Publishing information about an asset

When you issue an asset, it’s crucial to provide clear information about it represents. On Stellar, you do that by linking your issuing account to a home domain, publishing a stellar.toml file on that domain, and making sure that file is complete.

The most successful asset issuers give exchanges, wallets, and potential buyers lots of information about themselves in order to establish trust. More information in your stellar.toml will mean:

• Your asset gets more exposure, and is listed on more exchanges
• Your asset holders are more confident in you and the assets you issue.
• Your project will most likely be more successful!

The Stellar ticker, which is the source of market data for sites like CoinMarketCap, only includes assets with valid stellar.toml files. Trading interfaces like StellarX, Stellarport, and StellarTerm and wallets like Lobstr and Solar use stellar.toml files to populate their listings, and to decide if and how to present assets to their users. Any and all ecosystem integrations that allow for interoperability—from federation to in-app deposit and withdrawal—rely on information in your stellar.toml detailing your Stellar setup.

Completing your stellar.toml is not a step you can skip.

The stellar.toml file is a common place where the Internet can find information about your organization’s Stellar integration. You write it in TOML, a simple and widely used configuration file format designed to be readable by both humans and machines, and publish at https://YOUR_DOMAIN/.well-known/stellar.toml.

That way, everyone knows where to find it, anyone can look it up, and it proves that the owner of the HTTPS domain hosting the stellar.toml claims responsibility for the accounts and assets listed in it.

Using a set_options operation, you can link your Stellar account to the domain that hosts your stellar.toml, thereby creating a definitive on-chain link between this information and that account.

The very first Stellar Ecosystem Proposal, aptly named SEP-0001, specifies everything you could ever want to include in a stellar.toml file. This guide, which is targeted toward asset issuers, won’t cover the Validator Information section (that’s covered elsewhere), and may omit some details relevant to your use case.

The goal here is to walk through the sections of SEP-0001 that directly relate to asset issuers, so you should use this guide in conjunction with that SEP to make sure you complete your stellar.toml correctly. The four sections we’ll cover:

• Account Information
• Issuer Documentation
• Point of Contact Documentation
• Currency Documentation

For each of those sections, we’ll let you know which fields are required, meaning all asset issuers must include them to be listed by exchanges and wallets, and which fields are suggested. Completing suggested fields is a good way to make your asset stand out.

Account Information

There is one field in the Account Information section required for all token issuers:

• ACCOUNTS: A list of public keys for all the Stellar accounts associated with your asset.

Listing your public keys lets users confirm that you, in fact, own them. For example, when https://google.com hosts a stellar.toml file, users can be sure that only the accounts listed on it belong to Google. If someone then says, “You need to pay your Google bill this month, send payment to address GIAMGOOGLEIPROMISE”, but that key is not listed on Google’s stellar.toml, then users know to not trust it.

In addition, there are several fields where you list information about your Stellar integration to aid in discoverability. If you offer an asset that can interoperate with wallets to allow for in-app deposit and withdrawal, make sure to include the locations of your servers on your stellar.toml file so those wallets know where to find relevant endpoints to query. In particular, list your:

• TRANSFER_SERVER
• WEB_AUTH_ENDPOINT

Issuer Documentation

Basic information about your organization goes into a TOML table called [DOCUMENTATION]. Issuer Documentation is your chance to inform exchanges and buyers about your business, and to demonstrate that your business is legitimate and trustworthy.

Required

• ORG_NAME The legal name of your organization, and if your business has one, its official ORG_DBA.
• ORG_URL The HTTPS URL of your organization’s official website. In order to prove the website is yours, you must host your stellar.toml on the same domain you list here. That way, exchanges and buyers can view the SSL certificate on your website, and feel reasonably confident that you are who you say you are.
• ORG_LOGO A URL to a company logo, which will show up next to your organization on exchanges. This image should be a square aspect ratio transparent PNG, ideally of size 128x128. If you fail to provide a logo, the icon next to your organization will appear blank on many exchanges.
• ORG_PHYSICAL_ADDRESS The physical address of your organization. We understand you might want to keep your work address private. At the very least, you should put the city and country in which you operate. A street address is ideal and provides a higher level of trust and transparency to your potential asset holders.
• ORG_OFFICIAL_EMAIL The best contact email address for you organization. This should be hosted at the same domain as your official website.

