Before 2017, if you wanted to own a unique digital item, you were basically trusting a company’s word that you had it. No proof. No transferability. No real ownership. That changed when a game called CryptoKitties broke the Ethereum network.

It wasn’t the cats themselves that caused the chaos-it was how they were built. Each CryptoKitty was a unique digital asset, but the code behind it wasn’t standardized. Developers had to write custom contracts for every new NFT. That meant wallets couldn’t recognize them. Marketplaces couldn’t list them. And when thousands of people started breeding digital cats at once, Ethereum’s transaction queue backed up like rush hour traffic. Gas fees spiked. Transactions stalled. The whole thing looked like a glitch.

But that glitch was the catalyst. The team behind CryptoKitties realized they needed a rulebook. So they created the first widely adopted NFT standard: ERC-721. Published in January 2018, it defined exactly how a non-fungible token should behave. Every ERC-721 token had to have a unique ID, an owner, and functions to transfer, approve, and check balance. It also included optional metadata-like a name, description, and image link-that could be stored off-chain. Suddenly, any wallet or marketplace that supported ERC-721 could display, buy, or sell any NFT built on it. That’s when NFTs went from experimental code to real digital property.

Why ERC-721 Became the Default

By 2020, over 80% of all NFTs on Ethereum used ERC-721. Why? Because it was simple, clear, and supported everywhere. OpenSea, Rarible, Foundation-all of them built their platforms around it. Digital art exploded. CryptoPunks and Bored Apes became status symbols. Collectors paid millions. The standard worked for one-of-a-kind items: a piece of art, a rare collectible, a virtual land deed.

But it had a flaw: cost. Every transfer of an ERC-721 token required a separate transaction. If you wanted to sell five NFTs, you paid five gas fees. At $1.42 per transfer in 2022, that added up fast. For gamers or platforms selling hundreds of items at once, it was unsustainable.

Enter ERC-1155: The Multi-Token Revolution

In June 2018, Enjin’s Witek Radomski proposed ERC-1155-a game-changer. Instead of one contract per token type, ERC-1155 lets one contract handle multiple token types, both fungible and non-fungible. Think of it like a digital wallet that can hold cash, gift cards, and rare coins all in one pocket.

The biggest win? Batch transfers. You can send 10 different NFTs in a single transaction. Gas costs dropped from $1.42 per item to around $0.15 for the whole batch. That’s a 90% reduction. For gaming companies, this wasn’t just a cost cut-it was a survival tool.

Axie Infinity made the switch in late 2021. Before, they were using ERC-721 for their in-game creatures. Each transfer cost over $4. After switching to ERC-1155, they slashed fees to under $0.70 per transfer. They onboarded 2 million new players in six months. The Sandbox followed. Even Nike’s .SWOOSH platform adopted ERC-1155 for digital sneakers.

Today, ERC-1155 powers most NFTs used in games, virtual worlds, and utility tokens. It’s not just cheaper-it’s more flexible. You can mint a common sword (fungible) and a legendary sword (non-fungible) in the same contract. No extra code. No extra gas. Just smarter design.

Outside Ethereum: Solana’s Low-Cost Alternative

Ethereum’s dominance didn’t go unchallenged. Solana launched its own NFT ecosystem with the Metaplex protocol. Unlike Ethereum, Solana uses proof-of-stake from day one, so transactions are fast and cheap. An NFT transfer on Solana costs about $0.00025-nearly 6,000 times cheaper than ERC-721.

This made Solana the go-to for social NFTs, meme tokens, and high-volume drops. Artists, influencers, and meme communities flocked to it. Projects like Degenerate Ape Academy and Solana Monkey Business sold millions of NFTs in hours.

But there’s a trade-off. Solana’s speed comes with less decentralization. Its network has experienced outages. And because most metadata is stored on centralized servers, broken links are common. If the image host goes down, your NFT becomes a blank square. Ethereum’s ERC-721 tokens aren’t perfect either-but at least they’re built on a more battle-tested, decentralized base.

