01 What are Ordinals?

We know that there are 21 million Bitcoins in total, and each one can be divided into 100 million Satoshis (sats), so 21 million Bitcoins can be divided into 2100 trillion Satoshis. Originally, bitcoins are fungible, meaning that my bitcoin in my wallet is no different from your bitcoin. But now, an idea is being proposed - what if we give each satoshi a unique number? Would everything be different then?

The term “Ordinals” originally means “ordinal numbers”. The purpose of the Ordinals protocol is to assign a unique number to each satoshi, starting from 0.

Since information can be written in the Bitcoin block, the numbered sats will naturally become an NFT. By writing text, images, audio, video, or any other form of information, it becomes a work of art. Moreover, this artwork is eternal and tamper-proof. As long as Bitcoin exists, it will not disappear.

The numbered sats with written information still remain as a satoshi of Bitcoin. It’s like carving on a gold brick - its intrinsic value remains unchanged, but now it has artistic value through carving. Simply put, you can think of Bitcoin NFTs as sats with tattoos.

02 How to inscribe inscriptions?

In the Ethereum ecosystem, the term we use for creating NFTs is “mint,” which means “to forge.” However, in the Bitcoin ecosystem, there is a specific term for creating NFTs, called “inscribe,” which refers to engraving. The resulting item is called an “inscription.” Whenever people in the community talk about creating NFTs, they often use the phrase “inscribe an inscription. “ For example, when someone asks, “What are you inscribing today?” they are asking about what NFT is being made. Of course, if you prefer to use the term “Mint” out of habit, that is also acceptable.

So how to inscribe an inscription?

You need three things - Bitcoin, Wallet, Inscribing platform.

03 Bitcoin, wallet, Inscribing platform.

1. Bitcoin, needless to say, writes information into blocks, and requires miners to package it. Naturally, you need to pay the miners fees for this service. The fees are charged based on the number of bytes in the information, so the larger the file, the higher the fees for writing it into the blockchain.

2.Then there is the Wallet.

Currently, there are several wallets used in the Bitcoin ecosystem, including Hiro, Xverse, Unisat, OrdinalsWallet, and Sparrow. We usually use the Chrome browser extension version of these wallets. Since Unisat is currently popular, we will use the Unisat wallet for demonstration.

(1) Search for “Unisat” in the chrome browser app store, then download and install it.

(2) After installation, the plug-in wallet will go to the toolbar in the upper right corner of your browser, as shown below

(3) Click the wallet icon and follow the instructions to create a new wallet, pay attention to two things. First, the password requires three elements: uppercase + lowercase + special characters. Second, remember to save the mnemonic phrase. What needs to be noted is that there is a step that requires you to choose the address format. The receiving address of the Ordinals inscription must be a Taproot format address, starting with bc1p. Please select this address, as shown below.

1. Finally, there is the Inscribing platform

Of course, an inscription platform is not necessary. You can build a full node yourself, that is, download the local wallet of Bitcoin Core, and then use the full node to create inscriptions. However, setting up a full node requires downloading over 500GB of data and establishing a connection with the Ordinals protocol, which can be quite challenging and not user-friendly for beginners.

The Inscription platform means that the platform builds all the nodes by itself. After certain technical processing, it is made into a fool-proof method. As long as you drag in pictures or write text or enter a few simple parameters, you can engrave it with one click.In addition, there is also competition between inscription platforms and continuous involution. Now the cost of engraving is almost the same as that of a full node, so it is recommended to directly use the inscription platform.

looksordinal and idclub are the cheapest, such as BRC-20 or domain name inscription, when the Bitcoin network is not congested, using 2 gas, including a small service fee, the cost of an inscription may be less than 0.4u. But both platforms occasionally experience inscribing failures. Although Unisat is more expensive, it is more professional, the UI interface is more beautiful, and the failure rate is close to 0.

Let’s use Unisat to make an inscription demonstration.

First open https://unisat.io/, select the Inscribe option in the first step, drag the file you want to mint (such as pictures, documents, etc.) directly into the box in the second step, and fill in the bc1p address of your own wallet. The address at the beginning is used to receive the inscription to be cast. As shown below.

Here we will focus on the second step.

Unisat currently has 5 content options, namely “Files, .sats, Text, brc-20, .unisat”. Among them, Files is a versatile option, where files of any format can be directly dragged into this option for engraving. Let’s do an experiment. First, create a TXT file (Notepad) on your computer desktop, give it any name, for example, let’s name it “1”. Then, write the content you want to write in the TXT file. For example, if we want to engrave a domain name “3735.unisat”, then write 3735.unisat as shown in the figure below.

