What is a Core Asset

Overview

Setting itself apart from existing Asset programs, like Solana’s Token program, Metaplex Core and Core Assets (sometimes referred to as Core NFT Assets) do not rely on multiple accounts, like Associated Token Accounts. Instead, Core Assets store the relationship between a wallet and the "mint" account within the asset itself.

React Flow

The Core Asset Account

The Core Asset account represents the bare minimum data for a digital asset. This structure provides an unopinionated blockchain primitive for onchain ownership.

React Flow

Is my Asset in a Collection?

MPL Core Assets can belong to collections. The updateAuthority field in the MPL Core Asset data provides two duties, either to report the update authority of the Asset, or to provide the publicKey of the MPL Core Collection to which it belongs.

When accessing the updateAuthority field either directly via the asset, or via the collectionAddress helper of the MPL Core Asset, the returning result will be one of the following outcomes:

Collection

The asset belongs to the collection at the given address.

Create Asset

{
  __kind: 'Collection'
  fields: [PublicKey]
}
import { fetchAssetV1 } from '@metaplex-foundation/mpl-core'

const asset = await fetchAssetV1(umi, assetAddress.publicKey)
const collectionId = collectionAddress(asset)

console.log({collectionId})
console.log({asset})

// log
collection: '2222222222222222222222222222222'
asset: {
    key: AssetV1,
    owner: "11111111111111111111111111111111",
    updateAuthority: {
      type: 'Collection',
      address: '2222222222222222222222222222222'
    },
    name: "My Core Asset",
    uri: "https://example.com/metadata.json",
    ...
}

Address

The asset has an update authority set and does not belong to a collection.

Create Asset

import { fetchAssetV1 } from '@metaplex-foundation/mpl-core'

const asset = await fetchAssetV1(umi, assetAddress.publicKey)
const collectionId = collectionAddress(asset)

console.log({collectionId})
console.log({asset})

// log
collectionId: undefined
asset: {
    key: AssetV1,
    owner: "11111111111111111111111111111111",
    updateAuthority: {
      type: 'Address',
      address: '2222222222222222222222222222222'
    }
    name: "My Core Asset",
    uri: "https://example.com/metadata.json",
    ...
}

None

The asset has no update authority set.

Create Asset

import { fetchAssetV1 } from '@metaplex-foundation/mpl-core'

const asset = await fetchAssetV1(umi, assetAddress.publicKey)
const collectionId = collectionAddress(asset)

console.log({collectionId})
console.log({asset})

// log
collectionId: undefined
asset: {
    key: AssetV1,
    owner: "11111111111111111111111111111111",
    updateAuthority: {
      type: 'None',
    },
    name: "My Core Asset",
    uri: "https://example.com/metadata.json",
}

Off Chain Metadata

One important attribute of the Asset Account is the URI attribute that points to a JSON file off-chain. This is used to safely provide additional data whilst not being constrained by the fees involved in storing onchain data. That JSON file follows a certain standard that anyone can use to find useful information on tokens.

Off Chain Metadata can be stored at any publicly accessible location. Popular places to host your json files include;

Arweave
NFT.Storage/IPFS
Amazon AWS S3/Google Cloud

React Flow

Field	Type	Description
name	string	Name of the asset.
description	string	Description of the asset.
image	string	URI pointing to the asset's logo.
animation_url	string	URI pointing to the asset's animation.
external_url	string	URI pointing to an external URL defining the asset — e.g. the game's main site.
attributes	array	Array of attributes defining the characteristics of the asset. trait_type (string): The type of attribute. value (string): The value for that attribute.
properties	object	Additional properties that define the asset. files (array): Additional files to include with the asset. uri (string): The file's URI. type (string): The file's type. E.g. `image/png`, `video/mp4`, etc. cdn (boolean, optional): Whether the file is served from a CDN. category (string): A media category for the asset. E.g. `video`, `image`, etc.

Note that, this JSON file can be stored using a permanent storage solution such as Arweave to ensure it cannot be updated. Additionally, one can set the Update Authority field to None to make it immutable and, therefore, forbid the URI and Name attributes to ever be changed. Using this combination, we can guarantee the immutability of the off-chain JSON file.