Understanding BNB Chain Inscriptions: BRC-20, BSC-20, BNBS-20 Explained

Introduction

As is well-known, after the emergence of the Turing-complete Ethereum, the ERC-20 Token standard became the preferred choice for many projects issuing digital tokens. Various public blockchains also developed their own homogenized token standards, such as Solana’s SPL standard and BNB Chain’s BIP-20 standard, which are similar to the ERC-20 asset issuance standard. These token standards essentially standardize the issuance and transfer of assets. For example, the ERC-20 standard specifies token names, symbols, and total supply.

An instance of this is the ERC-20 Token $GT, where ‘symbol’ represents the token name, ‘name’ denotes the project’s name, and ‘total supply’ indicates the total supply available. (Source: GateChainToken: GT token | Address| Etherscan)

Bitcoin, not being Turing-complete, could not establish a token standard like Ethereum. However, with advancements in storage mechanisms and technology, some developers believed that Bitcoin had the foundation for asset issuance. In December 2022, developer Casey Rodarmor introduced the Ordinals protocol, which allows users to upload data to Bitcoin. Many have used this protocol to upload images, leading to the creation of the BTC NFT market.

Following this, an anonymous developer known as domo (name of platform X) developed the BRC-20 standard based on the Ordinals protocol. This homogenized token standard demonstrated that it was possible to issue homogenized tokens (FT, commonly known as Token) on Bitcoin, similar to Ethereum. The act of recording information directly on the blockchain (transaction) to obtain assets is known as “inscription,” and the resulting tokens are called “inscriptions.” The significant wealth effect of inscriptions has since been replicated on other public blockchains, including the BNB Chain.

Source: BNB Chain Official Twitter

As previously mentioned, on December 7th, due to inscription activities, the BSC network’s transaction volume reached a historic high, with a TPS (transactions per second) of 1500. Even the blockchain explorer BSCScan experienced a data lag of four hours due to the impact. This article will introduce what exactly BNB Chain inscriptions are, the representative protocols involved, and how to effectively engage with BNB Chain inscriptions.

What are BSC Inscriptions?

Before delving into BSC inscriptions, let’s first examine the popular BRC-20. BRC-20 involves writing text in a standardized format into a special field during a transaction. Once the transaction is packaged and added to the blockchain, the text is also incorporated into the chain. Taking the inscription named “Gate” as an example, users need to write each required field according to the BRC-20 standard, and then input this information into a special area of the Bitcoin transaction (the witness field) in JSON format (a common data exchange format).

BRC-20 Field Standards (Source: BRC-20 Documentation)

For actual deployment, consider the famous BRC-20 Token ‘ordi’ as an example. Users need to use the format {“p”: “brc-20”, “op”: “deploy”, “tick”: “ordi”, “max”: “21000000”, “lim”: “10000”} to meet the BRC-20 standards.

This text is then converted into the hexadecimal format as per Bitcoin’s data input requirements and written into the “witness” field, as shown in the following figure:

BRC-20 Token ordi’s contract fields during deployment (Source: Blockchain.com)

BSC-20 is similar to BRC-20 and requires compliance with a format. Taking the well-known BNB Chain inscription ‘bnbs’ as an example, its minting standard format is {“p”:”bsc-20”, “op”:”mint”, “tick”:”bnbs”, “amt”:”1000”}. This means the protocol name “p” is bsc-20, the operation “op” is mint, the name “tick” is bnbs, and the minting amount “amt” is 1000. Unlike Brc-20, however, its information is uploaded to the “inputdata” part of the transaction. For instance, with bnbs’ Inscription #165322, opening its inscription link reveals a string of hexadecimal hash in the “inputdata” part of the transaction. Clicking on “View input as” and then “UTF+8” transforms it into the format {“p”:”bsc-20”, “op”:”mint”, “tick”:”bnbs”, “amt”:”1000”}.

