Canton Network has approved CIP-0112, a significant upgrade to its CIP-0056 token standard governing how assets are issued, transferred, and settled across the network. The new standard introduces privacy-enhanced settlement, support for traditional custody structures, and more flexible trading workflows, while remaining fully backwards compatible with the existing standard.
The most consequential change is privacy-enhanced batch settlement. Under the current standard, parties in a multi-leg trade can see the full settlement. Under V2, each party sees only their own legs. An exchange settling a three-way trade, for example, retains full visibility across all nine transfer legs, while each trader sees only what is directly relevant to them. This mirrors how settlement works in traditional financial markets and opens the door to more complex institutional workflows on Canton.
The upgrade also introduces an Account model to replace the simpler Party structure used in V1. The new model supports multi-tier custody chains, where assets may pass through custodians and account keepers before reaching a beneficial owner, reflecting how holdings are actually managed in traditional finance. This makes it easier for regulated assets and settlement venues to implement compliant workflows on-chain without bending the standard to fit.
For trading applications, CIP-0112 introduces committed allocations and iterated settlement. Assets can be locked to an exchange or protocol upfront, with the exchange then settling trades repeatedly against those funds without requiring fresh authorization each time. This enables an off-chain order book with on-chain settlement to operate without custom smart contract code.
User experience also improves. Under V1, traders sometimes needed to sign multiple times to authorize a settlement. V2 allows a single wallet signature to cover the full settlement, with the wallet presenting all relevant legs in one view.
A new EventLog interface standardizes how wallets, exchanges, and applications parse transaction history, replacing a more complex method that required full transaction tree traversal.
The upgrade maintains full backwards compatibility. Applications, assets, and wallets can adopt V2 independently, with cross-version flows supported throughout the transition.
Canton Coin will be upgraded to implement V2 interfaces alongside V1 as part of the rollout.
