Bitcoin inscription protocol that imbues individual satoshis with content (any MIME type) using ordinal theory. Reference implementation is the `ord` CLI/index.
- 01Bitcoin NFTs / digital artifacts
- 02on-chain media
- 03rare sat hunting
- 04ordinals marketplaces
- 05inscription explorers
- cargo install ord
- # Optional JS helpers for inscription envelopes
- pnpm add @cmdcode/tapscript
| Variable | Scope | Description |
|---|---|---|
| BITCOIN_RPC_URL | Server | Bitcoin Core RPC URL used by `ord` for indexing and wallet operations. |
| ORD_DATA_DIR | Server | Directory where ord stores its index DB. |
Use Ordinals to inscribe arbitrary content onto individual satoshis. Run a Bitcoin Core node and `ord server` against `BITCOIN_RPC_URL` to maintain the inscription index. Inscribe via `ord wallet inscribe --fee-rate 5 --file image.png` which creates the commit + reveal transactions; the inscription lands on the first sat of the reveal input. Transfer with `ord wallet send --fee-rate 5 <addr> <inscription-id>`. To build inscriptions in-browser, construct the commit/reveal taproot scripts with `@cmdcode/tapscript` (envelope: `OP_FALSE OP_IF "ord" content-type 0 content OP_ENDIF`) and have the user sign the PSBT in Xverse/Leather/Unisat.
- ⚑Inscriptions live on a specific sat — careless coin selection can accidentally spend an inscription as fee. Use sat-control wallets only.
- ⚑The Hiro Ordinals API is being deprecated (March 2026); plan migration to Xverse's Ordinals API or self-host `ord`.
- ⚑Bitcoin finality is probabilistic; wait several confirmations before treating an inscription as 'minted' — re-orgs can move it.
- ⚑Reveal transactions can be very large (1-4MB for jumbo inscriptions) and have correspondingly high fees; expose miner-fee estimates clearly.
- ⚑Bitcoin Core wallet cannot perform sat-control; you must use ord's wallet commands or a dedicated Ordinals wallet (Xverse, Leather, Unisat).
- ⚑Recursive inscriptions, parent/child provenance, and delegation are recent additions — verify your indexer/marketplace supports them before relying on those primitives.