Suggested

• ORG_GITHUB Your organization’s official Github account.
• ORG_KEYBASE Your organization’s official Keybase account. Your Keybase account should contain proof of ownership of any public online accounts you list here, including your organization’s domain.
• ORG_TWITTER Your organization’s official Twitter handle.
• ORG_DESCRIPTION A description of your organization. This is fairly open-ended, and you can write as much as you want. It’s a great place to distinguish yourself by describing what it is that you do.

Issuers that list verified information including phone/address attestations and Keybase verifications will be prioritized by Stellar clients.

Point of Contact Documentation

Information about the primary point(s) of contact for your organization goes into a TOML array of tables called [[PRINCIPALS]]. You need to put contact information for at least one person at your organization. If you don’t, exchanges can’t verify your offering, and it is unlikely that buyers will be interested. Multiple principals can be added with additional [[PRINCIPALS]] entries.

Required

• name The name of the primary contact.
• email The primary contact’s official email address. This should be hosted at the same domain as your organization’s official website.

Suggested

• github The personal Github account of the point of contact.
• twitter The personal Twitter handle of the point of contact.
• keybase The personal Keybase account for the point of contact. This account should contain proof of ownership of any public online accounts listed here and may contain proof of ownership of your organization’s domain.

Token Documentation

Information about your token(s) goes into a TOML array of tables called [[CURRENCIES]]. If you are issuing multiple assets, you can include them all in one stellar.toml. Each asset should have its own [[CURRENCIES]] entry.

Required

• code The asset code. This is one of two key pieces of information that identify your token. Without it, your token cannot be listed anywhere.
• issuer The Stellar public key of the issuing account. This is the second key piece of information that identifies your token. Without it, your token cannot be listed anywhere.
• is_asset_anchored An indication of whether your token is anchored or native: true if your token can be redeemed for an asset outside the Stellar network, false if it can’t. Exchanges use this information to sort tokens by type in listings. If you fail to provide it, your token is unlikely to show up in filtered market views.

If you’re issuing anchored (tethered, stablecoin, asset-backed) tokens, there are several additional required fields:

• anchor_asset_type The type of asset your token represents. The possible categories are fiat, crypto, stock, bond, commodity, realestate, and other.
• anchor_asset The name of the asset that serves as the anchor for your token.
• redemption_instructions Instructions to redeem your token for the underlying asset.

Suggested

• desc A description of your token and what it represents. This is a good place to clarify what your token does, and why someone might want to own it.
• conditions Any conditions you place on the redemption of your token.
• image A URL to a PNG or GIF image with a transparent background representing your token. Without it, your token will appear blank on many exchanges.

After you’ve followed the steps above to complete your stellar.toml, post it at the following location:

https://YOUR_DOMAIN/.well-known/stellar.toml

Enable CORS so people can access this file from other sites, and set the following header for an HTTP response for a /.well-known/stellar.toml file request.

Access-Control-Allow-Origin: *

Set a text/plain content type so that browsers render the contents, rather than prompting for a download. ‘content-type: text/plain’

You should also use the set_options operation to set the home domain on your issueing account.

var StellarSdk = require('stellar-sdk');
var server = new StellarSdk.Server('https://horizon-testnet.stellar.org');

// Keys for issuing account
var issuingKeys = StellarSdk.Keypair
  .fromSecret('SCZANGBA5YHTNYVVV4C3U252E2B6P6F5T3U6MM63WBSBZATAQI3EBTQ4');

server.loadAccount(issuingKeys.publicKey())
  .then(function(issuer) {
    var transaction = new StellarSdk.TransactionBuilder(issuer, {
      fee: 100,
      networkPassphrase: StellarSdk.Networks.TESTNET
    })
      .addOperation(StellarSdk.Operation.setOptions({
        homeDomain: 'yourdomain.com',
      }))
      // setTimeout is required for a transaction
      .setTimeout(100)
      .build();
    transaction.sign(issuingKeys);
    return server.submitTransaction(transaction);
  })
  .then(console.log)
  .catch(function(error) {
    console.error('Error!', error);
  });

