BRC-20 Inscription Guide for Beginners | Starting from Zero to Master the Ordinals Protocol

Many people see how popular inscriptions are but get discouraged by the complicated steps. In fact, creating inscriptions on Bitcoin is not as complex as you think. As long as you understand the process and prepare the tools, beginners can easily get started.

What are Ordinals and BRC-20?

The core logic of the Ordinals protocol is simple—assign a unique serial number to each satoshi in Bitcoin, making every satoshi a one-of-a-kind entity. Once a numbered satoshi is written with text, images, audio, or other information, it automatically transforms into a piece of on-chain art, which is the origin of NFT inscriptions.

BRC-20 is an experimental fungible token standard on the Bitcoin ecosystem, similar to Ethereum’s ERC-20. The combination of these two protocols opens up new ways to create Bitcoin NFTs and tokens.

What should you prepare before creating inscriptions?

To successfully mint, you need to prepare three things in advance: Bitcoin (as gas fee), a wallet (to store assets), and a minting platform (which provides the inscription interface).

About wallet selection

Currently, there are many wallets in the Bitcoin ecosystem, but browser extension wallets are mainstream. Taking OKEx’s Web3 wallet as an example—after logging in, click “Web3 Wallet,” select “Connect Wallet,” and if you don’t have one, create a new wallet directly. Be sure to keep your seed phrase safe, as it is your only access to your assets.

After creating the wallet, find your Taproot address (usually the first BTC address displayed) and copy it. Then transfer enough Bitcoin from other wallets or exchanges. During transfer, miners’ fees will be incurred, so transfer a bit more as a buffer.

Understanding the inscription market

Once inside the platform, you’ll see two main sections—BRC-20 tokens and BTC NFTs. The ones showing 100% progress are already inscribed and can be traded on secondary markets. Projects still in the minting process are where new opportunities lie.

How to start minting for the smoothest experience

Step 1: Choose target and quantity

Open the “Minting” section, where you’ll see progress bars for various projects. Generally, projects with higher progress are more popular. For example, a top-ranked project, click into its detail page, and you’ll find a mint button at the top right.

Here, you need to set two parameters: first, select the deployed token (so the inscription can be traded), second, set the number of repetitions (1 time = 1 card, 10 times = 10 cards). Confirm everything is correct and submit.

Step 2: Confirm fees and wait

The system will display the total cost for this operation, usually around $0.4. After confirmation, your inscription transaction will be broadcast on-chain, and now it’s just a matter of waiting.

Step 3: Handling tokens not yet open for minting

Sometimes the token you want isn’t yet available for minting. You can scroll down the list to find projects whose progress bars haven’t started yet. Click into them to find the minting entry, enter the token name you want to mint, and confirm.

Step 4: Confirm results in your wallet

After minting is complete, open your wallet, scroll to “Token Management,” and add the newly minted token by entering its name. Then, check your transaction history and wait for the inscription to be finally confirmed.

Step 5: Choose subsequent actions

Once you have the inscription, go back to the homepage, find the corresponding token, and click “List Inscription” to trade. This way, you are truly participating in the value flow of the Bitcoin ecosystem.

The core logic of creating inscriptions

Essentially, minting an inscription is permanently writing information on the Bitcoin blockchain—once inscribed, no one can delete or alter it. This immutability gives BRC-20 tokens and Ordinals NFTs their true scarcity.

The most common mistake for beginners is choosing tokens that haven’t been deployed yet, which results in inscriptions that cannot be traded—like throwing water on the ground. Therefore, before each operation, make sure the project has completed deployment.

The entire process may seem complex, but it’s basically a cycle of wallet, token selection, payment, and waiting. Once you get familiar with it, creating inscriptions next time will be much faster.