Burn tokens
Burning tokens by token holders without the involvement of the foundry is possible to prevent losing access to the storage deposit of the underlying tokens. What would happen if mintAddress in Basic Output #3 is not controlled by the issuer, but some other entity?
They obviously can't melt the tokens without controlling the foundry, therefore they can't free up the base tokens (IOTA/SMR) in Basic Output #3. Unless the issuer buys back the tokens or someone else relieves the user by taking the tokens and refunding the storage deposit, it is locked forever. Burning native tokens allows you to discard them and free up the storage deposit.
Burnt tokens are no longer tracked in the ledger, therefore burning is conceptually equivalent to sending to the zero address without a storage deposit.
Example Transaction
Transaction D burns all tokens in Basic Output #3. Notice that mintAddress doesn't have to have the approval of the foundry and the controlling alias account.
Related Tutorials
- iota.js
Related How-to Guides
- wallet.rs
Related Code Examples
- iota.js