The Real Problem: Fragmentation

Here’s the catch: no single standard rules them all. ERC-721 is still the gold standard for high-value art. ERC-1155 dominates gaming. Solana handles volume. Polygon, Flow, and Tezos have their own standards too. And most wallets don’t support all of them equally.

OpenSea supports both ERC-721 and ERC-1155, but users still report failed listings when metadata isn’t formatted right. Trustpilot reviews show 27% of complaints about NFTs not showing up because the marketplace didn’t fully support the standard used.

Developers are stuck playing catch-up. One Reddit user spent three weeks debugging why his NFT image wouldn’t load across wallets. The issue? The tokenURI wasn’t pointing to a stable IPFS hash. It was pointing to a temporary server that expired. That’s the hidden cost of NFTs: if the metadata isn’t permanent, your digital asset can vanish.

New Standards Are Already Here

The evolution didn’t stop with ERC-1155. In 2023, two new Ethereum proposals are reshaping what NFTs can do.

EIP-6454 lets you prove you own an NFT without transferring it. Before, if you wanted to grant access to a private Discord server or a members-only event, you had to send the NFT to a smart contract. Now, you can just sign a message. OpenSea and Rarible already use this for verified creator badges.

Even bigger: ERC-6551. This one turns every NFT into its own wallet. Imagine owning a digital sword. Under ERC-6551, that sword doesn’t just sit in your wallet-it has its own account. It can hold other NFTs, receive payments, interact with smart contracts. Your sword could buy a potion, trade with another sword, or even earn rent from being rented out in a game.

It’s like giving your NFT a brain. This isn’t sci-fi-it’s code. Mainnet deployment is expected by late 2023. Games like Decentraland and The Sandbox are already testing it.

Who’s Using What-and Why

Here’s how the landscape breaks down in 2025:

• ERC-721: Used for high-value digital art (CryptoPunks, Art Blocks), collectibles, and anything where scarcity and provenance matter most. 87% of Ethereum NFTs still use it.
• ERC-1155: Dominates gaming, virtual worlds, and utility NFTs. Used by Axie Infinity, The Sandbox, Nike .SWOOSH, and Ubisoft’s NFTs.
• Solana Metaplex: Preferred for high-volume, low-cost drops-meme coins, social tokens, influencer merch.
• Hybrid systems: Enterprises are combining standards. A luxury brand might use ERC-721 for a physical product certificate and ERC-1155 for digital accessories in a metaverse.

According to Gartner, by 2025, 70% of enterprise NFT projects will use hybrid standards. That’s the real future: not one rule to rule them all, but smart combinations tailored to use cases.

What This Means for Creators and Buyers

If you’re an artist selling digital art: Stick with ERC-721. It’s trusted. It’s liquid. Buyers know what they’re getting.

If you’re building a game or app with in-game items: Use ERC-1155. Save on gas. Scale easily. Let players trade multiple items at once.

If you’re a collector: Always check the standard. A Solana NFT might look cool, but if the metadata breaks, it’s just a pixel. An ERC-721 with IPFS storage is more likely to last.

If you’re a developer: Learn both ERC-721 and ERC-1155. OpenZeppelin’s libraries make it easy. Use Hardhat for testing. Store metadata on IPFS via NFT.Storage or Arweave-never just a URL. And test across wallets: MetaMask, Phantom, Rabby, and Coinbase Wallet all handle standards differently.

The Bigger Picture: NFTs as Infrastructure

NFT token standards aren’t just about selling pictures. They’re becoming the backbone of digital ownership. Think of them like HTTP for assets. Just as websites rely on standardized protocols to load, display, and link content, digital assets now rely on NFT standards to prove ownership, transfer value, and interact with apps.

JP Morgan predicts that by 2030, 80% of digital assets will be tokenized using these standards. That includes concert tickets, car titles, academic credentials, and even real estate deeds.

The evolution isn’t over. Standards will keep improving. Security audits will get tighter. Metadata storage will become decentralized. And as more people use NFTs for real-world utility, the standards will adapt-not to be perfect, but to be practical.

The lesson? Don’t chase hype. Understand the standard behind the NFT. Because in 2025, the value isn’t just in the image. It’s in the code that holds it together.