Glossary · Smart Contracts

Minting policy.

A script that decides whether new units of a native token may be minted or burned.

In depth

Every native token on Cardano has a minting policy: a script whose hash becomes the token’s policy ID. The script runs whenever the supply of that token changes inside a transaction. Policies range from time-locked (mint only before slot X) to multi-sig to fully programmable Plutus.

Example

A time-locked minting policy can be used to mint an NFT collection only before a deadline, after which the supply is forever fixed.

Next on this path

  1. Native token A custom asset that lives directly inside UTxOs alongside ada, not implemented as a smart contract.
  2. NFT A native token whose minting policy guarantees a one-of-one supply.