Interpretation of ORC-20: The Enhanced Version of BRC-20 that Attracted Binance's Attention, Challenges and Future
ORC-20 is more like Ethereum, a rising star, but with greater "operability."Written by: Deep Tide TechFlow
The Bitcoin ecosystem has become a prominent field of study, with BRC20/ARC20/SRC20 competing for attention. Alongside this crowded track, some investors are beginning to focus on new potential projects.
Do you remember ORC20 from May?
On May 13, Binance Academy tweeted about ORC-20, bringing it into the spotlight.
In the same month, OKX founder Star also tweeted that he was working on building infrastructure for BRC-20 and ORC-20.
What is ORC20? What is the latest development?
ORC-20 can be simply understood as an upgraded version of BRC20. The limitations of BRC-20 led to the birth of ORC-20, which is a new token standard on the Bitcoin blockchain that offers greater flexibility, scalability, and security.
As one of the earliest token standards on the Bitcoin network, BRC-20 has many limitations:
- The name of a BRC-20 token can only have 4 characters;
- The total supply and the maximum number of tokens minted at a time are fixed and cannot be changed, lacking flexibility;
- The transfer of BRC-20 tokens relies entirely on external, centralized indexers, and transactions cannot be canceled;
To address these shortcomings, ORC-20 has been optimized, with specific changes mainly including: allowing changes to the initial supply and maximum minting amount; no fixed restrictions on naming; ensuring no double spending during transactions through the UTXO model; allowing transaction cancellations; and permitting already deployed BRC-20 tokens to transfer to ORC-20, although only the deployer of the BRC-20 can execute the transfer command.
Overall, ORC-20 removes some of the restrictions of BRC-20 and defines more operations, providing greater flexibility for token issuance on the Bitcoin network. To put it metaphorically, BRC20 is more like Bitcoin, pioneering history while maintaining tradition; ORC20 is more like Ethereum, a rising star but with greater "operability."
Since its inception in April, ORC-20 has gradually been establishing its own ecosystem.
ORC20 Protocol
The official Twitter of ORC20 Protocol: link.
XRCSwap
This is the trading market for ORC, with BTC as the trading pair. In the future, it will support trading of ORC20 ecosystem tokens.
https://preview.xrcswap.org/marketplace
20Scan
The index for the ORC ecosystem, which has been open-sourced to support any third-party developers and platforms, is beneficial for ecosystem construction.
Currently, the most legitimate leading token in ORC-20 is ORC, with a total of 1,798 holding addresses. According to the latest transaction price on January 4, the total market value is $14 million.
From a market capitalization perspective, ORC20 indeed differs significantly from BRC20/ARC20/SRC20, even though ORC20 has considerable improvements over BRC20 in functionality. Why is this the case?
This is also a characteristic of the crypto market, where narrative value often outweighs practical value. ORDI pioneered BRC20—the first token issued on the Bitcoin network—while ATOM and STAMP initiated new narratives. ORC20 is an improved fork based on BRC20, inherently bound by the gravitational pull of BRC20.
So, the question arises: does ORC20 aim to replace BRC20 or complement it, strengthening BRC20? The positioning determines the route and direction. In the past, some community members may have viewed it as a replacement, similar to what many early Bitcoin forks thought.
Today, the ORC20 community is more pragmatic. ORC20 is an extension protocol of BRC20, not a replacement, but rather an auxiliary enhancement. This route is more practical and reliable, as some functions and needs that cannot be directly fulfilled on BRC20 can be accomplished on ORC20, such as certain DeFi-like functionalities.
Under this positioning, the valuation space for ORC comes from ORDI. Currently, ORDI has a market value of $1.5 billion. Can ORC capture 5% or 10% of that market value? If achieved, ORC would experience a leap compared to its current state. As an early protocol on the Bitcoin network, ORC20 has garnered significant attention both domestically and internationally, mentioned by the two major exchanges OKX and Binance, and has a solid traffic foundation. Despite facing challenges at one point, its future development remains worthy of attention.
