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As the NFT ecosystem on Tezos has grown, the need for more flexible and hierarchical organization of collections has become evident. The implementation of a Parent/Child storage element in Tezos NFT smart contracts provides a flexible and efficient mechanism for organizing relationships between collections at the contract level. This structure enables powerful organizational capabilities while maintaining simplicity and compatibility with existing Tezos standards presenting a solution that enhances the functionality and organization of assets, particularly within gaming and creative industries.
The Parent/Child structure enables disparate collection owners to be organized under a shared “umbrella” collection. This is particularly beneficial for collaborative projects, where multiple creators contribute to a single vision, such as a large-scale digital gallery or a themed game environment. In this case, the parent collection represents the shared project, while child collections represent the individual contributors. This flexibility fosters collaboration across creators and simplifies discovery for users.

· Unified organization of diverse game assets across multiple collections
· Hierarchical structuring of asset collections (e.g., weapons, armor, characters)
· Maintainable relationships between different asset types while preserving collection autonomy
· Simplified asset management across different game modules or expansions
Game developers often need to manage a variety of assets, such as characters, items, and virtual worlds, which may be created by different artists or studios but belong to the same game environment. The Parent/Child relationship allows game assets to be organized under a unified structure, giving players and developers a more coherent and manageable way to navigate these assets. This model also provides flexibility for game studios to segment collections for expansions, updates, or collaborations while keeping them organized under the game’s larger umbrella.
· Flexible organization of collections under broader umbrella structures
· Multiple artists can maintain independent collections while associated with larger studios
· Support for collaborative projects where collections need multiple parent associations
· Preservation of individual artist autonomy while enabling broader organizational structures
For artists and creators, this model allows the creation of multiple sub-collections within a larger, cohesive body of work. A parent collection could represent an artist's main body of work, while child collections could represent different thematic series or collaborations. Additionally, studios or creative collectives can group the collections of various artists under a parent collection, facilitating collaboration and co-branding without losing individual collection identity.
· Implemented as two contract-level tezos-storage items: parents & children
· Maintains a library of Tezos addresses
· Compatible with existing Tezos standards without impacting existing collections
· Does not require editing of IPFS stored metadata
· Does not affect individual tokens
This Parent/Child structure has been implemented as lightweight elements within Tezos storage, using two simple contract-level constructs: parents and children. Each collection is represented as a library of Tezos addresses, allowing it to store relationships with other collections without altering its own metadata or compliance structures. By integrating this structure into Tezos storage rather than as metadata, the organization model remains compliant with existing Tezos standards and is lightweight. This structure can already be implemented as a custom storage item without affecting the core contract functionality or compliance, making it adaptable.
Tezos Storage Organization |
storage pair ..... admin address ..... children set(address) ..... ledger big_map(nat, address) ..... metadata big_map(string, bytes) ..... next_token_id nat ..... operators big_map($operators_key, unit) ..... parents set(address) ..... token_metadata big_map(nat, $token_metadata_value) operators_key pair ..... owner address ..... operator address ..... token_id nat token_metadata_value pair ..... token_id nat ..... token_info map(string, bytes) |
· Multi-directional relationships (multiple parents/children allowed)
· Lightweight implementation that can pseudo-integrate with existing contracts
· Storing familial relationships is only available to new collections
· Existing collections can still be set as a Parent and/or Child to a new collection
· Add/remove family members using familiar operator-style interactions
· Modifications possible at any time, even for metadata locked on-chain collections
Unlike traditional hierarchical models, this approach allows collections to have multiple parents and multiple children. This flexibility lets collections function as part of several broader structures without duplication, supporting cross-collection collaborations and layered organizational needs. Adding or removing parents and children is as straightforward as adding or removing operators. Collection managers can adjust these relationships at any time, even for fully on-chain collections with locked metadata or artwork. This flexibility empowers creators and developers to adapt their collection organization as projects evolve or collaborations emerge.

· Relationships queryable through standard blockchain API calls
· Easy integration with marketplace scrapers and indexers
· Transparent and accessible organizational structure
· Low overhead for data retrieval and relationship verification
This Parent/Child structure is also designed to be highly accessible. By keeping the organization within Tezos storage, the data can be easily retrieved via blockchain API calls or data scraping. This enables third-party marketplaces or portfolio platforms to efficiently gather collection relationship data, index collection relationships, and present a unified view to end-users without complex integrations.

· Storage-level implementation maintains simplicity
· Metadata independence ensures relationship flexibility
· Seamless integration with existing marketplace infrastructure
· No changes required for existing contracts
· Minimal gas costs for relationship management
· Compatible with fully on-chain collections
· Scalable for large collection networks
· Supports dynamic reorganization without impacting collection integrity
In conclusion, the Parent/Child storage model offers a practical and compliant solution to support the organizational needs of creators, studios, and developers within the Tezos ecosystem. Its lightweight, flexible structure not only simplifies collection management but also enhances discoverability and collaboration across diverse projects. This implementation provides a robust yet simple solution for organizing NFT collections while maintaining the flexibility and autonomy needed by various stakeholders in the ecosystem. The storage-level implementation ensures broad compatibility while enabling powerful organizational capabilities.
As the NFT ecosystem on Tezos has grown, the need for more flexible and hierarchical organization of collections has become evident. The implementation of a Parent/Child storage element in Tezos NFT smart contracts provides a flexible and efficient mechanism for organizing relationships between collections at the contract level. This structure enables powerful organizational capabilities while maintaining simplicity and compatibility with existing Tezos standards presenting a solution that enhances the functionality and organization of assets, particularly within gaming and creative industries.
The Parent/Child structure enables disparate collection owners to be organized under a shared “umbrella” collection. This is particularly beneficial for collaborative projects, where multiple creators contribute to a single vision, such as a large-scale digital gallery or a themed game environment. In this case, the parent collection represents the shared project, while child collections represent the individual contributors. This flexibility fosters collaboration across creators and simplifies discovery for users.

