 

It is a two-step process. 

  • Copy the contract address which is the To address in the above image. (0x59dab2913703472b9572e1a81075521c20f4844e)
  • Go to Metamask, click on assets. Click on add token. Paste the contract address in the Token contract address section and the symbol name will be auto-populated like below. 


Next, click on add tokens. Now, you can come back to the assets section and see your token like below. 




I know, you are so eager to spend your newly created ERC-20 Token. But first, let's get our source code verified on Ropsten etherscan.



Getting our Source Code Verified on Etherscan


Go to the contract address we got after deploying our contract, by clicking on the To address of the transaction details of our contract deployment transaction. 

In case of this tutorial, my contract address is 0x59DAB2913703472b9572e1A81075521c20f4844e.  

The contract page will look like below. 




You can reach the above image screen by clicking here - Contract address of Pranay Bathini Token(PBT). 

Click on the contract tab and you will see a screen like the below image. Now click on Verify and Publish.  




You will reach the screen like below, fill in the details as shown below, and click on continue. 




Now copy the code from the remix-ide and paste it in the Solidity contract code section like below. 



Next, go to the bottom of the screen and click on verify and publish.  Your source code is now verified. 

You should see a green tick mark beside the contract in the contracts tab like below with your source code.




Testing our Cryptocurrency Token by transferring it to Random Users.


Now, let's send our crypto token to some users. You can also send it to your friends. In my case, my token is PBT.  Go to Metamask, you will see your token here. 




Click on Send like below.  It will ask for the recipient address.  Enter  0xC9804b60c2A303d4664799a985e5088e4cE4C15C  to send your crypto to me. 

Enter the number of tokens you want to send and click on next and confirm. 




Now, your transaction is submitted to the testnet and you will receive a notification from Metamask. 

You can check the transaction by navigating to activity and clicking on the specific transaction and then clicking on the arrow icon will navigate to Etherscan page like below.



You will see a screen like below. Click on Pranay Bathini in the tokens transferred row. 



It will redirect to the ERC-20 token tracker page which will be added to our contract page. 

ERC-20 Token Tracker Page





Contract Page





To update more details like the image and your token website information, visit here - https://etherscan.io/contactus. 


Select Update Token Info and provide the details requested for verification and updating token information. 



Getting your Token on the main Ethereum network 


All the steps mentioned above will be the same except in the network section - 

  • Select Ethereum Mainnet in networks in Metamask.
  • Follow the same procedure mentioned above.
  • It will cost you actual ether to deploy the smart contract and make transactions instead of fake ether which we obtained from a test faucet. 



Next Steps!!

Congratulations 🥳 !!! 
Now you have your own cryptocurrency token on the Ethereum main-net which other people can use for transactions. 

But for other people to use it, they have to buy for which you need to perform Initial Coin Offering and need to be listed on the exchanges. 

That is for another day. For now, go and share your ERC-20 verified Crypto token in your network. 

Also please do send your newly created tokens to our ERC 20 address   0xC9804b60c2A303d4664799a985e5088e4cE4C15C



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