ERC20 vs ERC223
I have recently heard about more tokens offered on the Ethereum blockchain labeled as ERC223 compatible instead of ERC20. At First I thought this was maybe just an error on the part of some confused poster writing about the seemingly endless flow of CrapCoin airdrops currently underway. After some thought and a few more tokens advertised as such, I started to think maybe this was some type of update or upgrade to the Ethereum platform, and sure enough, this turns out to be true.
ERC223 is the newest version of Ethereum released just previous to the recent BitCoin update to Version 0.16.0 (which by the way is a pretty cool upgrade adding some good features to BTC protocol). One of the improvements ERC223 offers over ERC20 is the ability to use either your ETH address or the token contract address to send and receive coin. Although I have never done so myself, I did once personally witness someone send about $500 of OmiseGo to the token contract address instead of his ETH wallet address and sure enough, those tokens are GONESKI!
There are also a few other compatibility upgrade features to safeguard users and wallet interfaces in general from receiving or sending incompatible tokens, which I almost did once when I tried to send Qtum to an ETH address after it was on its own blockchain. Fortunately the exchange realized it wasn't a good address and so I din't lose my coin.
So are these good improvements? I think most would say yes. However to me, it kind of defeats the purpose. The blockchain is supposed to be unmuteable, unchangeable. Once we start giving out Mulligans to new inexperienced users, everyone will adopt it as a standard. What's next, password recovery for your private key?
Don't get me wrong, it sucks to lose some coin. But you learn the lesson of how important it is to be in control of your own assets, which is a key principal of BitCoin Maximalism. We don't want people entering the crypto space to think Big-Brother is behind it all and can recover your password for you if you lose it. Skipping over this fundamental idea could change the evolution of crypto as it is more accepted by the mainstream.
As an early adopter, it's a somewhat hard pill to swallow. I want BitCoin to win! I want it to be accepted and used by all, but on the same token, as it spreads and is accepted by more and more, it becomes somewhat diluted from its fundamental foundational principals. I guess that is just the price we pay for acceptance.
The situation may be exacerbated due to the plethora of mostly worthless tokens being offered on the Ethereum platform. The newest ones now claim their ERC223 status with pride, and what used to be a mark of quality for a token is now just a flashy prefix that makes it sound legit.
I don't mean to sound bitter, truth be told, this is probably an improvement for Ethereum. Vitalik's vision was simply to create a blockchain operating system which anyone could create a DApp to run on, similar to how we all have iOs, Windows, or Andriod and anyone can create an app to run on the platform. Some are high quality, most are not. I see this as a flood gate opening, allowing basically anyone to create and use an ETH token contract, and if you accidentally send to the wrong address, don't worry your transaction will be redirected.
The update also included many other valuable features that will make Ethereum more user friendly and also less expensive. Transactions happen in a 1-step process rather than a 2-step process as on ERC20, and so only require about half the Gwei to get through. I don't mean to sound like a crachety old man, but maybe I am. Back in my day, you lost your coin if you sent it to the wrong address! But in that same spirit, I am always in favor of innovations that reduce the costs to use crypto and that help new people get in the game. In the end, I hope it will be good for Ethereum, because I do like what they represent as an entry ramp to tokenizing the blockchain, and I hope they succeed.
Here is link to great explanation Git-Hub discussion on ERC223
https://github.com/Dexaran/ERC223-token-standard