· Unified organization of diverse game assets across multiple collections
· Hierarchical structuring of asset collections (e.g., weapons, armor, characters)
· Maintainable relationships between different asset types while preserving collection autonomy
· Simplified asset management across different game modules or expansions
Game developers often need to manage a variety of assets, such as characters, items, and virtual worlds, which may be created by different artists or studios but belong to the same game environment. The Parent/Child relationship allows game assets to be organized under a unified structure, giving players and developers a more coherent and manageable way to navigate these assets. This model also provides flexibility for game studios to segment collections for expansions, updates, or collaborations while keeping them organized under the game’s larger umbrella.
· Flexible organization of collections under broader umbrella structures
· Multiple artists can maintain independent collections while associated with larger studios
· Support for collaborative projects where collections need multiple parent associations
· Preservation of individual artist autonomy while enabling broader organizational structures
For artists and creators, this model allows the creation of multiple sub-collections within a larger, cohesive body of work. A parent collection could represent an artist's main body of work, while child collections could represent different thematic series or collaborations. Additionally, studios or creative collectives can group the collections of various artists under a parent collection, facilitating collaboration and co-branding without losing individual collection identity.
· Implemented as two contract-level tezos-storage items: parents & children
· Maintains a library of Tezos addresses
· Compatible with existing Tezos standards without impacting existing collections
· Does not require editing of IPFS stored metadata
· Does not affect individual tokens
This Parent/Child structure has been implemented as lightweight elements within Tezos storage, using two simple contract-level constructs: parents and children. Each collection is represented as a library of Tezos addresses, allowing it to store relationships with other collections without altering its own metadata or compliance structures. By integrating this structure into Tezos storage rather than as metadata, the organization model remains compliant with existing Tezos standards and is lightweight. This structure can already be implemented as a custom storage item without affecting the core contract functionality or compliance, making it adaptable.
Tezos Storage Organization |
storage pair ..... admin address ..... children set(address) ..... ledger big_map(nat, address) ..... metadata big_map(string, bytes) ..... next_token_id nat ..... operators big_map($operators_key, unit) ..... parents set(address) ..... token_metadata big_map(nat, $token_metadata_value) operators_key pair ..... owner address ..... operator address ..... token_id nat token_metadata_value pair ..... token_id nat ..... token_info map(string, bytes) |
· Multi-directional relationships (multiple parents/children allowed)
· Lightweight implementation that can pseudo-integrate with existing contracts
· Storing familial relationships is only available to new collections
· Existing collections can still be set as a Parent and/or Child to a new collection
· Add/remove family members using familiar operator-style interactions
· Modifications possible at any time, even for metadata locked on-chain collections
Unlike traditional hierarchical models, this approach allows collections to have multiple parents and multiple children. This flexibility lets collections function as part of several broader structures without duplication, supporting cross-collection collaborations and layered organizational needs. Adding or removing parents and children is as straightforward as adding or removing operators. Collection managers can adjust these relationships at any time, even for fully on-chain collections with locked metadata or artwork. This flexibility empowers creators and developers to adapt their collection organization as projects evolve or collaborations emerge.

· Relationships queryable through standard blockchain API calls
· Easy integration with marketplace scrapers and indexers
· Transparent and accessible organizational structure
· Low overhead for data retrieval and relationship verification
This Parent/Child structure is also designed to be highly accessible. By keeping the organization within Tezos storage, the data can be easily retrieved via blockchain API calls or data scraping. This enables third-party marketplaces or portfolio platforms to efficiently gather collection relationship data, index collection relationships, and present a unified view to end-users without complex integrations.

· Storage-level implementation maintains simplicity
· Metadata independence ensures relationship flexibility
· Seamless integration with existing marketplace infrastructure
· No changes required for existing contracts
· Minimal gas costs for relationship management
· Compatible with fully on-chain collections
· Scalable for large collection networks
· Supports dynamic reorganization without impacting collection integrity
In conclusion, the Parent/Child storage model offers a practical and compliant solution to support the organizational needs of creators, studios, and developers within the Tezos ecosystem. Its lightweight, flexible structure not only simplifies collection management but also enhances discoverability and collaboration across diverse projects. This implementation provides a robust yet simple solution for organizing NFT collections while maintaining the flexibility and autonomy needed by various stakeholders in the ecosystem. The storage-level implementation ensures broad compatibility while enabling powerful organizational capabilities.
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