Understanding the PRC-20 Protocol and Popular Polygon Inscription Tokens

Introduction

Inscriptions, originally referring to ancient texts cast on bronze ritual vessels, have come to mean any text deliberately left on objects indicating their production time, place, craftsman’s name, workshop, etc. In the blockchain world, inscriptions work similarly. Participants “engrave” data they want to upload, and the information thus engraved on the chain is the inscription. For example, on the Bitcoin chain, during transactions (like transfers), a user can enter desired text in a specific field, and this text will be packaged with the transaction by blockchain nodes, becoming part of the chain. However, to generate market-recognized inscriptions, one must follow specific rules when “engraving,” which are different inscription protocols. The popular BRC-20 inscription protocol on the Bitcoin chain, Ordi, requires content as shown in the following diagram. Participants must follow this content to obtain an Ordi inscription.

Source: The Road to Blockchain Applications behind Inscriptions

For more information on BRC-20 and inscriptions, please click “What is an Inscription? A Beginner’s Guide to the Inscription Track.”

What is PRC-20?

With the popularity of BRC-20, many developers and Web3 participants found that this simple engraving behaviour could be applied to other EVM chains, such as Ethereum and Polygon. However, due to Polygon’s unique architecture, inscriptions generally refer to data engraved in the [Input] field of a transaction and adopt a format similar to BRC-20, changing the [P] field from “brc-20” to “prc-20”. As shown below, this is the minting format of the inscription Token HAVA, which writes data:,{“p”:”prc-20”,”op”:”mint”,”tick”:”hava”,”amt”:”100”} in a transaction’s [Input].

Source: https://polygonscan.com/tx/0xe6c243400140db9ee2e1b940754ffabbe5bc035e317bcbcdd36fa32ecce122f3

PRC-20 is similar to BRC-20, with relevant keywords “engraved” in JSON format:

「p」: Protocol type. A mandatory keyword that defines the operation based on the PRC-20 protocol, helping other systems identify and process PRC-20 events.

「op」: Event type. A mandatory keyword that defines the event type, whether it’s Deploy, Mint, or Transfer. Here, the content of 「op」 is ‘transfer,’ meaning the event type is transfer.

「tick」: PRC-20 Token identifier. A mandatory keyword that defines the name of the PRC-20 Token, consisting of 4 letters. Here, the content of 「tick」 is ‘ordi,’ meaning the transferred PRC-20 Token is $ordi.

「amt」: The amount of PRC-20 Token being transferred. A mandatory keyword that defines how many PRC-20 Tokens will be transferred.

「max」: Maximum supply. A mandatory keyword that defines the maximum supply of the PRC-20 Token.

「lim」: The maximum number of PRC-20 Tokens that a single inscription can hold. An optional keyword that defines how many PRC-20 Tokens a user can get from minting a single inscription. If set to 1000, minting a single inscription can get a maximum of 1000 PRC-20 Tokens.

「dec」: Decimal precision. An optional keyword that defines the decimal precision of the PRC-20 Token.

Following this format, we can also write out the deployment command for the previously mentioned HAVA as {“p”:”prc-20”,”op”:”deploy”,”tick”:”hava”,”max”:”21,000,000”,”lim”:”100”}.

Why is PRC-20 Needed?

The fundamental difference between PRC-20 inscriptions and Polygon tokens is that PRC-20 inscriptions are a primary market open to everyone, whereas Polygon tokens are traditional financial market blockchain adaptations. In both the Web3 world and traditional financial markets, so-called primary markets are places where institutions and market makers can acquire chips at extremely low costs and mercilessly dump them on retail investors. The emergence of standard inscriptions like PRC-20 directly reverses the traditional primary market. There are no lock-ups or additional issuances in the rules of the inscription game. All inscriptions are publicly sold, all protocols are open-source and transparent on the chain, allowing anyone to easily understand the gas fees and holding costs of each address. Thus, standard inscriptions like PRC-20 achieve a more equitable blockchain game.

Before PRC-20 inscriptions, the Token standards adopted by Polygon were similar to ERC-20 and ERC-721, and these data might not necessarily be entirely on-chain. For example, most ERC-721 NFTs store the actual image/video on decentralized storages like IPFS, Arweave, or centralized storages, not on the chain, preserving key information on-chain while indexing cumbersome information off-chain. In this context, the issuance standard of such financial assets as PRC-20 can be directly packaged on-chain with transactions. Once packaged on-chain, specialized tools known as “Indexers” will filter relevant transactions, organizing the data of transactions that meet the protocol standards into a separate database.

How to Purchase and Mint Polygon PRC-20 Tokens

Although many people do not run nodes and cannot directly engrave text information in special fields of transactions, tools like EVM.ink have emerged, making engraving, trading, and transferring easier.

