A Dive Into The BRC-20 Token Standard
The BRC-20 token standard is an experimental mechanism to launch a token based on the Bitcoin blockchain network. This new token standard was created by a pseudonymous on-chain analyst called Domo.
Domo created the BRC-20 token in March 2023 to facilitate transfers of fungible tokens across the Bitcoin network.
This new experimental standard would also enable developers and programmers to create and send fungible tokens, including memecoins, via the Bitcoin ordinals protocol.
While several token standards are present in the blockchain industry, the BRC-20 was modeled after the popular Ethereum ERC-20 standard, although there are some fundamental differences.
The ERC-20 standard which requires using smart contracts to launch a token is quite different from the BRC-20. The latter simply requires a Bitcoin wallet to mint and create tokens without using smart contracts.
PEPE Sets A Precedence For Newer Memecoins
Recently, there has been a frenzy of newer memecoins launching into the crypto market using the BRC-20 token standard due to its popularity. According to data from Coinmarketcap, 8,500 tokens, including memecoins, have been minted and launched using this standard.
This has resulted in a massive surge in the BRC-20 token market capitalization and transaction volume which were reported to outperform Bitcoin by over 50% between April 29 and May 2, 2023.
We can see that in the last 10 days number of BRC20 tx has largely surpassed that of ordinals. They might even soon overload the bitcoin network and cause issues. — Crypto Koryo (@CryptoKoryo)The increasing transaction volumes and market capitalization of BRC-20, have drawn the interests of many investors who explore a variety of tokens created using this new token standard. However, it is important to note that the BRC-20 standard is still in its experimental phase, and as such, caution should be exerted when exploring tokens based on it.
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