Introduction to BRC-20

As is widely known, the Bitcoin network isn’t Turing complete and thus does not support the execution of smart contracts. This means it cannot build DApps or issue tokens by deploying smart contracts, unlike Ethereum. However, since the inception of the Bitcoin network in 2009, continuous upgrades have resulted in increased flexibility and possibilities in expanding application scenarios. The Bitcoin network has undergone two significant upgrades.

Segregated Witness Upgrade

In August 2017, Bitcoin underwent the Segregated Witness (SegWit) upgrade. This optimization primarily involved separating the signature data (Witness Data) and transaction information data (Transaction Data) in transactions. Signature information is stored in a new block known as “witness,” while transaction information data is stored in the original block. Consequently, a single Bitcoin network block can carry more transactions, enhancing the transaction processing capacity of the Bitcoin network, thus achieving network scalability.

Taproot Upgrade

In 2021, Bitcoin was upgraded again, bringing greater flexibility and privacy to the network. A core aspect of this upgrade was the introduction of Tapscript (an upgraded version of Bitcoin’s programming language, Script), allowing the injection of additional content into transaction inputs (Inputs). Thus, the two upgrades SegWit and Taproot broke previous Bitcoin network data storage limitations, allowing Ordinals to store text, images, JSON data, etc., in witness data. The stored data will not be executed and can be permanently retained on the Bitcoin network.

BRC-20

These two upgrades have elevated the transaction-carrying capacity and data storage capabilities of the Bitcoin network to a new level. The emergence of the Ordinals protocol this year takes advantage of these enhancements. By assigning a unique serial number and corresponding content to each smallest unit of Bitcoin, the satoshi (1 BTC = 10 ^ 8 sat), the scope of Bitcoin network usage has been expanded, thus enabling the issuance of tokens and NFTs in the BTC ecosystem.

Compared to ERC-20 tokens, BRC-20 tokens benefit from the security and stability of the Bitcoin network, but they lack the functionality and flexibility of smart contracts. At this stage, BRC-20 tokens are: Ordinals inject JSON format (similar to a text ledger, containing deployment (deploy), minting (mint), transfer logic, etc.) into the Bitcoin network, forming inscriptions, and all injected data is referred to as inscriptions.

Based on this, users can issue BRC-20 tokens or mint NFTs through the Ordinals protocol by assigning satoshi numbers and injecting inscriptions. The issued BRC-20 tokens are still limited to transaction transfers and cannot implement functions like staking, lending, etc., found on Ethereum.

The way users engage in buying and selling BRC-20 tokens differs from how they participate on Ethereum or other public chains. Firstly, regarding token issuance, BRC-20 currently employs a fair distribution mechanism with no team holdings. Anyone can deploy or participate in token minting. Hence, participating in new token offerings is a critical aspect of BRC-20 tokens.

Users, on the one hand, can participate in the early stages of various BRC-20 tokens or NFTs, paying only network fees to obtain BRC-20 tokens. Additionally, they can buy and sell BRC-20 tokens in the official Ordinals NFT marketplace or the Unisat market using an order book approach. The following sections will introduce a few essential websites for participating in BRC-20 tokens.

Compilation of BRC-20 Introduction Websites

This section introduces six websites that helps users participate in the BTC ecosystem, including:

1. Token price inquiry: https://ordspace.org/brc20
2. Token and NFT trading: https://unisat.io/market; https://ordinalswallet.com/collect
3. Token minting and ICO: https://unisat.io/brc20; https://ordinalswallet.com/inscribe; https://idclub.io/index; https://looksordinal.com/index.html
4. BTC network status inquiry: https://mempool.space/zh/
5. Daily statistics on BRC-20 token minting: https://dune.com/dgtl_assets/bitcoin-ordinals-analysis

The following is a detailed explanation of each website’s use:

The first is the BRC-20 token price inquiry website. This site currently compiles data for over 30,000 BRC-20 tokens. Users can access information including 24-hour trading volume, total volume, current market value, and the number of holders. It also shows that the total market value of the current BRC-20 tokens is approximately 260 million US dollars.

Image Source:https://ordspace.org/brc20

OrdSpace also provides information about ORC-20 tokens (another standard of BTC tokens), though only three ORC-20 tokens are recorded, each with around 500-800 holders, showing that the popularity of this type of token is currently quite moderate.

