1. About Ordinals
1. Ordinals Protocol
Ordinals was born in December 2022 and was developed by Casey Rodarmor. The protocol is a system for numbering Sat (Sat). Orninals tracks them in transactions by assigning serial numbers to each Sat. At the same time, users can attach additional data (images, videos, text, etc.) to the Bitcoin blockchain through Ordinals, making each Sat unique and thus having the properties of NFT.
2. BRC-20 (Token Standard Based on Ordinals Protocol)
BRC-20 was born on March 8, 2023, and was launched by anonymous developer domodata (a person wearing a mask in public). BRC-20 is an "improved" protocol based on the above Ordinals. The protocol implements the deployment, minting and transfer of tokens by writing information such as token name and total amount into Satoshi in a standardized JSON format. The name BRC-20 sounds very similar to the Ethereum ERC-20 token standard we are familiar with, so we can simply understand BRC-20 as a cottage currency issuance protocol developed based on Ordinals (that is, based on Bitcoin). The first token of the BRC-20 protocol is called Ordi. This concept has been popular twice this year, the first time in May-June and recently in October-November.
3. STAMPS protocol (SRC-20)
Stamps (also known as Bitcoin "stamps") was launched by anonymous developer Mike In Space. Stamps is an "improved version" based on the Counterparty protocol (a protocol that was born in 2014). Its biggest feature is that it can always exist on the BTC chain, and all nodes must synchronize the data. That is, it can embed image data in base64 format into the transaction output on the Bitcoin chain, thereby permanently saving the corresponding image data on the Bitcoin chain. After Ordinals/ BRC-20 became popular, Stamps also became popular for a while, but it may be because the cost is relatively high and it is difficult to popularize. Later, it seems that it has not become popular again. The advantage of Ordinals is that it is cheap. At that time, it only cost 3-5 US dollars to cast once, while the cost of STAMPS is almost more than 60 US dollars.
4. Atomcial Protocol (ARC-20)
The Atomcial protocol was born on September 17, 2023, and was launched by another anonymous developer (he thought Ordinals had some shortcomings, so he wanted to continue to improve it). Unlike the Ordinals protocol originally designed for NFTs, Atomcial rethought from the bottom up how to issue tokens on BTC in a centralized, tamper-proof, and fair manner. ARC-20 is also the first token protocol to use POW for inscription casting, which means that participants can directly mine inscriptions/NFTs just like mining Bitcoin in the past. A few days later (September 21), someone issued the first token Atom on the Atomicals protocol, and it was mined in less than 5 hours.
5. Runes Protocol
With the popularity of BRC-20, transactions of BRC-20 related tokens account for most of the Ordinals protocol, which seems to make Casey Rodarmor feel very unhappy. According to Casey Rodarmor, he believes that BRC-20 will produce "garbage" and occupy the space of Bitcoin. Coupled with the emergence of the newcomer Atomicals. On September 26, 2023, Casey Rodarmor redeveloped a protocol called Runes (which is the Rune Protocol mentioned by everyone now) as a replacement for BRC-20. The protocol is a simple, UTXO (unused transaction output)-based FT (Fungible Token, fungible token) protocol that enables Bitcoin users to have a good experience. It is precisely because the protocol is based on UTXO that it means that they can be more easily integrated into RGB or Lightning Networks.
There is also a small episode here. When B.An launched the ORDI token, it mistakenly introduced the token on its official website as having a direct relationship with the Ordinals protocol. This made Casey Rodarmor very unhappy, and he made a solemn clarification and asked B.An to delete the introduction content related to Ordinals.
6. Pipe Protocol
After the emergence of BRC-20, an active developer named Beny appeared in its community. This guy is not only an outstanding developer, but also a master at taking advantage of hot spots. He launched the BRC-20 proxy tool LooksOrdinal in March this year, deployed crsd in May, launched the improved Tap Protocol based on BRC-20 in August (essentially based on the Ordinals protocol), and launched the improved Pipe protocol based on Runes in October (mainly adding the mint function based on Runes).
2. What is the difference between inscriptions and runes?
We have actually mentioned above that the Runes Protocol is the Rune Protocol.
However, the Runes protocol did not cause much market commotion at the time, until a project called Rune Alpha was launched recently, which directly boosted market sentiment and caused FOMO among users (the reason for FOMO may also be because the name is too similar to the Runes protocol).
Although Casey Rodarmor immediately stated on social media that Rune Alpha has nothing to do with his Runes, and the Rune Alpha project also explained that it has nothing to do with it, Rune Alpha's first issued token COOK still attracted many users to mint it crazily.
At the same time, the first token based on the Pipe protocol, pipe, also began to be hyped, and even the flames directly burned the tokens of the Ethrunes protocol. Ethrunes is a token protocol based on ERC-1155 (Ethereum), and combines the characteristics of BRC20. The first token of this protocol is ERS.
So, what is the difference between inscriptions and runes?
From a technical perspective, let's directly quote what Mr. Yu Xian said: A key difference between Bitcoin Inscriptions and Runes is that Inscriptions are engraved in the Segregated Witness data, while Runes are engraved in OP_RETURN. The size of data that OP_RETURN can store is very limited, but it is more than enough for issuing coins, and this is not a new technology.
3. Tokens representing inscriptions and runes
Next, let’s sort out the tokens of related protocols in the simplest way (there are too many, only a very small part is listed here).
