Analysis of the GBRC721 protocol and its ecological projects

The total number of inscriptions minted by the Bitcoin NFT protocol Ordinals has exceeded 10 million, with cumulative fee revenue reaching 1578.4611 BTC, approximately equivalent to 44.14 million USD. Since the launch of Ordinals on the Bitcoin mainnet on January 30, its ecosystem has developed at an astonishing speed and has rapidly expanded.

The surge in the number of inscriptions has directly led to skyrocketing Bitcoin network fees, which remain at high levels. At the same time, a large number of creators have flocked to the Ordinals ecosystem, further intensifying the demand for Bitcoin block space. To address these issues, developers have proposed various new protocols and standards, among which GBRC721 is the most notable.

GBRC721, short for generative-brc-721, was founded by Jerry, the initiator of the DogePunks project. This protocol aims to optimize 50%-90% of block space usage while supporting full-chain storage without relying on third-party retrieval. The deployment and engraving process of GBRC721 is similar to that of brc20 tokens, including three main steps: creating a collection, minting a serial number, and transferring a serial number.

To ensure fair distribution, Jerry is considering introducing an on-chain whitelist mechanism. This will be achieved by adding an optional key in the deployment inscription that points to a separate inscription containing the whitelist details.

The GBRC721 ecosystem has currently had over 10,000 transactions, consuming a total of 1.68 BTC. Among them, the most representative projects include OrdiBots and OrdiBlocks.

OrdiBots, as the first project of the GBRC721 standard, has a total of 1000 pieces, composed of 26 different feature combinations. Thanks to the GBRC721 standard, its total block space usage is reduced by about 55%. After the completion of the minting, the price of OrdiBots skyrocketed from about $3 to a maximum of 0.12 BTC, an increase of 1000 times. The current market value is about $2.1 million.

OrdiBlocks was launched by members of the DogePunks team, with a total supply of 666. Influenced by OrdiBots, a large number of duplicate engravings appeared during the minting of OrdiBlocks. The price rose from $3 to a peak of $400 and has currently fallen back to around $90.

Despite the attention GBRC721 has received due to the success of OrdiBots, its ecological infrastructure still needs improvement. For example, some trading platforms have yet to support the actual image display of inscriptions under the GBRC721 standard.

Overall, the Ordinals protocol has brought new development opportunities to the Bitcoin ecosystem. Although some remain skeptical about running applications on Bitcoin, Ordinals has opened up a new track for the market, which could lead to unexpected developments.