After this transformation, the “Input Data” is converted into a format similar to BRC-20’s BSC-20. Since “Input Data” does not restrict the protocol, and there’s no restriction on the “p” field, there are various types of inscriptions on BSC, such as the aforementioned BSC-20, along with BNB-20, LTC-20, BEP-20, DRC-20, etc. Users just need to change the “p” field, which represents the protocol name, as mentioned above. For instance, when minting the DRC-20’s $WOOF Token, the text inscribed during minting would be:

{“p”:”drc-20”, “op”:”mint”, “tick”:”woof”, “amt”:”500”}.

Examples of BSC inscription protocols (Source: Evm.ink)

If you want to learn more about the basics of inscription, you can click on What is inscription? An article to get you started in the inscription track.

Development Status

As mentioned earlier, a variety of inscriptions have emerged on the BNB Chain, with some of the most prominent being bnbs, bscs, and SOFI. Among these, the bnbs inscription, one of the most impactful in terms of wealth effect, initially had a cost only equivalent to the transaction’s Gas Fee. However, as of January 6th, its floor price reached 4 $BNB per inscription (one inscription per minting, each representing 1000 $bnbs), roughly equivalent to $1220 each, leading to significant profits.

However, with the cooling of market enthusiasm, the liquidity of inscriptions has weakened, and the problem of their perceived lack of intrinsic value has become increasingly evident. Most inscriptions lack real value capture, with the majority of price increases driven by speculators’ “FOMO.” For example, the market value of $bscs inscriptions, based on their lowest price, has reached $757.6k, despite being held by only 1.1k addresses and a total trading volume of less than $54.9K. This liquidity scarcity poses challenges for investors and speculators, and a mass sell-off could quickly deplete market liquidity. The situation with $bscc is even more curious, held by only 28 addresses, with almost zero trading volume, yet a market size of about $12K, raising questions about the source of their value.

Therefore, from an investment perspective, most inscriptions on the BSC do not have a proportional risk-reward ratio. Even higher-priced inscriptions suffer from insufficient liquidity, making it difficult for investors to exit profitably and safely. The pricing is also chaotic, making it hard to find corresponding value.

How to Engage with BSC Inscriptions

Inscription

There are two scenarios for inscription. The first is if you want to issue a new inscription, you can directly use inscription tools such as EVM.ink or UNIETHS. Taking EVM.ink as an example, users need to link their wallet, choose BNB Chain, and then select the text. According to the previously mentioned JSON format, input the information for the inscription you want to issue. For instance, to issue a BRC-20 inscription named “Gate,” you would input {“p”: “brc-20”, “op”: “deploy”, “tick”: “Gate”, “max”: “21000000”, “lim”: “10000”}. Clicking on 【Inscribe Text】 completes the deployment of a BRC-20 inscription named $Gate on the BNB Chain with a total volume of 21 million and a single minting limit of 10,000.

Source: https://evm.ink/create/inscription

The other scenario is if you see an inscription deployed by others and want to mint it yourself, you can write a minting JSON text that complies with the protocol and inscribe it. For example, for the $Gate inscription mentioned above, you can use {“p”:”bsc-20”, “op”:”mint”, “tick”:”Gate”, “amt”:”10000”} for minting.

Trading

BNB Chain inscriptions can now be traded directly on the market, such as on EVM.ink and BSCS Market. The former is a market for inscriptions established for the EVM chain, while the latter is specifically for BNB Chain inscriptions. The UI and UX experiences of the two platforms differ significantly, allowing users to choose according to their preferences.

EVM.ink UI

BSCS UI

Conclusion

Inscriptions on the BNB Chain have brought new vitality to the chain from one perspective. However, as the speculative frenzy subsides, many issues become apparent, such as extremely poor liquidity and low-value capture. On the positive side, inscriptions are fairly launched, allowing anyone who sees them to inscribe without restrictions, enhancing decentralization. They are directly inscribed in transactions, eliminating concerns about contract risks. Under the current BSC ecosystem, developers require controllable token standards for their development logic, such as controlling the distribution and unlocking times of tokens and setting staking contracts for tokens, which inscriptions cannot achieve.

In summary, the current inscriptions on the BNB Chain are in a period where their bubble is being burst. As the wave of speculation recedes, the real advantages of this technology will gradually be discovered and applied.