Differences

Differences between BRC-721 and Native Ordinals NFT

BRC-721 is built upon the ordinals protocol. Although native ordinals NFT itself can store images, there are significant functional differences between BRC-721 and native ordinals NFT:

• Data storage

  • Native ordinals NFT stores images for each token, which can lead to high minting fees and occupy a large amount of Bitcoin network space.

  • BRC-721 only needs to save the image once during deployment, and the mint operation does not require saving the image, which can significantly save minting fees and Bitcoin network space. Additionally, BRC-721 supports storing images in off-chain services like IPFS, saving Bitcoin space and providing flexible attribute information for each token.

  • Native ordinals NFT cannot effectively index a Collection, while BRC-721 provides a JSON specification similar to BRC-20, enabling effective indexing and searching of NFTs within a Collection.

• BRC protocol compatibility

  • BRC-721 adopts a protocol format similar to BRC-20, defining different functions through JSON content, greatly improving the flexibility of NFTs. For example, the reveal function can be implemented through the update operation; the tick field enables effective indexing of NFTs within a Collection.

• NFT ecosystem compatibility

  • ERC-721 standard NFTs are more popular in the current market. BRC-721 adopts token URI and metadata specifications consistent with ERC-721, enabling quick adaptation to the existing NFT ecosystem. Meanwhile, native ordinals do not support traits and other fields, while BRC-721 supports defining NFT attributes and rarity information.

Differences between BRC-721 and BRC-20

• BRC-721 is used for Non-Fungible Tokens (NFT), while BRC-20 is used for Fungible Tokens

• BRC-721 follows the BRC-20 specifications, using JSON to define tokens and functions

• BRC-20 requires minting an inscription before transferring, which is necessary for fungible tokens, but it leads to high transfer costs and increases invalid information on the Bitcoin network. BRC-721 takes advantage of the ordinals inscription feature and can complete the transfer directly by sending, significantly reducing costs and decreasing invalid information on the network.

Differences between BRC-721 and brc721.com

brc721.com also proposes a Non-Fungible Token (NFT) solution based on the ordinals protocol, but its protocol is more complex and is not compatible with BRC-20. BRC-721, on the other hand, is consistent with the BRC-20 standard.