BRC-20

BRC-20 is an experimental fungible-token standard built on top of Bitcoin Ordinals. Created in March 2023 by a pseudonymous developer known as Domo, it works by inscribing small JSON documents onto satoshis instead of inscribing an image. Those JSON payloads follow a simple schema describing one of three operations: deploy (define a token and its supply), mint (claim units of a deployed token), or transfer (move units between holders).

How it works

Each BRC-20 operation is an inscription: a JSON object written into a Taproot transaction's witness data. There is no smart contract and no on-chain state machine enforcing the rules. Instead, off-chain indexers read every BRC-20 inscription in order and compute balances. This means BRC-20 token accounting lives in indexer software, not in Bitcoin consensus, which is an important trust and design distinction for operators to understand.

Tradeoffs

BRC-20's reliance on inscribing JSON tends to consume more block space and create more UTXOs than alternatives. This was part of the motivation for the later Runes protocol, which uses a leaner UTXO-and-OP_RETURN model. The standard remains explicitly experimental, and balances depend on indexers agreeing on the same ruleset.

D-Central covers BRC-20 neutrally as part of the Bitcoin metaprotocol landscape; its main relevance to miners is the fee pressure that minting frenzies can create.