Overview of the Current Development Status and Major Protocols of the Bitcoin Ordinals Ecosystem

In the past six months, the Bitcoin Ordinals ecosystem has gone through a process from its nascent stage to vigorous development and then to a plateau. Although market sentiment has shifted from initial optimistic expectations to current skepticism and confusion, the development of the Ordinals ecosystem has never ceased. During this period, several new protocols and projects have emerged, such as the recently launched brc420 and arc20, which attracted widespread attention with opening prices far exceeding their cost.

This article will provide a detailed introduction to the current development status and participation methods of the main protocols in the Ordinals ecosystem.

Brc20: Token Contract on the Bitcoin Chain

On March 8, 2023, domo proposed to use JSON formatted Ordinals inscriptions to deploy token contracts, mint coins, and transfer, which led to the birth of the Brc20 protocol. The astonishing increase in the first token ORDI in its ecosystem quickly made Ordinals popular.

As of September 23, the Brc20 protocol has generated 28.6 million transactions, with fees amounting to 1,590 Bitcoins (approximately 42.4 million USD). Taking ORDI as an example, its peak daily trading volume exceeded 100 million USD, and it has currently dropped to around 8 million USD.

Despite ongoing community attention, the Brc20 protocol has seen virtually no technical updates. The biggest development currently is that the integrated platform Unisat is developing brc20-swap, aimed at improving the liquidity issues of brc20 tokens.

Orc20: The Enhanced Version of Brc20

Orc20 was created by OrcDAO, with the goal of enhancing the functionality of BRC20 and improving adaptability, scalability, and security. However, since late July, the official channels of OrcDAO have stopped updating, and progress has come to a standstill. According to data, the Orc20 protocol has generated a total of 370,000 transactions, consuming 24 Bitcoins in transaction fees.

Bitmap: The Metaverse on the Bitcoin Chain

The Bitmap protocol is developed by blockamoto and aims to build a metaverse based on the Bitcoin chain using Ordinals and Bitmap theory. This protocol allows users to engrave spatial assets of Bitcoin blocks, achieving decentralized fair distribution.

Currently, the incomplete statistics of Bitmap map transaction volume have reached 120 Bitcoins, with over 22,000 holding addresses. Community discussions mainly revolve around how to expand and enrich the Bitmap protocol.

gBRC721: Block Space Optimization Solution

The gBRC721 protocol was developed by 0xJerry543, aiming to save on-chain resources and achieve a 50%-90% optimization of block space. Although its representative project OrdiBots once created a buzz, the current community activity is relatively low, and there are not many applications of the protocol.

Recursive inscription: The Metaverse Potential on the Bitcoin Chain

Recursive inscriptions were proposed by Ordinals founder Casey Rodarmor to break through the 4MB block size limit of Bitcoin, allowing complex 3D video games to be fully on-chain. However, there have been few practical applications and project developments, and community interest has significantly declined.

Trac: Ordinals Decentralized Index

The Trac protocol was developed by Beny and aims to solve the decentralized indexing problem of the Ordinals ecosystem. Its governance token TRAC has performed excellently and has reached cooperation with multiple projects. The Tap protocol, developed by Beny subsequently, further enhances the token functions, including transfer confirmation mechanism, batch transfers, etc.

ORC-CASH: Cash-like Token System

The ORC-CASH protocol was created by Sonic, aiming to implement a cash-like token system on the UTXO network. Its first token OSH has performed well, the development team continues to promote the project's development, and community discussions are quite active.

Brc420: Inscription Royalty Feature

Brc420 was launched by Recursiverse, defining more complex asset formats through recursion, establishing a constraint relationship between inscription usage rights and royalties. This protocol has launched experimental tokens and collaborated with multiple Ordinals ecosystem projects.

Arc20: Simplified Bitcoin Digital Object Creation

The Arc20 protocol addresses the issue of representing fungible token assets on the Bitcoin blockchain. Although it has just been launched, its first token ATOM has sparked a frenzy, with a significant price increase in a short period.

Summary

Since the birth of the Ordinals ecosystem, over 33.9 million inscriptions have been created, with more than 600,000 addresses holding inscriptions, and nearly 45 million transfers and transactions. A total of over 2,000 Bitcoins (approximately 53 million USD) in fees have been generated.

Despite the market sentiment becoming calmer, new protocols and projects continue to emerge. Investors can pay attention to projects with new protocols and low-cost inscriptions, entering at a low price in the early stages and then selling in batches during the peak of market enthusiasm. In the long run, the Ordinals ecosystem is still worth ongoing attention.