After finishing writing, save the file. Here, please be aware that you should not press enter or space randomly in the file. TXT Notepad will assume your enter key as one byte. 3537.unisat is a total of 11 bytes, if the byte count is incorrect, it may be considered as invalid inscription. Right-click on the file icon and check if it is 11 bytes, as shown in the following image:

OK, confirm without error, you can upload this well-written file or directly drag it into the “Files” box you just saw in unisat, it will become as shown in the following figure.

It will prompt you to select a network fee. This fee is paid to the miners and is charged by bytes. If you give more, the miners will actively pack. If the fee is too low, the miners will not want to pay attention to you, and your inscription may not be minted for two days. come out. Click “Custom” on the far right, which is an option to customize the network fee. You can set the amount you want. So how much should you give?

You can open https://mempool.space/ to view the real-time status of the blocks in the pool, for example now:

The 6 blue blocks on the right are the network fee (gas) status of the blocks that have been packaged and confirmed. The 6 yellow blocks on the left are the network fee status of the blocks waiting to be packaged. The first yellow block shows that the minimum fee is 11 Satoshi/byte. , so the network fee you give must be no less than 11 before it can be packaged and confirmed for the first time in the next block to be produced.Therefore, sometimes, in order to grab certain inscriptions, you will pay for gas, but the network fee you gave is too low. Although you engrave it first, the block is still not packaged for you. Although I engrave it 10 minutes after you, my network fee is high, so it will be packaged and confirmed before you.

Alright, back to the point, let’s continue with the engraving. After selecting the gas fee, for example, 12, we can see the detailed expenses of your inscription in this session.

The first line of 546 sats is the output value. You don’t need to know what it means, just know that if it is lower than this number, your transaction is likely to be considered dust and will not be included in the block. Clicking on “Customize” at the back allows you to adjust this number. It is recommended not to go below 546 for text and 1000 for images.

1999 sats is the service fee charged by Unisat platform, and 107 sats is the additional fee charged by Unisat based on the file size. Below, there is a display of “5% off”, what is that? Actually, it is a domain product launched by the Unisat platform, called .unisat. By engraving with a unisat wallet address containing the .unisat domain, you can enjoy a discount. Each domain name reduces 1%, with a maximum accumulation of 5, which is 5% in total. I have more than 5 addresses, so it also gives me a 5% discount.

After confirming that it is correct, click “Submit & Pay invoice” to enter the last step - payment, as shown below

Please use any wallet to send the displayed amount of Bitcoin to the bc1p address below. After completing the transaction, wait for the platform to confirm and then patiently wait for the confirmation on the Bitcoin blockchain. Please note that for the final step of payment on the Unisat platform, you are not required to use the Unisat wallet. You can use any wallet, including the Bitcoin account on your exchange. Other platforms offering similar services operate in the same way.

After waiting for some time, the transaction will automatically appear in your wallet as shown in the image below.

At this point, the inscription of a domain name has been completed.

The above is the whole process of engraving inscriptions using the Files option. But considering that there are several types of content that are common inscription types, for the sake of convenience, Unisat directly made three other fool-proof options——Domain name, plain text, brc-20.

1. It’s very simple to work with plain text. After opening it, simply enter the inscription you want to forge, such as “123”. Select the Single option, enter 123, and then proceed to the next step. Follow the prompts to complete the engraving. Only one inscription can be forged at a time. By using the Bulk option, you can forge multiple different inscriptions at once. Each inscription should be written on a separate line. For example, if I want to forge the inscriptions 123, abc, and 520, I would write these characters on three separate lines. After the engraving is completed, you will have three inscriptions appearing in your wallet.

1. As for domain name inscription, it is similar to working with plain text. For example, if I want to engrave aaa.unisat, bbb.unisat, ccc.unisat, I would input these three domain names on separate lines and use a single command for inscribing.

Note that there are currently two “flavors” for domain names.

The first type: “1234.unisat”

The second type:

{“p”:”sns”,”op”:”reg”,”name”:”1234.unisat”}

It can be seen that one is a plain text style and the other is formatted, but they are both the same. Unisat recognizes both.

1. The last thing I want to talk about is BRC-20, the most important and special inscription.

Before mastering the BRC-20 casting method, it is recommended to read the BRC-20 protocol document:

brc-20

Read every word if you decide to test. These will be worthless. Use at your own risk.

domo-2.gitbook.io

It can be seen from the protocol document that BRC-20 can be deployed (deploy) or mint (mint). What is deployment? You can directly understand it as issuing currency. Yes, it means issuing currency and deploying a currency. It is the same as issuing currency on the Ethereum chain. However, when issuing currency on the Ethereum chain, you need to use smart contracts and you have to fiddle with it for a while. To issue BRC20 coins, you only need to make an inscription. The content of the inscription is as follows (just for example, ordi has been deployed long ago and has been minted, so your deployment will be invalid): { “p”: “brc- 20”, “op”: “deploy”, “tick”: “ordi”, “max”: “21000000”, “lim”: “1000” }

If you choose to use the dummy mode, here are the steps:

(1) Click “brc-20”

(2) Select “Deploy”, write “ordi” in Tick, “21000000” in Total Supply, and write: 1000 in Limit Per Mint.

