The article is very long, so be sure to read it. I will teach you how to use BRRC20 step by step🤑
Ordinals, a genius idea born out of nowhere. In February 2023, Ordinals was created by Casey and laid the first inscription. In just over 2 months, the serial number has approached 2 million, and various new gameplay methods such as domain names and BRC20 have been developed.
What are Ordinals?
We know that there are 21 million Bitcoins in total, and one can be divided into 100 million Satoshis (sat), so 21 million Bitcoins can be divided into 2100 trillion Satoshis. Originally, Bitcoin is homogeneous, that is to say, the Bitcoin in my wallet is no different from your Bitcoin, but now I come up with an idea - what if every satoshi is numbered? Isn't everything different?
The original meaning of the word Ordinals is "ordinal number". What the Ordinals protocol does is to number each Satoshi starting from 0, making each Satoshi unique.
Since information can be written in the Bitcoin block, the numbered sat will naturally become an NFT. As long as you write any form of information such as text, pictures, audio, video, etc., it becomes a piece of art. Moreover, this piece of art is eternal and cannot be tampered with. As long as Bitcoin does not disappear, it will not disappear.
The sat after the information is written is still a sat of Bitcoin, which is equivalent to engraving on a gold brick. Its original value has not changed at all, and now it has the artistic value of engraving. To put it simply, you can think of Bitcoin NFT as a tattooed sat
How to make an inscription?
In the Ethereum ecosystem, the word we use when making NFT is "mint", which means "casting". In the Bitcoin ecosystem, when making NFT, there is also a special word called "inscribe", which means "inscribe". Something called an "inscription." Whenever people in the circle talk about making NFT, they will say "make an inscription", for example, "What to make today?", which is asking what NFT to make today. Of course, you have to say mint habitually, that’s fine, it means the same thing.
So how to make an inscription?
You need to use three things - Bitcoin, wallet, and proxy trading platform. Needless to say, in Bitcoin, writing information into a block requires miners to package it for you, and naturally you have to pay miners a fee. This fee is charged based on the number of bytes of information. The larger the file, the higher the cost of inscription.
Then there's the wallet.
Currently, the wallets used in the Bitcoin ecosystem include Hiro, Xverse, Unisat, OrdinalsWallet, Sparrow, etc. We generally use the chrome browser plug-in versions of these wallets. Since Unisat is very popular now, let’s take the Unisat wallet as a 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 on the small 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. Then it should be noted 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.
Finally, there is the agency platform
Of course, a proxy printing 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, since the full node has more than 500 G and needs to be associated with the Ordinals protocol, there are A certain degree of difficulty, too unfriendly to beginners. The agent printing platform means that the platform itself builds all the nodes. After certain technical processing, it is made into a fool-proof way. As long as you drag in the picture or write text or enter a few simple parameters, you can engrave it with one click, plus the agent printing platform. There is also competition and continuous involution. Now the cost is almost the same as that of full node engraving, so it is recommended to directly use the proxy printing platform.
We recommend three proxy printing platforms, namely:
https://unisat.io/
https://looksordinal.com/
https://idclub.xyz/index
Among them, looksordinal and idclub are the cheapest, such as BRC-20 or domain name inscription. When the Bitcoin network is not congested, 2 gas is used. Counting a small service fee, the cost of an inscription may be less than 0.4u. But both platforms occasionally experience inscription failures. Although Unisat is more expensive, it is more professional, the UI interface is more beautiful, and the failure rate is almost 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 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 set up, namely "Files, .sats, Text, brc-20, .unisat". Among them, Files is an all-purpose option. Files of all formats can be directly dragged into this option for engraving. Let's do an experiment. First, create a TXT file (Notepad) on the computer desktop and name it whatever you want, for example, name it "1", as shown below
Then, write the content you want to write in the TXT file. For example, if we want to engrave a domain name inscription of "3735.unisat", then write 3735.unisat, as shown below
After writing, save. What needs to be noted here is that please do not hit enter or space arbitrarily in the file. TXT Notepad will default to your carriage return being one byte. The total number of 3537.unisat is 11 bytes. If the number of bytes is incorrect, it may be considered as invalid inscription. Right-click the file icon and check to see if it is 11 bytes, as shown below
OK, once confirmed, you can upload the written file, or drag it directly into the "Files" box of unisat you just saw, and it will become as shown below.
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 fight for gas. That is, the network fee you gave is too low. Although you inscribed it first, the block was not packaged for you. Although I waited for you 10 minutes later, Engraved, but my network fee is high and will be packaged and confirmed before you.
