Launching a token is less about writing an ERC-20 and more about orchestrating a production release across smart contracts, infrastructure, exchanges, and operations. Most failures aren’t “Solidity bugs” — they’re missing decisions (who can mint?), missing rehearsals (no fork test), or missing controls (no timelock).
Below is a pragmatic checklist we use to move from an ERC-20 codebase to a mainnet-grade launch.
1) Clarify token mechanics (before you code)
A clean launch starts with explicit token rules. Document these in a one-page “token spec” and treat it like a product requirements doc.
Checklist:
- Supply model: fixed supply vs. mintable vs. emissions schedule. If emissions exist, define rate, start time, and who can change parameters.
- Decimals: 18 is default; deviate only for strong reasons (UX, legacy constraints).
- Transfer rules: unrestricted transfers, allowlists, blacklists, fees, or pausing. Every extra rule increases audit cost and integration friction.
- Admin powers: who can pause, mint, upgrade, or rescue funds? Prefer minimal power and always time-delay meaningful actions.
- Distribution plan: wallets, vesting, airdrops, liquidity allocation. Decide if any allocation requires on-chain vesting.
Opinionated take: if you don’t need transfer restrictions, don’t ship them. “Maybe we’ll need it later” is how you end up with centralized controls that scare exchanges and users.
2) Use battle-tested foundations (and know the tradeoffs)
Most ERC-20s should start from OpenZeppelin.
Checklist:
- Base contract: OpenZeppelin ERC20 (and optional extensions like ERC20Permit).
- EIP-2612 permit: improves UX (approvals via signatures), widely supported.
- Access control: prefer
Ownable for simplicity or AccessControl for role-based systems — but avoid role sprawl.
- Upgradeable or not: proxies add operational complexity and user trust questions.
Rule of thumb: if your token is just a token, make it non-upgradeable and minimize privileged functions. If you must upgrade, publish a clear governance and timelock model.
3) Implement distribution safely: vesting, locks, and escrows
Token distribution is where “business logic” hides.
Checklist:
- Vesting contracts: use audited patterns (OpenZeppelin VestingWallet, Sablier-style streaming, or vetted third-party vesting). Avoid rolling your own cliff math.
- Treasury custody: multisig (Safe) as default; never a single EOA.
- Liquidity allocation: separate wallet/contract for LP funds, with clear accounting.
- Airdrops: prefer Merkle claim contracts (gas-efficient, verifiable), and set expiry + recovery path.
Practical tip: simulate distributions with real addresses on a testnet and verify balances via scripts, not eyeballing.
4) Security hardening: threats you should assume
Assume adversarial conditions from minute one: bots, MEV, phishing, and copycats.
Checklist:
- Reentrancy and external calls: vanilla ERC-20 has none, but your extensions might.
- Ownership transfer: use a two-step transfer pattern if possible.
- Pausable: only if you have a credible incident response plan and constraints on when it can be used.
- Rescue functions: be careful; “recoverERC20” can become a rug lever. If included, restrict tightly and time-delay.
- Event coverage: emit events for admin actions (mint, pause, role changes) for monitoring.
If you plan a DEX listing at launch, assume your first block is a battleground. Prepare measures like fair launch mechanics and clear liquidity steps rather than improvised “anti-bot” gimmicks.
5) Test like you’re deploying a protocol, not a contract
Your goal is not 100% coverage; it’s confidence under real conditions.
Checklist:
- Unit tests: minting, transfers, allowance edge cases, permit, pausing, role changes, vesting release.
- Property/invariant tests: total supply invariants, balances never go negative, role-only functions are unreachable by others.
- Fork tests: run on a mainnet fork to validate integrations (Uniswap pool creation, multicall reads, permit flows).
- Gas profiling: ensure core actions aren’t unexpectedly expensive.
- Deployment rehearsal: run the full deploy script on testnet with the same config and addresses.
Concrete example: if you’ll create a Uniswap V3 pool, test the exact sequence (create pool, initialize price, mint position, lock LP tokens if applicable) on a fork.
6) Pre-launch operations: keys, roles, and governance
Operational security is the difference between “audited” and “safe.”
Checklist:
- Multisig (Safe): set owners, threshold, hardware wallets, and an emergency access policy.
- Timelock: for admin actions (mint, parameter changes, upgrades). Even 24–48 hours dramatically reduces risk.
- Role mapping: document who controls what, and which actions are time-delayed.
- Runbooks: incident response steps, pause criteria (if pausable), communication channels.
- Domain + docs: publish contract addresses and verified source links to reduce phishing.
Slightly opinionated: if you can’t articulate what your admin can do in 30 seconds, you’ve overcomplicated the permission model.
7) Deployment: deterministic, verifiable, and repeatable
Mainnet deployment should be boring.
Checklist:
- Tooling: Hardhat/Foundry scripts with environment validation.
- Determinism: consider CREATE2 only if you truly need precomputed addresses (adds complexity).
- Nonce management: avoid manual transactions; use scripted deployments.
- Verification: verify contracts on Etherscan immediately; publish metadata.
- Token metadata: name, symbol, decimals, logo assets, and canonical links.
- Sanity checks: after deploy, validate totalSupply, owner/roles, and key addresses.
Do not deploy from a personal laptop with ad-hoc commands. Use a controlled environment and a rehearsed script.
8) Liquidity and listing readiness (DEX first, CEX later)
Liquidity is part engineering, part market structure.
Checklist:
- Initial liquidity plan: amount, pairing asset (ETH/USDC), and target price logic.
- LP custody: multisig custody and (optionally) LP locks to signal commitment.
- Pool configuration: Uniswap V2 vs V3 vs other DEXs; V3 adds price range management complexity.
- MEV considerations: consider private transaction relays for initial liquidity adds.
- Analytics readiness: ensure token is indexable (events, verified contract) and add to trackers.
If you need “anti-sniping,” prefer launch mechanics (staged liquidity, public timelines, transparent steps) over blacklists that break composability.
9) Post-launch monitoring and maintenance
Launch day is the start of operations, not the finish.
Checklist:
- Monitoring: alerts for large transfers, role changes, mint events, and liquidity movements.
- Dashboards: Dune/Flipside queries for supply distribution, holders, and LP health.
- Support: a public page listing official addresses, plus a process for reporting scams.
- Governance cadence: when proposals happen, how changes are announced, and where votes occur.
- Tax/accounting: token treasury accounting, emissions reporting, and vesting disclosures.
A common mistake: shipping permit (EIP-2612) but never testing it end-to-end in the front end and with popular wallets. If UX fails, users fall back to approvals and you lose the benefit.
Conclusion: a token launch is a systems release
A mainnet token launch is an exercise in systems engineering: contract correctness, operational security, liquidity execution, and post-launch observability. The winning approach is disciplined and repeatable: minimize admin powers, use audited building blocks, rehearse deployment and liquidity on forks, and instrument everything you ship.
If you treat your token like production infrastructure — not a quick contract — you dramatically reduce the chance that launch day becomes incident day.