Definition
An inscription is arbitrary content, such as an image, text, or JSON, stored directly on the Bitcoin blockchain inside a transaction's witness data and bound to a specific satoshi through Ordinals. Inscriptions piggyback on two earlier upgrades: SegWit (2017), which moved signature data into a separate witness section, and Taproot (2021), which made it economical to embed larger payloads there. The result is on-chain digital artifacts that live entirely within Bitcoin, with no external storage or sidechain.
The commit-reveal pattern
Creating an inscription uses two transactions. The commit transaction creates a Taproot output that locks coins to a script containing the inscription content. The reveal transaction then spends that output, exposing the script and writing the data into the witness section. Because witness data receives a SegWit fee discount, inscribing large files is cheaper than it would be in a standard output, though still far from free.
Operational impact
Inscription waves can sharply raise mempool congestion and transaction fees, which directly affects miner revenue and the timing of large blocks. Operators watching fee estimates should understand that inscription demand, not only monetary payments, can drive those spikes.
Inscriptions are the mechanism behind the BRC-20 token standard, and they sit alongside the newer Runes protocol as competing approaches to issuing assets on Bitcoin. D-Central presents these neutrally as part of the evolving base-layer landscape.
In Simple Terms
An inscription is arbitrary content, such as an image, text, or JSON, stored directly on the Bitcoin blockchain inside a transaction’s witness data and bound…