Okay, let’s get down to business, let’s continue engraving and select the gas fee. For example, after 12, we can see your detailed expenses in this engraving. The 546 sats in the first line is the output value. You don’t need to know what it means. You just need to know that if it is lower than this number, your transaction will easily be judged as dust by the miners and will not be packaged. Click "Customize'" at the back to adjust this number. It is recommended that the text should not be lower than 546 and the picture should not be lower than 1000. 1999 sats is the service fee charged by the Unisat platform, and 107 sats is the additional fee charged by Unisat based on the file size. There is also a The item shows 5% off, what is this? In fact, it is a domain name product launched by the Unisat platform, which is .unisat. If you use the unisat wallet address with the .unisat domain name to cast inscriptions, you can enjoy a discount. One domain name is reduced by 1%, and the maximum accumulation is 5, which is 5%. I have more than 5 addresses, so there is also a 5% discount.
After confirming that it is correct, click "Submit & Pay invoice" to enter the last step - payment, as shown below
Use any wallet to send the number of Bitcoins shown above to the bc1p address below. After completion, wait for confirmation from the platform, and then wait patiently for confirmation from the Bitcoin blockchain. It should be noted here that when making inscriptions on the Unisat platform, the final step of payment does not necessarily have to be paid with Unisat's wallet. It can be paid with any wallet, even Bitcoins from your exchange's Bitcoin account. The same goes for other drop-in platforms.
After waiting for a period of time, the inscription will automatically enter your wallet, as shown 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 convenience, Unisat directly made three other fool-proof options-domain name, plain text, brc-20.
Plain text is very simple. After clicking it, directly enter the inscription you want to cast, such as "123", select the Single option, enter 123, and then next step, follow the prompts, and the inscription is completed. Only one inscription can be cast at a time. Using the Bulk option, you can cast multiple different inscriptions at one time. Each inscription occupies one line. For example, if I want to cast three inscriptions of 123, abc, and 520, I will write this set of characters in three lines. After the inscription is completed, it will There are 3 inscriptions present in your wallet.
As for the domain name inscription, it is the same as plain text and has the same operation. For example, if I want to engrave aaa.unisat, bbb.unisat, ccc.unisat, I can enter these three domain names in separate lines and engrave them with one click.
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.
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:
https://domo-2.gitbook.io/brc-20-experiment/
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. BRC- To issue 20 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 fool method, 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 issued the 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 Mint style, 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 free.
Since the BRC-20 trading market has not yet been fully opened, we will talk about the transfer and trading of BRC-20 inscriptions later. You can also follow unisat_wallet, they have video tutorials.
Ordinals market classification
Ordinals inscriptions come in five forms: pictures, texts, audios, videos, and games. Since the Bitcoin block size is only 4M, and inscriptions are charged by bytes, audio and video are destined to be unsuitable for making inscriptions, and cannot be speculated on. There are people making games, but they are also limited by the block size and are destined to only make small pixel-level games. Currently, only ordz is making games.
Then the entire market is roughly divided into two types: pictures and text, each accounting for half of the country.
People who have played with Ethereum NFT are familiar with the picture. The gameplay of this kind of NFT is simple. If you are lucky enough to buy a blue chip, it is the king. Needless to say, everyone is familiar with it. Here we mainly introduce the text.
Text is divided into three categories - plain text, domain name, BRC20
Before introducing it, we must emphasize an important principle of the Ordinals protocol: first is first, first is first.
What's the meaning? They are texts with the same content, only the first one is recognized.
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
Pure text refers to text that has a limited number of Arabic numerals, letters, symbols, words, Chinese characters, emoticons, etc., and that all humans have a consensus on. The value of pure text completely relies on human consensus, and I believe that the realization of its value will be a long-term process. At present, some trading platforms have launched collections of emoticons, 3D (three-digit numbers), and 4D (four-digit numbers) for purchase, but not many people are aware of their value yet.
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
In March this year, TT user domodata proposed a token agreement based on Ordinals. It is currently only a ledger. However, crazy Ordinals players are very enthusiastic about playing BRC20, coupled with Unisat’s various support for BRC20, resulting in the market for BRC20 inscription tokens. The external price has been rising all the time, and the first token Ordi deployed by domo has exceeded 1000u/ticket (the cost of the full node is only 0.5u), a surge of 2000 times, and it has become popular out of the circle, causing more and more people to start paying attention to BRC20. BRC20 was originally just an experimental project, but due to the current lack of new narratives and new ways of playing in the Ethereum ecosystem, while the Bitcoin ecosystem is slowly rising, many people have high hopes for BRC20, hoping that it can develop into a digital currency like ERC20 in the future. own ecology, and then prosper the Bitcoin ecology. No one can give an answer to what the future of BRC20 will be, but there is a way out. As long as there are enough people participating and the market promotes it, a project will find its way out.
Author: Master Lee
