An article to understand the BRC-721 protocol and its application scenarios

Original author: xiyu (@ohxiyu)

Original source: SevenUp DAO

Original author: xiyu (@ohxiyu)

Original source: SevenUp DAO

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1. Bitcoin ordinals lack a standardized method of grouping items into collections, as this relies on specific, often centralized services and wallets. The current market situation is basically that each trading market and wallet is running its own server, using its own method for centralized processing, and there is no unified standard.

2. Such a centralized collection standard restricts the development of the ordinal ecosystem, and there may be some evil behaviors.

3. BRC-721 is a collection standard, through which the market can accurately identify collections and display metadata

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2. What is BRC-721?

BRC-721: Ordinals Collection Protocol is a standard interface for verifying the authenticity of Bitcoin ordinal collections. To solve the above problems, the protocol introduces a decentralized and trustless method of collection creation and verification, similar to the ERC-721 standard on the Ethereum blockchain.

1. The BRC-721 protocol aims to simplify the process of collection creation and verification by providing a single source of truth without upfront payment.

2. This protocol specifies the data structure of a collection and its items in a manifest. Lists and validation rules determine whether an ordinal inscription belongs to a certain set.

3. Issues addressed by the BRC-721 protocol include:

4. Issues with advance payments on other blockchains

Lack of a shared specification about a collection or its items

Need to trust the collection creator to include your glyph in the collection

Through this protocol, the creation and verification of bitcoin nft collections will become decentralized and trustless, expanding the potential of the ordinals ecosystem.

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3. Technical specifications

1. The BRC-721 protocol is based on three types of checklists. Each manifest has protocol and version fields, allowing third-party services to understand the specification.

📜 CollectionManifest (collection list)

CollectionManifest is the source of truth for collections. It stores collection parameters and fields that allow linking and validation of underlying collection items.

💎 InscriptionManifest (list of inscriptions)

InscriptionManifest is an Ordinal inscription linked to CollectionManifest. Similar to NFT and its relationship to contracts on the Ethereum blockchain.

👁️ RevealManifest

RevealManifest allows metadata to be linked to a specific CollectionManifest, granting attributes to InscriptionManifests.

2. Each manifest and its manifest content key are JSON strings that must conform to the declared json-schema.org Draft 4 to prevent inconsistencies.

In order to validate the manifest, one of the proposed validators can be used: https://json-schema.org/implementations.html#validators.

3. Signature and hash:

To ensure secure linking of listings, the protocol uses:

ℹ️ DER-encoded signature represented as a hex string

ℹ️ Compressed/uncompressed signerPublicKey as a hex string

Collection Manifest\Inscription Manifest\Reveal Manifest To validate a CollectionManifest, some rules must be met, these rules ensure the uniqueness of the inscription and whether it belongs to a specific collection. An inscription can only be considered part of a collection if all validation rules are met.

4. API resources

Provides some api parameters that can be used to build collection browsers, galleries, rarity tools, and other applications. Currently, the API does not provide metadata, but only a tokenURI field with a link to the metadata.

Through these API endpoints, developers can easily build applications related to the BRC-721 protocol, such as collection browsers, galleries and rarity tools, etc. By adjusting query parameters, developers can customize the requested data to suit their application needs.

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  5. BRC-721 protocol application scenarios

• The BRC-721 protocol creates a standard interface for collections of Bitcoin ordinal numbers. Now that the manifest and validation rules have been discussed, we can take a deeper look at some practical use cases of the BRC-721 protocol.

  Digital Art Collection

• Artists can create a limited number of digital artwork collections using the BRC-721 protocol. This ensures the scarcity of the artwork while providing buyers with verification of authenticity and ownership.

  Game props and assets

• Game developers can use the BRC-721 protocol to create game props and assets on the Bitcoin blockchain. These items can be used in-game and traded between games, providing greater value and interoperability to the gaming ecosystem.

  The BRC-721 protocol can be used to create verifiable digital identities. Users can create and manage their own digital certificates, such as education, skill certification, etc. This will reduce the risk of forged certificates while simplifying the certificate verification process.

Tickets and Coupons

Companies and event organizers can use the BRC-721 protocol to create unique tickets or coupons. This will ensure the authenticity of the tickets while preventing fraud and counterfeiting.

first level title6. Disadvantages and limitationsAlthough the BRC-721 protocol provides many advantages to the Bitcoin ecosystem, there are still some disadvantages and limitations.1. First, Bitcoin transactions are slow compared to Ethereum, so large collections of ordinal numbers are created and managedmay take longer. Secondly, unlike the Ethereum ERC-721 standard, the BRC-721 protocol does not provide a default metadata standard, which makes the way of processing metadata different, which may lead to

Compatibility issues between different applications. Also, since the BRC-721 protocol is a relatively new standard,Widespread support and usage is currently lacking.

2. Also, as with many blockchain applications,For example, manage the user's private key, ensure a good user experience and maintain the security of the protocol, etc.

3. Finally, the design of the BRC-721 protocol focuses on decentralization in the Bitcoin ecosystem, which may lead to some limitations, such as more manual labor may be required in the creation and management of collections,

Rather than relying on automated smart contracts.

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Seven. Summary

Standardization is essential for the improvement of ordinals infrastructure. The BRC-721 protocol provides a decentralized, secure and reliable method for the Bitcoin blockchain to create, verify and manage sets of ordinal numbers. Through CollectionManifest, InscriptionManifest and RevealManifest, the BRC-721 protocol defines the structure, content and validation rules of collections and their items. These rules ensure that each glyph inscription is unique and whether they belong to a specific set.