A historic 2016 memecoin created by Alex Van de Sande of the Ethereum Foundation to pioneer token swaps and upgrades.
Token Information
Key Facts
Description
Launched in March 2016 as a playful experiment combining a token, a “grinder” mechanism (convert one token into another), and a proposal/voting system. The experiment famously demonstrated governance risk when control of the Unicorn Meat Grinder Association was taken via proposal shortly after launch; in 2025, control of the Unicorn Meat token was taken, supply was fixed at 100M, and the contract was renounced and wrapped for modern compatibility.
Unicorn Meat was introduced as an on-chain April Fool’s–style experiment: Unicorn holders could use the Unicorn Meat Grinder Association contract to “grind” Unicorns into Unicorn Meat, and governance/proposals could change how the system worked. Years later, the contract was claimed via the same governance path; 100M tokens were minted and the contract renounced, and wrapping was introduced to make it tradable on modern platforms.
Source Verified
Historian Categories
Heuristic Analysis
The following characteristics were detected through bytecode analysis and may not be accurate.
Homestead Era
The first planned hard fork. Removed the canary contract, adjusted gas costs.
Bytecode Overview
Verified Source Available
Source verified on Etherscan.
Show source code (Solidity)
/**
*Submitted for verification at Etherscan.io on 2017-05-18
*/
/*
Verification submitted to etherscan.io by Noel Maersk
Source with full comments: https://gist.github.com/alexvandesande/3abc9f741471e08a6356#file-unicorn-meat-token
*/
contract owned {
address public owner;
function owned() {
owner = msg.sender;
}
modifier onlyOwner {
if (msg.sender != owner) throw;
_
}
function transferOwnership(address newOwner) onlyOwner {
owner = newOwner;
}
}
contract tokenRecipient {
function receiveApproval(address _from, uint256 _value, address _token);
}
contract MyToken is owned {
/* Public variables of the token */
string public name;
string public symbol;
uint8 public decimals;
uint256 public totalSupply;
/* This creates an array with all balances */
mapping (address => uint256) public balanceOf;
mapping (address => bool) public frozenAccount;
mapping (address => mapping (address => uint256)) public allowance;
mapping (address => mapping (address => uint256)) public spentAllowance;
/* This generates a public event on the blockchain that will notify clients */
event Transfer(address indexed from, address indexed to, uint256 value);
event FrozenFunds(address target, bool frozen);
/* Initializes contract with initial supply tokens to the creator of the contract */
function MyToken(
uint256 initialSupply,
string tokenName,
uint8 decimalUnits,
string tokenSymbol,
address centralMinter
) {
if(centralMinter != 0 ) owner = msg.sender; // Sets the minter
balanceOf[msg.sender] = initialSupply; // Give the creator all initial tokens
name = tokenName; // Set the name for display purposes
symbol = tokenSymbol; // Set the symbol for display purposes
decimals = decimalUnits; // Amount of decimals for display purposes
totalSupply = initialSupply;
}
/* Send coins */
function transfer(address _to, uint256 _value) {
if (balanceOf[msg.sender] < _value) throw; // Check if the sender has enough
if (balanceOf[_to] + _value < balanceOf[_to]) throw; // Check for overflows
if (frozenAccount[msg.sender]) throw; // Check if frozen
balanceOf[msg.sender] -= _value; // Subtract from the sender
balanceOf[_to] += _value; // Add the same to the recipient
Transfer(msg.sender, _to, _value); // Notify anyone listening that this transfer took place
}
/* Allow another contract to spend some tokens in your behalf */
function approveAndCall(address _spender, uint256 _value) returns (bool success) {
allowance[msg.sender][_spender] = _value;
tokenRecipient spender = tokenRecipient(_spender);
spender.receiveApproval(msg.sender, _value, this);
return true;
}
/* A contract attempts to get the coins */
function transferFrom(address _from, address _to, uint256 _value) returns (bool success) {
if (balanceOf[_from] < _value) throw; // Check if the sender has enough
if (balanceOf[_to] + _value < balanceOf[_to]) throw; // Check for overflows
if (spentAllowance[_from][msg.sender] + _value > allowance[_from][msg.sender]) throw; // Check allowance
balanceOf[_from] -= _value; // Subtract from the sender
balanceOf[_to] += _value; // Add the same to the recipient
spentAllowance[_from][msg.sender] += _value;
Transfer(_from, _to, _value);
return true;
}
/* This unnamed function is called whenever someone tries to send ether to it */
function () {
throw; // Prevents accidental sending of ether
}
function mintToken(address target, uint256 mintedAmount) onlyOwner {
balanceOf[target] += mintedAmount;
totalSupply += mintedAmount;
Transfer(0, owner, mintedAmount);
Transfer(owner, target, mintedAmount);
}
function freezeAccount(address target, bool freeze) onlyOwner {
frozenAccount[target] = freeze;
FrozenFunds(target, freeze);
}
}