NETWORK_PASSPHRASE="Public Global Stellar Network ; September 2015"
FEDERATION_SERVER="https://api.domain.com/federation"
AUTH_SERVER="https://api.domain.com/auth"
TRANSFER_SERVER="https://api.domain.com"
SIGNING_KEY="GBBHQ7H4V6RRORKYLHTCAWP6MOHNORRFJSDPXDFYDGJB2LPZUFPXUEW3"
HORIZON_URL="https://horizon.domain.com"
ACCOUNTS=[
"GD5DJQDDBKGAYNEAXU562HYGOOSYAEOO6AS53PZXBOZGCP5M2OPGMZV3",
"GAENZLGHJGJRCMX5VCHOLHQXU3EMCU5XWDNU4BGGJFNLI2EL354IVBK7",
"GAOO3LWBC4XF6VWRP5ESJ6IBHAISVJMSBTALHOQM2EZG7Q477UWA6L7U"
]
VERSION="2.0.0"

[DOCUMENTATION]
ORG_NAME="Organization Name"
ORG_DBA="Organization DBA"
ORG_URL="https://www.domain.com"
ORG_LOGO="https://www.domain.com/awesomelogo.png"
ORG_DESCRIPTION="Description of issuer"
ORG_PHYSICAL_ADDRESS="123 Sesame Street, New York, NY 12345, United States"
ORG_PHYSICAL_ADDRESS_ATTESTATION="https://www.domain.com/address_attestation.jpg"
ORG_PHONE_NUMBER="1 (123)-456-7890"
ORG_PHONE_NUMBER_ATTESTATION="https://www.domain.com/phone_attestation.jpg"
ORG_KEYBASE="accountname"
ORG_TWITTER="orgtweet"
ORG_GITHUB="orgcode"
ORG_OFFICIAL_EMAIL="support@domain.com"

[[PRINCIPALS]]
name="Jane Jedidiah Johnson"
email="jane@domain.com"
keybase="crypto_jane"
twitter="crypto_jane"
github="crypto_jane"
id_photo_hash="be688838ca8686e5c90689bf2ab585cef1137c999b48c70b92f67a5c34dc15697b5d11c982ed6d71be1e1e7f7b4e0733884aa97c3f7a339a8ed03577cf74be09"
verification_photo_hash="016ba8c4cfde65af99cb5fa8b8a37e2eb73f481b3ae34991666df2e04feb6c038666ebd1ec2b6f623967756033c702dde5f423f7d47ab6ed1827ff53783731f7"

[[CURRENCIES]]
code="USD"
issuer="GCZJM35NKGVK47BB4SPBDV25477PZYIYPVVG453LPYFNXLS3FGHDXOCM"
display_decimals=2

[[CURRENCIES]]
code="BTC"
issuer="GAOO3LWBC4XF6VWRP5ESJ6IBHAISVJMSBTALHOQM2EZG7Q477UWA6L7U"
display_decimals=7
anchor_asset_type="crypto"
anchor_asset="BTC"
redemption_instructions="Use SEP6 with our federation server"
collateral_addresses=["2C1mCx3ukix1KfegAY5zgQJV7sanAciZpv"]
collateral_address_signatures=["304502206e21798a42fae0e854281abd38bacd1aeed3ee3738d9e1446618c4571d10"]

# asset with meta info
[[CURRENCIES]]
code="GOAT"
issuer="GD5T6IPRNCKFOHQWT264YPKOZAWUMMZOLZBJ6BNQMUGPWGRLBK3U7ZNP"
display_decimals=2
name="goat share"
desc="1 GOAT token entitles you to a share of revenue from Elkins Goat Farm."
conditions="There will only ever be 10,000 GOAT tokens in existence. We will distribute the revenue share annually on Jan. 15th"
image="https://static.thenounproject.com/png/2292360-200.png"
fixed_number=10000