I am curious if ERC20 token names are unique on the Ethereum block chain? For example, what is to stop someone from creating a new token called Golem (GNT) and publishing it to a smart contract?
I have a hunch they are not. Is there a reason for this?
It could end up being confusing to people if token names start repeating, imagine an ERC20 token called ETH
Best Answer
There could be any number of ERC20 contracts deployed with the
name
string variable "Golem Network Token." However, each one of these contracts has a unique Ethereum contract address. The ERC20 contract address deployed by Golem is 0xa74476443119A942dE498590Fe1f2454d7D4aC0d. If someone else deployed a clone contract it would have a different address and could be easily identified as a clone. The Golem ERC20 contract can also be easily lookedup by its ENS domain, gnt.thetoken.eth, which is managed by ENS creator, Nick Johnson.