Furthermore, you can learn about the prices and transaction volumes of NFTs in the current BTC ecosystem from the official Ordinals NFT marketplace, as shown in the following figure:

Image Source:https://ordinalswallet.com/collect

For instance, if you click on the NFT series ‘Mullet Punks,’ you can see that the 24-hour trading volume for this series is at 2.8 BTC, with 86 listed, a total accumulated quantity of 420, and currently held by 294 holders. Clicking the ‘BUY’ button on the project image, and linking your wallet, will allow you to proceed with the purchase.

Image Source:https://ordinalswallet.com/collection/mullet-punks

In terms of wallets, the mainstream BTC ecosystem wallets currently are Ordinals Walle, Unisat, and Xverse, among others. Unisat is a wallet used by many users. This article will illustrate how to use the Unisat wallet as an example.

Image Source:https://unisat.io/

Firstly, the installation and creation of the wallet are completed on the official Unisat website. Users obtain the wallet address and transfer BTC from the exchange into the wallet. This operation is the same as with conventional Web 3 wallets.

Image Source:https://unisat.io/brc20

In the marketplace provided by Unisat, BRC-20 tokens, and BRC domains can be purchased (Tokens and NTF can also be bought and sold in the previously introduced OrdinalsNFT market). You can also participate in the minting of new BRC-20 tokens in Unisat. By clicking on the “in-progress” option in the BRC-20 column, you can see the BRC-20 tokens that have not yet finished minting.

Additionally, you can choose to deploy your own BRC-20 tokens, domain, NFTs, and other BTC ecosystem products in the Inscribe column. For instance, if we take the minting of tokens：

Image Source:@jiamigou"">https://medium.com/@jiamigou

Choosing Gas speed, the priority of Bitcoin transactions is determined by its fee rate. The fee rate is measured in sat/vB units. Bitcoin transactions that use a higher sat/vB fee rate usually get confirmed faster than those with a lower fee rate.

We can monitor the overall state of the current BTC network in the mempool. The number of unconfirmed transactions across the entire network is around 250,000. This website is similar to Ethereum’s etherscan.io.

Image Source:https://mempool.space/zh/

In the transaction fee column, you can see the corresponding transaction fees for different priority levels. For instance, among the transactions with a fee of 10 satoshi/byte with no priority, 230,000 transactions still need to be confirmed. Considering that BTC miners prioritize transactions with higher fees, users can consider setting a higher Gas fee than the current chain when participating in token minting. Transactions submitted but not confirmed yet will get stuck in the chain. When a single wallet has more than 25 pending transactions, it will be locked and cannot be used further.

Moreover, on the idclub.io website, users are provided with the functionality to deploy BRC-20 tokens, domains, or NFTs in bulk. Users can also connect the Unisat wallet to perform operations.

Image Source:https://idclub.io/index

On the Looksordinal platform, users are provided with the ability to mint ORC-20 standard tokens. After selecting the recipient address, deployment quantity, Ticker, and other parameters, users can complete the payment using the Unisat wallet.

Image Source:https://looksordinal.com/index.html

Before minting inscriptions, you can first calculate the estimated minting cost on the Cryptocell website. The cost of minting is mainly related to the size of the file deployed by the user and the selected fee level.

Image Source:https://hub.cryptocell.guru/ordinalsturbo/

The larger the file the user deploys, the more cost will be required. For example, the cost of an inscription of a text size of 500KB is close to 1000 dollars.

The above six websites have provided detailed introductions on how to buy, sell, and mint inscriptions of tokens in the BTC ecosystem. Below are statistics from the DUE website on the daily minting quantity of BRC-20 tokens, wallet activity, etc.

Image Source:https://dune.com/dgtl_assets/bitcoin-ordinals-analysis

Keeping an eye on the real-time minting of tokens on the current BTC network is also essential data. As seen above, the sentiment of users minting tokens has declined for some time.

Conclusion

At present, the issuance of BRC-20 tokens has exceeded 30,000, with Meme tokens still predominating. Such tokens are primarily speculative in nature and lack underlying intrinsic value. Judging by the number of tokens players hold, even the highest market cap token, Ordi, has only about 12,000 holders—most BRC-20 token holders number between 1,000 to 2,000. The overall market liquidity is skewed, with the majority of tokens held by a small group of users.

Yet, it’s undeniable that the emergence of Ordinals has cultivated a new cultural layer and application scenarios within the BTC network. The BTC network maintains a daily increase of approximately 80,000 inscriptions, suggesting a steady influx of new users into this ecosystem.

In the next phase, with the ongoing improvements in infrastructure and expanding consensus, second-layer networks built on the BTC network, such as Stacks, Lightning Network, and RSK, have begun rapidly developing their Dapp application scale. This further enhances the richness of the BTC network ecosystem. The potential value of its future development remains promising.