OIP-01: Inscription Metadata

Status: RFC (Request for Comment)

Overview

Inscriptions are done using "envelopes" as described on the Ordinal Theory Handbook. While it supports multiple media types, it leaves no rooms for metadata.

Some workarounds potentials:

• Separate coupled inscription for metadata.

• Linkage of metadata on external storage, e.g. IPFS.

However, the above come with its own sets of challenges:

1. Inscriptions cannot be linked together purely on-chain without metadata.

2. Linkage via external storage involves an external media, which may not be available universally alongside the Bitcoin blockchain.

3. Linkage via external storage is one-way only, external to ordinal. This may result in multiple metadata pointing to the main one, not knowing which is the canonical one.

Therefore, the ideal solution is to have metadata not only fully on-chain, also ideally attached with the same ordinal.

Solution

A safe way to do that would be to have two inscriptions on the same ordinal. First one being the actual payload, second one being the metadata as follows:

OP_FALSE
OP_IF
  OP_PUSH "ord"
  OP_PUSH 1
  OP_PUSH "text/plain;charset=utf-8"
  OP_PUSH 0
  OP_PUSH "Hello, world!"
OP_ENDIF

OP_FALSE
OP_IF
  OP_PUSH "ord"
  OP_PUSH 1
  OP_PUSH "application/json;charset=utf-8"
  OP_PUSH 0
  OP_PUSH "{\"p\":\"oip-01\"}"
OP_ENDIF

This is compatible with the current version of Ordinals and is fully covered with a unit test, ignoring further inscriptions after the first one, but treating the first one as a valid inscription.

Note that the content in the metadata example above is merely meant as an arbitrary example and not a mandated format, i.e. that it has to has the header {"p":"oip-01"}. This document covers how metadata can be carried as part of OIP-01. Format of metadata is out of scope for the intents and purposes of OIP-01.

FAQ

1. What tools are available to parse on-chain ordinal metadata (OIP-01)?

Tools are still being developed and will be updated as tools and libraries are known or available. If you have developed a tool, please submit a pull request to update this document with a link to your tools.

2. Would this break Ordinals for other users/tools/sites that are not aware of OIP-01?

Absolutely not. OIP-01 is backward-compatible. Services that are not aware of OIP-01 will simply be showing only the first inscription, just as intended. Metadata will be ignored.