What are BRC-20 tokens
BRC-20 tokens are an experimental standard using ordinal inscriptions that enable users to easily deploy, mint, transfer, or trade tokens on the Bitcoin base layer. Historically, most on-chain token trading activity has taken place on Ethereum and other smart contract platforms. Ordinal inscriptions are a way to include any kind of data into a bitcoin transaction and onto the blockchain, forever.
How did BRC-20 begin?
On March 8th of 2023 at night, @domodata announced his experiment with the first BRC-20 token, ORDI, on Twitter. He described a method where anybody could mint or claim the token by inscribing a text file with certain parameters. By the next morning, the entire supply of 21 million ORDI tokens had been minted in increments of 1000, meaning 21 thousand separate inscription transactions were processed to claim the tokens. That same day, hundreds of new BRC-20 tokens launched using @domodata's straightforward approach.
According to the website brc-20.io which tracks the tokens, there are over 14,000 tokens deployed at a market cap of around 600 million. There is no question that the launch of BRC-20 tokens have been a phenomenon of historical proportions. As this all remains an experiment, nobody knows if these tokens will remain valuable or fade away like most tokens. It will certainly be interesting to watch!
How do I get started?
Get a wallet that supports ordinal inscriptions and BRC-20 tokens. Right now, we recommend UniSat because it was the first and is the easiest to use. Install the extension in your Chrome browser and make sure to safely store your seed phrase in case you need to restore the wallet.
If you are a more advanced user, we recommend using the official ord wallet paired with a full Bitcoin node. This guide will cover deploying, minting, transferring, and trading BRC-20 tokens on-chain.
Go to either brc-20.io or unisat.io/brc-20 to see the complete list of BRC-20 tokens that currently exist. You can choose to mint an existing token with available supply or you can deploy your own. Decide if you want to mint or deploy.
To mint, go to the next section of this guide. To deploy a new token, skip the next section.
How to mint a BRC-20 token
Go to unisat.io/inscribe.
Connect your wallet by signing into the extension and selecting the "Connect" button in the upper right hand corner. Make sure that it stays connected.
Select the tab that says "BRC-20."
Make sure the "Mint" option is selected.
Input the four letter name of the token that you want to mint.
Input the number of tokens you want to mint per inscription. This number should be the "Limit per mint" amount that you can find by searching for the token name on unisat.com/brc-20 and selecting the token for detailed information on it.
Drag the slider to indicate how many times you want the mint to repeat. Select next.
Select next again. Do not change the code on this page.
Make sure you are signed into the UniSat wallet extension and connected in the upper right corner. Select the button "Submit and pay invoice."
Sign the transaction in the UniSat wallet extension.
If done correctly, the tokens will appear in the BRC-20 section of your wallet within a few minutes.
How to deploy a BRC-20 token
Go to unisat.io/inscribe.
Connect your wallet by signing into the extension and selecting the "Connect" button in the upper right hand corner. Make sure that it stays connected.
Select the tab that says "BRC-20."
Make sure the "Deploy" option is selected.
Input the four letter name of the token that you want to deploy.
Input the total amount of tokens you want to exist.
Input the number of tokens you want users to be able to mint per inscription. Select next.
Select next again. Do not change the code on this page.
Make sure you are signed into the UniSat wallet extension and connected in the upper right corner. Select the button "Submit and pay invoice."
Sign the transaction in the UniSat wallet extension.
This transaction will create the token, it does not mint any. To mint, follow the instructions above using your four letter coin name that you deployed.
How to transfer a BRC-20 token
Select the UniSat Chrome extension to open it.
Make sure that the BRC-20 tab is selected.
Select the token that you want to send.
Select the "Transfer" button.
Select the "Inscribe Transfer" button near the bottom.
Input the amount that you want to send.
Select next.
Select "Pay and inscribe."
Wait for the inscription transaction to confirm. Usually about 10-30 minutes.
Select the UniSat Chrome extension again to open it.
Select the token you want to transfer.
Select the box showing the amount you just inscribed. Select next.
Paste the address of the destination in the "Receiver" box. Select next.
Select the button "Submit and pay invoice."