Then click “Next” and follow the instructions to complete the casting. After the casting is completed, you have successfully released an ordi coin.

If you don’t want to issue coins, but you are optimistic about a coin and want to play this currency, such as ordi coins, what should you do? It’s very simple, similar to deployment, but the format is different. You can use Files or TEXT to directly type the inscription of the following content:

{ “p”: “brc-20”, “op”: “mint”, “tick”: “ordi”, “amt”: “1000” }

You can also use the dummy mode, the difference is that this time you choose “Mint”.

The Tick still writes ordi, and the Amount is specified by the person who deploys the coin. Pull it up and take a look. It turns out that the person who deployed the coin wrote “lim”: “1000”. The number of each inscription is limited to a maximum of 1000, so here Amount cannot write a number larger than 1000. Generally, the maximum limit value is written, so fill in 1000 directly here. Repeat Mint This option refers to the number of inscriptions to be printed. For example, if it is set to 15, then 15 inscriptions will be printed out and put in your wallet. Then follow the prompts to cast until done.

At this point, I believe you have learned how to deploy and mint BRC-20 tokens. Usually we mint a coin rather than deploy a coin. Of course, if you are interested in deploying it, you can. This is completely up to you.

04 Ordinals market classification

Ordinals inscription comes in five forms: images, text, audio, video, and games. Due to the limited block size of Bitcoin at 4MB and the byte-based charging for inscriptions, audio and video are not suitable for creating inscriptions and cannot gain popularity. Some people are developing games, but they are also limited by the block size and can only create pixel-level small games. Currently, the only company developing games is ordz.

Therefore, the entire market can be roughly divided into two categories: images and text, each occupying half of the market.

People who have experienced Ethereum NFT are familiar with images. This NFT gameplay is straightforward - getting lucky and acquiring blue-chip assets is the key. We don’t need to say much about it since everyone is familiar with it. Here, let’s focus on text.

Text can be divided into three categories: pure text, domain names, and BRC20.

Before we go into the specifics, it is crucial to highlight an important principle of the Ordinals protocol: “first is first.” What does this principle entail? It means that among texts with identical content, only the initial one is acknowledged.

Since Ordinals are open and free, anyone can engrave any content. If many people engrave the same content, such as the number “1000”, then the number inscription has no value, so we must establish the principle of “first is first”. At present, this principle has reached consensus.

1. Plain text

Plain text refers to a limited number of universally recognized characters such as Arabic numerals, letters, symbols, words, Chinese characters, and emojis. The value of plain text relies entirely on human consensus, and its recognition as valuable will be a long-term process. Currently, some trading platforms have launched collections of emojis, 3D (three-digit), and 4D (four-digit) items for purchase, but only a few people have realized their value.

2.Domain name

Since the emergence of Ordinals, many people have tried to develop various functions on top of its protocol, and domain name is one of them. The Ordinals inscription domain names that have appeared so far include .sats, .unisat, .ord, .btc, etc. Unisat has done domain name resolution and bound the domain name to a fixed Bitcoin address. Now you can transfer Bitcoin directly through the domain name. currency. We will wait and see who will become the winning brand in the competition for various domain names in the future.

3.BRC20

This March, Twitter user @domodata proposed the token protocol based on Ordinals. Currently, it is only considered a ledger. However, the enthusiasm of the avid Ordinals players for BRC20 is high. Coupled with Unisat’s various supports for BRC20, the off-market price of BRC20 inscribed tokens has been soaring. The first token deployed by domo, called “ordi,” has even surpassed 1000u per token (with a full node cost of only 0.5u), skyrocketing by 2000 times and gaining immense popularity. As a result, more and more people are starting to pay attention to BRC20. Originally, BRC20 was just an experimental project. However, due to the current lack of new narratives and gameplay in the Ethereum ecosystem, while the Bitcoin ecosystem is gradually rising, many people have high hopes for BRC20. They hope that it will develop its own ecosystem in the future, just like ERC20, and further prosper the Bitcoin ecosystem.

The future of BRC20 is uncertain, and no one can provide a definite answer. However, the path is forged by walking, and as long as there is sufficient participation and market drive, a project will find its way.

Disclaimer：

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