bitcoin-inscription-guide

Bitcoin Inscription Guide

Bitcoin inscriptions (Ordinals) let you permanently embed content — text, images, HTML, code — directly on the Bitcoin blockchain. This guide covers the full lifecycle from creation to marketplace.

What Are Inscriptions?

Inscriptions use the Ordinals protocol to embed arbitrary content into individual satoshis:

Bitcoin Transaction
    │
    └── Witness Data (SegWit)
            │
            └── Inscription Envelope
                    ├── Content-Type: "text/plain"
                    └── Body: "Hello, Bitcoin!"

Inscription Types

Type	Content-Type	Max Size	Use Case
Text	text/plain	~390KB	Messages, poems, data
Image	image/png, image/webp	~390KB	Art, pfps, memes
HTML	text/html	~390KB	Interactive content
SVG	image/svg+xml	~390KB	Vector art
JSON	application/json	~390KB	BRC-20 tokens, metadata
JavaScript	text/javascript	~390KB	Recursive inscriptions
Audio	audio/wav	~390KB	Music
Video	video/mp4	~390KB	Short clips

Creating Inscriptions

CLI Tool

# Install
npm install -g @nirholas/bitcoin-inscription

# Inscribe text
btc-inscribe text "Sperax <> Bitcoin" --fee-rate 10

# Inscribe image
btc-inscribe image ./my-art.png --fee-rate 10

# Inscribe HTML
btc-inscribe html ./interactive-art.html --fee-rate 10

Programmatic

import { Inscriber } from '@nirholas/bitcoin-inscription';

const inscriber = new Inscriber({
  network: 'mainnet',
  wallet: process.env.BTC_WALLET_WIF,
  feeRate: 10  // sats/vByte
});

// Inscribe text
const result = await inscriber.inscribeText('Hello from Sperax!');
console.log(`Inscription ID: ${result.inscriptionId}`);
console.log(`TX: ${result.txId}`);

BRC-20 Tokens

BRC-20 is a token standard built on inscriptions:

Deploy

{
  "p": "brc-20",
  "op": "deploy",
  "tick": "SPAX",
  "max": "21000000",
  "lim": "1000"
}