Bethereum, a social betting platform built on the Ethereum blockchain, where bets are placed using the platform’s native Bether token announced that it will switch from their initial plan to use ERC20 tokens to now use ERC223 tokens. The change was set forth in order to take advantage of the improved smart contract technology built into ERC223, which will benefit the Bethereum ecosystem.

The newer ERC223 transfer method allows a smart contract to actively control the tokens that are being sent. For example, an exchange smart contract can react to a token transfer by adjusting the amount in a user’s wallet. Since the ERC223 protocol uses the same transfer function for wallets and smart contracts, it negates the risk of confusion on part of the receiver.

Aside from this upgrade, ERC223 transfers cost less gas ERC20. Sadly, companies already utilizing the ERC20 smart contracts cannot upgrade to ERC223, but all ERC223 tokens are cross-compatible with ERC20 tokens.

The Bethereum team said:

“ERC20 was favored by the first wave of blockchain crowdfunding projects due to its interoperability and ease of deployment. As of today, there are approximately 100,000 ERC20 compatible token smart contracts in the Ethereum main-net. The most active tokens, in terms of performed operations, have hundreds of thousands of transactions under their belt. And yet it is time for a change, one that’s more than necessary due to a core feature: transferring tokens from one address to another using a smart contract.”

“The transfer function of the ERC20 compatible token requires the receiver’s wallet to trigger the transferFrom function. When you fail to “prepare” the wallet for the eventual transfer, the tokens are lost forever, unable to enter the receiver’s wallet or return back to the sender. As this occurs within a smart contract, there is no mechanism to enter the automated contract and extract the tokens from the busted transaction. In other words, your money will be lost forever. There is already a long list of tokens that are forever lost in ERC20 smart contracts, where the addressee failed to trigger the transferFrom function.”

Bethereum is a social betting solution built on blockchain technology. It is designed to tackle the key challenges of conventional betting, it delivers a host of unique features and improvements. Starting with sports betting, the vision is to develop a wider ecosystem and to firmly establish the Bether token within the betting market.