Author: Wu Hai, BlockingNews
Since the release of the Ordinals protocol on the Bitcoin chain and the subsequent brc20 concept proposed by developer domo, micro-innovations based on the Ordinals protocol have emerged one after another, such as the orc20, which intends to make the brc20 more flexible, and the GBRC 721, which optimizes block space. However, these protocols, regardless of whether they are pseudo-demands or hot topics that have attracted attention or speculation, are optimizing the already existing protocols, that is to say, they have always been discussing how to make a carriage run faster, rather than trying to invent a car.
But the “recursive inscription” proposed by Casey Rodarmor, the creator of the Bitcoin protocol Ordinals, has recently surprised the community and inspired more imagination. On June 12, Raph, the new chief maintainer of the Bitcoin protocol Ordinals, merged the “recursive inscription” 2167 update into the Ordinals code on Github, which can use special “/-/content/:inscription_id” syntax to request the content of other inscriptions. This simple change unlocks many powerful use cases.
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The era of Inscription 2.0 may have arrived
According to the interpretation of developer Leonidas.og, it is very expensive to engrave 10,000 JPEG files separately for a PFP collection inscription, but it is much more efficient to engrave 200 features from the collection, and then make 10,000 inscriptions, each of which uses a small amount of code to request features and present images through programming. This makes it possible to store artworks more efficiently on the chain.
In addition, in the previous way of engraving, each inscription was independent and there was no connection between inscriptions. However, this situation is about to change with the introduction of recursive inscriptions. It is possible to fully package a lot of code in the Bitcoin chain, and because the code is called (in text form), the volume is very small, which can allow the size of the inscription to exceed the limit of 4MB of the Bitcoin block size, and can completely put complex 3D video games on the Bitcoin chain.
This also makes the community believe that smart contracts similar to ERC20 may be able to run on the Bitcoin chain, making scalability and interoperability on the Bitcoin chain possible.
One of the reasons that many people are willing to pay for NFTs on the Bitcoin chain, besides speculation, is the story of permanent storage on the chain. Therefore, if Recursive Script makes it possible for the metaverse that encompasses gaming, DeFi, and other niche areas to operate on the Bitcoin chain, its story will be even more attractive compared to other chains.
Perhaps, Recursive Script will lead the transformation of Bitcoin script and bring it from the 1.0 era to the Script 2.0 era.
After the birth of Recursive Script, multiple projects were built based on its syntax by the community or by individuals. Currently, there are 6 collections that have been launched on the trading platform MagicEden, which has also created an index for them. Below, BlockingNews will introduce Recursive Punks, which has a high trading volume, is very story-driven, and dramatic.
Recursive Punks Dramatic Opening
On June 13th, the Recursive Punks official Twitter account released 10k free Recursive ordinals for minting. After that, the community spread the word. Whether it was due to the FOMO caused by the first project to rise in the new protocol, or the desire to try new things, when it was discovered by the Chinese community, the 10K quantity was quickly minted. When Twitter KOLs forwarded it, the official website became inaccessible.
However, after the community finished minting, some users discovered that the official developer of Recursive Punks had used old text, namely, the syntax that Recursive Script should have used was “/content/”, but the official used “/-/content/:”. This caused users who had previously used the official SVG file to mint to receive a version without images. The community then began to spread the correct fix, which was to replace “/-/content/:” in the original SVG file with “/content/”.
Compared to the imageless version released by the Recursive Punks official, the corrected image version was minted more slowly because the community could not confirm which version would become the more dominant series. After 24 hours, the corrected image version of Recursive Punks was fully minted. Recursive Punks also recognized its syntax error and expressed its hope that the protocol developers and the community could simultaneously accept the versions with and without images, but later deleted the tweet and launched a collection of versions without images on MagicEden.
The community was surprised to find out that the supposed imageless series was shown in clear images on MagicEden. According to technical analysis, it turns out that after the official submission of the Recursive Punks collection to MagicEden, it was rendered using front-end rendering to display the picture on the MagicEden platform. In other words, it did not use the recursive inscription implementation to display, which was somewhat unexpected by the community.
According to MagicEden data, the no-image series created using the old syntax of Recursive Punks generated a total transaction volume of 8.15 bitcoins on the first day of launch, becoming the series with the highest transaction volume on the platform. Its highest price rose to 0.002 bitcoins, with the highest relative increase in recording cost reaching 30 times. In addition, several punks with rare attributes were sold at a price of 0.05 bitcoins. The number of holders also increased by more than 2,000 overnight.
However, the image version corrected with the inscription syntax by the community displayed as a blurry image on the new NFT platform ordyssey, which displays in the recursive inscription method. It was later listed on the MagicEden platform, but the platform does not currently support the display of SVG format, so the image can only be displayed when the platform further supports it. The image version of Recursive Punks created using the corrected syntax currently has an increasing number of holding addresses, with a total transaction volume of 1.3 bitcoins and ranked third in daily transactions.
It is reported that the community is continuing to follow up to allow the correct version of the image created using the corrected syntax to further develop. As for whether the image version supported by the community and occupying the righteous side of the protocol or the official imageless version will have a stronger and broader community consensus, it remains to be observed.
Summary
The emergence of recursive inscriptions has opened up possibilities and imagination that previously could not be interoperable, non-programmable, and had poor scalability on the Bitcoin chain. For example, it allows NFTs to be combined with each other, making it possible for small games on the chain, or disassembling inscriptions, similar to fragmentation, to generate more calls. Some community members even envision the possibility of decentralized websites.
From the protocol level, the future is limitless, with a grand narrative waiting for developers and users to build and use. But currently, the front end is still in a highly controlled situation, because whether an inscription or an NFT series can be on the platform for collection and indexing determines its development speed and consensus. As mentioned earlier, Recursive Punks were difficult for new users to identify due to indexing.
However, these issues will gradually be resolved as the ecosystem develops. We cannot stop or stand by and watch because of some minor issues or difficulties. The era of Bitcoin Script 2.0 may be led by recursive scripts, which are full of opportunities and risks. Participate in this experiment, explore, discover, research, and participate under the premise of controlling risks.
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