Method 1: EVM.ink

Go to https://evm.ink/, connect your wallet, and choose the Polygon networ

Click on In-progress, choose the inscription with the most participants or the one you prefer, and click Mint Now.

Method 2: PolsMarket

Visit the official website https://www.polsmarket.wtf, click Connect Wallet to link your wallet, and enter the address in the search box to query

Click Marketplace, choose the desired number and price to purchase.

Introduction to Typical PRC-20 Token (POLS Inscription)

Basic Information

The PRC-20 token named POLS (Polygon Online Standard) Inscription, which first garnered attention, was deployed on Polygon in May 2023. Despite being encrypted, the POLS Inscription data is fully open source and publicly available on the network, undoubtedly enhancing the blockchain’s credibility and participation. A secure inscription environment encourages developers to experiment with new applications and services on Polygon, driving innovation throughout the ecosystem. The basic information of POLS includes: “p” indicating protocol, which helps other systems recognize and process PRC-20 events; “op” referring to operation event types, including deployment, minting, and transfer; “tick” as the inscription id name for creating PRC-20, like: pols; “amt” denoting the quantity per inscription.

POLS Launch Situation

A large number of POLS PRC-20 tokens were minted through the calldata function in Polygon blockchain transactions. The extensive inscription of POLS caused Polygon’s transaction volume to surge from about 3 million on November 14, 2923, to nearly 16.5 million on November 15, setting a record high for Polygon chain. Currently, all 21 million POLS have been minted. According to Dune data, the minting of PRC-20 led to a total on-chain Gas consumption of 102 million Matic on the Polygon network.

Why is POLS so Popular?

The popularity of POLS is inseparably linked to the “get-rich-quick” culture in the crypto space. The inscription, with no practical application value or technical update, attracted widespread attention and consensus for its inherent mechanism. Once deployed, the inscription, embedded in blockchain transactions and uncontrollable by anyone, allows anyone to obtain it by participating in minting. This “fair launch” mechanism, which is decentralized, reduces the need for trust among participants, while weakening network functionality and preventing power or control exerted by participants over each other. The transaction information of inscriptions, directly recorded on the blockchain, inherits the blockchain’s immutability. The connection between the “get-rich-quick” culture and a more fair, transparent, and immutable inscription system is why the inscription market is booming.

POLS Consensus

The launch of POLS was not smooth sailing. Despite the fairness, transparency, and immutability of the inscriptions, there was controversy around the POLS launch process. As shown in the diagram, the first holder address of POLS inscription “a144” is a contract address, inscribing a total of 2.2287 million, accounting for 10.61% of the total 21 million. Consequently, many questioned whether the decentralization of POLS would be affected, whether the participation of contract scientists would reduce retail investors’ participation, and whether this would undermine POLS’s narrative. Amidst these doubts, the number of POLS holders reached 73,400, approximately double that of Bitmap holders and far exceeding the previously strongest consensus project in the metaverse, Sandbox.

POLS Development

As of the afternoon of December 28, the OTC price of POLS reached $0.44 per token, compared to the earliest minting cost of 40 gas, approximately equal to 0.00095 matic or about $0.001. The profit has exceeded 400 times. Moreover, on November 27, the POLS Market launched a POLS splitting solution based on the PRC20 protocol, allowing POLS inscriptions to be divided into any desired number of transferable inscriptions while retaining the original POLS inscription. Under the validation of multiple trusted indexers (relays), POLS inscriptions can be converted into PRC20 tokens, facilitating POLS’s listing on exchanges.

Development Status of PRC-20

After the launch of Polygon inscription POLS on centralized exchanges like Gate, its popularity increased, along with the wealth effect, attracting more people to join in the inscription “inscription” and issuance. As seen from the chart below, from December 11, 2023, to January 1, 2024, the number of network transfers remained above the average level.

Source: https://polygonscan.com/chart/tx

In the current Polygon inscription market, not only are there PRC-20 Tokens, but also PRC-721/ARC-20 protocols have appeared. These protocols follow the same basic principle as PRC-20, inscribing fixed-format textual information in transactions, with only the protocol field [P] being changed to their respective protocol names.

Source: https://evm.ink/tokens

Conclusion

For the Polygon network, the popularity of inscriptions has further increased network revenue and the number of active users. However, considering Polygon’s comprehensive Token issuance system, inscriptions may gradually fade out of the market after a period of popularity. Nonetheless, inscriptions bring certain benefits, such as fair launches and permanent preservation on the chain. As an early technology, speculative fervor is normal, but after the bubble bursts, the real value will be discovered.