Bitcoin NFT New Standard GBRC721 and Its Ecological Project Analysis

The total number of inscriptions minted under the Bitcoin NFT protocol Ordinals has recently surpassed 10 million, with accumulated fee revenue reaching 1578.4611 BTC, equivalent to approximately 44.14 million USD. Since the official launch of Ordinals on the Bitcoin mainnet on January 30 of this year, its ecological development speed has been astonishing, and its scale has rapidly expanded.

The surge in the number of inscriptions has directly led to skyrocketing Bitcoin network fees, which remain at a high level. At the same time, a large number of creators have flocked into the Ordinals ecosystem, further intensifying the demand for Bitcoin block space. To address or optimize existing pain points, developers are constantly launching new protocols or standards, among which the most notable is the GBRC721 protocol.

Introduction to the GBRC721 Protocol

GBRC721 stands for generative-brc-721, founded by Jerry, the initiator of the Bitcoin NFT project DogePunks. The protocol aims to save on-chain resources, achieving 50%-90% block space optimization, thus accommodating more creators and promoting innovation. It addresses the issue of projects having to choose IPFS off-chain storage, enabling NFTs on the Bitcoin chain to achieve full-chain storage without relying on third-party retrieval support.

As the GBRC721 protocol is widely adopted, more and more platforms are starting to support the direct display of the actual images generated by the minted inscriptions, rather than just text data. This process can be seamlessly completed by scanning the user's "gen-brc-721" inscription text.

The deployment and inscription process of this protocol is similar to BRC20 tokens, mainly consisting of three steps:

1. Create BRC721 Collection
2. Mint non-fungible serial numbers
3. Transfer non-fungible Ordinals to standard ordinal inscriptions

To optimize community experience and ensure fair distribution, Jerry is considering introducing an on-chain whitelist mechanism. This will require adding an optional new key in the deployment inscription that points to a separate inscription containing whitelist details.

GBRC721 ecological project

OrdiBots

OrdiBots is a case project showcased by Jerry when introducing the GBRC721 standard. It is a collection of 1000 NFTs made up of 26 different feature combinations. With the GBRC721 standard, the overall size of the collection was reduced from 663kb to 294kb, resulting in a total block space reduction of approximately 55%.

OrdiBots completed its engraving from May 22 to 23, as the first project under the innovative GBRC721 standard, attracting widespread attention and funding. Currently, its total transaction volume has reached 26.8 BTC, with 350 holding addresses. The initial engraving cost rose from about $3 to a maximum of 0.12 BTC (approximately $3200), an increase of up to 1000 times. The current market value is approximately $2.1 million.

The success of OrdiBots is inseparable from the strong consensus of its community holders. The project has gained significant exposure through daily auctions of gold items and distributing the proceeds to the community. Community members have also voluntarily developed tools such as rarity checkers and holding rankings, and actively interacted with the platform and other projects within the ecosystem.

OrdiBlocks

OrdiBlocks was launched by the management of DogePunks @FioYclub, with a total of 666 units, completed minting on May 29. Influenced by the rise of OrdiBots, the community has shown great enthusiasm for OrdiBlocks, with each collectible being minted more than 4-5 times.

After the engraving ended, OrdiBlocks rapidly rose from a cost price of $3 to $400, then fell back to $90. The total transaction volume is currently about $60,000, with 223 unique holding addresses and 105 items listed. Its community is actively operating and interacting, aiming to secure more benefits for holders.

Outlook

The GBRC721 protocol has gained significant attention due to the astonishing rise of OrdiBots, but its ecological infrastructure still needs further improvement. For example, some mainstream platforms have yet to support the actual image display of inscriptions under the GBRC721 standard. Ecological projects also need to continuously build and expand consensus in the face of high community enthusiasm to avoid being a flash in the pan.

From a broader perspective, the emergence of the Ordinals protocol has made the Bitcoin ecosystem gain considerable attention in just four months from being relatively unknown. Developers are continuously launching new protocols or standards to address existing dilemmas and limitations. Although there are still skeptics regarding application development on Bitcoin, the Ordinals protocol has opened new avenues for the current market, providing new narratives and development directions for the Web3 space.