Issue additional units of an Asset

Question

In the answer to this question you stated that once an asset is issued, additional units cannot be issued at a later point in time, the reason given being:

"The problem with allowing additional asset units to be created in a subsequent transaction is the security - it could only work if those units were issued by the same private key. In that case you might as well just issue a much larger quantity in the first place…"

If this is the case, can you please consider allowing the private key that issued the initial tranche of assets to issue more of the same, essentially making it the issuing authority for that asset? Putting aside the risk of issuing a massive amount up-front and storing them in a cold wallet (just ask BTER), you are still stuck with a finite supply if you can't.

Answer 1

MultiChain 1.0 alpha 17, just released, provides this functionality.

Comments

Great news! Thanks very much for taking the suggestion onboard and incorporating it into the product.

Answer 2

Thanks, it's an understandable feature request.

But just so you understand the security aspect, allowing follow-on issues using the same private key gives you weaker protection than issuing a massive amount up-front and distributing it across multiple addresses, which could also use cold storage. This is because that private key can create an unlimited additional quantity of the asset if it's violated - much worse than just a very large quantity.

So it seems like the main consideration is simply that the asset should appear in the listassets API output with the correct quantity, rather than some arbitrarily large number. Is there any other reason why you'd not want to issue a large amount up front?

Comments

It is certainly on the roadmap, but there are a few more burning things that need to be done first. My best estimate is we'll get to this a few months from now, but I don't want to express this as a formal commitment.

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Multi/Chain 1.0 alpha 17, just released, provides this functionality.

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Hi,

Looks there is some problem I could not create the assets with open option.

bc1@host1:~$ m getaddresses
{"method":"getaddresses","params":[],"id":1,"chain_name":"ms"}

[
    "1KCnJoTMc35JCpCnD25ZFNw9SYvAmU1r7kMrx7"
]
bc1@host1:~$ m issue "1KCnJoTMc35JCpCnD25ZFNw9SYvAmU1r7kMrx7" {"name":"coin2","open":true} 100 0.01
error: Error parsing JSON:open:true
bc1@host1:~$ m -version

MultiChain Core RPC client build 1.0 alpha 17 protocol 10004

bc1@host1:~$

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You need to put JSON parameters in single quotes - this is a shell issue rather than specific to MultiChain.

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Hi,
I am sorry it is my mistake. yes it is working fine.
Thanks & Regards,
ShenthilkumarCK