1. Bitcoin
BRC-20 (inscription): Ordi (dragon head), sats, rats, udsw
ARC-20 (Inscription): ATOM (Dragon Head), Realm
SRC-20 (stamp): stamp, kevin, utxo
Rune: Pipe UDSW
Rune Alpha: COOK, PSBTS
2. Ethereum
Ethscription: eths (leader), Facet
IERC-20：say
Of course, because the inscription/rune hotspot is very high now, there are many inscriptions appearing, such as inscriptions based on other chains:
DRC-20 (Dogecoin): dogi
BSC-20（BSC）：bnbs
SPL-20（SOL）：Sols
LRC-20（Litecoin）：lite
PRC-20（Polygon）：pols
ASC-20（Avalanche）：avav、asct、avas
TRC-20（TRON）：trxi
ORC-20 etc.
4. Inscription/Rune Related Tools
The most commonly used tool is probably the wallet, and some wallets now also integrate trading market functions. For most newcomers, basically one wallet can do it.
OKX Wallet: Currently supports BRC-20 and SRC-20 (this protocol only supports wallet addresses starting with 1, not bc1), and has built-in functions for trading and issuing BRC-20 tokens and NFTs. It also supports public chains such as ETH, SLO, and AVAX.
Unisat Wallet: Currently, it is a relatively popular BTC wallet. It currently supports BRC 20 and SRC 20 (also does not support addresses starting with bc1) and has a trading market.
There are also other wallets such as Atomical Wallet (ARC20), Unielon Wallet (DRC20), etc.
If the wallet function still cannot satisfy you, you can consider some specialized market platforms (tools). For example:
Stampscan or Openstamp (SRC-20 market)
Atomical Market (ARC-20 Market)
Avascription (ASC-20 Market)
Magic Eden or Tensor trade (SPL-20 market)
etc.
Below is a collection of inscription tools that I have collected and organized (the address is as follows) coinbrain.top inscription related tools.
Judging from the overall trend of the inscription market, it can be roughly divided into several directions, such as the classical faction represented by ordi, the community-driven MEME faction represented by sats and rats, the technical faction represented by atom, and the institutional main faction represented by mubi (MultiBit is the first two-way cross-chain bridge for cross-network transfers between BRC20 and ERC20 tokens).
5. Bitcoin Ecosystem Project
As the various inscription protocols mentioned above continue to gain popularity, layer2 in the Bitcoin ecosystem may become the next hot topic. Take the Lightning Network as an example. The Lightning Network is a "long-standing" Bitcoin layer2 concept, but the problem is that the Lightning Network does not support smart contracts. So it gives other layer2 protocols a chance. For example:
Taproot Assets: A protocol launched on October 19 that enables instant, high-volume, and low-fee transactions over the Lightning Network.
Nostr Assets: One of the more popular protocols in recent days, the related tokens trick and treat have also increased significantly.
In addition to the above protocols, there are also some other protocols with relatively complete technologies, such as Stacks, RGB and BitVM. The main difference between them is that Stacks is suitable for Ethereum application migration, BitVM emphasizes off-chain computing and fraud protection, and RGB pays more attention to privacy.
In short, as the BRC-20 ecosystem expands, we expect to see a large number of interesting projects launched in the future. Below, I will continue to list some other projects that are worth paying attention to in the near future.
The first project is CHAX
CHAX is a RWA pioneer in the Bitcoin ecosystem and Ordinals, Atomicals, Taproot asset liquidity infrastructure, providing a protocol for liquidity construction and revenue for BRC20 projects.
Additionally, they created L2 Rollups as a way to scale Ordinals and Atomicals and expand them into the broader Bitcoin DeFi space. 21% of the project’s maximum token supply is in circulation.
The second project is OrdiZK
OrdiZK is a cross-chain bridge between the Ethereum and Bitcoin networks using zk-SNARKS technology.
The third project is Ordinal Tools
Ordinal Tools is a Tele Bot project that provides a two-way bridge for transfers between BRC20 and ERC20 tokens. 99.5% of the total supply of the project's tokens are in circulation.
The fourth project is Dova Protocol
Dova is a BRC-30S lending protocol with an integrated MultiBit bridge that allows for seamless cross-chain transfers of BRC-20 tokens. Users can then use the Dova protocol on Ethereum to collateralize loans with the transferred tokens.
In addition, users can also access Ethereum, Binance Smart Chain, Polygon, etc. through the BRC-30S protocol, or conduct extended loans, games, NFT and other services.
The fifth project is NXHUB
NxHub is an aggregation market running on Ordinals. It captures order data from platforms such as UniSat, OKX, MagicEden and OrdinalsWallet and displays it in an aggregated manner.
The sixth project is OrdBridge
OrdBridge is the first bridge that allows users to seamlessly transfer BRC-20 tokens between BTC and Ethereum. Its outstanding feature is the ability to send BRC to ERC and backward compatibility. That is, they found a way to bridge ERC (ETH) — ERC (AVAX) and native BRC tokens, and users can transfer native BRC tokens between BRC, ETH and AVAX.
The seventh project is Unitydexswap
As the first DEX inscription in the Bitcoin ecosystem, Unitydexswap ensures that you experience unlimited and convenient transactions. Experience the forefront of decentralized finance with UDSW. UDSW leads BRC20, integrating inscriptions, runes, DEX, Staking, DEFI, and Depin. Unitydexswap (UDSW) is the first DEX inscription in the Bitcoin ecosystem, with unlimited and convenient transactions.
But we need to remind you again that new projects often have greater risks, and all the project lists we listed above are for learning purposes only.
Note: The above content is only a personal point of view and analysis, and is only for popular science learning and communication purposes, and does not constitute any investment advice. The crypto market is an extremely high-risk area, please treat it rationally, improve risk prevention awareness, and abide by the relevant laws and regulations of the country and region where you are located!
